Page 19 of Kiss of Ruin (Brutal Empire)

A happier time.

“That’s a beautiful dress,” Isabel says. She’s wearing an equally beautiful dress in yellow with a large white belt at the waist. Her dark hair flows around her shoulders.

I smile at her and fill my plate. “Thank you.”

“It looks like therapy his going well. How are you feeling?”

I set down my glass of wine. “Stronger every day. The pain I used to have walking is gone.”

“Good, good,” he replies.

“I know I still have work to do, but it feels really good to be on my feet and moving around.”

Isabel, who’s sitting directly across from me, leans forward and rests her hand on me. She looks over at Sofia who is sitting next to her. “What did you think of Miami’s beaches?”

Sofia glances at Miguel for the briefest of moments, then brings her attention back to Isabel. I’m sure that Camila and I are the only ones that notice it. The corner of her lip quirks up and she looks down at her plate before anyone else notices.

“They’re beautiful. I haven’t been to many beaches with the water so blue.” Her comment catches me off guard. Sometimes I forget that even though we practically grew up in the same household, that Sofia and my childhood’s were very different. My parents had been high ranking in the Romero family business, while Sofia’s mother had only been the housekeeper.

I’d convinced my parents many times to bring Sofia on vacation with us, on the rare occasions we were able to get my father away. Most of the rest of the traveling I’d done had been with Luis. And while, Miami’s beaches were beautiful, they weren’t even in the top ranking of some of the places Luis and I had been.

The difference now was those memories were tainted by a man who used me, so maybe Sofia is right, Miami’s beaches are absolutely stunning.

At the thought of Luis, my eyes are drawn to Rosa. The doting woman who had done everything to take care of me while I was unable to walk had retreated once again. In her place, I see the same woman from New York. The one who lost her husband and son. She’s quiet, as she normally is during dinner. It’s the sadness in her eyes when she looks at me that makes my heart break for her. While I may know the truth about my relationship with her son, she does not and I will not be the one to destroy her memories of him.

I only wish that I could find a way to help her dig out of the hole she’s in. The one that tried to swallow me so many times in the last few months. The one that I fought my way out of. Even if I’m not at the top, I can see the light.

I realize Isabel’s been speaking and refocus my attention on what she’s saying about the designer boutique she runs in Miami. That is another thing I learned. In New York, we had the jewelry store to legitimize our business records, at least to have a reason for the money we were bringing in, the Acosta’s chose an upscale boutique with purses selling in the tens of thousands. A place you could only shop by appointment.

“The few dresses I received today are stunning. There’s actually one I want you to come down to the shop to try on. I think it would be the perfect color for your hair and eyes.”

Finished my meal, I pick up my wine glass. “If Miguel’s okay with it, maybe I can come over tomorrow.”

His head snaps in my direction, away from watching Sofia. “I’d be happy to drive you there tomorrow?”

“That’s settled then. Camila,” Isabel says, turning to look at her. “I have never had paella this delicious. I don’t think I can ever live without your cooking again. Maybe I can convince you to stay instead of going back to New—” Isabel stops mid-sentence and leaps up from her chair. She runs around the table.

I turn around to see where Isabel is going. She wraps her arms around someone and I freeze.

Nico.

“Scarlett?” I hear from across the table but I’m frozen to the spot. I can hear the table conversation pick up and see Pedro get up and walk over to his son and wrap him in a hug. When his parents let him go, Isabel brings him to the table.

“What areyoudoing here?” Sofia asks, the line of her mouth twisted into a frown.

I expect Nico to have a snide remark about it being his parents’ house. The arrogance that Nico had always displayed wouldn’t surprise me. What does surprise me is when he says nothing, but continues to stare at me. There’s dark circles under his eyes and a hollowness to his cheeks that hadn’t been there before. He’s lost weight. That’s nothing to compared to the shock I get at seeing Nico’s hair short. For as long as I’ve known him, he’s had hair down to his shoulders. I’d never have expected it, but the short hair on Nico only makes him more attractive.

Nico has always presented himself as a man full of suave sophistication. That is not the man standing in front of me. This man looks like his been through hell in the tranches and managed to fight his way out.

“Don’t you dare look at her like that,” Sofia exclaims.

Her words, more than her voice seems to snap both of us out of whatever trance we’re stuck in. The crack in my heart that I thought I healed over the last few months breaks wide open once again.

“Scarlett,” Nico pleads and holds his hand out to me. “Can I speak with you for a moment?”

I look at his hand, then up to his face and remember his words to me in the hospital.

There was never an us. It was just a fling. You were grieving, needing a distraction and I was bored. It worked for us then. It doesn’t now.

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