Page 206 of Modern Romance November 2024 5-8

Santos shook his head slowly. ‘I love her, Madre,’ he said, his voice a quiet throb of feeling. ‘Maybe you haven’t believed that, or wanted to believe it, but Mia is my wife and I love her. I love who I am with her, who she enables me to be, and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. There will be no divorce, not ever. And I’ll thank you to speak of my wife more respectfully, because she carries the Aguila name, andsheis a credit tome.’

He saw the look of blatant shock on his mother’s face and found he relished it. ‘And,’ he finished coldly, ‘If you cannot find a way to welcome her into my home, perhaps you will be more comfortable living in another one of my properties.’

‘Santos...’ his mother began, her face crumpling with hurt as well as shock.

‘I’m serious, Madre,’ Santos told her. ‘Mia is and will always be my wife.Accept it.’

Without waiting for his mother’s response, he stalked from the room.

His blood was boiling, his mind seething, as he strode towards the hacienda. He hated to think of how Mia might be feeling, but worse, what she might be doing. Her words from just a few days ago came back to haunt him:

And when things get hard—when I feel like I could get hurt—I run. That’s what I’ve always done, Santos.

But not this time, he told himself. She wouldn’t this time because they were both different now. They’d promised each other that theywouldbe different, that they would try to be.

But what if trying simply wasn’t enough? With his brows pulled together in a scowl to hide his fear, Santos stormed into the hacienda.

Just as before, the moment he stepped into the bedroom he knew she was gone. He’d felt it even before that, although he’d tried to pretend that he didn’t. It was an emptiness in the house, insidehim, like a cold wind whistling through it. She’d left. She must have.And so quickly!Once again, she hadn’t had the courtesy, thecare, to tell him or even to leave so much as a note. To leave like thatagain... He could hardly believe it. It made him wonder, had she loved him at all?

How could she, to have left as she so obviously had? he thought in misery. And this time, he acknowledged starkly, he didn’t know if he had the emotional strength to find her and bring her back again.

As he paced the empty bedroom, Santos swore aloud. All her suitcases were still there, the clothes she’d changed out of when they’d first arrived discarded on the rumpled bed. But one thing was gone, he realised: her old, battered backpack.

Just as before.

Tears stung his eyes and he blinked them back angrily. Once more, fury warred with hurt—and fury won. He’d spent the last three weeks wooing and winning her, proving to her in every way possible that he could be trusted. Why hadn’t she trusted him with this? Why hadn’t she waited, at least talked to him and let him explain?

And yet, he acknowledged, what would he have said? He’d been blindsided by the depth of his mother’s determination and, he was ashamed to admit, it had caused him to doubt, if only briefly...

But maybe those doubts weren’t as traitorous as he’d thought, because Mia hadgone. She hadn’t trusted him. She hadn’t believed they could make it work, thathecould. No matter what she’d said about it taking both of them to make a marriage work, he’d made a promise—to her, as well as to himself—and she’d been the one to break it, right here and now.

A shuddery breath escaped him and he raked a hand through his hair. If he called Rodrigo, he could at least get the legal process set in motion this afternoon. He didn’twantto do that, but damn it,where was she? Why had she proved all the things he’d feared were true? He’d wanted them to be wrong. He’d convinced himself they were.

And yet she’d left. There was no escaping that grim reality...again.

Having no idea what to do now, Santos walked slowly from their bedroom. The house felt so empty without her; and, he realised, it was an emptiness in himself. How could she be gone already? Had she meant anything she’d said?

And yet she’d warned him...

‘Santos.’ His mother stood at the bottom of the stairs, her hand fluttering by her throat. ‘Is she gone?’

His chest felt tight, his throat too, so he had to squeeze the words out. ‘Yes.’

To his surprise, his mother did not look gratified or vindicated by the news; rather, she slumped, seeming disappointed and even regretful.

‘I’m so sorry,’ she said, shocking him all the more. ‘I didn’t... I didn’t mean this to happen.’

Santos let out a hollow laugh. ‘I think you meantexactlythis to happen, Madre.’

‘No, Santos!’ Her hand fluttered again as she took a step towards him. ‘I didn’t...’ She swallowed. ‘I didn’t realise you truly loved her.’ Santos stared at her dumbly, having no idea what to say. ‘I thought it was infatuation,’ she continued. ‘Beguilement. Not...not love.’

For a moment, Santos didn’t reply. He was honest enough to acknowledge that his mother had had a good reason for thinking the way she had—after all, he’d only known Mia for two weeks when he’d brought her back the first time. Had it been love, even then, or mere infatuation that his mother—and Mia herself—had claimed it was? Did it even matter? He loved her now.

But did she love him?

‘I love her,’ he told his mother steadily. ‘And I’m going to get her back.’ The doubts he’d felt before, that maybe he should let Mia go, faded away into nothing. He loved her. And he thought she loved him. She might not have said the words, but she’d showed him in a thousand different ways, hadn’t she? They both had—and he would fight for their marriage and their love.

But would she?

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