Page 12 of Ignacio

She used to love his teasing kisses and playing in his luxurious brown curls. It pained her to watch his films where he showered affection on his on-screen love interests. The love scenes were especially difficult to watch. Two years ago, all she heard was how great the chemistry was between him and his leading lady in the filmSleeping Poets. He had played the role of a literature professor under suspicion for murder, having an affair with the female detective investigating the case. He’d looked so delicious in those glasses and tweed jackets that she couldn’t blame the poor detective for falling for his charms.

But the love scenes…

Delta shivered now, her nipples tightening against the mattress. His husky groans and the way he gripped the actress’s thighs as he rocked between her legs had looked too real. Too sensual. Too familiar.

Living with him twenty-four hours a day for months would be torture. How the heck was she supposed to pretend to feel nothing while her body burned for him?

At a soft knock on the door, Delta sat up. “Come in.”

Her younger sister, Vivian, rolled in on her wheelchair and closed the door behind her. She was three years younger and Delta’s best friend.

The sisters had been named after their father’s older sisters who had died in an accident when he was a teenager. Both women had been singers, and that night they were on their way home from a gig at a local club when their vehicle was T-boned by a drunk driver. Though he had never said it, Delta believed her father pushed her so hard as a way to achieve the career his sisters had never reached because of their premature deaths.

“Somebody had a bad day,” Vivian observed, shoving her gold-framed glasses higher on her nose.

“That’s definitely me.” Delta removed her heels and tossed them across the room.

Vivian followed the motion and lifted an eyebrow. “What’s going on with you?”

“We went to see Ignacio today.”

Her sister looked surprised. “How did the meeting go?”

Delta blew out a breath of frustration and hopped off the bed. Resting her hands on her hips, she paced the carpeted floor of her bedroom. “He hates me.”

“He doesn’t hate you.”

“He literally hates me, Viv.”

“Well, what are you going to do? You need each other, right? That’s what Dad said.”

“Ignacio says he doesn’t need me.”

“He can’t still be angry about what happened. It’s been what… ten, eleven years?”

“Eleven.” Delta stopped pacing and faced her sister across the room. “I hurt him.”

“You were hurting too. It wasn’t easy for you not to go to him.”

“He doesn’t know that. He thinks I didn’t care.” She blew out another breath. “I can’t blame him because that’s how I acted. We were supposed to run away together, and I… I blew it.”

Her sister’s expression turned sympathetic. “You were young and at the beginning of your career. He asked you to marry him. That’s a big step.”

Delta’s shoulders slumped. “I should have gone to him when he asked me to.”

“Why didn’t you?”

Delta turned away and wrapped her arms around herself. “I don’t know.”

But that wasn’t true. She did know why.

At the age of nine, Vivian was diagnosed with a spinal cord tumor after experiencing back pain and trouble walking. The diagnosis was devastating. Doctors were able to remove the tumor, but the surgery caused nerve damage, leaving Vivian paralyzed from the waist down.

Over the years, she had undergone multiple surgeries to correct spinal curvature and muscle atrophy. Her poor sister had been poked and prodded by specialists all over the world, subjected to nerve stimulation procedures and orthopedic treatments. Though Delta hoped for a miracle, her sister had accepted her condition, though not in a fatalistic way. She regularly went to physical therapy and used a high-tech wheelchair to get around.

Delta never left to be with Ignacio because her parents had sat her down and told her the hard truth: they couldn’t afford her sister’s surgeries without her. Even if they both went back to work, her sister’s medical bills and care would cripple them financially. So she made the tough decision to walk away from her relationship with the man she loved and focus on building her career—a career that eventually paid her millions of dollars and allowed her to support her sister and the rest of her family.

“You can’t keep living in the past, D,” Vivian said.

---