Page 145 of Dex

My mother claps a hand to her mouth, in horror.“He doesn’t know?”

“You’ve divorced Dexter, and he doesn’t know, and now you’re going to marry Oscar Ramos?Daniela, what’s gotten into you?”my father cries, worried more about my future problem than the one I’ve left behind.

“He’s not Paul Knight,” I say.“And he wants the company.He wants control.I can use that.If I marry him, I can convince him to return the majority stake to you.Or at least to someone who won’t destroy it.”

“He’s … he’s not right for you,” my father replies.

“You think the Knights were?”

“Dexter is a good man,” my father insists.

“Dexter …” I want to tell them that he’s complicated, but they seem to think he’s the best son-in-law ever, and I don’t want to talk about him.

“You’re playing a dangerous game,” Papai whispers.

“I don’t care,” I snap, my voice breaking.“I loved Dexter.I gave him my whole heart.And now he’s just like the rest of them; silent, cold and gone.But you?”I turn to my father.“I still believe in you.I still remember the man who taught me how to fight.So let me fight for you now.”

“Don’t do this, filha.Wait.Have patience,” my father implores.

“Wait for what?”I try to keep my voice steady.

The air turns silent again, but this time, it feels different.My mother reaches for me.“And what about your heart, meu amor?Will it survive this?”

I look away, because I don’t know the answer.I’m not sure it will.But I nod anyway.“It has to.”

Chapter 37

DEX

I wake up and find that Daniela isn’t around.

At first I don’t think anything of it.Maybe she went to the gym.Maybe she just left early.For what, though?To meet Cari at the flower shop?Maybe.But when I come back home later that evening, she’s still not there.

Her phone rings four times before going to voicemail.

Again.

I stare at my cellphone, willing Daniela’s name to light up.I miss my wife more than ever, and I only have myself to blame.

I asked her for some time and space, so I have to respect that, but when I get home later that evening, she’s still not there.

It hits me like a punch to the chest.

That this silence might not just be space.

That this emptiness might not just be time.

That she’s gone.

Not to Cari’s.Not to a spa.

Gone gone.

Left me.

My vision mists and the walls of the room close in.I feel like I’m suffocating.Like I can’t breathe.

It all comes back to me, how I told her I needed space, but what I really needed was her.

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