Page 58 of Consequence of One Reckless Night

At twelve, he had been a boy on the cusp of teenage, awkward and unsure about himself. Of one thing he’d been certain—he detested being used like a thing to be bartered.

And bartered he had been.

For money to feed his mother’s greed. Silenced with hundreds of thousands of rupees in exchange for his custody.

Raquel remained quiet as he spoke of his heartless mother who handed him over gleefully, not even shedding a tear as she walked away while he had gazed longingly at her, his eyes awash with tears but too proud to cry.

“I told myself I would be better off with Carlos. At least I would get food on time,” he remarked wryly, but his attempt at humor didn’t fool her.

She knew the incident had hurt him terribly. “But Carlos wasn’t any better either, was he?”

“He wasn’t bad, although I did have a lot of rules to follow.”

“Like what?”

And he told her—he was told not to be seen or heard from. He told her about his small room in the servants’ quarters where the staff took care of him.

“I was glad I could go to school although it wasn’t the same one Leandro went to. I went to school with Lobo while my brother went to a boarding school out-of-state.”

“Did they... treat you badly?” she asked, her eyes moist with unshed tears.

“Sometimes, although it was just Rico who would beat me if he saw me around the mansion. With Erica it was mostly verbal abuse. Carlos, though he kept his distance, was kind to me. Leandro was the only one who tried to forge a relationship with me.”

His words surprised Raquel. But Leandro had surprised him too, when he’d first gone to live at the Monterio mansion.

“For almost a year after being adopted, I didn’t hear from my mother. Then she came back one night.” Alexandre burned with shame at that memory.

“Why?”

“The money was all gone, and she wanted more. When Carlos refused to pay her, she went to the press.”

Raquel stared at him in horror, while Alexandre vividly remembered what had transpired the night the news came out.

“Both Carlos and Rico were outraged by Liza’s behavior but it completely destroyed Leandro’s mother. Erica was pregnant with her second child, and she ended up losing the baby. She’d known all along about Rico’s affairs, but having his sexual exploits splashed all over the news was too much for her to take. Their marriage broke down, and she held me responsible for ruining her life and the death of her unborn child.”

“Oh, Alexandre!” Raquel grabbed his hands and brought them to her breast, her tears running free. “You weren’t responsible for what happened. You were just a child. They were wrong to hold you responsible for the sins of your father.”

“Weren’t you too, hated for the sins of your father?” he asked in return, shocking her into an uncomfortable silence.

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