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Why? Fucking why didn’t she?
“How do you know that, Anya?” My fingers gripped the tender flesh of her thighs until she winced. But I didn’t stop. And she didn’t ask me to either.
She parted her lips, the sigh of a breath blowing into the air. “My mom told me everything about you. She knew everything.”
“Your informant mother?” Energy buzzed through me. I knew she’d lied under oath. She protected her husband to the very end, and still, she was free.
Anya nodded. “She forbade me from reading anything about the case in the news or the actual police reports. Everything I knew about the case was from her.”
An ache ran through my chest. I didn’t think I could take in another breath. “So, you knew everything about me and my family the moment you saw I would be your teacher?”
Anya nodded again, and it angered me. I needed her to say the words that would surely devastate me. I was halfway there.
“Are you telling me your mother lied about something?” My stomach roiled, and a dull ache of impending doom settled in my bones.
“She liked you, Ursin. She thought you were a good kid. Not like your father or mine.”
Wait, what?
“What are you saying?” I couldn’t take another second being in the dark. And that’s where I’ve been all along.
“She knew something that was held back. No one knew, not even the agent working with your father.”
My mind spun. None of her words made sense. “What, Anya? Speak fucking English, for fuck’s sake.”
She dropped her gaze to my fingers digging into her thighs. The skin was pinched and enflamed from my iron grip. But I didn’t let go. Not now. I wouldn’t until she told me the truth.
“Your dad, Agent Miller, he worked for my father.” Her voice trailed off. “He was killed because he intercepted a major drug deal and took the money for himself.”
The words didn’t sink in yet, and I was flinging Anya off me. She flew back on the bed, and I stood up, needing my feet on the floor to get my balance and regain the stability that wasn’t going to come. Not with what Anya just told me.
“That’s a lie. A disgusting, fucking lie, Anya.” I balled my fists, but the nearest wall was too far to punch. I let the burst of rage sizzle through me, carving out a trench of confliction I’d never felt before.
Anya grabbed the sheet, wrapping it around her naked body. “I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“Said the cartel boss’s daughter.”
She stepped back as if I punched her in the stomach. Tears welled in her eyes, but I didn’t give a goddamn. Her mother was a dirty liar, and I knew it from the onset of the trial. She was just as guilty as Gomez. And like her parents, Anya was a Montelongo by blood—bad to the core. This was what I feared from the moment I knew who she was.
“You don’t mean that, Ursin.”
“I’m Mr. Miller to you now.” I snatched the sheet, exposing her naked body, which she tried to cover with her hands.
“No,” she whispered, the tears falling now. So many down her cheeks, on her bare chest. “Please.”
I turned away from her sad, destroyed face. But I was destroyed inside too. Worse, I was in love and betrayed.
Before I reached the door, I said, “Get your clothes and get the fuck out of my house.”
Chapter Fifteen
Anya Sanchez
Mr. Miller took everything from me. But I wasn’t sure I blamed him. How mad was I, really? His whole identity was around avenging his father’s death, of who he thought his father was. But I know what my mother told me, and I believed her. She never lied unless it was for a purpose—exactly as Ursin did every day as DA.
In the heartbreak, I came to a conclusion. I realized I couldn’t pay for the sins of my father by taking on a life mission fueled by guilt that wasn’t mine. I grieved so much for the pain my father caused, but I wasn’t him. I was nothing like that man. And so, when I didn’t go to lecture the day after Ursin destroyed me, I didn’t worry anymore.
But one thing was heavy on my heart. It was the bomb I dropped on Ursin with no proof. I had my mother’s word, which was enough for me. But Ursin needed more to believe.
