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“Soni, stop. It’s me!”
“Diego?” I turn to him, completely shocked to see my ex-husband standing in front of me at Las Cruzes on my wedding day. “What are you… How are you…”
“Your father sent me,” he says urgently, glancing over my shoulder as if he’s afraid of being caught. “I’ve been in Chihuahua for the past month trying to figure out a way in.”
“What do you mean my father sent you?” I frown and shake my head. “That can’t be right. He died five years ago.”
“Fernando is very much alive.”
“No,” I deny it again. “Santos told me he died. That his body was found.”
Diego grasps me by the shoulders. “Soni, don’t you understand? He lied to you. Your father is alive. He’s been in hiding since the attack on Villanueva. No one believed him when he said you’d survived. Even I thought there was no way. But he knew.”
“He’s alive?” I whisper, still unable to believe it.
“Yes.”
I pull his hands off. “Listen, you need to bring him here. He’ll be safe. Padilla is still out searching for something and if he finds out he’s still alive, he—”
Diego’s confused expression stops me. “Sonia, what exactly were you told?”
“That,” I begin but hesitate when that something that’s been niggling at the back of my mind becomes a blaring foghorn. “That a man named Padilla was hired to go after something or someone my father was hiding. Santos rescued me and brought me to live here five years ago. We married. But then I lost my memory.”
His face turns ghost white. Then he takes out his phone from his pocket and hands it to me. “Look at the date.”
I grab it and glance at the screen and my heart all but stops. Unless Diego has somehow managed to alter the date on his cell, only three months have passed since the attack on Villanueva.
“This can’t be happening,” I say. “This isn’t…”
“I told you. Santos lied to you.”
I bolt from the hall, racing to the wall full of shelves in the living room. Snatching the picture of Santos and me at our first wedding, I closely inspect it. Almost instantly, I find something so obvious, if only I’d looked before, I would have noticed. This isn’t me at all. The face is mine, but the body is completely different, from the tiny breasts to the mole on the neck.
“It’s been photoshopped.” I show Diego. “He lied to me? Why would he lie to—” I pause as the answer comes to me.
Because if I were Padilla, and I’d killed Fernando Beltran before he talked, I’d turn to his next in line. You.
He wants my father. Anger boils my blood and rushes through my veins at such a speed that I feel my head might explode.
I flick my gaze to Diego. “How did you get in with all the security?”
“I bribed a man coming to the wedding. He hid me in the back seat. But my car isn’t too far outside the gate.”
“Go back to it and wait for me there,” I tell him.
“What? I can’t leave you he—”
I raise my hand to stop him. “Wait for me by your car.”
He huffs but gives me a curt nod. “If you don’t come within half an hour, I’m calling the police.
“If I don’t come in that time, go back to my father. The police belong to Santos.”
When I’m sure he’s left the house, I make my way back to the reception. I’m trembling, my legs almost giving out beneath me, but I force them to move.
There, beside the dance floor, I spot Santos. His gaze catches mine and he gives me a smile I find impossible to return.
Everything seems so distant—the music, the chatter. Even the light coming from the overhead strings of bulbs seems muted. All that’s present is the pain in my chest as my heart shatters more and more with every step I take closer to him.
