Something lurched deep inside his heart.
“Ellie…” He took a deep breath. “We can talk more later.”
“Right,” she said dully. “Later.”
Ellie didn’t look up as he left. He would deal with her later. Right now, he had more pressing concerns. He went to his modern office building on the Avenida Rio Branco. He met with Andrew MacCandless, his company’s chief of international security, then got reports on Wright’s most recent sighting yesterday—traveling to São Paulo from New York on a borrowed plane. He’d apparently promised a wealthy childless couple on Park Avenue that they would soon receive newborn twins for the price of four million dollars.
Newborn twins.
I will find him, Diogo told himself with a haggard breath. He told his chief of security to bring in a private army if that was what it took. The man was threatening his family. He had to be brought down.
Just as the man grimly left to execute his orders, his secretary spoke in Portuguese over the intercom.
“Your wife is here, sir.”
“Here?”
“I just got the call from downstairs reception. Shall I have them send her up?”
He paused. He didn’t want to see Ellie now. There was no point in talking. She loved him, and he didn’t love her.
Seeing her pain killed him. Distracted him.
Still…
Ellie had never come to his work before. He couldn’t turn her away. “Send her up.”
As he paced his office waiting for her to arrive, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. His beautiful, warm wife, the mother of his children. He couldn’t stand the thought of anyone threatening to take her from him.
Diogo had known what Wright was capable of. Why had he let the man go?
If anything happened to Ellie, it would be Diogo’s fault.
He clenched his hands. He couldn’t let anything happen. He wouldn’t. He would die first.
He loved her.
The stealthy thought brought him up short.
He loved her?
It was true she had changed his life completely. His existence had once been cold. Going from one woman to the next, filling his life with business deals and empty pleasures, he hadn’t realized at the time how miserable he’d been—or how alone.
But Ellie had changed everything. She’d turned his cold house into a home. Taught his daughter to love and trust again. Made his whole life bright with color and rich and warm. Somehow he’d come to value her opinion and her strength more than anything…
Was that love?
He couldn’t go to sleep at night without making love to her. He couldn’t get out of bed in the morning without kissing her and seeing her bright face. He couldn’t imagine coming home if not to her….
Maldição. He was in love with his wife.
How was it possible that he hadn’t known?
How was it possible it had taken him so long to realize that he’d gotten everything all wrong? Love wasn’t to be feared. It didn’t leave a man vulnerable. To the contrary. Knowing that he loved her, and she loved him back, made him more fearless and determined than he’d ever been in his life….
He heard a knock at the door. His wife entered, her face wan and pale.
“Ellie.” He went to her immediately, reaching for her, desperate to hold her in his arms. “Meu amor. I’m so glad you’re here. I have to tell you—this morning, when I—”
She backed away. “Don’t touch me.”
He froze in place, unable to look away from her face. Her expression was so distant and strange. Not like Ellie at all.
“I’ve come to say goodbye,” she said. “I’m leaving.”
“What?” he whispered.
Her china-blue eyes crackled like frozen ice beneath the sea. “You’ve made it clear you’ll never love me. So I’m going home. Back to New York.”
“No.” Grabbing her fiercely, he looked down at her. She wouldn’t leave. She couldn’t. Not now—not when he finally had realized he loved her!
“Ellie, you have to listen,” he said hoarsely. “I should never have said those things to you this morning—”
“I’m glad you did,” she said, cutting him off. “It was time I faced the truth.”
“You are my wife. Pregnant with my children.” He swallowed. “I do not want you to leave. Ever.”
She looked away miserably. “I have no choice.”
“But, Ellie, I…” He took a deep breath. I love you. He licked his dry lips, and tried again. “I…” But unlike when he proposed, these strange words stuck in his throat. “You do have a choice,” he whispered. “I’m not ordering you to stay. I’m asking you,” he said in a low voice. “Please. Stay. For me.”
She shook her head, and he saw tears in her eyes. “I can’t.” She wrenched away. “I want a divorce.”
“A divorce?”
His hands clenched on empty air. He could barely breathe over the enormous lump in his throat. “But—why?”
“I’m in love with someone else.”
He sucked in his breath. “Who?” he demanded fiercely.
“Timothy,” she whispered.
He gaped at her, not understanding.
“You never treated me like I wanted,” she said. “You never bought me flowers or read me poetry. You don’t know anything about love. Timothy does. He’s the man I want.”
Every word she spoke was like a stab in his body. He felt every slice of the knife keenly. Down to the bone.
Then anger rushed through him. “Timothy Wright is a monster. You could not possibly love him.”
“But I do.” She blinked rapidly. “We can share custody,” she offered. “The babies will have your last name. But I will have my divorce.”
“No.” He grabbed her angrily, his hand gripping her arm hard enough to bruise. “No, Ellie, damn it, no! I won’t let you go!”
“You’re hurting me!”
Hurting her? It was nothing compared to what she’d done to him. But when she winced beneath his grip, he let her go.
“Timothy Wright will never come near my children,” he bit out. “He’s made a fortune over the last two years ruining innocent lives. I will not allow mine anywhere near him.”
Her eyes widened. “I will protect them—”
“You? You can’t protect anyone. You’re every bit as weak as I first thought. No loyalty to your children, or to…” Orto me. A new thought rushed through him, almost too painful to bear. “What do I tell Catia?” he said, barely able to speak over the jagged pain in his throat. “What am I to tell her—that another mother has left her?”
“Tell her…” Ellie closed her eyes in pain. “Just tell her I love her. And that all I wanted to do was to keep her safe.”
“No.” He couldn’t believe this was really happening. Anguish ricocheted through him, cutting more savagely than he’d ever been hurt before. “You’re my wife, Ellie. We need you.” He took a deep breath. “I need you.”
“Diogo—”
Sweeping her up in his arms, he showed her his heart with a powerful kiss. It was a deep kiss, fierce and true, and tangy with the salt of her tears. Her large belly was between them, creating a perfect circle of family.
When he pulled away, he searched her face, desperate for a sign of everything he’d come to love and trust.
But her eyes remained closed, as if she were trying to savor this kiss forever.
“And me?” he whispered. “What do you have to say to me?”
She finally opened her eyes, shining with tears. “All I have to say to you is—goodbye.”
With an audible growl, he opened his mouth to tell her that he had no intention of letting her go. She was his wife. The mother of his children. He would force her to stay. She belonged to him.
Then he realized: Ellie didn’t belong to him.
They belonged together.
If she wanted to be free, he couldn’t force her to stay. He couldn’t chain her to the bed. He couldn’t ignore her fe
elings for the sake of his own. Not anymore.
He loved her.
Diogo took a deep breath, struggling to get his old power back. To pick her up and toss her into the Bentley. To drive her home and kiss her senseless. To lock her up and force her to stay until she saw sense.
But he couldn’t.
A hard Brazilian curse fell silently from his lips. Love had made him weak, just as he’d always feared.
Without Ellie, they would not be a family. Without her, he lost everything he’d come to love.
But because he loved her, he had no choice but to let her go.
His hands clenched. “Until the babies are born, Pedro will constantly be at your side,” he said coldly. “After that, you can do whatever the hell you want. I’ll give you your divorce.”
She shook her head. “Pedro is already waiting for me.”
“Good,” he choked out. He turned away as tears pricked the back of his eyes. “Sai fora, Ellie. I’m sick of the sight of you. Don’t leave Rio. My lawyer will be in touch.”
Her whole body went tense at the word lawyer. She turned to go, then stopped at the door. Without meeting his eyes, she spoke her final words.
“Goodbye, Diogo,” she whispered. “I will always love you.”
He sat heavily down at the desk after the door closed. He sank his head in his hands. He’d been stupid to give his heart. It had all been a trap. All the warmth and comfort and trust and love had been nothing but an illusion to make him weak. To make him believe…
He’d trusted her. Loved her. And he’d been so sure she loved him in return.
I love you. He still remembered the way Ellie’s face had glowed that morning when she spoke the words, as if alight with the brilliant fire of the Brazilian sun. I thought that if I showed my love for you in a thousand small ways, giving you a loving home, you would know.
He pressed his knuckles hard against his closed eyes. He’d been a fool. She’d never loved him, really. It had just been…
It just…
It just… didn’t make sense.
He slowly opened his eyes.
Just tell her I love her, Ellie had whispered. And that all I wanted to do was to keep her safe.
Catia.
He snatched up his phone from his desk. Pacing back and forth across his office, he called first Ellie’s cell phone, then Pedro’s. No answer. He called security downstairs and was informed that Mrs. Serrador and the bodyguard were long gone.
Diogo’s hands shook as he called his men at the hotel. None of them answered, even though he let it ring. Finally, he called his chief of security and got an answer.
“I just reached the Carlton Palace, Mr. Serrador,” the Australian said grimly. “It looks like someone knocked out all the bodyguards by putting something in the coffee. No one died, but I just found Guilherme stuffed into a utility closet on the back staircase. He’s barely breathing—looks like he was chloroformed from behind. Ambulance is on the way.”
“And Catia?” Diogo demanded, barely able to breathe.
“Haven’t seen her, Mr. Serrador,” MacCandless replied. “We’re searching the building. But Pedro Carneiro was with her when she left the general’s compound this morning.”
Diogo took a hoarse breath, closing his eyes. Pedro.
The trusted bodyguard who protected his wife and child. The brother of his old rival in the favela—the man who’d never forgiven him for leaving to succeed in a better world.
Diogo knew how he’d been betrayed. How the threatening notes had gotten into his home, his office, his car.
Pedro.
A roar rose from deep in his throat as he told his security chief, “Pedro Carneiro has betrayed us. He’s working for Wright. Find him and we’ll find Catia—and Ellie.”
But even as his body broke out into a cold sweat, he gloried in one small realization. Ellie still loved him. She’d been trying to protect them—trying to protect them all.
Diogo rose to his feet.
Protecting his family was his job.
Love hadn’t made Diogo vulnerable. It gave him the power and strength of steel. He would die to protect his family.
And the baby-selling lawyer would not live to see another dawn.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“I DID IT,” ELLIE said quietly in the dark room. “I told him I wanted a divorce because I was in love with you. Now uphold your end of the deal. Let her go.”
Timothy smiled at her. His same cheerful, thin smile that he’d had for years. But everything else about him had changed. He’d once been tidy, slender and pale in wire-rimmed glasses. But he hadn’t shaved for months. His clothes were dirty and baggy.
He was nearly unrecognizable, and not just in appearance. Ellie had never imagined he would hold a six-year-old girl as hostage for revenge. Looking at Catia’s wide-eyed, tearstained face as the scared child clung to her teddy bear, Ellie could hardly believe that she’d once felt desperately sorry for the way she’d treated Timothy Wright.
“Nice work,” he said with a satisfied nod. “I knew you just needed the right motivation to get rid of him.”
Ellie looked at him with narrowed eyes. “So let the girl go.”
“Sure. Fine. I never much liked kids anyway.” He pushed Catia toward Pedro, who was waiting by the door. “Take her home. Or as close as you can get without being caught.” Timothy turned back to Ellie with a bright, benign smile. “See? I’m not a bad person, Ellie. You’ve just forced me to do bad things.”
Catia gave a little sob. Ellie fell to her knees in front of the girl, hugging her tight. “It’s all right,” she whispered, holding her close one last time. “You’ll be safe. He’s going to take you home.” She turned fiercely to Pedro. “If you hurt her—”
“I won’t. I’m just in this for the money.” The man’s eyes flickered at her, then Timothy. “Besides, I’m not the one you should be worried about, senhora. Tchau.”
As they left, Ellie closed her eyes, praying for the little girl’s safety. Diogo would find her. He would surely have realized by now that Ellie would never divorce him. Not when she’d told him she would love him forever…
“Alone at last,” Timothy said with a sickly sweet smile. Looking around the old concrete house with ragged curtains, tucked deeply inside the maze of the favela, Ellie felt her belly tense into another hard contraction. She’d been feeling contractions all morning. She’d felt the first one right after Diogo told her he didn’t love her, and they’d only increased since Pedro had given her Timothy’s note.
Now, she looked at the man she’d nearly married on that lovely spring day so long ago.
“Why did you do this?” she asked. “Why did you have me say those horrible things to Diogo?”
“I wanted him to know how it feels to lose what you love most,” Timothy said, baring his teeth. “To have his heart ripped out.”
“But he won’t feel anything like that. He doesn’t love me!”
“I’ve been watching you both for months. He hasn’t been with another woman in all that time. Doesn’t even look. He comes home every night at five sharp. You claim he’s not in love? Nice try.”
The thought went through her like lightning. Was it actually possible that Diogo might love her? Oh please, she thought, briefly closing her eyes. Please come for me.
Timothy gave a little cackle. “Diogo Serrador thinks he’s so powerful. He’s got the good looks, the charm, the billions. But I’ve still beaten him. I’ve won you.”
She felt another contraction. A hard, long contraction that was different from the others, that made her feel weak and broke a sheen of sweat all over her body. No, she told the babies desperately. Not yet. She couldn’t go into labor here!
She had to give Diogo time.
“Oh, Ellie.” Sitting down on the old ragged blanket that covered the bed, Timothy looked up at her with a hangdog expression. “I love you so much, can’t you see that? I would do anything for you. Ever since that day I saw you at the Dairy Burger wi
th your blond hair glowing like an angel, I knew you were different from all the others. You never laughed at me. You respected me. Admired me. And I knew you would be mine. But you were always so worried about money. I knew I’d have to be rich for you.”
“You really did it, didn’t you?” she breathed as pain went through her. “Sold babies for profit.”
He shrugged. “Childless couples. Female CEOs who spent too long on their careers. All so rich—and all so desperate for babies of their very own. While poor women give birth all the time to children they can’t support. Or protect.” He gave a sly grin. “I was simply providing a service. I did it for you, Ellie. Always for you.”
She felt sick. How could she have missed so much of his true character? How could she have glossed over the way he’d been so obsessed with winning her? How could she have ever thought that he actually loved her?
“But Serrador ruined everything.” Timothy narrowed his eyes at her belly in a way that made her fold her hands over her stomach protectively. “You’d be pregnant with my child now if not for him. I would’ve had you in my bed every night. Wanting me. Only me.”
“No, Timothy,” she said softly. She shook her head. “I made a mistake. I never should have agreed to marry you. This feeling you have for me isn’t love. You don’t even know me.”
His thin lips turned up into a snarl.
“Perhaps you’re right,” he said crudely. “The girl I adored was innocent and pure. She never would have spread her legs for a Brazilian playboy like a sailor’s whore.”
She gasped.
Timothy shook his head and leapt up from the bed to take her arm. “I’m sorry!” he cried. “I know it was all his fault. He raped you. That’s the only explanation. But do you see how love can make you do crazy things? Seeing you pregnant is driving me insane. But not for longs.”
“What do you mean?” she whispered.
He gave her a cheerful smile. “I have a local doctor on the payroll. In about an hour, he’s going to help deliver your babies, and then you’ll be free to come with me.”
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