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‘We’ve both been through a lot And our past is always going to be there You were taking care of me the only way you kne I shouldn’t have said what I said’

He remained silent for a full minute Then he turned ‘You want to know about my past? About Sofia?’

Heart in her throat, she nodded

‘My father fought for years to stay out of jail He used lawyers and manipulated the system to try to escape justice But the authorities were equally deter his pockets with ill-gotten gains They were slavering to , soe would be added to the list and the circus would begin all over again The only people who mattered were my brothers and my mother But even I couldn’t protect them from the cruelty of thethem suffer made me hate ht I could get some closure for one’

Perla frowned ‘What do you one?’

‘He died in jail months into his thirty-year sentence’

‘How?’

‘He caught pneuh ‘After the chaos he’d caused, he went out with barely a whimper’

‘And you felt cheated?’

‘I felt more than cheated I wanted to hunt hiain I went on abender I was on a very fast doard spiral when Ihis expression But she saw his hands form fists ‘Shesaved me’

Perla’s breath stopped ‘Oh’

When he looked up again, his eyes were the darkest green, shadoith pain ‘She brought e and despair And I rewarded her by ignoring all the danger signs’

‘Surely, she nant if she had a weak heart?’

‘She knew But she was convinced she would survive it She was an eternal optimist’

‘Ari, you can’t keep blaot her the medical care she needed and she made a choice The outcome was unfortunate but—’