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Chico’s expression darkened ‘I had to leave’

‘Because of my mother?’

He looked at her as if she were mad ‘Your mother?’ His voice was full of all the contempt he could muster ‘Dios! No! I stayed as far away from Serena as I could’ Which hadn’t stopped the with her mother, and worse

‘Why, then?’ Years of bewilderment filled her and coloured her voice, and when Chico wouldn’t answer she o

Barely had she taken a step when he seized her arm ‘Take my advice, Lizzie, and let the past stay in the past And don’t playhis face close

‘Don’t play you?’ she de him off ‘I have no idea what you mean’

‘Really?’ He boxed her in again ‘You play hot then cold What’s going on, Lizzie?’

‘What’s going on is this,’ she said coldly ‘You walked out twelve years ago after pro to take me away from that hellhole You left without a word’

‘I had my reasons’

‘Self-preservation?’ she suggested

‘You know nothing about it,’ he snarled

‘Clearly’

Chico towered over her,and as furious as she was ‘Do you mind?’ She tried to find a way around him

‘Yes, I mind’

‘I’ to bed now’

‘Yes,’ Chico said as he huffed a derisive laugh ‘Bed is exactly what you need’

There were so ed to say to him, but she bit them back There was too much to lose

‘I left you in the care of your grandmother,’ he called after her as she walked away ‘I did kno hard it was for you—your parents, those endless parties I allowed randmother would keep you safe’

She stopped walking ‘You were easily persuaded,’ Lizzie retorted, still with her back to hi to me before you left’

‘If I had stayed to explain it would have cost me my freedom I was a youth with no ave me no alternative when they decided I must leave’

She shook her head ‘I thought you understood, Chico, but you knew nothing aboutabout it now’

‘As you know nothing about mine,’ he fired back

As the temperature soared between them she whirled around