Page 120 of Yours, Forever

I barely got to nod before his dad interrupted us.

"Eva, this is your last chance—" Carlos tried.

Max spinned in his heels to defy the older man. "I told you to keep your hands off her. I told you to keep her name out of your mouth!"

"Do you think I believe that it was love at first sight? Look at her, she'll never fit in with our people. What are you going to do, live in this small town forever, hiding away— hiding her away? Can she live knowing you're ashamed?"

Max scowled at his father. "No one will be hiding. This is the life we want. Te lo restregaremos en la cara when we go to a Gala, or when she's right by my side when we dismantle your business. Then we'll come back home and enjoy a quiet stroll on the beach, and not give you a single passing thought."

"You really think I believe this is love? No need to pretend, Maximiliano. You're just like me. You took advantage of the one loophole I didn't account for. You're going in for the kill— destroying everything I built for what? Spite? For your mother? Did she poison you against me while she was alive?"

"Don't you dare. I don't owe you a reply, but you owe me respect for my mom's memory."

"Max is nothing like you!" I said at the same time.

Max squeezed my hand so hard I worried it might break a bone, but I squeezed just as hard back.

Carlos turned his eyes at me. "Isn't he? He looks like me, he has my money, and now wants my company. He's willing to pay you off for it, offering you his pocket change for the billions he'll receive. Play dirty, to get what he wants. He'll use you and discard you." He shifted his eyes at his son, contempt oozing out of every pore. "The discarding, though… that he got from his mother."

My heart raced in rage on my husband's behalf, and it took all I had in me not to jump in and fight Carlos myself. I only stopped myself because I knew Max. It was his fight. I was here to be by his side.

Still, I couldn't help myself. I didn't plan it, but two harsh words came out of my mouth.

"Fuck off," I said.

Max's voice came out controlled, almost cold. "Do you realize that Eva and I have been together as long as it took you to ruin things with Mom? By this time, she was pregnant and already done with you. Eva and I are going strong, in part because I will never do to her what you did to Mom. I may carry your genes, have been raised by you while I was a teen, but oh, how I work to be nothing like you."

He continued, his tone detached, but with a hint of his accent slipping through. Like when he spoke from the heart. "I'll never be like you. Not when it matters. So when Eva and I have kids, I'll show them love like you never have shown me. I'll make a point to celebrate who they are. Support them every step of the way. I'll do that right here in this lovely town where my wife is the happiest, because I want that for us. Her happiness and mine are entwined, and I get that. You never did. Now it's your downfall."

A few people entered the café, their steps heavy and rushed. I didn't check to see who had arrived. My eyes were glued to Max.His words percolated deep into me, until they were one with my bone marrow.

I believed him. He saw his life in Laguna Island, with me. For my happiness and his own.

Max stared at the older man with a disimpassioned gaze.

Carlos bared his teeth at his son. "You were drunk when you got married! I can easily contest that."

"So what?" I stood shoulder to shoulder with Max against his father. "We reaffirmed our decision to be married two weeks later with our lawyers. We're reaffirming it now! Our marriage is legal."

"Our marriage isreal," Max added, his eyes locked on his father. "You have nothing against us. Nothing against me. This is a sad, desperate move. You better leave now, before you make it worse for yourself. We have too many witnesses for this to work out in your favor."

I gazed at the room, to find Ale and Daniel, Janet and Eduardo, and two people I didn't know standing back and watching the exchange.

"I won't let you two humiliate me!" Carlos yelled. "I won't let you destroy the company I built with my own blood and sweat, crushing it under your self-righteous heel!"

"You're the only one humiliating you, Dad. You're making a great show of the kind of person you are."

Father and son stared at each other. My husband's fingers clasped mine so hard, my rings dug into my bones. I did nothing to prevent it.

Max lips curled into a dry smile. "You should leave."

"This isn't over." Carlos straightened his trench coat.

"You know it is," Max said.

Carlos' eyes jumped between Max and I, and yet he didn't move. Several seconds went by, until his eyes settled on me for an extra beat, then on Max.

"I loved your mom." His lips pulled down in a half glower, half resigned gesture. "It never did me any good."