Page 13 of Their One-Night Rio Reunion
She nodded, immediately feeling protective. ‘Very. There’s only a year between us. I was six and he was five when our mother left.’
This was said with as little emotion as possible. Ana hated it that even now the memory of watching her mother pack and leave without a backward glance was still so vivid. She felt raw.
‘What about you?’ she asked. ‘Only your mother came to the wedding—you’re not close to the rest of your family?’
Caio’s face tightened for a moment and then he said, ‘Like you, I was considered superfluous to requirements. My father and mother...it was an arranged marriage.’
Aren’t they all?Ana wanted to say, but didn’t.
Caio didn’t seem inclined to elaborate on his parents’ marriage beyond that.
‘How old were you when you left home?’ she asked.
He looked at her. ‘Eighteen.’
‘That’s when you dropped your father’s name?’
He nodded. And then he said, ‘Surely you could have left too?’
Ana shook her head. ‘I wouldn’t have left Francisco on his own.’
‘Does he know you agreed to our marriage to secure his freedom?’
Ana felt like squirming. How had they strayed into this territory when for the last year they’d managed to keep their conversations light and superficial? But here, on this island, it was as if all normal operations had been left back in Rio.
Ana huffed out a breath. ‘He knows. And he only agreed to go to Europe once he knew the marriage was strictly business and only for a year.’ She looked at Caio, feeling defensive. ‘He would have done the same for me.’
Caio’s lips twitched at the corners. ‘I don’t doubt it.’
Ana put a forkful of salad in her mouth in case she said anything else or invited the conversation into more personal territory. She’d known that Caio had a very tenuous connection with his family, and even without him elaborating on details, it sounded like it had been a very similar situation. People still whispered and gossiped about her mother’s abandonment of her family, and the subsequent bitter divorce, even though it had happened years ago. Ana had never heard any gossip about his family. Presumably they’d been more careful because they were involved in politics.
But then his mother hadn’t abandoned her family like Ana’s had. Was it better for a mother to be a martyr to an arranged marriage or selfish enough to leave for her own happiness? She and Caio were products of each scenario, and she realised now that it might not have necessarily been better if her mother had stayed. She recalled meeting Caio’s mother—she’d seemed very fragile, brittle. Like a shadow of a former self.
Caio put down his fork and it made a slight metallic sound against the plate, breaking Ana out of her reverie. She wasn’t remotely prepared when he asked, ‘Was it really so bad that you had to leave Rio today?’
CHAPTER SEVEN
ANANEARLYCHOKEDon her food. She swallowed carefully as she let his question sink in. Why did she feel so guilty and defensive?
Caio was looking at her. Waiting. Her impression of him being hurt because she was so eager to leave returned. But that couldn’t be right.
She wiped her mouth with a napkin. ‘No, not at all. Like I said... I didn’t know what to expect at first, but as the year went on we...’ She trailed off.Became unlikely friends.
Caio’s face was expressionless. She was beginning to understand that this didn’t necessarily mean he didn’t feel anything. A little muscle pulsed by his jaw.
She said with a rush, ‘I thought that you wanted to get your life back as soon as possible.’
‘Did I make you feel unwelcome?’
Ana wanted to squirm. The problem had beenher, not him. ‘No. It wasn’t that. At all. I wasn’t expecting that the marriage would turn out the way it did.’ She looked at him ‘We got on,’ she said, surprising herself.
‘I thought so. We worked a room well together.’
A flush of warmth that had nothing to do with desire bloomed in Ana’s chest. At first she’d been so awkward on Caio’s arm. Felt out of place. Which was ironic given that they’d been in the milieu she’d been born to command as her own. But she’d spent so much time rebelling against the etiquette and social lessons her peers had lapped up, she’d felt about as prepared as an alien visiting earth for the first time.
But gradually, with a discreet guidance from Caio that Ana could appreciate now, she’d grown more adept. She thought of how with the subtlest of touches and glances, silent commands or needs had been communicated between them, fostering a sense of unity that she hadn’t fully appreciated until this moment.
‘We did work a room well together,’ she had to admit grudgingly. She gave a small shudder, ‘Remember those couples who’d obviously just had a blazing row and were forced to smile and act as if everything was okay?’
