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that?”
    “What am I to think?” Renaldo
ground out. “I have not heard anything from you in days, and when I did, it was
a cryptic message that didn’t tell me much. Yet, I show up here, and you look
like you’re getting ready to go out for the night. But I’m supposed to believe
you planned to call me?”
    “I was. I know you’re leaving
tomorrow.”
    She put her hand up to massage the
back of her neck, and the movement made Renaldo take notice of her appearance. Her
eyes held a tiredness in them, and he wondered if she’d been having difficulty
sleeping. He certainly had. At night, he kept reaching for her, and when his
arms came up empty, he woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep.
    “What’s wrong?” he asked.
    “Nothing.”
    He walked toward her. “What is this
family emergency you had?”
    “There’s nothing you can do.” She looked
like someone who had the weight of the world on her shoulders and didn’t know
how to ditch it.
    “Are you in some kind of trouble?
Is it your job?”
    “No. I don’t want to talk about it.
It’s personal, and I’ll get over it. You can’t help me, and you’ll be gone
tomorrow anyway.” She passed him on her way to the ironing board. “I’ll get
dressed and we can—”
    Renaldo took her by the arm and
forced her around to face him. He tilted her chin up toward him, searching her
face. “Tell me what’s wrong. We’re not leaving until you do.”
    ****
    Sabrina twisted out of his grasp.
She’d taken great pains to keep her past a secret. What was she supposed to
tell him? That she was one of the lucky ones, having grown up in a community
known to be a haven for crime, where drug dealers ruled the streets and
violence kept children indoors?
    “Sabrina…?”
    His probing gaze held her captive.
She wanted so badly to tell him everything and unburden her soul. But it was
easier to keep her secrets to herself and wear the mask of independence and
strength, while wondering the entire time if she’d ever be good enough.
    She let out a shaky breath,
deciding not to hide from her past this time. “It’s my cousin, my
family—everything about me.”
    “You have told me almost nothing
about your family. This is the first time I have ever heard you talk about
them.”
    She chewed on her lower lip, still
afraid of being judged.
    “What about your family, Sabrina? What
are you not telling me?”

 
    Chapter Ten
     
    Sabrina lowered her eyes. “I didn’t
have the same childhood you did,” she said. “Not even close. No perfect, traditional house with two
parents and a loving family. I’m not even sure who my father is. My mother
wasn’t sure. My father was either her boyfriend or her drug dealer.”
    Renaldo inhaled sharply.
    Sabrina lifted her head. “The
reason I never shared my past with you is because it’s a past I want to forget.
I don’t want to remember the things I saw or what I had to do.”
    Concern etched in his face. “What
did you have to do,  meu amor ?”
    The gentleness in his voice scraped
away the final layer of self-defense. She didn’t want to keep everything inside
anymore. It was hard being strong all the time. She wanted to unburden her soul.
The tears swelled and overflowed onto her cheeks. Sobbing, she fell against the
wall and covered her face with her hands.
    Renaldo pulled her close. “Shh.” He
guided her to the sofa and sat down, pulling her onto his lap. In a soothing
whisper, he spoke to her in Portuguese.
    She told him everything. About how
her mother raised her and Jewel in a small, one-bedroom apartment. How she had
to go down to the morgue to identify her own mother as a teen. She told him
about Jewel’s addiction, and how it strained their relationship over the years.
In the throes of addiction, Jewel lied to and stole from Sabrina, so Sabrina
learned to keep her money, credit cards, or anything else of value locked up or
away from her.
    She told him about the guilt she
continued to feel because maybe if she’d