Page 75 of Fool Me Twice
“Where is Lucas?” I asked.
Rodrigo put his phone away. “He had to leave early.”
Hmm. Was that true, or had he been ushered out the door before I came downstairs?
Anger bubbled up in me, but I held back, determined to not lose my cool in front of Sebastián.
“Ah.” I poured myself a cup of coffee. “I see.”
I could feel Rodrigo’s eyes on me, watching my every move. I didn’t look at him, though, because doing so would mean courting the possibility of falling apart.
Stirring the sugar in my coffee, I turned to Sebastián. “Are you ready to go back to school?”
The boy shrugged and stared into his cereal. My heart squeezed tight. Poor kid. He was heading right back into the world, none of the issues that had created his problems resolved at all.
I cleared my throat. “Today is a new day. A chance to start over.”
Sebastián shrugged. “Dad said that I’m going to see a therapist.”
“That’s good.”
At least Rodrigo was doing something right. If Sebastián were honest with the therapist, though, it would only be a matter of time before Rodrigo had to face the truth.
But maybe he was fine with doing that, just not in front of me.
Which led me to think, yet again, that he was taking care to specifically hide something from me—not from anyone else. Perhaps if I weren’t in town, he would have already told Sebastián about his mother.
The pain wrapped around me like a white-hot whip. I’d really thought Rodrigo and I were headed somewhere, and now we were crashing and burning right after taking flight.
Behind me, Rodrigo’s phone rang. “Hello,” he answered.
I occupied myself with drinking coffee while listening to his conversation.
“Yes,” he said. “Mm hmm… I need to drop my son at school first, and then I will be there… I will be a bit late, but you can start the meeting without me.”
I caught Rodrigo’s eye. “I can take him to school.”
He hesitated, but I could tell how tempting the offer was to him. “Actually,” he told whoever was on the phone. “I will be there.”
Hanging up, he gave me a grateful look. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” I paused. “And I might work remotely the rest of the morning, if that’s all right. There’s a coffee shop I’d like to check out.”
“Yes, of course that’s all right,” he said without hesitation.
“Great.” I sipped my coffee just to have something to do. While our words were pleasant enough, an undercurrent of unease buzzed beneath them. Everything we weren’t saying was building up.
“We should go now,” I told Sebastián, after checking the time. “See you soon,” I threw over my shoulder to Rodrigo.
I barely listened to his goodbye. I was too busy planning the rest of my morning. Yes, I would get some work done—but only in order to cover my tracks. In reality, I had a whole other plan up my sleeve.
* * *
After dropping Sebastián off at school, I sat in the car and looked up Rio de Janeiro’s local registry offices. After locating what seemed to be the appropriate one, I called to make sure I could get in and then drove right over there.
Melba would have been a great source for information, but I didn’t have her cell phone number. I also doubted that she would talk to me. Even though it seemed she wanted Rodrigo to come clean with Sebastián, I was still little more than an outsider. She was loyal to Rodrigo.
In the offices, I set to work, my pulse thrumming a distressed rhythm. On one hand, I felt incredibly guilty snooping in Rodrigo’s life. On the other hand, I felt he’d left me with no choice.