This was for Eli. She could do this because Eli made her aware of her own strength. She had outsmarted Rafe once and she could do it again, because it didn’t matter right then that she wasn’t formally educated. It didn’t mean she wasn’t intelligent enough to turn the table on Rafe Cordeau. She knew she was.

“You left me because you think I didn’t want you?”

She swallowed hard. It was difficult to tell him, because it was the truth. She had tried so hard and felt so alone and unloved. She’d gone to try to see her stepmother, hoping the memories of her childhood were skewed and maybe the woman did love her. Then she’d lost April, and she’d retreated from everyone, horrified, ashamed and guilty. She’d needed Rafe to reassure her. To come to her and hold her. To make things right, even when intellectually she knew there was no right to what he’d done. He hadn’t. He’d left her alone with her nightmares, guilt and shame.

She knew Rafe could hear the ring of truth in her voice, she could see it in his eyes, in the way he looked at her. His thumb slid over the back of her hand.

“Don’t stop, Catarina. I need to know everything. I need to understand. If I understand what happened, what drove you away from me, it will help determine how all this ends and if that man will live out his life safely or not.”

Her stomach muscles clenched. Hard knots formed. It took a lot of control to breathe normally and not give in to the desire to jerk her hands away. The worst of it all was she felt sorry for him. He seemed so alone and she’d hurt him. She didn’t want to see that, but she did.

“Do you remember the dinner you had with the Lospostos family? I was so careful. I wanted you to be proud of me. More, I wanted you to look good to them. I chose every dish so carefully and prepared it. It took me hours. Even the bread was made from scratch. Everything was perfect. They loved it. They loved the dessert. And then you forced me to read that poem. You knew I couldn’t read. You wanted to make fun of me. Worse, you wanted them to make fun of me.”

The memory brought heat to her face. She would never be able to look back on that night without feeling the embarrassment of her lack of education. Rafe had done it on purpose, and no matter what he said now, he could never take the moment back.

“You said I was good in the kitchen, but not good for much else. I heard you. You laughed. They laughed. You implied I had a subpar IQ and couldn’t learn anything in school.”