Eli glances up at me from his wheelchair, his eyes widening in surprise and then narrowing slightly. He looks different than I remember. More like a frail old man and less like the capable figure who mentored me. The man I spent countless hours with. He offered me guidance, praise, things I was not accustomed to. He told me he was in awe of my mind, and I allowed myself to believe him. Now, I can hardly stand to look at him.

"Santiago," he rasps.

The nurse holds up a cup of water for him, giving him a drink from the straw. I watch him struggle with the basic task, and it makes me uncomfortable in a way I did not expect. They told me he was recovering, regaining his strength every day. But if this is progress, I can't imagine how far he still has to go.

It would be so easy to kill him now. It would require little effort at all to wrap my hands around his throat and squeeze while I demand the answers I seek. It would undoubtedly do the job, but it would bring me no pleasure. Not right now.

"Leave us," I tell the nurse.

She nods and leaves the room, shutting the door and sealing Eli into the room with his worst enemy.

"They tell me you control everything regarding my care." He sputters the words out through broken gasps. "That is why my family has not been to see me."

"Your family doesn't care," I answer him coldly.

He stares at me, blank. His face that of someone who is on their death bed, and I suppose in many ways, he still is.

"It hurts me to see you this way, son," he says. "Your heart has become so dark."

"I am not your son," I snarl. "I am a De La Rosa, and you aren't even worth the oxygen in this room."

A pained expression flashes in his eyes, or at least, that's what he'd like me to believe. I can't deny that Eli knows my weaknesses because he exploited them at every turn, pretending to be a friend. A father figure. But I won't be fooled again.

"The nurses tell me you married my daughter," he says quietly. "Is she... safe?"

I choke down the response I've waited years to give him. The plans I had made to destroy him. I had intended to tell him in detail of Ivy's suffering. Now I can't even consider it.

"She's the reason I'm here." I pace along the wall, trying to keep my calm. "I need to know where Abel would take her to hide her."

Eli doesn't reply, and when I glance at him, he appears confused. "If he took her into hiding, I'm sure he had his reasons."