“I’ve nothing to say to you,” she said, swinging her car door open.

“That’s fine. You don’t have to say anything. I’ll do all the talking.”

“No,” she said, getting in her car, slamming the door shut and starting it up.

She couldn’t hear what he said because her windows were up, but he held his hands together at his mouth in a pleading gesture. Putting the car in reverse, she began to pull out as he lifted his hands in the air, waving at her to stop. “The steel balls on this guy—” She started to mutter when her car suddenly hit something.

Her heart nearly stopped as she hit the brake and looked into her rear mirror at the car behind her and the annoyed guy in it, shaking his head. “Shit!”

Banging her steering wheel, she put her car in park and got out.

“What the f**k, man!” she heard the tall skinny guy in the other car saying as he got out of his car and came around to check out the damage to the front fender.

“Hey!” Leonardo was already charging toward him. “It was an accident. Watch your f**king mouth.”

The guy in the other car stopped the moment he laid eyes on Leonardo. “All right, I’m just saying—” he said, pointing at the small dent at the front of his fender.

“It’s a scratch,” Leonardo said with a scowl.

Sarah leaned into her car for her purse and grabbed it. “I’ll give you my insurance information—”

“What? For that?” Leonardo pointed at the dent. “That’s bullshit. I can punch that out right now. You don’t need to get your insurance involved.”

The guy in the other car, who’d already taken a few steps back to his car ever since he’d seen Leonardo charging at him, shook his head. “That’s okay. I don’t need your information.”

“Are you sure?” Sarah asked, pulling her insurance card out of her wallet. She waved it at the guy.” You don’t have to listen to him.”

The guy glanced again at Leonardo, who was still staring him down. “Nah, I’m good,” he said and got in his car.

Within moments, he was gone. They’d attracted the attention of a enough people that Sarah felt safe standing there with Leonardo. So instead of getting in her car and taking off like she knew she should, she stood there glaring at Leonardo.

“How could you be so heartless?” she said, feeling the infuriating lump in her throat inflate with every breath she took, but it wasn’t just pain she felt anymore. She was furious.

“I’m sorry—”

“You said that already, and my response to that is still the same.” Sarah swallowed hard, trying to hold it together, but the more she looked at him, the stupider she felt. “Just tell me why? What did you and that other bastard want from me?”

“Nothing—”

“Bullshit!” she said, turning the heads of a few passersby.

“Okay he did,” he said, coming around the car closer to her. “But I didn’t. I swear to you, and that’s what I’m here to explain to you.”

“So explain,” she said, holding her hand out so he wouldn’t take another step.

He stopped and held his hands up again. “It’s a long story. Let’s go somewhere—”

“No!” she said, beginning to feel as if she might lose it. “I don’t need drawn-out excuses!” She sucked it in as much as she could, but she was already feeling the warm tears in her eyes, and it only made her angrier. “Just explain to me why you would be so cruel as to contact me with a blatant lie then string me along all those months—”

“I never meant to hurt you,” he said, taking a step toward her.

She peered at him, shaking her head in confusion and anger inundating her as the hot tears ran down her face. “What! What does that even mean? What do you care about anyone’s feelings? You’re nothing but a fraud!”

“No, I’m not,” he said, actually sounding insulted.

“Of course you are!” she yelled now. “You probably do this all the time. You guys probably had this planned for months—years. Just tell me what you wanted or what you still want since you’re back.”

“I want nothing,” he insisted.

“Then why are you here?” she asked, her emotions jumping from hurt to angry again, but at least she wasn’t falling apart anymore. The anger surpassed all her other emotions now. “What the f**k do you want from me?”

“It was Joseph’s idea, not mine.”

“Who the hell is Joseph?”

“The guy who pretended to be your dad,” he said, speaking faster and louder. “It was all his idea. He wanted that jewelry from your mom. A ring. That’s all. I didn’t even wanna contact you.”

“But you did!”

“I know and I can explain,” he said, taking another step toward her. “Let’s just go somewhere where we can talk more calmly, where I can—”

“No!” she cried out once again, overcome with emotion. “Just tell me why you did it!”

“Because I fell in love with you, damn it.”

Sarah stared at him, her chest heaving up and down, barely able to make sense of what he’d just said.

Chapter 23

More lies.

The guy was unbelievable and Sarah was done giving him the benefit of the doubt. She wasn’t naïve. She’d known all along there was far more than met the eye when it came to Leonardo, but this? He expected her to believe this? Obviously the guy had no intention of telling her the whole truth. She started to get in her car, knowing that having stood there listening to Leonardo’s bullshit for even this long would have Angel furious.