Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
Mateo
Home sweet fucking home.
I close the heavy front door behind me and walk into the grand entryway.
“Hello?” The words echo through the room.
I frown at the continued silence. It’s unlikely there’s no one home in a place this size. I did park right at the front door, without having to weave between a handful of haphazardly parked cars, but it’s possible that the valet lined them up in the detached garage for the holiday weekend.
There’s a storm in the forecast, after all.
I walk across the wooden parquet floor toward the sitting room, my shoes tapping out my steps as I go. The sound is deafening in the quiet house.
Tossing my duffel on a side chair, I shake my head in confusion.
It’s not exactly the homecoming I expected after eight years away.
Eight long years of excuses and invented work obligations to avoid holidays.
Eight years of trying to think about anything but this house, this island—and the years I spent here.
A noise in the kitchen draws my attention so I head down the hallway. No sooner have I raised my hand to push open the swinging door, than the door swings back in my direction. Hard.
I fail to react quickly enough to keep the wood from slamming right into my face.
“Ah, goddammit,” I sputter out as I hunch over, holding my face in my hands.
The door swings back the other way and a woman appears. I don't even need to look up to know who’s standing before me.
Sylvia Caitlin McAll.
“Mateo,” she cries, kneeling before me and reaching up to touch my face, which is still held tightly in my hands.
The shock of being hit with the door is nothing compared to the shock of finding her here. Of being in her presence again. My heart wants to leap with joy but I quickly stomp it down.
I turn away and head back down the hallway, needing to escape the pain and the confrontation.
The woman—who’s now trailing me into the sitting room—is the real reason I haven't been to our family’s estate in so many years.
The woman who may have just broken my nose…also broke my heart.