Courtship

Part 46

Rafe arched away slightly, hoping to be able to look into her eyes as he asked, "Are you serious?" He didn't remember anything about the Sojour D'Sa family having problems of a financial nature. That news would have spread like wildfire. Surely.

Marina nodded. Odd how she now felt this tremendous sense of relief. Clearly carrying secrets of this dimension was not good for you. Just revealing, to someone outside the family and their innermost circle that they had been in debt literally felt as if a ton of bricks had been removed from her shoulders. The weight of that burden of secrecy that she'd carried for years not knowing when they'd be found out just vanished.

"We were in serious debt." She said quietly and immersed herself in that wave of relief. Maybe it was the fact she was telling him, rather than just the fact she was telling someone, but it felt good.

"Debt?" Rafe wondered whether he had simply missed that episode in their lives or whether things had magnified over the years. What did she mean by debt? What level of debt? Surely she did not mean literally destitute.

Marina nodded and with confidence added bluntly, "And it was increasing at breakneck speed, as people called in all the bills."

Rafe stopped moving as her words rang with sincerity, but were at odds with what he remembered about the family at the time. It was only when he stopped moving that Marina replayed his words. They confirmed that he didn't know. That had her blinking as she tried to make sense of last night. Ok, so he really didn't know about this so why had he started on that conversation about secrets and being misled?

"I thought you knew." She replied and that was when she really began to think she had jumped to the wrong conclusions last night.

"Knew what?" Rafe kept replaying her words. The Sojour D'Sa girls had lost their parents and were on the breadline? That wasn't possible. He'd have heard about that. Their community was not backward when it came to gossip. If the Sojour D'Sa girls were flat broke it would have spread like wildfire at the time. But he couldn't remember anything about their financial situation being discussed at the time. He definitely couldn't remember anything about them being broke. Their community grapevine would have gone into overdrive.

Marina glanced over at him and her brow beetled. "That we were in debt back then."

"How would I know that?" Rafe scowled. This was getting confusing. Why would she think he'd know about her family's financial situation? "This is the first I'm hearing about it!"

Marina exhaled quietly, and grumbled loudly, "Last night you, you kept mentioning secrets and being kept in the dark and..."

"And you thought it was about this?" He interrupted as it slotted into place.

Marina nodded. "Yes. I wanted to tell you. I really did. But, we'd only been going out together for a couple of months and telling you would put all of us, Belle, Giana, Cara, Grandmother, me, at risk. We'd worked hard to keep it a secret."

It was oddly disconcerting, this sensation of relief and confirmation. Relief because now he knew that last night they nearly broke up because of a misunderstanding and confirmation that his intuition was good. It wasn't just his imagination: She did have a secret!

He turned so that he faced her, "Marina, last night, why did you break up with me?" He placed his hands on her shoulders, and smiled wryly, "because I thought it was because you'd decided we'd run our course."

"Because you'd found out about this, hadn't you?" Marina told him. Rafe shook his head. It was her turn to scowl as she demanded quietly, "Then what was last night about?"

His lips quirked as his brow furrowed. "My question exactly! I thought you wanted out."

"I thought you did, because I hadn't told you about our family's financial situation."

"Why would that matter?"
"Cause we'd kept it a secret. Kept you in the dark about it. Conned people, conned you into believing we were still rich!"

He brushed his lips against hers in a gentle kiss. "I thought you were keeping a secret. That's true. But last night what you said implied that secret was the fact you wanted to break up but couldn't bring yourself to tell me we were over!"

"What?" She shook her head, flabbergasted to realise that she had jumped to conclusions and nearly shot herself in the foot. "I thought you wanted to break up with me because you'd found out about all this, that we'd misled everyone for years! That I'd kept you in the dark about it, and given you hate secrets you wanted out!"

"We are a pair of idiots!" He murmured on an exhale of relief.

"I don't want to break up!" Marina told him flatly, her eyes open windows to her soul.

"You don't!" Rafe murmured but he didn't need her answer, he could see it in her eyes. And it confirmed what he had concluded once he'd got home last night. They did have something special. She, like him, would not want to see that vanish.

She shook her head and held her breath. Hoping that what she saw in his eyes was what was real and not what her head and heart wanted to see.

"Me neither." He murmured then lowered his head and once again kissed her on the lips.