CHAPTER 87

The evening unfolding so perfectly that it just makes me feel like I didn’t want it to, or so I thought. Thiago and I had just shared the most incredible dance, lost in each other, wrapped up in a world that felt like it belonged solely to us.

I couldn’t stop smiling, feeling lightheaded with the warmth of his words still ringing in my ears. His touch had lifted me from the anger I had felt earlier, watching Derick and Agatha flaunt their sham of a relationship.

But nothing could have prepared me for the man I saw next—My father. Romeo Martinez.

Of all people, he was the last person I wanted to see at that moment. The minute I spotted him across the room, making his way toward us, my body quickly stiffened.

My father's face wore a mask of thinly veiled fury, and I could feel the storm brewing behind those dark, menacing eyes of him.

I gripped Thiago’s arm out of fear, already bracing for impact, but it was too late. My father approached me recklessly with such scandalous words as t