Chapter 74 Would You Have Accepted?

Had they made that plan since their wedding day? Isabella had to make an enormous effort not to bend down to cry right there.

She stood her ground, for there was still much she had to know.

"In exchange for what did you accept, Maximo?" Isabella asked, trying to control the lump in her throat. "Did your father threaten you or...? what was your price?"

"Did he threaten me? yes, I suppose..." Máximo murmured thoughtfully and with his head down. Giving Isabella a breath of relief, not expecting the pain that her next words would cause her. “Maximilian threatened to destroy the companies that I have been creating for some years on my own, here abroad... But he also offered me something...

"What?"

"My freedom..." said Maximus, his voice trembling.

"Your freedom?" Isabella didn't understand.

"Yes, my father offered me the possibility of assuming control of both families in exchange for renouncing the Collins surname and freeing me from following his orders as heir..." Máximo watched Isabella's eyes fill with tears and how hard it was for her to breathe. "I'm sorry... Isabella... This was something I had wanted for a long time, and...

Isabella had to cover her mouth to hold back the groan that escaped from the bottom of her heart.

"Isabella..." Máximo approached to take her free hand firmly. "I'm sorry, really. I shouldn't have accepted from the beginning. I'm sorry, I swear to you... But it won't happen, I promise you. I would never send you anywhere else, I would never abide by that decision because I love you. I'm in love with you... I no longer care about my father's threats, or what he might lose. That is the truth. I'm completely sincere, I love you madly and I'm willing to do anything...

"Max..." Isabella looked into his eyes, those green eyes that had always impressed her and that now saw her with an unexpected sweetness. "How could I believe you?" How could I know that you love me if, in the beginning, it was all a farce?

"Isabella..." Máximo knelt down without letting go of her hand. - I swear to you, I swear to you, honey, it's the truth. I fell in love and refused my father's orders. I would never hurt you.

Isabella looked at Maximo there, kneeling, she could hardly contain the spasms of weeping that were approaching.

"So, just because of that you refused in the end, to fall in love, didn't you?" Isabella let go of Maximo's grasp, taking a step back, tears already shedding.

- Yes, I love you, I love you very much, madly. I would never accept that. My father already knows, I...

"Tell me one more thing, Maximo, and if your love is true, be sincere..." Isabella interrupted him.

"What?"

"What would have happened, if you hadn't fallen in love with me?" She looked at him frowning, raising her face with dignity.

"Huh?"

"Would you have kept your end of the bargain? Would you have left me in the country, alone and in love, at the mercy of your father, to go abroad to live your life, happy, forgetting me?" She asked with heavy breathing.

"Isabella..." whispered Maximus, understanding very well what she meant.

"Tell me!" Would you have done it?! She said, firmly, full of pain and anger.

He didn't know what to answer, he didn't know what to say.

At first, when her father made the proposal, it seemed absurd and horrible, but she was nothing more than a pauper, an ignorant girl who had been lucky enough to be chosen as the heiress of a rich family and who meant nothing, what harm could she do to live in the country?

For, although since he met her, Maximus felt something for her, he denied his feelings.

Isabella was right to ask those questions, because the truth was that, possibly, if she hadn't fallen in love, Máximo would have accepted the deal with his father.

"Tell me, Maximo!" Would you have accepted?! Isabella insisted with tears flowing.

"I don't know, well?!" I don't know... “he replied, frustrated, getting up. - Maybe... Maybe yes, I would have..." He murmured thoughtfully; his fists clenched.

They both remained silent for a moment, watching each other, lost and dismayed, their breaths heavier.

"I can't believe it..." Isabella whispered, after a moment, and then walked away to her room, completely overwhelmed, and stunned.

"Isabella..." Máximo called her, making her stop, although she continued to keep her back, the tears fell like a torrent, she did not face him.

"The simple fact that you have accepted that proposal from your father, Máximo, for some companies and to evade your responsibilities as heir, is the most horrible thing I have heard from you... And the fact that in the end you reject it, just because I was lucky enough that you loved me, doesn't make you a better person.

"Forgive me, I swear I'm sorry..." Máximo felt how he lost his breath at his spouse's words.

"How could I believe you now, how could I trust you, I still don't know if..." If you believe that you really love me.

Isabella walked away to lock herself in her room, leaving Maximo alone in the living room. She couldn't take it anymore, she felt like she was choking on the pain she carried inside.

There, in her bed, Isabella spent the night crying and moaning, while Máximo listened to her, lying on the other side of the door.

Each of her moans was one more pang in his heart, but Máximo knew that she deserved it.

*

Diego arrived at his apartment making a complete mess with everything in his path, he was furious and needed to vent.

How long would he have to put up with it?, why did he always have to shut up and contain himself?, what was the only difference between them?, what did mothers from different strata have?, but Diego was very sure that he was better than Máximo in every aspect.

So much so, that he was also sure that he deserved the position of boss, of spouse, to be the first in everything, not Máximo.

A call came into the cell phone.

"What I was missing," he muttered as he looked at the screen, before answering. Speak?

- I just found out that you called Maximo...

"Yes, that's right...

"Did you go looking for that homeless woman?" asked a hoarse voice on the other end of the line, with obvious anger.

Diego clenched his jaw. He didn't like it when they spoke ill of Isabella.

“That's right. I think they'll be back tomorrow..." Diego hadn't finished speaking when he was interrupted.

- You are useless! I told you to keep them away! And you go and call him?!

"What could I do?" You put me as his employee and I was supposed to follow his orders to gain his trust," Diego replied, trying to control the tone of his voice to avoid further problems.

"Yes, but without going over my orders, you imbecile..."

- Father...

- Don't call me that, I've told you many times! I told you that if you wanted money and to get out of the bottom, you would have to help me to something, and you have only caused trouble!

"What are you talking about?" I've passed you some important information!

- Shut up! I will solve this. If that useless girl comes back, Máximo won't sign my papers. It's still very recent, and I'm sure he thinks he's still in love... I'll have to find other means and other allies that will be of some use to me..." the man growled in an authoritative tone.

“What do you plan to do? Diego asked, curious to know how he was going to handle the situation, since he had to take care of Isabella.

"That's not your problem!" You keep an eye on your work and, for the next one, let me know first if something happens.

"Yes..." Diego took a deep breath. I will let you know, Mr. Maximilian.

The call was cut off, impotence filled Diego again.

Maximilian was the worst of all the bosses, if Maximo did not show respect to Diego, much less that man despite being his own father.

But Diego had endured it, he had endured it because it was the only way he could find to get out of the bottom, out of poverty.

Many years ago, he sought out his father and confronted him.

Maximilian, whom Diego remembered by another name, had become a very rich and powerful man, and had become the perfect springboard to become a wealthy man, as Diego had always dreamed of.

Maximilian agreed to give him good money, just because of Diego's threats to tell the truth about his father's past, but in return, Diego had to work for him and thus earn much more than a few millions.

Work for the father who abandoned him to get rich. It was much better than living on the run.

That is why Diego lived moving in with his mother, spending his childhood living in a world of anxiety, because Maximilian had been looking for them to disappear them, his former spouse and his first child, were the loose end that remained to disappear from his old life.

However, he was never able to find them, until Diego himself appeared in front of Maximilian, made a man, claiming the millions he believed belonged to him by right and threatening his father with exposing the truth to the world.

And if Maximilian tried something and Diego disappeared, it would be Diego's mother who would tell the truth, a woman who kept herself very well hidden.