She bit her lip, still chopping vegetables with practiced precision. “My family... Well, there’s not much to tell. My grandmother is gone. I have a half-sister. It’s just the two of us now.” She definitely hadn’t mentioned any siblings before when she’d told me the story of how she came to live with her grandmother, only that her “sperm donor” was married. Her story was changing.
“Where did you grow up?” I asked, acting as if I were merely making conversation while we worked. Inwardly, my anger intensified as she told me lie after lie. If she’d only told me the truth in the first place, I might have been able to help her. Now, it was too late. I gripped the knife handle so tight, my fingers hurt.
“Here and there,” she said evasively, her movements becoming slightly more tense. “We moved around a lot when we were younger.”
“Must’ve been tough moving all the time.” I watched her closely. “Did your mother have to travel for work?”
“Something like that.” Rosalie avoided eye contact, and I caught the scent of her anxiety over the caramelizing onions.
“What about your sister?”
“Her name’s Lily.” She swallowed audibly. “She’s twenty-two.”
“Must be nice to have a sister,” I said wistfully, studying her face for any signs of deceit. “You didn’t mention her before. Are you two close?”
“We used to be,” she said softly. “Things... changed.”
“What do you mean?” Despite myself, I found myself feeling guilty for prying, but it was quickly followed by determination as I continued to question her.
“Can we just not talk about this right now?” Rosalie’s voice cracked with emotion. “I’m sorry, Liza, but it’s just too painful.”
Too painful? What about the way she’d double-crossed me? Something about her reaction made my stomach twist. The more questions I asked, the cagier she became, her anxiety and fear heightening. It broke my heart. I’d held out some hope Isaiah was wrong, and that the initial story she’d told me was the truth, but everything pointed to them being right about her working with Castro.
“Rosalie.” I glanced around to ensure that no one could overhear us. “Whatever it is you’re going through, I want to help, but you need to be honest with me.”
“Please,” she begged, fear flashing over her face. “Don’t make me do this.”
“Make you do what? Rosalie.” I tried to keep myself steady despite the emotions raging inside of me. “You can trust me. Tell me what’s going on.”
Again, her eyes darted around the kitchen before settling back on me, filled with anguish. “Liza, I... I can’t. You don’t understand.”
“Make me understand.” I took a step closer to her. “We can work this out.”
For a moment, I thought she might relent and finally reveal the truth. Then her expression hardened, and she shook her head. “No. I won’t drag you into this mess.”
She swallowed hard, her tears welling up. Instead of answering me, she bit her lip, a subtle sign that she was bracing herself for a tough decision. Before I was able to react, she spun on her heel and bolted toward the door.
“Rosalie!” I sprinted after her. She was fast, but anger fueled my muscles, giving me the strength to catch up. I lunged forward, grabbing her arm just as she reached the door. “Stop.”
“Let me go!” she shouted, struggling against my grip. “Please, just let me go.”
“Tell me the truth, Rosalie,” I said, digging my fingers into her arm. “Tell me why you’re working with Castro. Ty!” I shouted as Rosalie tried to wrench free from my grasp. “She’s trying to escape!”
Right on cue, Ty and Liam appeared in the doorway. Their faces were hard and unyielding, but I saw their concern for me in their eyes. Ty rushed forward, quickly grabbing hold of Rosalie’s other arm while Liam moved to block her only exit.
“Why, Rosalie? Why lie?” I fought to keep my composure, but her tears made it difficult, and a lump grew in my throat as my resolve faltered.
“Please, don’t hurt me.” Rosalie was barely audible through her sobs. “I’ll tell you everything.”
She wiped her face with the back of her hand, and I braced myself for whatever she was about to reveal.
“My dad left his wife and moved in with my mom. They had Lily two years after I was born. Moving was normal for us as kids, and Lily was the one constant in my life. I love my sister. She’s everything to me.” As she spoke about her sister, her whole face calmed, and her voice softened. “When my mother died ten years ago, my father did the one good thing he’d ever done for us: he left Lily and me with my grandmother. When he heard she’d passed away, he came back, and I found out the sorry truth that he couldn’t keep a dollar in his pocket, and that was why we’d always moved around. He liked to gamble. He was in debt. A lot of debt.” Although her voice shook, it took on a harder tone. “He ended up in prison, and while he was there, someone working for his loan shark tried to kill him. He promised he’d get the money and pay off the debts.”
The room appeared to grow colder as she spoke, the shadows creeping closer. The pain in her face was raw and vulnerable, and I felt a pang of sympathy for her.
“I changed my name and my sister’s name, and we tried to run away from the loan sharks,” she said, her eyes fixed on the floor. “They still caught up to us. Lily was kidnapped, and they still have her. They won’t let her go until I pay off our father’s debts.”
“Is that why you didn’t mention her when we talked before?” I asked gently.
