“You could have saved that story, Ledesma, because he knew all that. Ain’t that right, Shio Cuppacio? Always ten fucking steps ahead.” Don taunted.
“I saw the look on your face at the dinner table. My sons… They were worthless,” Ines said, his tone a mix of shame and anger.
“Ines!” Maura shrieked.
“They are! They are spoiled and entitled. There is nothing they could do for anyone. I panicked, realizing Shio could see their lack. Then, Solana walked in. She walked in, and I just knew… I knew that it had to beher. I could tell by the way you was looking at her. I knew because?—”
“Arrrghhh!” Maura’s wailing ass stopped Ines from continuing his weak-ass testimony.
“You knew?” Solana gasped, hurt evident in her voice.
“I ain’t know shit.” I spat out, gun still drawn on Ines weak ass.
Don cackled. “Lying is a sin.”
“Yeah, well, it’s muthafuckas in here whose sins are greater than mine.”
“So, that’s what I am to everyone? A pawn? A whore?”
Using my top teeth, I scraped my bottom lip. “I need a fucking address. Now.”
“Are you fucking serious?” Solana closed the gap between us, and though I towered over her, she was all in my space with her chest poked out. “You fucking knew? So what am I? The charity case. The fucking collateral?”
Her glossy eyes were now wide and wild with pain. “I… I was willing to give myself to you! I was going to! Tonight! I’d planned on letting you have me, and just to keep you safe—to keep you from going into a war that you didn’t deserve, that the wives didn’t deserve… I was going to surrender myself to the Rodríguezes! But that would have been unwise…”
She placed her hand on her chest as if she were catching her breath. “So if my father had come up with the money, you would have just taken… Taken my virtue from me… And… and sent me back? If he hadn’t come up with the money, what would I do? Die? After… after everything? I just mean nothing, Shio?”
My muscles hardened in my face while Solana processed her words. She blinked, looked off, and then blinked again. “How fucking dare you?”
Don laughed before walking over and sitting down. “This shit is better than reality TV.”
Solana balled her fist, and before she could pound my chest, I grabbed her wrists, pulling her so close to my chest that our bodies were welded.
“I’d just found out about Ines and Don’s deal mere hours before our date. Still, I was willing to take yo’ ass out. Still, I was willing to figure shit out and let you choose if you wanted to be married to Felipe or me… Because, as you know, this shit was going to end with you being married, whether you like that shit or not. If not me, if not Felipe, then maybe some other muthafucka on the other side of the world. The nigga whose nutsack you come from has only one fucking thing thatis valuable.One.” I applied pressure to her wrists so that she understood what that one thing was—who that one person was.
“Don, Ines may have had hope for his bitch-made spawns, but you knew. You knew when I came here that his sons were a lost fucking cause. You sent me here just to lay eyes on Solana. I did a background check on Ines, and a daughter never came up. But you knew. You set her in my path in hopes that it all would work out. You set the trap and released the fucking wild.”
Don began picking invisible lint from his tuxedo before looking up without a care in the world.
“But what I can’t understand is, why the fuck would you give me a muthafucka that’s already promised to somebody? I know why Ines did it. He did it as a last resort—he needed the money. But why did you do it? I know it wasn’t just to play matchmaker.”
Solana and I were still caught in each other’s gazes, neither exchanging looks of pleasantry. I’d been talking to Don, but I needed her to feel everything I was saying. What the fuck had it been about this one fucking girl, with her soft fucking flesh? How the fuck did she hold so much power when she didn’t realize the shit herself?
“Ines…” Don called out.
“You were never intended to marry Felipe. Yes, you were to be arranged in a marriage, but never with him. It’s why I hide you from the world, Damita. I never even propositioned you to them… As far as they knew, you were a ghost. But on a night out, they found you. You think I would want you married off to a man of his caliber? A monster? I wouldn’t do that to you,hija(daughter).
“So, when I saw the way Shio looked at you, I ran to him and begged him to teach you. It was the first thing that came to mind. He refused to take you with him, so I went over his head. I asked Don Demise to protect you… Just until I could find you a new husband. A husband that was more powerful than theRodríguezes. He would protect you, and he would get one of my children to hold until I paid my debt. It wasn’t supposed to be that way, but that’s how it happened.”
“As collateral, Papa? You could have told me. You could have told me! What if they had been worse? What if they’d been sexually assaulting me? Beating me? But I guess that’s why you continued the doctors’ visits.” She scoffed. “You know how many days I found myself depressed, thinking about my impending doom? I thought my life was over!” Solana broke our gaze and was now glaring at her father.
“I’m sorry,hija(daughter). I couldn’t risk it. They’d kill you if my plan got out.”
“Let me ask you one question, father. Why didn’t you just make a deal with Shio for me? He has money. He has status. He isn’t afraid of the Rodríguezes. I saw it! You could have arranged for me to be married to him.”
“Yeah, tell her why, Ledesma.” Don pushed with a menacing smile on his face.
“Because he’s a nigger! He’s a nigger like yourmadre(mom)! He doesn’t want you with a nigger, which I don’t understand because you’re a nigger yourself!” Maura yelled while groaning.
