“I won the math olympiad. I always wanted a cat, but Uncle Felipe said we’re too scatterbrained to take care of one. Every morning, I pray for you, Julia. Deep down, we always knew you were alive somewhere. Please, don’t leave us now.”
I don’t remember walking into the hospital, but I remember Maksim pinning the first doctor he saw against the wall.
I don’t remember saying countless prayers, nor trying to calltíoFelipe again and again, without an answer.
I don’t remember being told Julia was going to be all right.
But I know it took hours before they found Aleksandr and Lupe.
I watch Maksim deep in conversation with his twin brother, Roman Borisov, and my thoughts fly straight to my own twin.
I know in the marrow of my bones that Lupe would never have hurt Julia on purpose.
When I catch Maksim alone, I lower myself into the chair next to him and let out a breath.
“Do you think you could send someone to bringtíoFelipe here? I don’t know if we’ll be staying, but —” I stop the second I see his eyes.
A dark gray that, in this moment, glints with pity. With compassion. With regret.
I shake my head before I’m even aware that I’ve risen from the chair.
“No, no! ¡Está bien! Está trabajando, that’s why he hasn’t been answering me.”
“Eight hours ago we got an alert that Aleksandr had been seen in Ciudad de México. Contrary to what you saw in that file, Amalia, he is the one running that trafficking ring. Your sister and I, we’re the ones pulling those children out of hell. The first place we went when we got into the city was your home. We foundtíoFelipe dead in the kitchen. One of Aleksandr’s flunkies, probably making sure he didn’t leave anyone behind. I don’t know how he managed it, but with his last strength, your uncle wrote down the plate number of the car you left in. That’s how we found you. I’m sorry.”
I hear him. At least, I’m certain my auditory nerves are still working. But my mind cannot wrap itself around the information.
The man who raised me, who stroked my hair and wiped my tears after every insult, after every beating I took for being different, the man who believed in my mind and fed it with every resource he could lay hands on…is dead.
Lupe is going to lose her mind.
And I find myself wondering how, in the span of twenty-four hours, we’ve managed to drag our lives straight into hell.
My already broken heart shatters again and again and again.
I close my eyes, and for one fragile second, I can still feel his arms around me, his hand settling heavy on the back of my head the way it did after every bad day at school. If I concentrate hard enough, I can still smell the coffee and cinnamon on him, the trace of too many churros he swore he wasn’t sneaking when Lupe and I weren’t looking.
He’s gone.
The flight back to Ciudad de México brings on an anxiety I haven’t felt since the night I realized Dean and I had walked into a trap.
Maybe it’s the fact that Rastovski is in Ciudad de México, or maybe it’s the seventy-two hours away from Amalia, but I feel unraveled.
Yesterday she didn’t sleep at the apartment, and even though I sent multiple messages, they all went unanswered. She has a family that’s probably wondering where she spends her nights, and I still have unfinished business of my own, but this feels wrong.
I would have asked Andreas to check on her, but he’s in New York dealing with a client, so my nerves are through the roof.
I don’t know how I’m going to bring up Karina and Sebastian with her. I don’t know how to tell her about Dean. But I know I want her in my life far too much to be anything other than honest.
Now that Sebastian knows everything, there’s no point in hiding anymore.
I check the time, and since today is Monday, Amalia normally has her programming lecture in an hour, so I move quickly to surprise her at the university.
There’s a smell of rain in the air, the city covered in the particular darkness that comes before a storm, but my steps are hurried toward the back of the lecture hall. Automatically, my eyes go to the seat where she usually sits.
It’s empty.
I frown without meaning to, because Amalia never misses this class.
