Page 156 of Forbidden Fate

I keep one hand on the wheel and the other near my pocket. Passport. Money.

A crossroads.

Mamá’s voice returns.

You will have decisions to make, Cruz. All your life. Some small. Some so large they will feel impossible. When you stand at those crossroads, you must try to make the right ones.

Maybe I’ve made wrong choices my whole life.

Maybe every road behind me is stained.

But this one?

This one leads away from Adriana.

Away from Vega.

And if God has any mercy left for sons of whores with blood on their hands, maybe it leads to where I can still stand between Robin Bellamy and the men coming for her.

39

ROBIN

I didn’t think I had any tears left.

I cried until my throat hurt.

Until my eyes burned.

Until the tissue in my hand fell apart into snotty pieces.

Until the kind woman from the embassy came back into the room and quietly placed a whole box of tissues beside me without saying a word.

Now I sit in the little room with the phone back in its cradle and my hands wrapped around a bottle of water.

I should be thinking about getting home.

I am.

I should be thinking about my family.

I am.

I’m thinking about Eagle. Eagle, who’s still in the hospital. Still recovering.

Because of Cruz.

The same man who cupped my face like I mattered. The same man who killed Zabala after he murdered Señora Valentina. The same man who risked everything to get me out of Vega’s clutches.

I simply can’t.

The Bellamys have always been family first.

Always.

It was drilled into us from birth. Not gently.

Family first.