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Her breath catches, and then she’s sitting up in a rush.“Damn you, Edier Grayson!” she cries, pounding my arms and chest with her fists. “How could you have just pushed me away like that? You knew you owned my heart too!”
“Ella!”
“Screw you!”
“ELLA!” Catching her flailing fists, I pull her into my embrace, holding her tightly as she sobs all her anger, pain, and frustration into the crook of my neck. Pulling away, I trap her face between my hands. “There are reasons,Mi Cielo, so many reasons why we shouldn’t be together.”
“Name them! Just fucking name them! I’m done playing this game!”
I glare at her, the truth resting right there on my tongue.
“Is this about my father?” Her blue eyes are blazing for answers.“Does he know about us? What did he say to you?”
“Fuck!” I let go of her as my phone starts ringing from somewhere on the floor. Throwing my legs off the bed, I’m aware of her gaze constantly as I start hunting for it. Her hurt and confusion are infusing the air between us, slowing my movements.
I find it underneath my pants in the doorway.
“What?” I snarl into the receiver.
“NYPD contact came up with a match,” says Gabrio, indifferent to my terseness. “You might want to sit down for this.”
“Tell me.”
“The name’s a fake and his record’s been wiped, but the home address he’s given is Ella Santiago’s apartment block.”
27
EDIER
Past
“Edier…Ed-eee-errr, I’ve got something to show youuu…”
Her voice has that tinny, echoey sound that tells me she’s in the bathroom down the hall. It’s also weaker and more garbled, like she’s been drinking bottles ofGuaroagain.
“Mamá?” I tap on the door, hoping she’s not naked like she was the last time she got drunk in here.
“Come in,niño estupido.”
Pushing the door open, I see white and then red.
White tiles.
Red water.
Drip, drip.
“What have you done?” I rush to the bathtub as the razor slips from her fingertips. It lands on the floor below with a delicate zing before it spins and settles in a spreading pool of crimson.
“Don’t,” she slurs, as I go to press a towel to her gaping wrists. She’s cut so deep I can see the moving tendons below the skin. All the while I can sense her black eyes drilling into my face. “You couldn’t do it, could you?” she guesses. “Ugh, you’re pathetic, Edier…” I sink to my knees as I let her hurt me one last time. I know she’s dying. I know it’s too late. There’s nothing more I can do to help her.
She’s been this way ever since she found out thatPapikilled the man she did something behind his back with. Her pain will always be more important than her sons.
“He was here today. The first time in months, and you let poor Nacio down, you gutlesshijueputa.” She starts to cry, and I just stare at the floor. “Hurtados will kill you both now, but he won’t get to kill me.”
I don’t tell her about the photographs Nacio’s been sending me in secret. The ones of him with the trapped women inPapi’sbarn. He’s proud of them. He’s enjoying himself. We only left Bogotá three weeks ago, but my brother’s already been lost toPapi’sevil.
She doesn’t need to know the fate of her favorite son before she dies.
