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“Yes, I don’t know. I don’t know exactly what it would do to you. Except … I do know it would …” This is it. I need to tell him the complete truth. I only hope he can forgive me. “Kill you,” I finish. “You would die.”
“What?” he asks in a low voice. “What do you mean I would die?”
“It’s …” I gulp. Sweat beads down my body. “It’s poison.”
“Why the fuck is there poison in our house?”
I just stare at him.
The moment he realizes the truth, my heart breaks. He stumbles back, his eyes widening. “You … you’re the spy? There’s only one person I know who would want me dead, and that’s my uncle. Are you working for Franco?” The way he spits out the accusation makes me want to fall through the floor and pretend none of this ever happened.
I could deny it all to him, but it’s too late for that.
And I’m tired of lying.
“I didn’t want to,” I say.
He shuts his eyes, bowing his head. “How … how could this happen? How areyouthe spy?”
“I’m not,” I stammer. “I never told Franco about your plans.”
“Bullshit!” he shouts, throwing the glass onto the ground. I scream as it shatters into a hundred of pieces. “How else did Franco know everything? He wasn’t there for the drug shipment. He wasn’t alone for the meetup with your father. How are younotthe spy?” I can see the betrayal in his eyes, and it’s killing me.
“I’m not. My father is.”
His mouth snaps shut as he stares at me. Anger radiates off him. For the first time since I’ve met Antonio, I’m afraid of him.
“Your father?” he asks in an eerily quiet voice. It reminds me of how my father can get when he’s angry.
“Yes. He told me to kill you. That you wouldn’t be expecting me. He’s the one working with Franco. Not me. I never wanted anything to do with this.” I step toward Antonio, but he backs away.
“Don’t,” he warns. “You … you betrayed me.”
“No, I didn’t. I never wanted to kill you. My father was forcing me to. But I didn’t. Antonio, I didn’t.” I can see my entire future with him slipping through my fingers. I grab his arm, and he wrenches away from me.
“Maybe that’s true. You still never told me your father was working with Franco. How long have you known?”
I don’t answer.
“How long have you known?” he shouts at me, his breath making my hair fly back.
“Since the day after our wedding,” I whisper.
The look that crosses his face destroys me. It’s complete betrayal. Antonio looks at me like I’m a stranger.
“Since the day after our wedding,” he says flatly. “That was over a month ago.”
I hang my head. “I know.”
“So, you’ve been sitting on this information for a month, and you never told me. Why? I thought … I thought you loved me.” His voice breaks on “loved.” Tears begin to stream down my face.
“I do love you, Antonio. I love you. My father … He threatened to hurt my sister if I didn’t comply. I was supposed to kill you because you’d never see it coming. I never wanted this. You have to believe me. I never wanted to hurt you.”
He scoffs. “Well, you’ve succeeded in hurting me, Nina. The problem is, I don’t believe you. How am I supposed to believe you? You’ve been lying to me ever since we got married!”
I flinch back from him. “I know. I know. And I know it was wrong.” I clutch my hands to my chest, feeling my breaking heart underneath. “But, Antonio, please. My father was making me. He was going to hurt my sister if I didn’t do something. I kept trying to put it off. I never wanted to kill you. He was going to send someone to kill you if I couldn’t. And then he’d kill me, too. Please believe it.”
“How?” The sneer he tosses my way makes me hunch forward, unable to bear the sight of it. “I don’t believe you, Nina. I don’t believe a word coming out of your mouth right now. You knew your father was working for Franco this entire time! Your father is the one who’s been sabotaging things for me. And you didn’t tell me,” he growls. “You didn’t fucking tell me.”
