Page 1 of Promise to Break

Chapter one

Maricela

This is the right choice.

I gaze at them without moving. He kneels on one knee as she stares into his eyes, her mouth gaped, her eyes shimmering with tears until one escapes, landing on my sister's delicate cheek from her long, flattering lashes. Her dark brown hair frames her face like a halo, giving her an angelic look while she admires the man who promises her the future she deserves.

It's already happening. A moment, a glimpse that I was too complacent to predict.

I should have, but didn't. I should have run. I should have taken her by the hand and run as far as I could.

"Will you marry me, my love?"

My starved belly rumbles loudly. I didn't eat all the food Serena prepared, trying to keep some for later. If I knew this was coming, I would have eaten my fill.

The rumble could have damaged this moment for my sister if he hadn't chosen the cheesiest song of all, too. She nods as Bruno Mars sings with his too-bright and too-chirpy voice, "I think I want to marry you." Deep down, I knew. I knew it was headed this way from the first minute my sister screamed in horror because of a mouse she saw in the street near a garbage pile. I had laughed loudly as the man who now awaits Serena's answer, the one who could change everything, came to us like a dark knight right out of the television show Heros and made the poor creature run for its life.

My hands move on their own accord as they lift the cell phone the man in question gave me for my birthday three weeks ago. I take as many pictures of this moment as I can, the snapping sounds the only thing I hear as Bruno's voice fades into nothingness, as do the words and promises Serena's dark knight utters to her.

I stand here as if in a parallel universe and not in a creepy apartment with mold on the walls, an apartment that costs far more than it's worth. The walls are old and blotchy, the windows stained with oily smears I can't get clean, no matter how hard I scrub. The living room is connected to the kitchen, which, by the gray on the walls, looks like a box of used cigarettes, and the little hallway I now stand in is the pathway to the shower and toilet.

This is the right choice.

My sister's hands are on her mouth as the handsome man in front of her, a man who looks like one of the princes from the fairy tales my mother kept on a shelf, and a man who is anything but stares into her eyes with adoration.

Santino Fierro is an overall handsome man. His face is not too rough to look at. With big and round eyes, the color of the land after a good rain, his gaze feels familiar, like an old friend you've never met. His hair is the shade of dirt washed by the sun, and more often than not, looks as if he's been running his hands through it all day long, though I have never seen him touch his scalp in all the months I've known him. He's tall and slender, his every movement elegant, showing his rich status.

The ring he takes out of his too-expensive deep blue suit pocket shines even from my place in the hallway. I can't see the shape of it from where I stand, but it glows almost as bright as Serena's eyes.

"I will protect you with my life. You and your sister will live like the queens you always should have been," Santino promises, still kneeling like he isn't one of the strongest men in the country. My tongue itches to say something to stop this, but I don't speak a word.

"Your sister will always be the victim because of you. I hit her because of you! She will die because she loves you. You are weak. Her weak link." The cruel words of my father play on a loop as Serena sheds what I assume are happy tears as she murmurs, "Yes."

This is the right choice.

Meanwhile, I continue taking picture after picture with the camera on my phone, a phone that probably costs more than everything we own.

"Mari, little fairy," Serena calls to me, raising her voice, I assume because she thinks I'm in the bathroom. She looks surprised to see me standing with the phone in my hands pointed at her and her questionable future. Her enormous brown eyes are kind as she spots me lurking in the hallway. She smiles as brightly as the sun. Serena will get her happy-ever-after, and I will not be a thorn in her way, so yes, this is the right choice.

Serena and I are like land and deep waters. She is the stable one, the sure earth to be on, where I'm as wild as they come in looks and in temperament. She reminds others of an angel with her deep brown hair and eyes, her tanned skin, long legs, and classic Latina looks. I, on the other hand, look like a tiny creature from a faraway land with an awkward body that wants to take the shape of womanhood but doesn't—even if I'm eighteen years old already—only because my breasts have already decided to be on the spectrum of large. My hair color is difficult to determine. It sometimes wants to be red and sometimes brown, sometimes straight and other times curly. Serena calls the color a faded coral. I call it muddy red. The social worker who treated me kind of like a human with feelings used to call me a pixie while she referred to Serena as an angel.

"Me propuso," Serena squeaks in Spanish, like a child who has just been presented with a long-desired trip to Disneyland.

A forced smile takes over my face as I open my arms to hug my joyful sister.

"Your life will change for the better as well, Little One." Santino ruffles my hair as he appears behind us, grinning with genuine warmth. Some monsters are better than others, and some heroes are the veritable monsters, I remind myself as I look at my future brother-in-law.

"My brother is one year older than you, " Santino says, but I don't need any information about him or his family. I did my research. Killian Fierro, nineteen years old in two weeks, a Scorpio. Not that it tells me much, but a fact that's mentioned often. The silent killer of the Italian family, the progeny with the Irish name, the boy who passed the bar exam one year ago but is still learning fuck knows what at that private college he attends.

I nod noncommittally, still staring at the man I will leave my sister with once I graduate from college. Not for the first time, I search his eyes for the evil I know for a fact lives inside this man's heart, finding nothing. Fuck, he's good.

This is the right fucking choice.

The Sun has begun to set, preparing the land for its friend, the Moon, shining its last rays over the tiny bed my sister and I share.

"We're going to be happy, mio raggio di luce." Santino has called her his ray of sunshine since the day they met. He told Serena she was too bright for him, but he had to come closer to keep her safe. Yes. He has the rizz. "You will be my eternal sun. I will protect you like I am your moon."

Serena isn't like Mama. Serena will be happy. She'll have the best healthcare, and she'll likely have many kids with her beloved, as she calls him. Yeah, they are cheesy as fuck.

---