Page 104 of Promise to Break

"I'm going to send your families money each month if you promise me that you'll use this energy of yours in school. I don't want you with the mafia, or involved with drugs, or anything that's close to the Fierro name. Now go." They run away, leaving me with my victory.

Little girl, I'm coming.

Chapter 39 – Maricela

"You know what to do with her, Serena," the devil's voice echoes as my lifeless body is thrown on the floor. I breathe even though every breath I take reminds me that my soul has been taken from me more than once now.

He didn't want you. It was all Franco's plan to break you.

"Get up. You need to get out of here immediately." My sister's voice sounds unlike her, and my immediate instinct is to protect her and my niece by taking them and running away. I try to move, but it's a big mistake. I'm pretty sure he broke my arm, and one eye is swollen shut.

A sick thought crosses my mind that Killian would never touch me again if he saw me in this state. I'm broken now, and they've won.

No. No. No! I will not let them win. I try to move my other hand to clean my face, only to remember that he spat on it and marked me with his body fluids. All his body fluids.

A chill runs through me as my sister's voice returns, but I can't hear her words. She must want us to run away from here. I need to come to my senses. Little girl, little whore. You will never be happy again. The words repeat in my head, and all I want is to drown myself in water forever and never come out.

"Maricela, you need to leave. Immediately!"

Leave? She's right. We must leave. We have to run away from here. None of us are safe here. I made a mistake. I let her believe that her husband would change her life for the better.

"Come on," she says again and pulls me by my swollen hands. Yes, I'm definitely broken.

After numerous and slow attempts, I manage to get up on my feet. My left eye is swollen shut, but I can see the expression on my sister's face, and I don't recognize her. She doesn't cry for me, and she doesn't look terrified. No, she looks angry. Rage is good. It means she can pick herself up and run away.

"I need to clean you up. Come on." Serena's movements are the same as when I couldn't escape my father's punishments. Every movement is sharp and has a purpose. Finish the mission. I always appreciated her for her ability to detach herself from what's happening around her in order to do what needs to be done.

After what seems like an eternity, I'm standing in a T-shirt several sizes too big for me and soft yoga pants.

"We need to run," I begin, but my voice comes out scratchy and hoarse, probably from screaming. "Scream for me like you screamed for him, damn whore."

"No. You're the one who needs to leave."

I try to focus on her face again, but my vision is blurry. The last thing I need right now is a concussion. "If I could, I would kill you right here and now. It would make my son stop being weak."

"I can't leave you and the little angel alone with this monster. He— He hurt me." The admission hurts me more than the actions themselves. Again, I let someone hurt me, and I know that even when the wounds are gone, I'll never be whole again.

"I won't leave my husband, but you have to go. Agree to work with that brilliant teacher of yours."

I want to yell at her, shake her with all my might, but all I do is look at the sister I no longer recognize. The expression on her face is cold, one I've never seen there before. Where is my Serena? Where is the one who protected me time and time again?

"Maricela, I'm tired. I'm tired of you, of having to protect you and sacrifice my life for you. I'm happy. My life is good. I have a husband who loves me. I'm rich, and I have a beautiful daughter."

I'll remember, many years from now, the look in her enormous eyes. I'll remember that hatred and contempt were the only emotions visible on her face when she found out that I was raped by her husband's father.

A sob escapes me. "I don't understand." Because this can't be my sister. This can't be the girl who did everything to get me out of the system. She worked hours to get custody of me. She protected me.

"What don't you understand? You've taken enough from me. You took my mother, and you took my father's love from me. He died because of the grief you caused him. You shouldn't be in this world. And now? Now you think you can take my husband and new life from me as well?"

I didn't want—"

"You didn't want to? You didn't want to kill our mother. You didn't want our father to turn into an alcoholic monster. You didn't want us to be beaten and starved in the House of Dreams. You didn't want to, but all this happened to me because of you!"

Serena pauses and takes a breath before continuing. "Now, you'll disappear. You'll vanish from my life. You'll go and become a journalist or fuck knows what, and you'll never come back here. Do you hear me?"

I always knew that deep in her heart, she blamed me for everything that was taken from her. I knew she believed it was all because of me, but she never said these things out loud. The good girl, the perfect sister, the victim of the universe who only knew love. All that was taken from her. Despite that, she smiled for the world.

Was all that an act?

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