Page 11 of Punished

“Hey. I just wanted to say thanks for last night. Sorry I was so drunk.”

I nod and go to shut the door, but she’s already coming through it.

“You know we don’t have to be the Shining twins or anything, but I would like to be civil and understand each other at some point. Especially if we have to work together. We’re going to need to trust each other,” she rambles on, then stops as she looks around my apartment.

“Wow. I can’t believe how spotless this place is. There’sbarely any décor. Where are your pictures?” she wonders out loud before looking at me. “Oh, right… prison. Sorry.”

We look at each other and I can’t help but laugh.

“Where did you get those hideous slippers?” I ask, and she rolls her eyes.

“Come on, Frankenstein, Olivia will cook us a top-notch breakfast, and I can tell you all my fashion secrets.” She links her arm in mine and drags me out the door to her penthouse.

Within minutes, I have been introduced to Lucia and Luca. Lucia gives me an entire tour of their playroom and every toy in it. Olivia welcomes me with a simple hug. I like the way she invites me in but doesn’t force the whole “long lost family” member thing on me or look at me with pity the way I sometimes catch Patricio and Enrique doing.

She makes us Chilaquiles, eggs, and homemade beans. Thalia has brought out a ton of family albums and is showing me a funny picture of a time she convinced Olivia to dress up with her for Halloween. Thalia is dressed as Nacho Libre and Olvia glares from under a nun costume.

“¡Pendeja!” Olivia huffs, and I start laughing.

“Don’t let her convince you to dress up with her, Adrian. She always gets the spotlight, and you end up looking like an idiot. Always.”

Thalia has moved on to show me her socialmedia so I can see more pictures of her Halloween costumes.

“Omg! We should make you an Instagram!”

“Osiel already made me one.”

“Osiel is a pendejo,” she huffs. “Let me see what kind of profile he gave you. What’s your username?”

“I don’t know. I just gave him my phone, and he set it up.” I omit the part about how I only agreed to it so I could stalk Mireya and didn’t pay much attention to anything else.

“Let me see.” She grabs my phone, and I watch as she opens the app, then rolls her eyes as she shows me my profile.

“Your username is BigDickAdrian?” Olivia starts laughing from the kitchen where she is cleaning up.

“Fuck,” I say as I run a hand over my face. “Please help me change that.” She laughs, then continues to do something on my phone, when she stops to look up at me. At first, I think she’s going to ask about all the porn stars Osiel followed, but when she holds up my phone, it is on the Instagram search page with Mireya’s profile as the first suggestion.

“Were you Instagram stalking my best friend?” Her eyes narrow on me. I’m going to punch Osiel for not mentioning search histories in his stalking course.

“I like the word ‘investigate’ better, but I also learned along time ago not to speak without a lawyer present.” Her brow arches.

“So, you do know her, then? You know her name is not Mariah.” I let out a small laugh. I got the idea after I heard a customer call her that, and it was too amusing to watch her not correct them. I could not pass up the opportunity to mess with her head.

“She hasn’t told me anything about you. Just that you grew up together. I had a feeling it was something more, though. Call it… sibling intuition.”

“I was her boyfriend before Bryan,” I admit, and only because I figure I can use this to my advantage and see what information I can get out of Thalia. Judging by the look of disgust on her face at my mention of Bryan, she has a lot more to say.

“Bryan was a real piece of shit. I never knew him when they were together, but when I did meet Mireya, she was still pretty fucked up from the whole thing.”

“Fucked up, how?”

“Well, I think long term it created a bunch of insecurities. He broke up with her for—” she stops, realizing something. “Oh, my god. You were the ex who dated Diana!”

“What about Diana?”

“So, get this. Bryan and Mireya had made plans to go toprom together, and when he didn’t show up, she decided to go, anyway, but when she got there, he was with Diana.”

Interesting. That made sense, considering she was the prime witness in the defense’s case against me. Diana was likely his accomplice.

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