Page 44 of Punished

“Cassiel?”My brother?I had never heard the name. I never knew she had any children besides me.

“Our brother,” Adrian interrupts, and my eyes search his.

They both began to fill me in on the events that had led to my mother’s death. My mother had been another victim of Ivan Consuelo. A young girl, madly in love with a man who would use and extort her. She would carry his child and be forced to give the baby up to a kingpin, whose wife could not bear children, in exchange for an alliance.

“Did you know about him?” I look to Adrian, and he shakes his head.

“I had no idea.”

“Did you?” I ask my tia, and she lets out a deep sigh.

“Not at first. When I met your mother, she was working at the hotel in Arizona. As soon as she found out my ex-husband and your father were a part of Los Peregrinos, she saw it as a way to find her son. She used Joaquin to find her way into the club. Joaquin was smarter than she thought, but when she got pregnant with you, she had something valuable to hang over his head. He loved you more than anything on this earth, Mireya.” I knew my parents did not love each other. I saw how much my father put up with, the belittling and lack of love. She was cold, but he never seemed bothered by it. Now, I can see the sacrifices he made to stay close to me. He endured her hostility, as long as I was okay. It is sad to think he never experienced love the way he deserved.

“We didn’t realize how far she was willing to go to find the child, but she had been stalking Ivan’s every move. When she found out about Adrian, she became out of control. Hyper-obsessing over her son being the rightful heir to the Consuelo Legacy.” I knew she disliked the Consuelo family, but I summed it up to jealousy. It made sense now, her desperate need to mock and belittle the family. The lengths she went to hurt Adrian. The lengths she was willing to go to hurt my child.

“Do you know where he is? Cassiel?” I look to Adrian before I try to make sense of it. “Our brother?” There was someone out there–half me, half Adrian–and he was connected to us. He was our family. I couldn’t help but worry about his life.

“Yes. But he does not want to be found, Mireya. He sent a message to her once, to warn her to stop looking for him, and her death was the final warning to all of us not to continue trying. He’s dangerous.”

He had her killed. The woman who had suffered in her attempts to find him had been killed in his name. He made a spectacle out of her death. While she had never been a good mother, she didn’t deserve to die like that.

“Adrian, can you get me something to eat?” He looks at me, debating if he’ll fight me on it, but I soften my eyes.

“I need to talk to my tia in private. As of today, she’s all I have left.”

He looks hurt, but gets up and walks to the door, looking back to check on me once more before exiting the room. My tia moves to the bed and hugs me tight.

“That man loves you.” She runs her hand over my hair, the way she did when I was little.

“You think so?”

“Oh, I know so, mija. A man looked at me like that once, and I never forgot. Love like that is rare. You may not agreewith his lifestyle, but he will always protect you and your baby.” Her hand caresses my stomach.

“Do you know him?” I whisper, and she knows who I’m talking about. She stays quiet, searching my eyes, that are pleading with her to tell me about Cassiel. I, at least, deserve to know about the man who killed my mother. What if he is a threat to me and my child?

“In this life, you will need alliances, and those alliances are built from secrets. Secrets are the most powerful thing you can keep. I don’t want to keep you from your brother, but he does not want to be found.”

“Will he hurt me?”

“No. He will not harm you. He has his reasons for what he does, and I don’t question him. Let him live his life, and he will let you live yours.”

“She was going to kill my baby,” I say, needing to get it off my chest. I know she’s gone, but my tia had witnessed the way she emotionally broke me down. She presses her forehead to mine.

“It will be a cold day in Hell before I let anyone hurt you or this baby.”

I exit the room, on the hunt for Dr. Aguilar and a cup of coffee. A cigarette would be nice, too, but I already got kicked out of one room. I don’t need to get kicked out of the entire hospital.

As of today, she’s all I have left.

I try not to take Mireya’s words personally, but they eat at me. That lunatic in Prada heels is not the only person she has left. She has me, and I’m all she’ll ever need. I will spend the rest of my life proving that to her.

When Diana kidnapped her, it felt like I was losing her all over again. When I brought her here, barely conscious, they ran tests and confirmed her pregnancy. I am more than happy. She had told me she was on birth control, but I don’t care. If anything, there is a toxic part of me that needs her connected to me forever. We will form a family,and she will have me. Forever.

I see Dr. Aguilar leaving Thalia’s room and stop him. “How is she?”

“She’s doing well. Both she and Mireya are free to leave whenever they like.” His tone is cold, but I thank him, anyway. I thought he was interested in Mireya for a while, but I have seen him around the hotel, frequenting Enrique’s office, and I can put two and two together.

The door to Thalia’s room is wide open, and she’s sitting on the bed, her arm in a cast as she watches some telenovela on the hospital tv. She looks up when I walk in.

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