Chapter 2: The Bruise That Was Already Fading

PART 2

Inside the villa, I sat Isabella on the kitchen counter and ran warm water over her hands.

She winced but didn't make a sound.

That silence told me everything.

"How long has this been happening?" I asked quietly.

She stared at the water running over her palms.

"Isabella."

"Since the second week," she whispered.

The second week.

I had been gone three months.

I kept my voice calm.

"Does anyone else know?"

She hesitated.

Then: "Rosa used to help me.

But Beatriz let her go."

Rosa.

Our housekeeper of six years.

Gone.

I heard Beatriz's heels on the tile behind me.

"I can explain that," she said.

"Rosa was stealing from us."

I didn't turn around.

"Was she."

"I have proof.

I can show you the—"

"Beatriz." My voice was flat.

"Stop talking."

The heels stopped.

I dried Isabella's hands as carefully as I could.

Then I noticed something I had missed outside.

On her left forearm, half hidden by my jacket sleeve, was a faint bruise.

Yellow at the edges.

Several days old.

I looked at my daughter.

She looked at the floor.

"Isabella," I said softly.

"Who did that?"

She didn't answer.

But behind me, I heard Beatriz take a single step backward toward the door.

---

What he found next wasn't just a bruise.

May you like

DAD LAUGHED at me in front of the entire chapel and told me to walk down...

DAD LAUGHED at me in front of the entire chapel and told me to walk down the aisle by myself because I was marrying a nobody.

My parents threw me out on Christmas morning.

My parents threw me out on Christmas morning.

"Your mother isn't sick, Maya.

"Your mother isn't sick, Maya.

There was something hidden in Isabella's room that Beatriz never expected him to see.

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