The silence that follows is deafening.I watch as guilt and realization wash over my brothers’ faces one by one.But it’s my mother’s reaction that takes me aback.
“Mija, I would never…” Tears fill her eyes, and Marco touches her shoulder.She shakes off his hand, however, her eyes trained on me.“I didn’t know he was hurting you.I would never have let him?—”
“You did let him, Mamá,” I say harshly, my own eyes burning.“You are the one who gave him the confidence to stalk me and hurt me.Because you all but told him I was simply a thing that belonged to him, that he could do whatever he liked with me.I knew you never liked me, but I never knew you hated me to this extent.
“And the rest of you,” I look at my brothers, my eyes flashing, “don’t look so shocked that I didn’t call you or come to you for help.None of you ever stood up for me.I had to rely on Caleb to protect me.And I only called you right now because I needed a lawyer for Caleb.”
Marco is pale.“Eve?—”
“Don’t.”I take a step back.“His brothers are here now.You can go.I shouldn’t have called you.”
“You could have told me,” Rafael says quietly, hurt evident in his voice.“I’ve always had your back, Eve.You know that.”
I look at my youngest brother, my eyes softening.“I didn’t want to disturb your studies.I know exams are coming.”
“Hermanita,” Marco says heavily, the guilt clear in his voice.“I should have done better.I should have protected you from him.”
“We all should have,” Miguel adds, his earlier anger now turned inward.
Rafael squeezes my hand tighter.“Your safety is more important than any exam, Eve.Always.”
Before I can respond, the sound of metal doors opening echoes through the station.Everyone turns to look.Two officers emerge from the back, supporting a figure between them.My stomach drops.
Luis.
He’s clearly just arrived from the hospital.His face is a nightmare of swelling and bruises, darker and more pronounced than when they first took him away.A fresh bandage covers his left eye completely, and his right eye—the one that was only partially swollen before—is now almost shut.His arm is in a sling, and he’s limping badly, the officers practically dragging him between them.Blood has seeped through the bandage on his temple.
For a split second, the waiting area falls silent.Then my mother moves.
“Luis Sanchez.”
The shift is immediate and stark.The frantic, fearful woman from moments ago is gone, replaced by something cold and deadly.My mother’s voice carries a quiet, lethal quality that makes my brothers go still.
She takes three steps toward him, and even the officers seem uncertain whether to stop her.Luis’s one functioning eye widens when he sees her.“Mrs.Lopez—Isabella—I can explain?—”
“Explain?”The word comes out like a whip crack.My mother stops directly in front of him, her small frame somehow radiating a fury that fills the entire space.“Explain what, exactly?How you put your hands on my daughter?How you hit her?How you tried to force her into your car?”
“She was with another man—” Luis starts, his voice taking on that pleading victim tone he does so well.“She was cheating on me, and I just wanted to talk to her?—”
“Talk?”My mother’s voice rises, shaking with rage.“Youhither!You put your hands onmy daughter!”
“Mrs.Lopez, please—” one of the officers starts.
My mother ignores him completely, her eyes never leaving Luis.“I know your father, Luis.I knew your mother, God rest her soul.I know your brothers—good men, all of them.Devoted husbands.Devoted fathers.Men who wouldneverraise their hands to a woman.And I thought—” Her voice breaks with fury and anguish.“—I thought you were like them!”
“Isabella, you know me—” Luis tries again.
“I thought I knew you!”My mother’s hands are shaking, her rosary beads rattling.“I welcomed you into my home!I pushed my daughter toward you!I told her she was being foolish, that she should marry you, that you would take care of her!And all this time?—”
She takes another step forward, and this time the officers do intervene, gently holding her back.But she’s not done.
“All this time, you were stalking her?Hurting her?And I—Dios me perdone—I gave you the confidence to do it!I made her think she couldn’t come to me!I made her think I would take your side!”Tears are streaming down her face now, but the anger hasn’t left her voice.
“Mrs.Lopez, I love her—” Luis’s voice cracks.“I was just trying to make her see?—”
“Love?”My mother’s laugh is bitter, broken.“You don’t know the first thing about love.My husband—Eve’s father—he loved me.He respected me.He would have died before raising his hand to me.And he did die—working to provide for us, to give us a better life.Thatis love.What you did to my daughter?That’s not love.That’s ownership.That’s control.”
The officers have stopped trying to move Luis along, transfixed by my mother’s fury.
