I can’t believe I’m finally taking her home. To Mexico. I’ve done everything I can to make sure her arrival is smooth and accepted. Anyone stupid enough to go against me doesn’t tend to keep breathing for long anyway.
“I’m excited to see where you live,” Evie says.
“I live wherever you are,” I tell her.
“You know what I mean.” She turns her attention back to the catalogues she’s got spread out on the table in front of us. “Do you have a pool?”
I chuckle. “Wehave a pool. Yes.”
“Is it bigger than the one at the Royal?” she asks me.
I nod. “Yes.”
“Good. I can’t wait to send Charlotte pictures. Will you swim with me again?”
“I’ll do whatever you want, Evie.” How does she not already know this?
“So, if I want to go shopping in the city, you’ll come with me?”
I turn to look at her. “I don’t want you leavingthe house without me. So, yes, if you’re going shopping, I’m going to be with you.”
“Why can’t I leave without you?” She squints her eyes at me.
“Because it’s fucking Mexico, and you don’t speak Spanish. Also…” I lean in to whisper in her ear. “I hear the cartel is really bad. They like to kidnap pretty little girls like you and sell them.”
Evie’s eyes widen. “Please tell me you don’t actually do that.”
“Me? No. But it happens.” I shrug.
“Well, why don’t you stop it from happening?” she says.
“Because I can’t change how everything works overnight,” I explain. “I’ve been the boss for two years, Evie. I’m still working my way around everything. And my father, he wasn’t a good man. None of us are.”
“That’s not true. You are a good man, E. You just… do some bad things sometimes.”
“Whatever helps you sleep at night, mi alma.” I lean forward again and kiss her forehead. “But I’m serious. I don’t want you going out without me.”
“Okay, I won’t. Besides, your translation skills might be useful. I should learn to speak Spanish,” she says.
“We will work on it. Besides, our kids will bebilingual. You’re going to have to know the language,” I tell her.
“I don’t think I can have kids, E,” she whispers.
“What do you mean? Is there something wrong with your… uterus?” I ask. “Because it’s the twenty-first century, and we can afford whatever medical intervention we need.”
“No. Well, I don’t think there is. It’s me. I’m not a good mother.”
“How would you know that? You’ve never been a mother.”
“I was.” Evie looks down, and I feel like an ass. Of course she’s talking about when she was sixteen. That choice was taken away from her, though.
“Evie, would you have kept it?”
“No… I don’t know… Probably not. I mean, what kind of child wants to live knowing they’re here because their mother was raped? But it was still my fault they took it. I should have protected it more. I could have given it to a family who wanted a child,” she says.
“That was not your fault. That choice was stolen from you. There is nothing you could have done, Evie. You were fucking sixteen.” My jaw ticks. Hearing her say that she was raped so bluntly…
I know that’s what happened. I wish I couldbring all the fuckers back alive. They got off way too fucking easy.
