“It’s Julia, Lupe! Julia, who got us out of that house when those men came for Dad. Julia, who washed us, who made bubble baths, who sang every Patito Feo song with you in front of the TV.”
I can see every word lodge itself like a knife into her chest. I understand she’s in love. I understand what it’s like to see pink clouds when you’re looking at the man who scrambles your reasoning, but for far too long, this man has hidden the fact that he knew our sister.
Because I don’t believe in coincidences.
Of all the women in Ciudad de México, he just happened to get close to Lupe.
The sister of the very woman he so plainly hates. The woman who makes him feel he needs an army of soldiers around him just to stay alive.
“Where have you been all this time?” Lupe asks Julia, and I watch our older sister struggling to put an answer together, an explanation. But in the end, it’s the man standing behind her who responds.
“She’ll explain everything once we’re out of here.”
I take two more steps toward them. Julia opens her mouth, reaching for our better judgment, but I feel— no, I know— that she won’t find it in Lupe.
Not when her mind is captured by what she feels for Alek.
I know she doesn’t think I’ve noticed, but I’ve seen how this man, shady as he may be, has given her attention.
Made time for her.
Given her a flicker of self-belief.
Because my sister could move mountains, but she doesn’t believe herself capable of it.
“I’ve loved you from the moment you opened your eyes in this world, and I’ll love you until my last breath. But please, I’m begging you, come with me.Por favor.” Julia’s voice is raw with desperation.
I take the hand of the man standing next to Julia, and that’s when I see them turn to look at each other, a whole conversation passing between them without a single word.
“Juls…I’m not leaving you here with them,” the lean man says.
“Por favor, amor.”
He knows he’s lost the argument and exhales.
“Don’t do anything reckless,” he tells Julia.
Then my older sister turns to me.
“He’d be proud of the women you’ve become,” Julia whispers. “Go with Maksim, Amalia. He’ll keep you safe.”
There’s a certainty in her voice that makes me turn to Lupe one last time. And I hate what I find there: betrayal, etched into her eyes.
So, without another word, I leave the room with Maksim.
He keeps his gun pressed to his side as we move, while behind us the soldiers keep shouting.
“We really screwed up, didn’t we?” I ask him, turning over in my head every piece of information Aleksandr fed us, every moment when I had to erase footage. Why didn’t I push harder?
Because your mind was occupied with another snake.
His silence is the only answer I need.
“Wow, you can’t even lie to me,” I whisper, thinking of my twin and everything she must be feeling right now.
I know how much she blames herself for the night our parents died, for making Julia go back to help them. I know how she sells herself short next to me simply because her mind doesn’t work like mine. But I also know that, of the two of us, she’s the one with the biggest heart. The most loyal.
Maybe I should have stayed with her.
