Chapter 43 Alma
Alma
“Make your decision, Ignacio,” Cassiel demands. “Give me Genesis, and both your daughters live. Or pick one and watch the other die in her place.”
The nightmare spits me out violently, and a choke is lodged in my throat. I want to scream, but I don’t. I reach for the warm body beside me and latch onto him for comfort.
The room snaps into focus. The dim light, the stiff bed, and the thin hospital gown. Night has bled into morning, sunlight slipping through the blinds in pale stripes. The last twenty-four hours feel unreal, a blur of sirens, shouting, and fear that still hasn’t fully left my body.
Efren’s chest rises and falls beside me, slow and steady. One arm is tucked beneath his head, the other stretched protectively across my belly like it’s instinct now.
“Hey,” I whisper, leaning down to kiss his cheek.
“Kitten,” he murmurs, voice rough with sleep. “Don’t go.”
He hasn’t wanted me out of his sight since they brought him in.
Efren was admitted overnight for observation after multiple rib fractures and a deep canine bite to his left calf.
The bite was serious enough to require IV antibiotics and monitoring.
He only agreed to stay because he insisted the baby and I be checked too.
Gael updated us on the DNA results before dawn. Told us Patricio was waiting to talk. Efren refused. Maybe he always will. I can’t blame him. My fingers trace the purple welts blooming along his forearms, then drift to the swelling around his eye.
I was ready to run away with this man. There was no life worth living where I had to worry about one day identifying his body. And just like he said, this family is cursed.
Missy may have taken me away from my parents, but she’d saved me from the pain I saw lurking behind Genesis’s eyes. Efren stirs when I shift. His eyes snap open, already searching the door before settling back on me.
“What’s wrong?” he murmurs.
“I can’t stop thinking about Genesis,” I admit quietly. “What that lunatic is going to do with her.”
My fingers brush one of his bruises. He barely flinches before catching my hand and pressing a kiss to my palm. His gaze studies my face carefully as he tucks a loose curl behind my ear.
“I need…” My voice thins. “I need to see him.”
His brows draw together, but he doesn’t question me. After everything I told him about Ignacio and Raquel, he promised to support whatever I decided. In the same way, I support his decision not to have a relationship with Patricio. A long breath leaves him. His shoulders relax.
“I’ll walk you,” he offers.
I shake my head. “No. I need to do this alone.”
“Okay,” he whispers. “But don’t go far. The truck’s loaded and waiting outside.”
“I’ll be right back.”
I slide carefully off the bed, mindful of the IV line taped to the back of his hand, and cross to the bag Thalia brought me. Inside is a soft blue T-shirt and jeans. I dress slowly, tugging the shirt down over the adhesive patches still stuck to my ribs from earlier vitals.
Efren watches me the whole time—jaw tight, eyes following every movement. When I reach for my hair tie, he pushes himself upright with a quiet hiss and pulls the IV catheter free.
“Efren!” I gasp.
“I’m fine,” he says calmly, pressing gauze over the site like he’s done it before. “I’ll deal with the nurse.”
He smooths the flyaways at the nape of my neck, fingers lingering, then crouches to grab my socks and shoes. I sit on the bench as he slides the socks onto my feet and eases my white Vans on after, his movements careful despite his pain.
“Take your time,” he murmurs, kissing my temple.
I stand, steadying my hands. Efren rises with me, eyes never leaving my face.
“I’ll be right outside,” he says.
I nod and step into the hallway.
It’s quiet as I walk toward room 317. Gael kept us updated on Ignacio’s surgery. The bullet missed a major artery but clipped a nerve branch. He’ll walk again, they think, but there’s a real chance he’ll need a cane long-term.
I stop in front of the door. My fingers hesitate on the handle, trembling despite my grip, before I finally push it open. Ignacio is asleep, head tilted slightly to the side. His injured leg is elevated and heavily wrapped, a monitor pulsing softly beside him.
Then my gaze shifts to the window.
And my heart stops when she turns to face me.
She’s beautiful in that quiet, ageless way many Latina women carry. It’s a kind of beauty that isn’t loud like Missy’s was. I try not to compare the two women and instead focus on her. Her rich brown hair brushed back behind her ears, falling in soft waves that graze her collarbone.
There are soft creases at the corners of her eyes and faint shadows beneath them. And her eyes. The deep, dark brown eyes I felt drawn to the first time I met her. They hold warmth but also something achingly familiar.
“I knew,” she finally says. “I knew the moment I saw you, it was you.”
Her mouth parts, and her breath catches. Tears gather instantly in her eyes, shimmering before they fall.
“Alma…” she whispers, voice breaking open.
The ache inside me drags me to her, my arms embracing her tightly.
For a few seconds, I let myself exist in her hold.
I push back the questions, and I don’t try to make sense of anything.
Two things could be true at once, Efren had told me.
I could love Missy and still know what she did to this woman was wrong.
When I finally pull back, her hands frame my face, thumbs brushing my cheeks as if memorizing me.
“You look just like your father,” she whispers. “But your eyes, your eyes are mine. I’d know them anywhere.”
I swallow hard. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know…”
“Shhh,” Raquel says softly, tears slipping in quiet lines down her cheeks. “This wasn’t your fault.”
Her eyes land hard on Ignacio before they return to mine.
“My father hated scandal. He wouldn’t let the story out about you being kidnapped.
Even after I told him one day you’d look for me, but he didn’t listen.
None of them listened to me,” she says softly, her eyes shifting then closing.
“They placed another baby in my arms, and it never felt right. I couldn’t love her.
Losing you made me a villain in countless stories.
That pain morphed me into a person I never wanted to be. ”
I think of Missy. How she too was a villain birthed from her own pain. Raquel looks up, and I turn to see Efren waiting outside the door.
“You have to go,” she says gently. “He’s waiting for you.”
“I do,” I admit. “We’re moving to Corpus Christi.”
She nods, wiping under her eyes.
“Go to him. Take your child and leave. Don’t let this life take from you the way it took from me.”
The ache in my chest softens. I want to stay here—I want to tell her everything about me, about my life—but I also hear the warning that lingers. I pull back and give her one final look before I stand.
“Alma.” She calls. “When you’re ready… if you want to… I would love to know you. To know the woman you’ve become. And maybe this time not be the villain in someone’s story.”
“I want that too,” I whisper.
A small, shaky smile lifts her lips, and I smile back before I make my way to Efren.
“You okay, Kitten?” he asks, wiping away my tears.
“I will be.” I turn around one last time before I slide my hand in his and walk out of the hospital.
Patricio’s waiting outside, smoking a cigarette, when his eyes meet mine. He’s still in the same blood-stained clothes from the night before.
“I was hoping I could talk to you,” he says to Efren.
“I don’t have anything to say,” Efren replies
“I understand.” His face falls. “But for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
I look up to see the stern expression on Efren’s face, but I also see the hurt behind his eyes. His lids lower to mine, then up as he walks past Patricio and to the truck where our boxes are loaded. He opens the door, and I slide in.
Efren rounds the front of the truck, moving slower than usual as he checks his phone. He winces at whatever pain emerges as he climbs in. Reaching forward, his fingers hover over the old truck’s stereo. The soft guitar picks through the speakers, warm and familiar.
I took my love. I took it down
He turns to me, a soft smile on his face, and grabs my hand. It’s the last time I have to run away. There are no more secrets chasing me or lies to confront. I don’t bother looking out the rearview mirror.