Chapter 4
Emma
True to his word, Angel gave me two days to get used to the idea of marriage. If “get used to it” meant locking me in a bedroom and leaving me to my own thoughts.
Granted, the room was grandiose. A big improvement on the cell that they kept me in when they first brought me here.
When I walked into the ensuite to finally get the blood off of me, I nearly fell over.
The bathroom was larger than the apartment that I currently occupied, with a large walk-in shower that took up the entire back wall, and a freestanding soaking tub that my body ached to climb into.
I settled for the shower — though that was hardly a compromise — with its lightly coconut-scented products. In the bathroom, I found a smaller first aid kit and did what I could to clean up and wrap my wrists. Why didn’t I let Angel do this? I lamented as I haphazardly applied the bandages.
I found clothes in the dresser that were a little big on me, but they were clean and soft, and when I flopped on the bed, the mattress hugged my body.
Easily the nicest thing I’d ever laid down on.
What kind of prisoner was I? I had access to a Netflix account and hours to binge whatever my heart desired, for God’s sake.
It would be like going on vacation, but the hotel room door locked from the outside.
Still, laying in clothes that weren’t mine made me worry about my apartment. They searched it, but had anyone bothered to pack some bags for me? Pay my landlord so that he wouldn’t throw my stuff out in the dumpster? I doubted it. I had to get out of here.
I started planning my escape and after two days, I had something of a plan put together. Angel kept me fed, and my guards brought meals as the shifts changed. Whenever I heard feet in the hallway, I knew I was getting a new guard and a tray of food.
There was only one guard stationed at my door, as far as I could tell, and while I might not be able to overpower anyone, surely I could run if I could get through the door. Six months of ferrying packages back and forth across Miami had made my legs strong. I could run far and fast.
Sitting on the edge of my bed, waiting for the next meal rotation, I told myself it was a good plan…
but the longer time stretched, the more time doubt had to wriggle its way through my stomach.
You’re going to get yourself killed, I thought, and it was more than likely true.
But I couldn’t just sit here and have my whole life decided by people that I didn’t know.
The lock clicked, and my door swung open.
Instead of one of the guards carrying my tray, it was a woman.
She kicked the door shut behind her, and she set the tray down on the dresser, next to the half-eaten meal that had been brought before.
She frowned when she saw it. “You’ll want to eat,” she said. “You’re going to need it for tomorrow.”
All of the spit dried up in my mouth. “Tomorrow?”
The woman looked at me, and I realized that she had a garment bag slung over her arm. “Apá gave Angel until the end of the week to present you and your marriage license. Time’s almost up.”
My stomach rolled. “What happens if we don’t get married at all?”
The woman’s hazel eyes land on me. She was a stunner: warm eyes and long black hair that she left loose and flowing.
She had the kind of body that women envy and men want, and she appeared utterly comfortable with herself.
Like she knew exactly what she looked like and how people would respond to it.
“Upsetting Apá would be tremendously stupid, and Angel’s already on thin ice as it is after the whole debacle at Elíseo.
” She motioned at the tray. “Eat and then we can try on your dress.”
“My dress?”
The woman nodded, and then shooed at me again. “Eat, eat,” she said. “Angel will kill me if I let his bride-to-be starve herself.”
I blinked. “Who are you?”
She grinned. “I’m Lili,” she introduced herself. “The baby of the family.” She held out her hand, and almost numbly, I reached out and shook it.
“I didn’t know Angel and Omar had a younger sister.”
Her expression soured. “Typical,” she said, more to herself than me. Lili glanced at the tray again, and I got the hint. I take it and settle on the edge of the bed. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it was a warm shrimp and rice dish, and it smelled heavenly. It was also a portion for a linebacker.
“Do you want to share?” I asked. “I’m never going to be able to eat all of this.”
Lili made a noise in the back of her throat. “You’re going to have to learn how to eat.”
I tucked into my meal. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, each dish they’d brought me was better than the last. The shrimp were cooked to perfection, not rubbery, and the rice was spiced with something that settled warmly in my stomach. “I eat a normal amount of food.”
She made that tsk-ing sound again. “You’re all skin and bones,” she said. “Lara is going to have a field day trying to round you up.”
“Lara?”
“Our housekeeper. She’s been with us since I was little.
Apá hired her after my mother —” Lili stopped, and her mouth twisted slightly.
But then, in a blink, her expression was schooled to the friendly indifference from before.
Could all of the Castillos do that? She flicked her dark hair over her shoulder, and I was starting to feel a little insecure in my oversized t-shirt.
I took a bite of the rich-smelling rice and sighed; it was truly delicious.
Five-star restaurant quality. I shoveled more into my mouth and tried not to be self-conscious about how quickly I was eating.
I didn’t have to impress her or anyone else here, after all.
I didn’t plan on staying. “Lili, you know that Angel and I aren’t…
we aren’t getting married because we want to, right? ”
Lili blinked, and then she broke into a laugh that was just a little mean.
She slapped her hand over her mouth to stifle the sound, but her body shook with giggles.
Finally, she gazed back up at me; her eyes were wet with tears of laughter.
“I know,” she said. “The whole compound knows at this point. Apá made sure that everyone knew about Angel’s little… punishment.”
She started laughing again, but it wasn’t funny. “Marrying me is a punishment for him?”
Lili didn’t even have the decency to look embarrassed. “I mean, yeah,” she said. “You’re not exactly an advantageous match for my brother.”
I tried not to be offended. “I thought it was that he owed me.”
The amusement slid off her face. “I know what happened at the club,” she said, and then reached out and touched my arm.
Her skin was soft against mine, and I realized just how long it had been since someone touched me kindly.
Since before Mom’s death, for sure. That thought seized up in my chest, and I did my best to breathe through it.
“I’m sure I’m the only one in this family who will actually say this.
Thank you for saving my brother, Emma,” she said.
“You’re welcome,” I replied earnestly. “It was just instinct.”
Lili smiled. “You’re a good Samaritan. I’ll bet you were a hall monitor in elementary school.”
I could feel the heat in my cheeks, and she giggled again. Despite myself, I found myself smiling for the first time in days. My cheeks wobbled from the movement, like they weren’t sure how to hold the expression anymore. “Not a hall monitor,” I said and puffed out my chest. “Line leader.”
Lili clapped. “That’s even better. Now, finish up, so we can fit your dress. I’ve got just enough time to take it in before tomorrow.”
The air was sucked out of my lungs again. “Lili, I can’t —”
“You can,” she said, “and you will. If you have some kind of escape plan in mind, drop it now. If you even made it out of the door — which I highly doubt — Angel would never let you go. Not after Apá made an example out of him when he tried to back out of the marriage.”
“How’s his cheek doing?” I asked.
Lili gave me a sly look. “Why? Are you worried about him?”
“Absolutely not,” I said. “I just want to know if I have what it takes to go to medical school.”
“Even if you did, you can’t,” Lili said. “That’s not an option anymore. You’re going to be our matriarch someday. Believe me, it’s a full-time job in and of itself.” There was something to her expression that told me that she had been filling in for that role, and she hated it.
“So, I’m supposed to play the wife and have Angel’s babies,” I mused bitterly. “Progressive.” The slap was fast and sharp. The sound of the flesh of her hand hitting my cheek echoed in the quiet room. Fire licked at the side of my face.
Lili grabbed my hand, and brought my gaze back to her. “Sarcasm isn’t going to work here,” she said urgently, like she was trying to save my life. I realized, with a little start, that she was. “Around me, it’s fine, but not around Angel and certainly not around my father, okay?”
I gripped the hand in mine. “Help me,” I begged. “Figure out a way for me to leave, and none of you will ever see me again, I promise. I am good at running and starting over, trust me.”
She shook her head, and just like her brothers, her expression flattened to something cold. “Only the tough survive in this family,” she said.
I let go of her hand. “I never asked to be in this stupid family,” I said, frustrated. “I never asked for any of this.”
“Be that as it may,” she said stiffly, “this ‘stupid’ family is the only thing separating you from ending up –”
“As just another no-name body that they find in pieces in the Everglades,” I finished for her. “I’ve heard it before.”
Lili nodded. “Exactly.”
The image had my stomach rolling unpleasantly. I pushed my dinner away; there was no way I could finish it now. My choices were clear: join the vipers in the snake pit, or be ripped apart by them. Both were unappealing, but only one gave me the chance of surviving.
Lili was studying me, I could tell, and I looked up to meet her eyes. “Adapt to survive, right?” I asked her, and she agreed. I stood. “Let’s get a look at this dress then.”
“Good choice,” she said to me softly, more gently than before. I wanted to scream that it wasn’t a choice at all, but my mother would never forgive me if I gave up.
Lili unzipped the garment bag to reveal a white cocktail dress that had some lacework and a fitted waist. “I know I’ll have to take it in,” she said as she handed it to me, “but I want to check the length.”
I held the dress; if the Gucci label on it didn’t clue me in, the fabric felt expensive in my hands.
Cheap lace was harsh against the skin, but this felt like butterfly wings.
It was too pretty for a wedding that neither the bride nor the groom wanted in the first place, and it cost more than six months of my rent…
and Lili was going to alter it by herself.
How rich do you have to be to not care about destroying something like this? I glanced at her. “Is this yours?”
She nodded. “I haven’t worn it in years.”
“I couldn’t —” But when I tried to hand it back, she pressed it into my hands.
“Seriously, my brother asked if I had something ‘appropriate’ for you. He wouldn’t care if you wore a sack, but I do.”
I gripped the dress in my hands. The material bunched and would need to be steamed. “Why?” I asked her.
Lili considered her words. “My father and my brothers see the world in a certain way,” she said carefully.
“I used to see it that way as well, but…there are things that I want for myself that I am going to accomplish. I figure that even if you’re being forced to take on this role, marry my brother, then you should get to do it on your terms.”
She didn’t explain any further, even when I pushed.
Instead, she told me to change and watched as I stripped off the borrowed clothes.
Then, she helped me step into the dress.
The waist was a little too big, but it wasn’t dramatically large.
If I had tried it on in a store, I would have said it fit and bought it as-is.
“I think it’s good,” I said as I looked in the mirror hanging on the wall.
Lili wasn’t as impressed. “The length is fine,” she decided, “but I’ll pull the waist in.
” She grabbed the looser fabric at my waist and pulled it taut, and I got to see what the dress was meant to look like.
“Beautiful,” she said, and I felt her put a pin on both sides so that she could alter it.
“I’ll come tomorrow and help you with your hair and makeup.
” She glanced at my wrists. “Maybe some jewelry to go over those?”
I agreed. “Thank you, Lili.” It was the most normal interaction that I’d had in three days, so I was grateful for it. I changed back into my clothes and handed her the dress so that she could leave. “I promise to behave tomorrow.”
Lili’s face hardened as she hung the dress back on the hanger and placed it back in the garment bag. “You’ve misunderstood me,” she said after a moment. “I don’t want you to behave.”
“Then what do you want?” My face still stung with her lesson about sarcasm. What was the point of all this?
“You’re as stuck in your role now as I am in mine,” she said. “There’s nothing that either of us can do about it, but it doesn’t mean that you roll over and take it either.” She put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “Make my brother work for you, okay? Show him your backbone.”
My backbone? I looked into Lili’s eyes, and I drew my shoulders back, drawing myself up to my full height. I gave her a brief nod to tell her that I would do my best. I had no choice.