“I don’t understand why.” I’m being truthful. Miguelino’s fight with my grandfather and father should’ve ended the day they released their final breaths. They’re dead—those who denied him no longer matter—but the uneasiness of seeing him close lingers. It doesn’t settle well, not after our last encounter. “What does he want?”
“Tell me.” His fingers massage my thighs beneath the dress’s skirt. Alejandro doesn’t need to elaborate; I understand. I’m also taken back to a memory I’ve pushed back for years and refused to visit. “Trust me, Preciosa. I’m always on your side.”
“I know.” Lifting my head, I place a kiss on his chin. For a few seconds I remain silent, but then the words come. They tumble past my lips, and each lights a different energy in me. I’m suddenly angry, full of this ire I’ve never faced before. “He always made me feel uncomfortable whenever he visited. Thank God those days were few and far between, but the desire to crawl out of my own skin has always been there. However, it was his last visit when I became fearful, and when I complained to my father, he brushed it aside and told me to shut my mouth.”
“Hello, pretty niece,” Miguelino says, stepping into the library where I’ve been hiding all day. He’s here for a visit. To ask for money in exchange for continued silence; something that’s the norm for our family. I’ve watched it play out for years. Hidden crimes or scandals are always resolved that way, and at the age of sixteen, I was also self-aware and scared. Taught that it’s better to always keep quiet. “Aren’t you going to come and greet me? Have they not taught you any manners inside that expensive school or with the private tutors?”
Placing my well-worn copy of Romeo and Juliet down, I stand and walk over. My body recoils at the idea of being near him, of the way his eyes always seem to linger down my body when I walk into a room, but I swallow it back and plant a customary kiss to his cheek. “Hello, Uncle. How are you?”
“Better now that I’ve laid my eyes upon you.” From head to toe, he scrutinizes my appearance with a smirk. “You’ve grown since the last time I saw you. So beautiful, my Solimar.” I don’t reply, and that only seems to aggravate him. “When a man pays you a compliment, Niece, you reply with appreciation. Say gracias.”
“Thank you, Uncle.” The words taste bitter and my expression mimics this, something that causes him to laugh. It also brings his arm around my waist, and with one good tug, I find myself against his chest. His face is close to mine. “Let go.”
“No.” That arm tightens, digging into the curve of my back, and it hurts. “I quite enjoy you like this.”
“Let me go!”
“Why would I do that?” Miguelino brings his face closer and I fight the urge to gag, especially when the stale stench of cigar lingers on his breath. “I’m planning to keep you as payment for all the ridicule my mother and I have gone through. You’ll be my maid, cook, and when you turn eighteen, whore.”
“Stop this!” I cry out, horror chilling my veins. “This isn’t funny.”
“Neither is being shunned by your father and family. They made me a bastard, but soon, I’ll become the husband to the first daughter.” His words have their desired effect and I scream. Blood-curdling and full of fear, I yell for the security guards that are always near, their footsteps rushing in our direction a second later. “Remember my promise, Solimar. The day will come, and I will make you mine.”
“After that day, my mother made sure we were never alone. My father didn’t believe me, but she did, and around that time Carlos began working for us. Now I know it’s because mom begged him to watch out for me.”
“Those hijueputa’s got off too easily. If I could, I would bring the Quintero men back to life just to skin them alive and feed them each other’s putrid flesh.” Beneath me, Alejandro is tense, muscles coiling and hands clenching while his jaw ticks. “But this piece of shit, this malparido, won’t walk out of this hotel alive, Sol. Do you understand this?”
“Si.”
“And you will be the one to pull the trigger.”
Now I’m tense. Nervous. “What?”
“Do you want him dead?”
“Yes.” Again, I don’t hesitate. That man has been trying to scare me for as long as I can remember, but became bolder that visit. And although Carlos helped keep him physically away, he left me notes twice and the most recent was just three months before I met Alejandro.
By force if I have to, dear niece. I’m coming for you soon...
Those few words scared me when I found the folded paper inside my underwear drawer. I felt violated. Disgusting.
I threw everything away under the guise of it being outdated and needing to please the jerk my father wanted me to marry.
“Do you trust me to protect you? To help you end this?”
“I’ve never doubted you.”
“Then I want you to go to our room and change into the pretty champagne-colored dress I bought you with matching silk panties. I want you to keep your makeup light, hair down, and then head downstairs with the cash I’ve already placed in your wristlet.” Alejandro lifts my head off his shoulder and turns it with the tips of two fingers toward him. His lips kiss mine once and then lay a soft peck
