The Blackmailed Bride: Falling in Love With a Criminal Boss HD

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Transcript

00:00:00I once read that the most dangerous thing a woman can do is save a man's life.

00:00:04I didn't believe it.

00:00:06I was 22, idealistic, and three semesters short of a nursing degree.

00:00:11When I found a man bleeding out in an alley behind a fast food restaurant,

00:00:14I didn't think about danger.

00:00:16I just pressed my hands to the wound.

00:00:18I didn't know his name.

00:00:19I didn't know that the blood soaking through my uniform

00:00:22belonged to the most feared cartel boss on the East Coast.

00:00:25I didn't know that behind those dark half-conscious eyes

00:00:27was a man who would remember everything I did.

00:00:30Every word, every touch, every desperate instruction I gave him in the dark.

00:00:34I didn't know he would come back for me.

00:00:36Three months later, a man named Emilio Reyes walked into my life

00:00:40and told me I had inherited a fortune from my late aunt on one condition.

00:00:44Marriage. To him. Immediately.

00:00:47No. I said no.

00:00:49He smiled like I hadn't spoken at all.

00:00:52This is the story of how I married a criminal.

00:00:55How I hated him, feared him,

00:00:57and somewhere in the middle of all the lies he built our life on

00:01:00fell desperately, irreversibly in love with him.

00:01:03I want to tell you I fought it.

00:01:05I want to tell you I was smarter than this.

00:01:07But the truth is,

00:01:08the moment I pressed my hands to his chest in that alley,

00:01:11I was already his.

00:01:13I just didn't know it yet.

00:01:15The alley behind the shop smells like grease and rain.

00:01:19I take the trash out at midnight

00:01:22because Miguel never does

00:01:23and I'm too tired to fight about it.

00:01:30That's when I hear it.

00:01:31A shuffle.

00:01:33A grunt.

00:01:34The unmistakable sound of someone about to do something terrible.

00:01:38I peek my head out.

00:01:40First mistake of the night.

00:01:44Hello?

00:01:48Two men immediately pin me against the wall.

00:01:51I open my mouth to scream.

00:01:52Someone beats me to it.

00:01:53He steps out of the dark like he owns it.

00:01:56Tall, jaw tight.

00:01:58One hand pressed to his ribs.

00:02:00He's bleeding.

00:02:01I can see it soaking through his shirt

00:02:03in a dark, spreading stain.

00:02:05He shouldn't be standing.

00:02:07Standing anyway.

00:02:08Let her go.

00:02:11The men charge.

00:02:13He moves.

00:02:13Fast, precise, brutal.

00:02:17And it's over in seconds.

00:02:19One man clutches his arm, screaming.

00:02:22The other is already gone.

00:02:26And then the stranger folds like paper,

00:02:29thing the wet pavement before I can catch him.

00:02:33I drag him inside.

00:02:35I don't know why.

00:02:40I'm a nursing school dropout,

00:02:42with shaking hands,

00:02:44and no business saving anyone.

00:02:46But I press gauze to his chest,

00:02:49and count his breaths,

00:02:51and tell him to stay with me.

00:02:53And somewhere between one breath and the next,

00:02:56I start to believe he might actually listen.

00:02:58He opens his eyes,

00:02:59grabs my wrist hard enough to bruise.

00:03:02No one has ever seen me like this.

00:03:06You're dead.

00:03:07Stop moving or you'll bleed more.

00:03:09He lets go.

00:03:12He passes out.

00:03:14I keep working.

00:03:15By the time I come back with antibiotics,

00:03:18he's gone.

00:03:19The room is empty,

00:03:21except for the bloody gons,

00:03:22and the faint smell of something expensive,

00:03:25cologne,

00:03:26maybe,

00:03:26or power.

00:03:31I stand in the doorway,

00:03:32and feel something I can't name,

00:03:34settle into my chest.

00:03:38Hope you make it, stranger.

00:03:45The days pass.

00:03:47My life goes on.

00:03:49The midnight shifts blur into each other,

00:03:52and I almost convince myself the whole thing

00:03:55was a fever dream.

00:03:57The blood.

00:03:58The alley.

00:04:00The man who threatened to kill me

00:04:01while I was saving his life.

00:04:04Almost.

00:04:06It isn't until three months later

00:04:09that I understand the mistake I made that night.

00:04:12It wasn't peeking my head out into that alley.

00:04:15It was pulling the stranger back from the edge.

00:04:18I'm wiping down the counter

00:04:19when his face fills the TV screen above the register.

00:04:25Emilio Reyes.

00:04:26East Coast Cartel King.

00:04:29Dangerous.

00:04:30Untouchable.

00:04:32The customers are whispering.

00:04:33The word monster drifts past my ear like smoke.

00:04:38I stare at the screen,

00:04:40and the memory hits me like a cold wave.

00:04:43His hand locked around my wrist,

00:04:45even through the blood loss.

00:04:49No one has ever seen me like this.

00:04:53You're dead.

00:04:56Shit.

00:04:57I set down the tray.

00:04:59I turn for the door.

00:05:01A black bag drops over my head.

00:05:03The last thing I hear before the world goes dark.

00:05:06You're coming with us.

00:05:14They take the bag off in a room that costs more than my entire life.

00:05:18He's standing by the window with his back to me,

00:05:20and even from behind I can feel the weight of him.

00:05:23The absolute, unharried certainty of a man who has never once been told no.

00:05:29He turns around slowly, like he has all the time in the world.

00:05:34Like I'm not hyperventilating in the middle of his Persian rug.

00:05:37He looks at me the way you look at something you already own.

00:05:40Hello, wife.

00:05:42Wife?

00:05:43He pulls out a file and slides it across the desk.

00:05:47Leticia Vierido, my aunt, who I barely knew,

00:05:51who apparently knew him very well.

00:05:53She raised him.

00:05:54He called her family.

00:05:55And when she died, she left everything to me.

00:05:59One million dollars.

00:06:02I stare at the number until the zeros blur.

00:06:06You're handing out one million dollars to me?

00:06:08Just like this?

00:06:10Of course not.

00:06:12Your inheritance comes with a condition.

00:06:14Marry me for one year.

00:06:16Part of me wants to laugh.

00:06:17The part that's been eating ramen for six months.

00:06:20Drowning in debt.

00:06:22Too proud to ask for help.

00:06:23One million dollars.

00:06:25I could breathe again.

00:06:26I could actually breathe.

00:06:28But then, the other part of me kepts up.

00:06:31The part that recognizes his face from every news broadcast.

00:06:34Every whispered warning.

00:06:36Every story that ends badly.

00:06:38Marry a mafia king with a promise of one million dollars?

00:06:42Is this Watt Mac novel really happening to me?

00:06:44Me?

00:06:45I set down the file.

00:06:47What do you get out of this?

00:06:50I'm a nobody.

00:06:51He steps closer.

00:06:53Close enough that I have to tilt my head back to hold his gaze.

00:06:56And I hate that I do it.

00:06:59You're not a nobody.

00:07:02Don't ever say that again.

00:07:06He says it quietly.

00:07:08Too quietly.

00:07:09Too gently.

00:07:10Like he means it.

00:07:12Like he's been thinking about it.

00:07:14And the words land somewhere soft and unprotected.

00:07:17Before I can get my guard back up.

00:07:21I don't know what to do with them.

00:07:23So I look away, down at the floor.

00:07:25And that's when I see it.

00:07:27A dark stain in the carpet.

00:07:29Old and brown at the edges.

00:07:31Blood.

00:07:32Someone's blood.

00:07:33Soaked into the fibers and never fully cleaned away.

00:07:35The word yes dies in my throat.

00:07:38No.

00:07:40Then you just made your first mistake as my future wife.

00:07:48His hand moves toward his hip.

00:07:50My survival instincts shoot up.

00:07:54Wait.

00:07:55I didn't mean no.

00:07:57I just...

00:07:57I need time.

00:07:59To think.

00:08:01I'm allowed to think, right?

00:08:03A beat.

00:08:04His hand stills.

00:08:05Of course.

00:08:07I try the door.

00:08:10Locked.

00:08:11Of course it's locked.

00:08:14My heart hammers against my ribs as his footsteps cross the room behind me.

00:08:18Quiet.

00:08:19Unhurried.

00:08:20Inevitable.

00:08:21His hand covers mine on the knob.

00:08:23His mouth is close enough to my ear that I feel the warmth of his breath.

00:08:27And every rational thought I have dissolves.

00:08:29I'm a king, Mia.

00:08:32Don't even think about running.

00:08:36I'll see you at the altar.

00:08:38He twists the knob.

00:08:39The door swings open.

00:08:40I don't walk out.

00:08:42I flee.

00:08:43I nearly collide with a man in the hallway.

00:08:46Younger than Emilio.

00:08:47Easier to read.

00:08:48With a smile that doesn't reach his eyes.

00:08:50He watches me scramble past and says nothing.

00:08:53Behind me, I hear him say something to Emilio in a low voice.

00:08:57I don't stop to listen.

00:08:58Back in my apartment.

00:08:59Serena screams at me through the phone for ten solid minutes.

00:09:03I hold it away from my ear and stare at the ceiling.

00:09:05You should have left him bleeding in that alley.

00:09:08I know.

00:09:09He's a monster.

00:09:11My food's here.

00:09:11Talk later.

00:09:15I open the door expecting delivery.

00:09:46A gun barrel.

00:09:48We need to talk.

00:09:52His name is Franco Palacio.

00:09:55I am Franco.

00:09:56He says it like a title, like something I should already know and fear.

00:10:00He says it while one of his men pins my arms behind me.

00:10:04And another kicks the boy hard enough to crack ribs.

00:10:07Tomas.

00:10:09Tomas.

00:10:35Tomas.

00:10:36I couldn't have saved Emilio that night.

00:10:42He ignores me and crouches beside Tomas, dragging a knife down his cheek so slowly, so precisely,

00:10:48that the line of red it draws looks almost surgical.

00:10:53Tomas makes a sound I'll hear in my sleep for years.

00:10:55Tomas.

00:10:56Tomas.

00:10:56You're gonna marry Emilio Reyes.

00:10:58You're gonna give him an heir.

00:11:03And that child will be born under my command.

00:11:08What?

00:11:09Tomas.

00:11:09A wife.

00:11:10A baby.

00:11:12That's all it takes to ruin a man like him.

00:11:16You're gonna be my weapon, sweetheart.

00:11:19He stands, moves back to Tomas, and presses the flat of the blade against his eyelid.

00:11:25One month.

00:11:26Get pregnant.

00:11:31Or your cousin loses more than an eye.

00:11:34I can't breathe.

00:11:36I can't think.

00:11:37The room has shrunk to the size of that knife.

00:11:39That eye.

00:11:40That terrible, soft sound Tomas makes when the blade presses harder.

00:11:45Stop.

00:11:46Left eye?

00:11:48Or right?

00:11:49Stop!

00:11:50I'll do it!

00:11:52The blade lifts.

00:11:53Franco smiles like I've given him a gift.

00:11:56Then the front door Sweeney splinters off its hinges.

00:12:02Emilio doesn't come in like a rescue.

00:12:04He comes in like weather.

00:12:06Sudden, total, impossible to argue with.

00:12:09His men fan out behind him.

00:12:12Franco's men scatter.

00:12:14And then it's just the two of us.

00:12:16And Tomas is gone.

00:12:17Dragged out in the chaos.

00:12:19And I'm on the floor.

00:12:22With my knees pulled to my chest.

00:12:25And my whole body shaking so hard my teeth click together.

00:12:28I don't hear him cross the room.

00:12:30I just feel the air change.

00:12:32Mia.

00:12:34His voice is different.

00:12:35Softer than I've heard it.

00:12:37I look up.

00:12:37And something in his face does things I don't expect.

00:12:41It cracks.

00:12:42Just at the edges.

00:12:44Just for a second.

00:12:45I don't decide to move.

00:12:46I just do it.

00:12:48I throw myself at him.

00:12:52And his arms close around me before I can second guess it.

00:12:56And I press my face into his chest.

00:12:59And cry in a way I haven't cried since I was a little girl.

00:13:04Ugly.

00:13:04And desperate.

00:13:05And completely undignified.

00:13:08He holds me like he means it.

00:13:11He doesn't speak.

00:13:13Doesn't ask questions.

00:13:15Just keeps one hand on the back of my head.

00:13:18And breathes slowly.

00:13:20Steadily.

00:13:21Like he's trying to teach me how.

00:13:23And gradually my shaking slows.

00:13:25When I finally pull back his expression has closed again.

00:13:28But his eyes haven't.

00:13:31You're my woman, Mia.

00:13:33Your tears belong to me.

00:13:36I should have a response to that.

00:13:38I don't.

00:13:39I just look at him.

00:13:40And feel the words settle somewhere deep and permanent.

00:13:45Like a key turning in a lock I didn't know I had.

00:13:48He wipes my face with his thumb.

00:13:51Gentle.

00:13:52Careful.

00:13:52Like I'm something worth being careful with.

00:13:56I'm not your woman.

00:13:58I haven't agreed to anything yet.

00:14:01I know.

00:14:02We should talk.

00:14:04He says it quietly.

00:14:05He doesn't push.

00:14:07He just looks at me like he's already decided.

00:14:09And he's willing to wait.

00:14:10That might be the most frightening thing he's done yet.

00:14:15The next morning.

00:14:17We sit on opposite sides of a conference table.

00:14:19With a contract between us.

00:14:21Sick enough to stop a bullet.

00:14:22Our marriage contract.

00:14:26Read it.

00:14:29Terms and conditions.

00:14:32We'll discuss today.

00:14:38I keep my spine straight as I flip through the pages.

00:14:41I try very hard to absorb what I'm about to sign my life onto.

00:14:46But not a single word makes it to my brain.

00:14:52Instead, Franco's voice echoes like a curse on a loop.

00:14:56Marry Emilio.

00:14:58Baby.

00:14:59One month.

00:15:02My weapon.

00:15:05To save a cousin I barely know in a gangster war I never asked to be part of?

00:15:09I'm going to lie to a cartel king sitting right across from me, expecting a real marriage.

00:15:16Of course I'll sign this contract.

00:15:18But it's not my choice.

00:15:20It was never my choice.

00:15:21I am completely, utterly out of control of this situation.

00:15:26And I have to pretend otherwise.

00:15:28Perfectly.

00:15:29Or Thomas pays for it.

00:15:31Everything okay?

00:15:35I startle.

00:15:36He's watching me.

00:15:37Of course he's watching me.

00:15:40Men like him watch everything.

00:15:45I need to smooth this over.

00:15:47For my cousin.

00:15:50The contract doesn't mention sleeping arrangements.

00:15:53He goes very still.

00:15:56Sleeping arrangements.

00:16:00We'd be married.

00:16:04It would be natural that we...

00:16:07The chair scrapes back.

00:16:09He's in front of me in two steps.

00:16:11He's leaning over the table with both hands planted on either side of the contract.

00:16:16Close enough that I can smell his cologne.

00:16:18And feel the warmth radiating off his skin.

00:16:22It's natural we fuck.

00:16:25My breath stops.

00:16:30Do you want me to fuck you?

00:16:34There is no good answer to that question.

00:16:41There is only the truth.

00:16:43Yes.

00:16:44Obviously.

00:16:45Embarrassingly.

00:16:46Inconveniently yes.

00:16:48And the reason behind it.

00:16:50Which I can never tell him.

00:16:55That's what husbands and wives do.

00:16:58We're not real husband and wife.

00:17:00This is a contract.

00:17:05You're attractive and rich.

00:17:08Any woman would want you.

00:17:13He tilts his head.

00:17:15Something dangerous flickering in his eyes.

00:17:18You think I'm attractive?

00:17:22Yes.

00:17:24Are you lying to me?

00:17:29No.

00:17:30I'm not lying.

00:17:32That's the problem.

00:17:34I'm not lying at all and he can see it.

00:17:37And the slow curve of his mouth tells me he's been able to see it this whole time.

00:17:43He lifts me onto the table in one motion.

00:17:46I gasp.

00:17:48Not in fear.

00:17:49Which would make sense.

00:17:51In something that runs hotter than fear.

00:17:53He nudges my knees apart.

00:17:55Not roughly.

00:17:56Just firmly.

00:17:58With the uncurried confidence of a man who already knows the answer.

00:18:04You can lie with words.

00:18:07Not with your body.

00:18:09His hand slides up my inner thigh.

00:18:15Tell me you want me.

00:18:17Tell me it's not just the contract.

00:18:19And God help me, I do.

00:18:20No.

00:18:27She's sitting on my conference table with her knees apart.

00:18:31And her eyes blown wide.

00:18:33And I have never wanted to ruin someone so completely in my life.

00:18:40I pull my hand back slowly, letting her watch her own wetness dripping on my fingers.

00:18:47Her breath stutters.

00:18:49Is this for me?

00:18:55Do I get you this wet just by talking to you?

00:19:01Yes.

00:19:03Her voice comes out wrecked.

00:19:04And small.

00:19:05And honest.

00:19:07And it pulls me back from the edge of something I can't afford.

00:19:12That voice.

00:19:13That lively, beautiful voice.

00:19:16I know something happened between her and Franco.

00:19:19I've known since the moment I walked into her apartment.

00:19:22And found her on the floor.

00:19:23Because I wasn't there to rescue her.

00:19:25I was there to make her talk.

00:19:29Franco's men were already scattering when I kicked the door in.

00:19:32I had my gun up, finger on the trigger.

00:19:35Franco in my sights.

00:19:37And then I saw her.

00:19:39I curled on the floor, shaking.

00:19:43Small in a way that hit me somewhere, I don't let things hit me.

00:19:47I lowered the gun.

00:19:48I crossed the room.

00:19:50And the second she threw herself against my chest,

00:19:55I let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding.

00:20:01The will I showed her, I fabricated it.

00:20:05My nanny, Letricia, was a kind woman, not a wealthy one.

00:20:11She didn't leave a million dollars.

00:20:13I forged every page.

00:20:16I needed a reason to keep Mia close.

00:20:20Somewhere I could watch her.

00:20:23Pull the truth out of her slowly.

00:20:25But that day, with her crying in my arms,

00:20:29I stopped caring about the plan.

00:20:32I decided I had to have her.

00:20:34One way or another.

00:20:36I never expected the other way to involve this many lies.

00:20:40I hate lies.

00:20:45Mia.

00:20:47You have no idea I'm going to torture the truth out of you.

00:20:50I shove my hand back between her legs.

00:20:54Fingers flying to my shoulders.

00:20:59Tell me to stop if you don't want this.

00:21:02Tell me to stop if you don't want this.

00:21:05She doesn't stop me.

00:21:07Good.

00:21:08I push her panties aside and press one finger inside her.

00:21:11She moans, hips rolling forward instinctually.

00:21:17Hands gripping my shoulders like she needs something to hold on to.

00:21:23Emilio.

00:21:24God.

00:21:25My name in her mouth like that.

00:21:30I add a second finger and move faster.

00:21:33Watching her come undone.

00:21:35And I am aching with how much I want her.

00:21:38But I have a mission.

00:21:40I need her confession.

00:21:42If I handed you the inheritance right now,

00:21:45no strings, no cracks, would you still want me?

00:21:48Emilio.

00:21:50Answer me!

00:21:52Yes!

00:21:53More lies.

00:21:55Oh you little liar.

00:21:56You have no idea what you just walked into.

00:22:01He stops.

00:22:03The absence of his touch is so sudden it punches the air out of me.

00:22:06I look at him, chest heaving, completely undone,

00:22:09and his face has already closed.

00:22:11Composed, cool, like none of it happened.

00:22:17You're hiding something from me.

00:22:19Bad girls don't get to come.

00:22:21Sign the contract.

00:22:22Diego will help you move in tomorrow.

00:22:24I sit on the edge of the conference table with his handkerchief in my hands

00:22:27and the ghost of his touch still burning under my skin.

00:22:30And I stare at the closed door and try to remember who I am and why I'm here.

00:22:36Stay focused, Mia.

00:22:37Toas. One month. That's all that matters.

00:22:40His mansion is the size of my entire neighborhood.

00:22:43I drag my suitcase through the front door and try not to look like I've never seen marble floors before.

00:22:47The staff lines up to greet me.

00:22:49I shake everyone's hand and smile until my face hurts.

00:22:51And somewhere in the middle of it, Emilio appears from a hallway,

00:22:53and I make the mistake of asking if I'll be staying in his room.

00:22:56We don't sleep in the same room.

00:23:00He gives me a guest room with a bed too big for one person,

00:23:03and curtains the color of champagne.

00:23:04He drops a ring box into my palm without ceremony or eye contact.

00:23:07Wear it in public.

00:23:09It fits perfectly. I don't know why that makes my chest ache.

00:23:12Why are you so cold today? I thought-

00:23:14Do you know what I do to people who betray me?

00:23:16No.

00:23:16I kill them. Every single one.

00:23:19Betrayal doesn't exist in my world.

00:23:21Are you keeping something from me, Mia?

00:23:23Tell him. Just tell him.

00:23:25The words crowd my throat.

00:23:26Franco Tomas, the knife, the deadline.

00:23:29When I look up, Emilio is gone.

00:23:31I need to get pregnant.

00:23:33I need to do something.

00:23:39This will have to do.

00:23:42I carry a plate of cookies down the hall like an offering,

00:23:45which, honestly, is exactly what it is.

00:23:47This is the plan.

00:23:48This is the whole plan.

00:23:49I push open the study door.

00:23:51Fifteen men look up at me simultaneously.

00:23:53Leave. Not you.

00:23:59I stand there, tugging the hem of my shorts down

00:24:01and trying to look like I haven't just made a catastrophic mistake.

00:24:04You didn't just bring me cookies dressed like this.

00:24:06I didn't know you were in a meeting.

00:24:07I'm half-mined to shoot every man who was just in this room.

00:24:09Please don't.

00:24:10What do I do to a bad girl who interrupts my meeting?

00:24:13Do I bend you over this desk and spank your pretty little ass?

00:24:15I shiver.

00:24:16I should not shiver.

00:24:17I shiver anyway.

00:24:17Or do I force you down on your knees and make you take my cock?

00:24:19Or you could take me.

00:24:22I can give you an air.

00:24:27No.

00:24:28No condoms.

00:24:29You're not on birth control.

00:24:31I know.

00:24:32Something shifts in his expression.

00:24:33The heat drains out of it, replaced by something colder and more careful.

00:24:36You want my baby.

00:24:37Why?

00:24:37Because your biggest enemy has my cousin and gave me a deadline and I have no other options

00:24:42and I'm terrified and I'm sorry.

00:24:44Because you're handsome and I'd really love to-

00:24:47Get out.

00:24:48What?

00:24:49Get out.

00:24:50I slide to the floor and stand there for one horrible second, completely exposed.

00:24:54The cookies, the shorts, the desperate transparent wanting of all of it.

00:24:58And then I turn and walk out with whatever dignity I have left, which is not much.

00:25:02I need a new plan.

00:25:04I need a new plan.

00:25:05Serena, can you meet me?

00:25:06I need to tell you everything.

00:25:08Outside my window, the city hums and glitters like it doesn't know anything is wrong.

00:25:11Like the world is perfectly ordinary and I haven't spent the last week tangled up in a cartel king who

00:25:16sees straight through every lie I tell, except the one that might get us both killed.

00:25:20What did I get myself into?

00:25:26Thank God.

00:25:27Are you okay?

00:25:28He didn't chain you up somewhere?

00:25:29He's not.

00:25:30No.

00:25:30No dungeons.

00:25:32I'm fine.

00:25:33You don't look fine.

00:25:34She's right.

00:25:35I don't feel fine.

00:25:36I feel like I'm playing three different chess games at once and losing all of them.

00:25:39I start to tell her about Franco.

00:25:40About Tomas.

00:25:41About the deadline.

00:25:42But before I can get past the first sentence-

00:25:44Are you okay?

00:25:45You seem terrified of him.

00:25:46Of course I'm terrified.

00:25:47His men run the entire East Coast.

00:25:49He could be listening to us right now, Mia.

00:25:50Serena, you're not making sense.

00:25:52Why do you even know so much about him?

00:25:53Who's your dad?

00:25:54Something shifts in her expression.

00:25:56Something serious and old and tired like she's been waiting for this question and dreading it at the same time.

00:26:01Mia, it's time you know who I am.

00:26:02The door exploding open.

00:26:03A masked man with a gun raised screaming at everyone to get on the floor.

00:26:06The cafe erupts into chaos.

00:26:08I freeze.

00:26:09I stand in the middle of it all and my body simply refuses to move like it's deciding whether any

00:26:14of this is real.

00:26:15Mia!

00:26:15Get down.

00:26:16I can't move.

00:26:18You deaf!

00:26:19I said down!

00:26:20The robber spots me.

00:26:21Move!

00:26:21Why can't I move?

00:26:29For one second, I think it's over.

00:26:32Marco.

00:26:33Put it down.

00:26:34Please.

00:26:40I stand there with a stranger's arm around neck and think absurdly about the alley three months ago.

00:26:44About how I peeked my head out and said hello like an idiot.

00:26:47About how that one bad decision led to every bad decision after it.

00:26:50A chain of dominoes I set off the moment I dragged a bleeding cartel king off the pavement.

00:26:54I really shouldn't have saved him.

00:26:55Then the door opens again.

00:26:56Emilio walks in like he has nowhere else to be.

00:26:58Like this is a meeting he scheduled.

00:27:00Gun raised.

00:27:00Jaw set.

00:27:01Eyes finding me in under a second.

00:27:03Oh yeah?

00:27:03Who's she?

00:27:04The president's wife?

00:27:05Emilio shoots him in the arm.

00:27:06The arm around my throat goes slack.

00:27:08I drop.

00:27:09Serena catches me.

00:27:10No you're fucking not.

00:27:12I don't see what happens next.

00:27:13The world tilts, goes soft at the edges and I stop being able to hold myself up.

00:27:17The last thing I feel before I feign is someone lifting me.

00:27:21His arms, his cologne, that particular steadiness that shouldn't feel like safety but does.

00:27:27I wake up in a bed that isn't mine.

00:27:29It's too big, too soft, smells too expensive.

00:27:31The ceiling is high and unfamiliar and for a disoriented moment I have no idea where I am or what

00:27:36year it is.

00:27:36Then I remember the gun.

00:27:38The arm around my throat.

00:27:39The sound of a shot.

00:27:40I sit up too fast.

00:27:41My head swims.

00:27:42Are you okay?

00:27:43He's still in his suit.

00:27:44He's looking at me with an intensity that doesn't belong on a face pretending not to care.

00:27:48I think so.

00:27:49Where am I?

00:27:50My bedroom.

00:27:51Your bedroom?

00:27:53I thought we had separate rooms.

00:27:54You also walked into my meeting in a pair of shorts and asked me to get you pregnant.

00:27:58Rules are flexible.

00:28:00Does that mean I can stay in your room now?

00:28:03Do you want to sleep with me that badly?

00:28:05Yes, says every nerve in my body.

00:28:07Yes, but not for the reason you think, says the part of me that remembers Tomas and Franco

00:28:11and the deadline that is still ticking.

00:28:12What if I say yes?

00:28:14His eyes darken.

00:28:15For one suspended second I think he's going to close the distance between us and my heart rate

00:28:19does something embarrassing.

00:28:20He stands instead.

00:28:21Adjusts his jacket.

00:28:23Rest.

00:28:23Tomorrow's a big day.

00:28:24What's tomorrow?

00:28:25The engagement party.

00:28:26Where I tell the world you're mine.

00:28:28Am I falling for him?

00:28:29No.

00:28:29Focus.

00:28:30Tomas.

00:28:30One month.

00:28:33The next morning a small army arrives at my door.

00:28:36They work on me for two hours.

00:28:38I sit in the chair and let them and feel like a doll being dressed for a party I didn't

00:28:42ask

00:28:42to attend.

00:28:43Which is, technically, exactly what's happening.

00:28:45I slip out when they're arguing about earrings.

00:28:47Down the hall through the tall living room windows I spot Emilio outside with Diego.

00:28:51He's in a sharp suit and he's furious.

00:28:53Jaw tight, gesturing hard, words muffled through the glass but unmistakably sharp.

00:28:57He's beautiful when he's angry.

00:28:59I noticed this and immediately wish I hadn't.

00:29:04You're going to tell me why you want my baby and what it have to do with Palacio?

00:29:07Who?

00:29:08The man at your apartment.

00:29:09He knows.

00:29:10He's known.

00:29:11The realization lands slowly and then all at once and I think about every moment since

00:29:14he showed up at my door.

00:29:15The conference table, the handkerchief, the drawer full of condoms and understand that

00:29:19he has been pulling at this thread the entire time.

00:29:21I don't know what you're talking about.

00:29:23Do you know what happened to the last person who lied to me?

00:29:27I cut out their tongue and made them eat it.

00:29:29I hate them.

00:29:30I blink hard.

00:29:31He's a monster, I tell myself.

00:29:32Remember that.

00:29:33This isn't over.

00:29:35I know.

00:29:35It's never over.

00:29:36That's the problem.

00:29:39I walk in on Emilio's arm in a dress that cost more than three months of my old salary.

00:29:44Diamonds at my throat and I feel like a very convincing fake.

00:29:47Emilio greets people with a smile that doesn't touch his eyes and steers me through the room

00:29:51with a hand at the small of my back that feels like both a claim and a warning.

00:29:55Stay close.

00:29:56Don't talk to anyone.

00:29:57I'm not allowed to talk to people?

00:29:59You've caused enough trouble on your own.

00:30:01That wasn't in the contract.

00:30:02I'm a cartel boss, Mia.

00:30:04A contract won't stop me from doing whatever I want.

00:30:07I don't see Franco until his hand closes around my arm and yanks me into the shadows.

00:30:12Hello, little Mia.

00:30:13You didn't forget our deal?

00:30:15What are you doing here?

00:30:16Emilio invited.

00:30:17We go way back.

00:30:18Emilio invited him.

00:30:19The information sits in my chest like a stone.

00:30:21I think about the look on Emilio's face through the window.

00:30:23Furious.

00:30:23Deliberate.

00:30:24I think about this isn't over.

00:30:25You've been living with him for three weeks, little Mia.

00:30:28Why aren't you pregnant yet?

00:30:37What did you do to her?

00:30:38Nothing.

00:30:38We were just talking.

00:30:40Why don't you ask her?

00:30:41This is his land between us like a grenade.

00:30:44I watch Emilio's grip loosen, just slightly, just for a moment, and see it on his face, the recalculation, the

00:30:49betrayal trying to find its shape.

00:30:50Our eyes meet and I have never felt so exposed in my life.

00:30:54Then DeLeon is there, murmuring something about engagement photos, and Emilio exhales through his teeth and goes.

00:30:59I watch him walk away with his shoulders set and his jaw tight and something aching and hollow opens up

00:31:04in the middle of my chest.

00:31:05If you know something's wrong, tell him yourself before this ends badly.

00:31:09I can't.

00:31:11Under the bright lights of the photo area, Emanio and I stand six inches apart like strangers.

00:31:16The photographer keeps asking us to move closer.

00:31:18We comply in small, miserable increments.

00:31:20Is it that unborable standing next to me?

00:31:22Only when you're mad at me.

00:31:23I'm mad because you're hiding something.

00:31:25I can't.

00:31:25Perfect.

00:31:26Now give each other a little kiss.

00:31:28The silence that follows is approximately a thousand years long.

00:31:31Then Emilio grabs my chin and kisses me.

00:31:33It's not gentle.

00:31:33It's a question with teeth.

00:31:35Demanding and frustrated and searingly humiliatingly effective.

00:31:38The camera flashes go off like a small storm.

00:31:41That was my first kiss.

00:31:42That was my first kiss and he used it like prepuntuation.

00:31:47His mouth was just there.

00:31:49Angry and warm and nothing like I'd imagined and I have absolutely been imagining it and that is a problem

00:31:54I don't have time for right now.

00:31:56He was furious and I still got turned on.

00:31:59What is wrong with me?

00:32:01Did you sleep with him?

00:32:02What?

00:32:03Who?

00:32:03Franco Palagio.

00:32:04Is that what you're hiding?

00:32:05Is that why you wouldn't kiss me?

00:32:06No, I didn't sleep with him.

00:32:07You shoved me away like I was contagious.

00:32:08Because I couldn't breathe.

00:32:09I've never, I haven't.

00:32:09The fury in his expression shifts.

00:32:12Slowly, like a tide going out.

00:32:13It gives way to something quiet and more careful.

00:32:15Breathe through your nose.

00:32:16He presses his lips to mine and this time it's nothing like before.

00:32:19Soft, slow, like he's asking instead of taking.

00:32:22Oh.

00:32:22Like he has all the time in the world and intends to use it.

00:32:25One more.

00:32:26I don't say no.

00:32:26I don't say anything.

00:32:28He kisses me again, deeper, one hand sliding to the back of my neck and I stop being able to

00:32:32think in anything but sensation.

00:32:34Warmth and the smell of his cologne and the ridiculous inconvenient certainty that I am in very serious trouble.

00:32:39Say yes, ma'am.

00:32:40Yes.

00:32:43Then he stops.

00:32:44Not all at once.

00:32:45He trails his lips down my throat, unhurried, while I'm still trying to remember what air is for.

00:32:49His hands are at my waist, mine are in his hair.

00:32:51The whole world has narrowed down to this locked bathroom, this basin, his mouth.

00:32:54But I don't think you deserve it yet.

00:32:55What?

00:32:56You're still hiding something from me.

00:32:57You and my worst enemy.

00:32:58I can't tell you.

00:33:00I'm sorry.

00:33:00He drops to his knees in front of me, parting my legs, and I barely have time to process what's

00:33:05happening before his mouth is on me and my head snaps back

00:33:08and I forget every coherent thought I've ever had.

00:33:10You'll tell me eventually, before it's too late.

00:33:12He's using this against me.

00:33:14I know he's using this against me.

00:33:15I can't make myself care.

00:33:17A security guard threatening to break it down.

00:33:20Promise me you'll tell me the truth, or that guard walks in and finds you like this.

00:33:23That's...

00:33:24You can't!

00:33:24That's blackmail!

00:33:25Yes, I promise.

00:33:26I'll tell you everything.

00:33:28Turns back to me, eyes dark.

00:33:30Remember your promise.

00:33:33He leaves.

00:33:34I sit on the basin in the sudden quiet, chest heaving, ring glittering on my finger and press my hands

00:33:39to my face.

00:33:40He used pleasure as a weapon.

00:33:42And the worst part, the part I can't stop thinking about as I swipe off the basin and fix my

00:33:46lipstick and walk back out into the party,

00:33:47is that I would let him do it again.

00:33:52Sleep well?

00:33:53Hmm?

00:33:54You don't look like you slept well.

00:33:56I can arrange a sleep therapist.

00:33:58You used sex to blackrail me?

00:34:00No, I don't need a therapist.

00:34:01I need a cop.

00:34:02You think a cop would help?

00:34:03No, because you're the cartel king and you do whatever you want.

00:34:06Not everything I want.

00:34:08Not when it comes to you.

00:34:10I don't know what to do with that.

00:34:11I look at my hands.

00:34:12I don't like being lied to, Mia.

00:34:14I grew up in this world.

00:34:15Betrayal is the worst sin there is.

00:34:17But I'll wait.

00:34:17Tell me when you're ready.

00:34:19Something in my chest loosens just slightly.

00:34:21The first millimeter of relief in weeks.

00:34:23I'll tell you.

00:34:24At the right time.

00:34:25I need to think it through.

00:34:26That's all I need.

00:34:28I have money.

00:34:29You have peanuts.

00:34:30Buy whatever you want.

00:34:31I'll see you tonight, fiance.

00:34:33I look up from five credit cards and the ring on my finger and the ghost of his mouth

00:34:36on mine and I think about Tobos and Franco's deadline and the promise I made in a locked

00:34:41bathroom.

00:34:41I'll tell him.

00:34:42At the right time.

00:34:43My phone buzzes.

00:34:44It's a message from an unknown number.

00:34:46A photo.

00:34:47Toas.

00:34:47Beaten.

00:34:48Barely consciousness.

00:34:49A map pin.

00:34:50One line of text.

00:34:51Come alone.

00:34:52I'm running some errands today.

00:34:53You can come along.

00:34:54Let's see how long you last.

00:34:58I know that's what it was.

00:35:00A list of errands Emilio had quietly arranged.

00:35:02A list of things I was supposed to need.

00:35:04A list of reasons to stay close to the house.

00:35:06I ditched them at the corner of Fifth and Carriter, slipped into a doorway while they ran past in

00:35:11the wrong direction, and stood there for three whole seconds, feeling like I'd actually

00:35:15won something.

00:35:16The address was a neighborhood that had given up on itself.

00:35:18Cracked pavement.

00:35:19Board windows.

00:35:20A smell like rust and old rain.

00:35:22The building at the end of the block looked like it was held together by habit.

00:35:25I pushed the door open anyway.

00:35:28He needs me, I told myself.

00:35:29He can't hurt me yet.

00:35:31There's no baby.

00:35:32The whole scene arranged like something from a bad movie.

00:35:36Little Mia.

00:35:37Took you long enough.

00:35:38I had to get rid of Emilio's people.

00:35:40I'm not talking about that.

00:35:41I'm talking about why you're not pregnant.

00:35:42He looked up when he heard me, my stomach turned.

00:35:44He started pulling one of the women closer, making a show of it, watching my face.

00:35:50When something slammed into the building from the back.

00:35:53A sound like the world rearranging itself.

00:36:01Franco got one hand on my arm before a gunshot punched through the air, and he dropped.

00:36:10Emilio stood in the doorway, guns still raised, still smoking.

00:36:14He looked at Franco on the floor for exactly one second.

00:36:19Then he looked at me.

00:36:21You okay?

00:36:22Did he hurt you?

00:36:22I couldn't make words happen.

00:36:24I just shook my head against his chest and kept shaking.

00:36:28Take care of the rest.

00:36:29We're leaving.

00:36:30Then he lifted me.

00:36:31Literally lifted me.

00:36:32And carried me out of that building like I weighed nothing.

00:36:35Like it was the most natural thing in the world.

00:36:37Like he'd been doing it his whole life.

00:36:39Outside, the afternoon light was so ordinary it almost hurt.

00:36:44I kept waiting for him to put me down to say something cold.

00:36:47To remind me that this was a contract and feelings weren't included.

00:36:51He didn't.

00:36:52He just held me against his chest in the back seat while Diego drove and the city slipped past the

00:36:55windows like a film I wasn't part of.

00:36:57He set me on the living room sofa, carefully, gently, and told the staff to leave with a single look.

00:37:02The room emptied in seconds.

00:37:04It was just us, and the afternoon quiet, and the weight of everything that had happened in that filthy room.

00:37:09He threatened my cousin.

00:37:11He wanted me to have your baby so he could use the child as leverage against you.

00:37:15Why didn't you come to me?

00:37:16He said he'd kill Tomas if I did.

00:37:18Your cousin was working with Valadio.

00:37:20He owed him money.

00:37:21They built this trap together.

00:37:23For you.

00:37:24The word together landed like a stone.

00:37:28What?

00:37:29He gambled himself into a grave.

00:37:31Valadio owned him.

00:37:32I stared at my hands.

00:37:34The whole architecture of the pastures rearranged itself in my head.

00:37:37Toa sweeping on my floor.

00:37:38The threats.

00:37:39All of it planned.

00:37:40All of it aimed at me.

00:37:41Sorry isn't gonna cut it.

00:38:10I thought he was going to be cold about it.

00:38:13You're not comfortable.

00:38:13As much as I own you.

00:38:16Kiss me like you own me.

00:38:17His jaw worked.

00:38:19He said something about not being able to stop once he started.

00:38:22I didn't let him finish.

00:38:23I grabbed his collar and pulled him down to me, and for one second he went still with pure shock.

00:38:28And then he took over, kissing me like he'd been keeping it locked up for months, which I think he

00:38:32had.

00:38:32Yes.

00:38:34Do whatever you want me.

00:38:36Punish me.

00:38:37Fuck me like you own me.

00:38:38He looked at me for a long moment.

00:38:40Something fierce and half undone in his face.

00:38:44Don't say I didn't warn you, Mia.

00:38:50There's a mirror above the dresser in his bedroom.

00:38:53I didn't notice it until he bent me over the drawers and his mouth found my neck.

00:38:56And I looked up and saw us.

00:38:58His hands in my hair, my face flushed, his eyes burning into mine through the glass.

00:39:02Look in the mirror.

00:39:03Look how slutty you get from me.

00:39:06I couldn't look away.

00:39:07I'm the only one who gets to see you like this.

00:39:09Do you understand?

00:39:11Yes.

00:39:11Lift your dress.

00:39:13Watch when I take you.

00:39:15What followed I will not describe in detail because there are no adequate words for it.

00:39:19I'll say that every time my eyes dropped, he cupped my chin and brought my gaze back to the mirror.

00:39:24Mine.

00:39:24Every time he said mine, I believed him more completely than I've believed anything in my life.

00:39:29Mine.

00:39:31Mine.

00:39:34Mine.

00:39:35Afterward, we lay in the dark, his arm across my waist, his breath slow and even.

00:39:39I stared at the ceiling and felt the particular silence of someone who has crossed a line they

00:39:44can't cross back over.

00:39:45You own me, Mia Espinoza.

00:39:47I pressed my face into his shoulder and tried not to feel how much I wanted that to be true.

00:39:51Don't fall, I told myself.

00:39:52I was already falling.

00:39:56One week later, I came home to flowers.

00:39:59That's not quite accurate.

00:40:00I came home to an abundance of flowers.

00:40:02A proliferation.

00:40:03A situation that had clearly escalated well beyond what any reasonable person would call a floral arrangement.

00:40:08Every surface in the living room held a different vase.

00:40:11The whole space smelled like a greenhouse had moved in while I was out.

00:40:13Standing in the middle of it introducing herself with a warm professional smile was a woman named Ollie.

00:40:19She was in her 30s, polished, very pretty, and she was looking at the door behind me in a way

00:40:23that told me exactly who she was waiting for.

00:40:25Emilio came in 30 seconds later.

00:40:27He stopped, swept his eyes across the flowers, then across me, and something in his face went immediately soft and

00:40:32that way it only does when it's just us.

00:40:33Hello, wife. I missed you.

00:40:36He dropped kisses on my forehead.

00:40:38I held his forearms and forgot for a moment that there was a third person in the room.

00:40:43You must be Mr. Reyes.

00:40:44I'm Ollie. I'm helping Mrs. Reyes with the wedding florets.

00:40:47Emilio looked at all the flowers again.

00:40:49How many flowers does a wedding need?

00:40:52As many as I like. You told me I could have whatever I wanted.

00:40:55He leaned in close, eyes warming.

00:40:58I was thinking of something else entirely when I said that.

00:41:01I shoved his chest. He laughed and pulled me into his side.

00:41:05I didn't notice Ollie's expression yet. I would.

00:41:11The roses were imported from Bulgaria, apparently.

00:41:15Perfect for expressing passion.

00:41:18A good fit for your character, sir.

00:41:20I looked at Emilio. He was looking at me.

00:41:23What do you think?

00:41:24They look pretty.

00:41:25Ollie pivoted to Lily's before I finished the sentence.

00:41:28They open with just a little attention.

00:41:31And her eyes lingered on Emilio the way eyes linger when they're not really looking at flowers.

00:41:37They look cheap.

00:41:38Then orchids.

00:41:40High maintained in it.

00:41:41But a man like you can definitely afford to spoil someone.

00:41:45Stop.

00:41:46Both of them looked at me.

00:41:47I know what you're doing.

00:41:49And I don't like it.

00:41:52Ollie gave me a polished, innocent smile.

00:41:55Mrs. Reyes, I assure you-

00:41:57It's Mrs. Reyes.

00:41:58You're flirting with my man in my house.

00:42:01I don't like that.

00:42:03Emilio made a sound that was almost a laugh.

00:42:05He lowered his mouth to my ear.

00:42:07You're about to become a mob queen.

00:42:09Show her your claws.

00:42:10I turned back to Ollie.

00:42:12You're fired.

00:42:13You heard my wife.

00:42:14Security came.

00:42:15She went.

00:42:17The door closed.

00:42:18Emilio was grinning.

00:42:20You called me your man.

00:42:21Because you are.

00:42:24I told him he was sleeping on the couch.

00:42:26In respect, this was optimistic of me.

00:42:29For what sin exactly?

00:42:30You didn't shut her down.

00:42:32You just stood there.

00:42:34I was looking at you the whole time.

00:42:35I didn't hear a word she said.

00:42:37That's not the point.

00:42:38Couch.

00:42:39I turned to walk away.

00:42:41He caught my wrist.

00:42:42I had about one second of thinking I'd won before he lifted me over his shoulder like I was a

00:42:47bag he was rearranging.

00:42:50I squealed.

00:42:51I couldn't help it.

00:42:52Put me down!

00:42:54You'll be down when I decide you're down.

00:42:56He carried me out of the room while I laughed and hit his back and told him he was ridiculous.

00:43:01He ignored all of it with complete serenity.

00:43:03On the other side of the city, in the abandoned house where Franco had died, Damien moved through the filthy

00:43:08rooms alone.

00:43:09He stopped at the body, crouched down, studied what was left of the man who had been his instrument.

00:43:14He stood up slowly.

00:43:17Coward.

00:43:18He looked around at the decay, the silence, the ruined plan.

00:43:24Then he pulled out his phone.

00:43:26Guess I'm on my own now.

00:43:30The letter appeared with breakfast.

00:43:33Morning wife, you got a letter.

00:43:37I read the first line and went completely still.

00:43:39It was an admission letter.

00:43:40Nursing school.

00:43:41I never applied for this.

00:43:43I did.

00:43:44He said it casually like it was obvious.

00:43:46Like the most natural thing in the world was for a cartel boff to submit nursing school applications on behalf

00:43:50of a woman he'd coerced into a contract marriage.

00:43:53How did you even know I wanted to go back?

00:43:55He stopped moving.

00:43:57Turned to look at me, with an expression I'd never seen on him before.

00:44:00Completely serious.

00:44:02Completely open.

00:44:03The night you saved me, you said you were a nursing school dropout.

00:44:07The storage room.

00:44:08The blood.

00:44:10His voice fading in and out as I pressed gauze to his chest.

00:44:14Trying to keep him here.

00:44:16I'm a nursing school dropout.

00:44:18You'll survive.

00:44:20He'd been carrying that for months.

00:44:22I listened to everything you say.

00:44:24He took my hand and kissed the back of it.

00:44:25Told me the semester started on the 18th.

00:44:27Two weeks.

00:44:28He'd arranged bodyguards.

00:44:29I started to object.

00:44:30He said two.

00:44:30Not a convoy.

00:44:31And I let it go.

00:44:32Then I sat very still.

00:44:33Looking at the letter.

00:44:35The 18th.

00:44:36My period was late.

00:44:37More than late.

00:44:39I thought about the soreness I'd been ignoring for a week.

00:44:41And a cold plerry moved through me.

00:44:43Fast and certain.

00:44:45Bathroom.

00:44:47I was already gone.

00:44:52I sat on the bathroom floor for a long time.

00:44:56The test was in my hand.

00:44:57Two lines.

00:44:59Unmistakable.

00:45:00Sitting there in the morning light like the simplest and most complicated fact in the world.

00:45:05Pregnant.

00:45:06I pressed my palm flat against my stomach.

00:45:09Nothing felt different yet.

00:45:11The same body.

00:45:11The same skin.

00:45:12But somewhere in there something had started.

00:45:15Something that was half me and half the man in the kitchen who had kissed the back of my hand

00:45:19and said,

00:45:19I listened to everything you say.

00:45:20The man who had carried me out of that building.

00:45:23Who said you own me and meant it with his whole body.

00:45:26The man I needed to tell.

00:45:28I thought about what it meant to be pregnant with the cartel king's child.

00:45:31The leverage of it.

00:45:32The danger of it.

00:45:33The way a baby becomes a weapon in this world whether you want it to or not.

00:45:36I thought about Tomos.

00:45:39About all the traps I'd walked into already.

00:45:42And then I stopped thinking about danger and just felt it.

00:45:45I'm going to be a mother.

00:45:47Emilio is going to be a father.

00:45:49I wiped my face.

00:45:51Stood up.

00:45:52Opened the door.

00:45:53Diego was in the hall.

00:45:55Where's Emilio?

00:45:57Meeting miss.

00:45:58With Damian.

00:45:59Take me to him.

00:46:01Please.

00:46:02It's important.

00:46:03The boss doesn't like to be disturbed.

00:46:06But something in my face must have convinced him.

00:46:09He nodded.

00:46:11I followed him out.

00:46:12The test folded in my palm.

00:46:14My heart running ahead of my feet.

00:46:19Diego walked me to the study door and left.

00:46:22I could hear voices inside.

00:46:24Emilio and Damrian.

00:46:25Low and urgent.

00:46:26I raised my hand to knock and stopped.

00:46:28The test was still in my palm.

00:46:30Two lines.

00:46:31The most important thing I'd ever held.

00:46:33Then Imadio's voice cut through the door.

00:46:36Mia's cousin?

00:46:37He's a fucking clown.

00:46:39My hand dropped.

00:46:40I stood very still.

00:46:41I knew I should walk away.

00:46:43I knew that eavesdropping on the Cartel Kings private meetings was the kind of thing that ended badly in this

00:46:48world.

00:46:49I pressed my ear to the door anyway.

00:46:51He could have been useful.

00:46:53He's Mia's only blood relative.

00:46:55Tied to Palosio's mob.

00:46:58It was leverage.

00:47:01What the hell is going on with you?

00:47:03I'm just saying, as the East Coast Cartel King, you could play more strategically.

00:47:08Like, not shooting your cousin-in-law in the head.

00:47:10My blood went cold.

00:47:16I couldn't move.

00:47:17What I have with Mia is none of your fucking business.

00:47:20Damian said something else.

00:47:22Something about fixing things with her.

00:47:24Keeping Tomas alive as a peace offering.

00:47:27But the words were coming through water now.

00:47:29Muffled and distant.

00:47:30Shooting your cousin-in-law in the head.

00:47:34Tomas was dead.

00:47:36Emilio had killed him.

00:47:38My cousin.

00:47:39The only blood family I'd left.

00:47:41The person whose life I'd accepted a mob marriage to save.

00:47:43And Emilio had shot him.

00:47:45While Tomas was under his roof.

00:47:47While I was sleeping down the hall, thinking I'd kept him safe.

00:47:51Damian said something about the forged will next.

00:47:54Lying about her inheritance just to marry her.

00:47:56A sound at the door.

00:47:58Emilio's voice sharpened.

00:48:00Who's there?

00:48:05I turned and ran.

00:48:08I was packing before I fully decided to pack.

00:48:12The suitcase was open on the bed.

00:48:13And my hands were moving.

00:48:15And the test was still in my fist.

00:48:17I don't know why I kept holding it.

00:48:19And Emilio came through the door 20 seconds later.

00:48:22Face pale.

00:48:23Wait.

00:48:24What are you doing?

00:48:25What does it look like?

00:48:27Mia, let's talk.

00:48:28I don't negotiate with the devil.

00:48:30I tried to pass him.

00:48:31He grabbed my arm.

00:48:33Stop.

00:48:34Let's talk.

00:48:34I jerked free.

00:48:36You lied.

00:48:37You killed my cousin.

00:48:38Then you lied again.

00:48:40There's nothing left to say.

00:48:41He exhaled.

00:48:42Sharp and frustrated.

00:48:44Is killing your scumbag cousin really that big of a deal?

00:48:46I stared at him.

00:48:47I waited for a moment to feel shocked.

00:48:49But there was none left.

00:48:50Of course he said that.

00:48:51Of course.

00:48:51He was a criminal boss who ran an empire built on violence.

00:48:54And I had somehow convinced myself that the version of him who kissed my forehead and listened to everything I

00:48:58said was the real one.

00:48:59Does a human life mean anything to you?

00:49:02I'm a criminal boss.

00:49:04You knew that when you signed the contract.

00:49:08Which you forged.

00:49:10My aunt never wanted me to marry you, did she?

00:49:15A long silence.

00:49:16He didn't deny it.

00:49:18You added the marriage clause to trap me.

00:49:21So what?

00:49:22I run a mob.

00:49:23Be grateful I didn't take you by force.

00:49:26The words landed like a slap.

00:49:27Grateful.

00:49:28He wanted me to be grateful.

00:49:29So grateful.

00:49:31Grateful you dragged me into this hell.

00:49:33Got my cousin killed and got me-

00:49:35The test was still in my hand.

00:49:37I looked down at it.

00:49:38The two lines looked back.

00:49:40You'll never know, I thought.

00:49:41You don't deserve to.

00:49:43I zipped the suitcase shut.

00:49:48Just let me go, Emilio.

00:49:49You know I can't.

00:49:51In one motion, I reached across him and grabbed the gun from his hip.

00:49:54I had it pressed against myself before I'd thought about what I was doing.

00:49:57The barrel cold against my ribs.

00:49:59My hands shaking.

00:50:00Tears running down my face.

00:50:02Mia.

00:50:03His voice had changed completely.

00:50:06All the cold stripped out of it.

00:50:08Either you let me walk out.

00:50:10Or I pull this trigger.

00:50:14He went very still.

00:50:15Then he extended his hand.

00:50:17Palm up.

00:50:18The way you'd extend a hand to a frightened animal.

00:50:21Give me the gun.

00:50:22And I'll let you leave.

00:50:24Just like that?

00:50:25I-

00:50:26Yes.

00:50:27You know I can't say no to you.

00:50:30Just give me the gun.

00:50:31Please.

00:50:33The please undid something in my chest.

00:50:36I hated that it did.

00:50:38After a long moment, I laid the gun in his palm.

00:50:41He tucked it away without breaking eye contact.

00:50:44We can fix this.

00:50:45We can pretend none of this happened.

00:50:47I can't pretend.

00:50:50Everything between us was built on lies.

00:50:51He stepped closer.

00:50:53His voice dropped.

00:50:54Thick with something he was fighting to contain.

00:50:57My feelings for you aren't lies.

00:50:59A tear ran down my face.

00:51:00I looked at his face.

00:51:02Really looked at it.

00:51:03This man who had saved me and lied to me and killed my cousin and kissed my forehead in the

00:51:08morning.

00:51:08All of it true at the same time.

00:51:10None of it simple.

00:51:11I took his hand.

00:51:12I placed the ring in his palm.

00:51:14Goodbye Emilio.

00:51:16He stood frozen, fist closing around the ring, as I walked out the door.

00:51:23I went to Serena's.

00:51:25She opened the door before I finished knocking, took one look at my face, and pulled me inside without asking

00:51:30any questions.

00:51:31She made tea.

00:51:33She handed me tissues.

00:51:34She sat with me on the sofa and let me cry until there was nothing left.

00:51:38Then she waited.

00:51:39He killed my cousin.

00:51:43He lied about the inheritance.

00:51:47Everything from the beginning was fabricated to get me into that house.

00:51:51Serena was very quiet.

00:51:53She handed me another tissue.

00:51:58Too quiet.

00:52:00I looked at her.

00:52:03Serena.

00:52:04He killed my cousin.

00:52:06Why aren't you shocked?

00:52:08She couldn't meet my eyes.

00:52:10Serena.

00:52:12Why do you look like you already knew?

00:52:14A long silence.

00:52:16The kind that means the answer is going to change things.

00:52:18I brought Thomas to him.

00:52:20The room tilted.

00:52:22What?

00:52:26My dad is a Mafia Dawn.

00:52:29I heard the words.

00:52:31I processed them in a very distant, clinical way.

00:52:35The way you process information that is too large to fit into the ordinary world.

00:52:41You lied to me.

00:52:44For five years.

00:52:46I hid it to protect you.

00:52:49So you'd never get dragged into this mob world.

00:52:52But then Emilio showed up and-

00:52:54Did you know he killed my cousin?

00:52:56The silence that followed was the worst silence of my life.

00:53:00Yes.

00:53:02Emilio shot your cousin in front of me.

00:53:04I pulled away from her.

00:53:05She reached for my arm.

00:53:08Mia, please.

00:53:09My family doesn't change who I am, what you mean to me.

00:53:15You sound just like him.

00:53:17I lied to protect you.

00:53:20You watched him die and you didn't tell me?

00:53:23I stood up.

00:53:25She scrambled after me, saying my name, reaching for my arm.

00:53:29I got to the door.

00:53:31Mia, wait!

00:53:32We're done, Serena.

00:53:33I ran.

00:53:36The street was cold.

00:53:39Serena chased me for half a block before her phone rang and she stopped.

00:53:42I didn't look back.

00:53:43I just walked.

00:53:44Arms wrapped around myself.

00:53:46No destination.

00:53:47No plan.

00:53:47Just moving because stopping felt like drowning.

00:53:49I thought about my mother, who had died and left me in a world I didn't understand.

00:53:53I thought about Toas, who had sold me to a monster for gambling debts.

00:53:56I thought about the ring I'd left in Emilio's hand and the test still folded in my pocket

00:54:00and the fact that I was pregnant and alone in the dark with nowhere to go.

00:54:03The city moved around me, indifferent.

00:54:06A car slowed alongside me.

00:54:08I squinted.

00:54:10Emilio?

00:54:10The door opened.

00:54:12Not Emilio.

00:54:13Damien.

00:54:18Relax.

00:54:19I'm not dragging you anywhere.

00:54:21Then what do you want?

00:54:22I have orders to stay with you.

00:54:25But...

00:54:26I can take you to a safe house.

00:54:28Emanuel won't know.

00:54:29He watched my face.

00:54:31Patient.

00:54:31Almost gentle.

00:54:33I can even get you out of the country.

00:54:37I stared at him.

00:54:38Damien was smiling that easy smile, hands in his pockets, like he was offering him a ride to the airport.

00:54:44Nothing in his face looked wrong.

00:54:45Why would you help me?

00:54:46You're his brother.

00:54:48I'd like to balance out some of the bad I've done.

00:54:50I'll handle your phone.

00:54:52He put a tracker on it.

00:54:53Even works when it's off.

00:54:55I looked down at my phone.

00:54:57I looked down at my phone.

00:54:57Then at him.

00:54:58Then at the dark street, stretching in both directions with nowhere to go.

00:55:02I handed him the phone.

00:55:03He took it, and I climbed into the back seat.

00:55:06I was so tired.

00:55:08I was so tired of being afraid.

00:55:10Of running.

00:55:10Of trying to stay one step ahead of men with more power than I would ever have.

00:55:14The leather seat was warm.

00:55:15Damien got into the front without speaking.

00:55:17There's water in the back if you need it.

00:55:21I reached for the bottle.

00:55:23Opened it.

00:55:24Took a long drink.

00:55:25Thank you Damien.

00:55:26You're a good man.

00:55:27He watched me in the rear view mirror, and something moved across his face that I didn't have time to

00:55:32read.

00:55:35The water tasted like water.

00:55:37That was the last thing I registered clearly.

00:55:40Then the edges of the window started to blur.

00:55:43The street lights smeared into long yellow streaks.

00:55:46My hand felt very heavy.

00:55:48I looked down at the bottle in my lap and thought, distantly, that something was wrong.

00:55:53What?

00:55:56The thought didn't finish.

00:55:58I slumped sideways and the world went out like a light.

00:56:02In the front seat, Damien watched me through the mirror.

00:56:06His easy smile had changed into something else entirely.

00:56:10Something that had been waiting behind it all along.

00:56:13Sweet little Mia.

00:56:14You have no idea what's coming.

00:56:16For you, or for my arrogant half-brother.

00:56:22We're on our way.

00:56:24Have the island ready.

00:56:25Outside, the city lights slid past and fell behind us,

00:56:28and Emilio's mansion disappeared into the dark.

00:56:31And I was gone before I knew I'd been taken.

00:56:35I woke up to the sound of ocean.

00:56:37That was wrong.

00:56:39I lived in the city.

00:56:40The city didn't sound like that.

00:56:42Steady and vast and indifferent, like breathing from a long way away.

00:56:46I lay still for a moment with my eyes closed.

00:56:49Waiting for the world to reassemble itself into something familiar.

00:56:53It didn't.

00:56:54I opened my eyes.

00:56:55An unfamiliar room.

00:56:56Whitewashed walls.

00:56:58Wooden shutters.

00:56:59Light coming in sideways in gold.

00:57:00Not a hotel.

00:57:01Not anywhere I'd ever been.

00:57:03I got up and went to the window.

00:57:06Trees.

00:57:07Ocean.

00:57:08Nothing else in any direction.

00:57:10The door opened behind me.

00:57:11Good.

00:57:12You're awake.

00:57:14I turned around.

00:57:17He was standing in the frame, hands in his pockets,

00:57:20looking pleased with himself in that particular way

00:57:22that meant something had gone exactly according to plan.

00:57:25Where am I?

00:57:26Somewhere no one can find you.

00:57:28Not even my brother.

00:57:30The memory came back all at once.

00:57:33The car.

00:57:34The water.

00:57:35The bottle in my hand.

00:57:36The edges of the window blurring.

00:57:39You kidnapped me.

00:57:41Smart girl.

00:57:42I see why Emilio kept you around.

00:57:45But not smart enough.

00:57:47He moved into the room.

00:57:49And I stepped back until the wall found me.

00:57:55He told me about Palacio.

00:57:58Not the way I'd understood it.

00:57:59Franco is Emilio's enemy, using me as a pawn.

00:58:01Damian had been behind Franco the whole time.

00:58:04He'd found my cousin the moment he ran my background check.

00:58:06He'd built the trap, handed Tomas to Franco,

00:58:08and watched the whole thing play out from inside Emilio's house.

00:58:11Franco Palano was a fucking idiot.

00:58:13But he was a useful one.

00:58:15Until your cartel king shot him in the head.

00:58:18My cousin died because of you.

00:58:21His expression didn't change.

00:58:23I slapped him.

00:58:24His head snapped sideways.

00:58:26A beat of absolute silence.

00:58:28Then he turned back.

00:58:29And the easy smile was gone.

00:58:31Replaced by something that had always been underneath it.

00:58:35He grabbed my throat and slammed me into the wall.

00:58:39You're lucky I need you.

00:58:41Or I'd choke the life out of you right now.

00:58:44His eyes moved over me in a way that made my skin crawl.

00:58:47If my cold-hearted brother is obsessed with you,

00:58:50there must be something worth exploring.

00:58:52He leaned in.

00:58:55I bit him.

00:58:56Hard.

00:58:59He pulled back with a snarl.

00:59:01And I saw his arm draw back.

00:59:03Don't.

00:59:03Please.

00:59:04I'm pregnant.

00:59:05His fist stopped.

00:59:06The room went very quiet.

00:59:08Damian stared at me.

00:59:09The hiri draining out of his face.

00:59:11And being replaced by something more dangerous.

00:59:13Calculation.

00:59:14You're pregnant.

00:59:16With Emilio's baby?

00:59:18I nodded.

00:59:19I nodded.

00:59:19My throat ached where his hand had been.

00:59:20He stepped back.

00:59:21Then he started laughing.

00:59:23Really laughing.

00:59:24The kind that fills a room.

00:59:25And I stood against the wall and watched him and felt a cold, creeping dread.

00:59:29Oh, this is gold.

00:59:30Palami actually pulled it off.

00:59:32I thought his plan to knock you up was ridiculous.

00:59:34Emilio would never.

00:59:35Never what?

00:59:35There's a rumor he's infertile.

00:59:37Maybe it's real.

00:59:38Maybe he spread it so women wouldn't chase him.

00:59:40Either way, you and that baby just changed everything.

00:59:42He headed for the door, still grinning.

00:59:45What are you going to do to me?

00:59:46He turned, one hand on the frame.

00:59:49Relax.

00:59:51I was gonna let my men have some fun with you.

00:59:54But now...

00:59:56I need that baby unharmed.

01:00:00He told me about the island.

01:00:04Pacific.

01:00:05Private.

01:00:06Surrounded by his army.

01:00:08And buried in the ground all around the house.

01:00:10Explosives.

01:00:11Enough to bring everything down.

01:00:13Triggered by a detonator he kept on his person.

01:00:15If Emilio tries anything...

01:00:17Boom.

01:00:18Then he left me there.

01:00:20I slid down the wall and sat on the floor and tried to think.

01:00:24The ocean kept making its vast, inameriant sound outside the shuttered window.

01:00:29You're on a private Pacific island.

01:00:31Surrounded by a full army.

01:00:33With bombs underneath you.

01:00:35I pressed both hands flat against my stomach.

01:00:38I'm going to get us out of here.

01:00:40I didn't know if that was true.

01:00:42I said it anyway because someone had to.

01:00:45I thought about the note Emilio had tucked into a nursing school envelope.

01:00:49I listened to everything you say.

01:00:51I thought about the way he'd lifted me out of Franco's building like I was something worth carrying.

01:00:56I thought about his fist closing around my ring.

01:00:59Find me, I thought.

01:01:00Please find me.

01:01:03The door stayed closed.

01:01:05The ocean kept breathing.

01:01:07I stayed on the floor and I waited.

01:01:11On the third night, a hand touched my shoulder.

01:01:14I jolted awake, already pulling back, already opening my mouth to scream and a hand covered it.

01:01:18A familiar weight, a familiar smell.

01:01:20Mia, it's me.

01:01:22A voice in my ear, barely a breath.

01:01:25I collapsed into him.

01:01:26He held me for exactly three seconds.

01:01:28His arms around me, his chin on my head, the realness of him solid and overwhelming.

01:01:33And then he pulled back and cupped my face and checked me the way he'd checked me in the warehouse

01:01:37all those months ago.

01:01:39Systematic and frantic at the same time.

01:01:41Are you hurt?

01:01:42No.

01:01:43How did you-

01:01:43Serena, and your mafia princess friend has a helicopter.

01:01:46He pressed his lips to my forehead, quick and fierce.

01:01:49Follow my lead, we're heading to the chopper.

01:01:50Stay close, stay quiet.

01:01:51He had a gun in his hand.

01:01:53He opened the door, checked the corridor, and guided me out into the dark.

01:01:58We made it thirty feet.

01:02:00Damien's voice came from ahead of us, easy and amused, like he'd been waiting.

01:02:05Since when does the Cartel King use knockout drugs to sneak in?

01:02:09Emilio stopped, gun raised.

01:02:11Since when do you skip dinner?

01:02:16Damien stepped out of the shadows.

01:02:18In his hand, raised between two fingers like a cigarette, was the Dectinator.

01:02:24Since the day Dad handed you the Cartel.

01:02:28His thumb hovered over the button.

01:02:30Emilio moved in front of me without thinking about it, blocking me with his body.

01:02:34Drop the gun, brother.

01:02:40Emilio dropped it.

01:02:42You want the Cartel?

01:02:43Fine.

01:02:44I'll give it to you.

01:02:45I don't want the stupid mob!

01:02:47It's you!

01:02:48It's always been you!

01:02:49His voice had broken open, and underneath the ease and the planning and the long, patient

01:02:53game was something rawer.

01:02:55Something that had been sitting in that house for years, growing in the dark.

01:02:58Then take me.

01:03:00Do whatever you want.

01:03:01But let Mia go.

01:03:03Don't drag her into this.

01:03:06It happened in less than a second.

01:03:08Emilio crossing the corridor in two strides, shoulder dropping, crashing into his brother.

01:03:12The Dectinator flew from Damien's hand.

01:03:14But Damien's smile came back.

01:03:15Colder than before.

01:03:16No.

01:03:19Your offspring isn't getting out today either.

01:03:22He turned to me, slowly, and in that moment nothing in his face was the Cartel King.

01:03:27Nothing was the man who made rooms go silent and had people removed.

01:03:31He just looked at me like I was the only thing in the room that mattered.

01:03:34You're pregnant.

01:03:36I nodded.

01:03:37His jaw set.

01:03:39He turned back to Damien.

01:03:41Not happening.

01:03:45Then we all die.

01:03:47His thumb moved.

01:03:49Emilio lunged.

01:03:50He of them hit the window behind them and went through it in a shower of glass and frame

01:03:55and night air.

01:03:59Emilio!

01:04:01Silence.

01:04:03Then the night outside was just the ocean and the dark and the sound of my own breathing.

01:04:08Ragged and desperate.

01:04:10I ran for the door.

01:04:13They were both on the ground outside.

01:04:17Unconscious.

01:04:18Not moving.

01:04:19Damien face down in the dirt.

01:04:21Emilio on his back with his eyes closed and one arm thrown wide and glass in his hair.

01:04:26I heard voices.

01:04:27Serena.

01:04:28Marco.

01:04:29Running toward me.

01:04:30I dropped to my knees beside Emilio.

01:04:35Emilio!

01:04:36Emilio!

01:04:37Wake up!

01:04:38We have to go!

01:04:39Mia!

01:04:41Marco was already beside me, hands on Emilio's chest, pressing and counting.

01:04:45I sat there and held Emilio's hand and watched Marco's face and couldn't breathe.

01:04:52Come back.

01:04:53Come back.

01:04:54Come back.

01:04:56Come back.

01:04:57Cough.

01:04:59Emilio coughed.

01:05:00His chest heaved.

01:05:02His eyes opened.

01:05:04Everyone let out a breath at the same time.

01:05:07I'm okay.

01:05:09I'm okay.

01:05:10We need to move.

01:05:11He started to get up.

01:05:12I helped him, my hands shaking.

01:05:14Chopper's ready!

01:05:15This way!

01:05:17Emilio stood.

01:05:18Unsteady.

01:05:19And looked at Damien's limp body.

01:05:23You go ahead.

01:05:25I need to finish him.

01:05:29I'm not leaving you.

01:05:30You wanna watch me shoot my own brother?

01:05:33I don't care!

01:05:36You're pregnant, Mia.

01:05:38Go.

01:05:39His voice was gentle, but final.

01:05:41The voice that meant he'd already decided.

01:05:43Promise you'll come.

01:05:45I promise.

01:05:47Serena took my arm.

01:05:48I let her pull me away,

01:05:49looking back over my shoulder

01:05:50at Emilio standing over his brother in the dark.

01:05:53He didn't look back at me.

01:05:54He was already somewhere else.

01:05:55Somewhere cold and necessary.

01:05:57He's going to be fine!

01:05:58He's Emilio Reyes!

01:05:59We were 20 yards from the house.

01:06:01Then 30.

01:06:02The helicopter was somewhere ahead.

01:06:04Its blades beginning to turn.

01:06:06I kept walking.

01:06:07He promised.

01:06:08He promised.

01:06:12The world turned white.

01:06:13The sound hit me a full second after the light.

01:06:17A wall of pressure and noise that knocked me sideways.

01:06:20Serena's grip tearing loose.

01:06:22I turned around.

01:06:23The house was on fire.

01:06:25Not catching fire.

01:06:27Already fire.

01:06:28Instant and total.

01:06:29A column of flame reaching up into the dark sky.

01:06:31The windows gone.

01:06:33The roof already folding.

01:06:34The air tasted like smoke.

01:06:37I couldn't move.

01:06:39Serena was saying something.

01:06:41Marco was saying something.

01:06:42The helicopter blades were louder now.

01:06:44Someone was pulling at my arm.

01:06:45And I couldn't move.

01:06:46Because Emilio was in that house.

01:06:48And he had promised.

01:06:49And he was in that house.

01:06:51The word came out of me like something being torn out.

01:06:55Serena had both arms around me from behind.

01:06:57Holding me back.

01:06:58I fought her.

01:06:59I don't remember deciding to fight her.

01:07:01My body just refused to go anywhere without him.

01:07:07Marco was already running back toward the burning house.

01:07:10Calling into his radio.

01:07:11I stopped fighting.

01:07:13I just stood there in Serena's arms.

01:07:15And watched the fire eat the house.

01:07:17And felt the heat on my face.

01:07:19And thought about a man in a study saying.

01:07:20I listened to everything you say.

01:07:22And a man in a corridor with his shoulder dropping.

01:07:24And his body going through glass.

01:07:26Going through glass to keep a detonator out of his brother's hand.

01:07:29Going through glass for me.

01:07:31The flames climbed higher.

01:07:33The night was orange and black.

01:07:34I pressed both hands over the small life inside me.

01:07:38And I waited.

01:07:39And I waited.

01:07:40And I waited.

01:07:41And no one came.

01:07:45Five months later.

01:07:46That's what the subtitle would say if my life were a movie.

01:07:49Five months later.

01:07:51A neat jump cut.

01:07:53All the grief.

01:07:54And the waiting.

01:07:55And the nights I lay awake with one hand on my stomach.

01:07:58And the other pressed to my mouth to keep quiet.

01:08:00Compressed into three words.

01:08:01And a hard cut to a woman on a street corner in white gloves.

01:08:05Me.

01:08:06I'm eight months pregnant.

01:08:07And I'm wearing white gloves.

01:08:09And I'm standing on a sidewalk watching a homeless man run.

01:08:12He thinks he's running from the two cars that boxed him in.

01:08:17He's not.

01:08:18He's running from me.

01:08:20The car door opens.

01:08:22I step out.

01:08:24Damien stops.

01:08:25He looks older.

01:08:27Thinner.

01:08:27Five months on the street will do that.

01:08:29Five months knowing that the woman whose house you burnt out is carrying the heir to the Reyes Cartel and

01:08:34is looking for you.

01:08:35That will do it too.

01:08:37I pull off one gloves.

01:08:38Finger by finger.

01:08:41Hello brother-in-law.

01:08:44My men take him before he can speak.

01:08:48Wait.

01:08:49Mia.

01:08:50We should talk.

01:08:52Yes.

01:08:53We should.

01:08:56The basement of the Reyes mansion is very quiet.

01:08:59I had Diaz repaint it.

01:09:02New lighting.

01:09:02A good chair for me to sit in.

01:09:04Positioned at exactly the right distance.

01:09:06I learned from the best after all.

01:09:08I watched Emilio run this house for months.

01:09:10I know how it's done.

01:09:11I sit with my legs rapes crossed.

01:09:14And my hands folded over my stomach.

01:09:16And I watched two of my men work.

01:09:18Mia.

01:09:19Damien screams.

01:09:20He begs.

01:09:22He says my name like it's a password that will open a door.

01:09:24Like some part of him still believes I'm the nursing student from the fast food restaurant who cried on a

01:09:29sofa and couldn't look Emilio in the eye.

01:09:31I'm not her anymore.

01:09:32Make this stop.

01:09:34Please.

01:09:35Mia.

01:09:35I give the men a look.

01:09:37They hit harder.

01:09:38After a while I raise a hand and they stop.

01:09:40The basement goes quiet except for Damien's raggled breathing and the distant sound of the city outside.

01:09:46I stand up and walk over to him.

01:09:51Tell me where he is.

01:09:53Damien looks up at me through blood.

01:09:55His smile is still there somehow cracked and terrible.

01:09:59Come closer.

01:10:01I'll tell you.

01:10:05I leaned down.

01:10:06His mouth was near my ear and I stayed perfectly still and waited.

01:10:11He's rotting in hell.

01:10:13Just like you will be you stupid.

01:10:15I straightened up.

01:10:17I pulled the gun from the back of my waistband.

01:10:22The one Diego had started leaving on my night state three months ago.

01:10:25After the first two attempts on my life.

01:10:27After I'd started running this operation alone.

01:10:30And I shot Damien once.

01:10:32He slumped.

01:10:33I stood there for a moment and looked at him.

01:10:35Emilio's brother.

01:10:36The man who had built every trap I'd walked into.

01:10:39The man who had burned down the house with Emilio inside it.

01:10:42Then I peeled off the other glove.

01:10:44Folded both of them together and walked out.

01:10:49Diego was waiting in the Rorto with a package.

01:10:52Mail address to your name ma'am.

01:10:54He held it out.

01:10:55The label read Mia Espinoza.

01:10:58I frowned.

01:10:59I thought I changed my last name on everything.

01:11:02Could be from before.

01:11:05I took it.

01:11:09I opened it in the study.

01:11:13A file.

01:11:14Legal documents.

01:11:15A will.

01:11:16Notarized.

01:11:17Witness.

01:11:18Dated three months before Leshia died.

01:11:20I read the first page and had to sit down.

01:11:23One hundred million dollars.

01:11:24Her actual inheritance.

01:11:26Not the fabricated claws Emilio had invented to get me into his house.

01:11:29The real thing.

01:11:30The money she'd spent her life accumulating.

01:11:32And had always meant to give to the niece she wrote letters to and called her girl.

01:11:36Where it all started.

01:11:37I thought.

01:11:38Diego stood near the door.

01:11:40Mr. Reyes would have found you regardless of the inheritance.

01:11:47Sounds like him.

01:11:48I turned to the last page and a small piece of paper fell out.

01:11:52Folded once.

01:11:53The size of a fortune cookie slip.

01:11:54I picked it up.

01:11:55The handwriting was Emilio's.

01:11:57I'd seen it on a hundred things.

01:11:58Notes.

01:11:59Contracts.

01:11:59The margin of a book he'd left open on the kitchen counter.

01:12:02I'd have known it anywhere.

01:12:03It said.

01:12:03Love at first sight.

01:12:05I sat there holding that small piece of paper for a long time.

01:12:08Then I pressed it against my chest and closed my eyes.

01:12:11I'll find you Emilio Reyes.

01:12:13Wherever you are.

01:12:16He was in Sicily.

01:12:18I didn't know that yet.

01:12:19I knew it the way you know things when you've been running someone's empire for five months and you've learned

01:12:24to read Diego's face.

01:12:25There was somewhere he wouldn't look.

01:12:27Some piece of information that lived just behind his careful professional expression.

01:12:31But he wouldn't tell me.

01:12:33And I understood why.

01:12:35Emilio had told him not to.

01:12:37So I waited.

01:12:38On a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean, a man in a wheelchair watched the ocean.

01:12:43He'd been watching it for weeks.

01:12:45The light changed.

01:12:47The water changed.

01:12:48He watched it all with the patience of someone who has decided not to go anywhere until they're ready.

01:12:54Serena flew to Sicily on a Tuesday.

01:12:57She found him on the balcony, thinner than she'd left him, the ocean wind moving through his hair.

01:13:02She dropped a photograph on his lap without greeting him first.

01:13:05In the photo, Damien.

01:13:07Dead.

01:13:08Emilio picked up the photo, looked at it for a long moment.

01:13:11That's my girl.

01:13:15She's gonna be pissed if you're not there when she gives birth.

01:13:19I can't see her like this.

01:13:20You could show up as a worm and she'd still love you.

01:13:24I'm tired of lying to my best friend.

01:13:26Again.

01:13:28She'll forgive you.

01:13:30Serena ground and sat down on the low wall beside his chair.

01:13:33The Mediterranean was the specific blue it gets in the late afternoon, almost violet at the edges.

01:13:38Come back with me tomorrow, I'm flying out in the morning.

01:13:41No.

01:13:43Emilio.

01:13:44I'll return when I can stand on my own feet.

01:13:47I want her to know I'm still the man who can protect her.

01:13:50And our baby.

01:13:52Serena stared at him for a long moment.

01:13:54Toxic masculinity from a cartel king.

01:13:56Who would've thought?

01:13:57A beat.

01:13:58You know, you're kinda cute in a wheelchair.

01:14:00Don't let your bodyguard hear that.

01:14:02He helps me to the bathroom.

01:14:04Serena laughed, a real laugh, surprised out of her.

01:14:07She stood up and kissed the top of his head.

01:14:09Don't take too long.

01:14:11She walked out.

01:14:13Emilio stayed on the balcony until the light was gone.

01:14:19He reached into his pocket.

01:14:20The ring was small and cold and familiar.

01:14:24Mia's engagement ring.

01:14:25The one she'd placed in his palm in the bedroom and walked away from.

01:14:29He'd been carrying it since that night.

01:14:31Through the crash, through the window, through however many surgeries he didn't fully remember.

01:14:35Through the months of physical therapy on this balcony overlooking the sea.

01:14:39He turned it in his fingers.

01:14:41He thought about the night in the alley when he'd looked up from the pavement

01:14:43and seen a woman he'd never met pressing gons to his chest and telling him to stop moving or he'd

01:14:47bleed more.

01:14:47He'd been half dead and delirious and he thought,

01:14:50I know you.

01:14:50I don't know you yet, but I know you.

01:14:52Lietia had talked about her for years.

01:14:54Her niece.

01:14:55The nursing student.

01:14:56The girl who sent letters and called every Sunday and had her mother's stubbornness

01:15:00and her own fierce particular kindness.

01:15:02He'd carried the shape of her before he knew her face.

01:15:05He closed his hand around the ring.

01:15:07I'm coming back to you, Mia.

01:15:09The ocean was dark now.

01:15:11The stars were coming out one by one over Sicily.

01:15:15I'm coming back.

01:15:19Two months later, I thought giving birth at home would be easier.

01:15:23I was wrong.

01:15:24It's never easy.

01:15:25I hate you.

01:15:27I hate you.

01:15:28I hate you, Emilio Reyes.

01:15:29Almost there.

01:15:30One more push.

01:15:31I hate you.

01:15:33I pushed.

01:15:34The world split open and then there was a sound.

01:15:37Small and indignant and completely certain of itself.

01:15:40And the doctor was saying something I couldn't hear.

01:15:43And someone was crying and I thought it might be me.

01:15:45Ma'am, you need to stay with us.

01:15:47You haven't seen your baby.

01:15:49But I'm just so tired.

01:15:51I was tired in a way I had never been tired before.

01:15:54Down into the marrow, my body suddenly hollow and enormous at the same time.

01:15:58Stay.

01:15:59You have to stay.

01:15:59My eyes closed.

01:16:01Someone said my name.

01:16:02I tried to hold on.

01:16:04Then, at the edge of the light, a silhouette appeared in the doorway.

01:16:08Not Diego.

01:16:09Not Serena.

01:16:10Not a doctor.

01:16:12A silhouette that moved the way only one person in my life had ever moved.

01:16:18He was standing on his own feet.

01:16:20That was the first thing I registered.

01:16:22Not that he was there, not even that he was alive, but that he was standing.

01:16:24On his own two feet.

01:16:26In the doorway of my hospital room, wearing clothes I didn't recognize, thinner than I was

01:16:29remembered, with a look on his face that I had no word for.

01:16:32Mia.

01:16:33My name in his voice.

01:16:34I had been so tired.

01:16:36A moment ago the darkness had been pulling me down and I had been letting it because I

01:16:39didn't have anything left to fight with.

01:16:41But my eyes opened.

01:16:43Emilio.

01:16:44He crossed the room.

01:16:45He dropped to his knees beside the bed.

01:16:47He took my face in both hands and pressed his forehead to mine.

01:16:49I felt him shaking.

01:16:50This man who never shook.

01:16:51Who never showed anything.

01:16:52Who had spent 32 years building a wall around himself and had spent six months tearing it

01:16:55down for me.

01:16:56He was shaking.

01:16:57Somewhere behind him a baby was crying.

01:16:58Our baby.

01:16:59Ours.

01:17:00You came.

01:17:01I told you I was coming back.

01:17:02Outside the hospital window, the city was beginning its ordinary morning entirely aware

01:17:06that something fundamental had just changed.

01:17:08Inside, I closed my eyes and held onto him and listened to the small, indignant, perfect

01:17:12sound of our daughter announcing herself to the world.

01:17:14We were here.

01:17:15Both of us.

01:17:16Finally.

01:17:19This is what I know now.

01:17:21I know that love is not the clean, safe thing I thought it would be.

01:17:24When I was 22 and working at a fast food counter and keeping a wish list of what my life

01:17:28was

01:17:28supposed to become, I thought love would feel like arriving somewhere.

01:17:31I thought it would be warm and certain and uncomplicated.

01:17:34It is none of those things.

01:17:37It is a man pressing gauze to a wound in a back room.

01:17:41It is a ring in a palm and a door closing and a house going up in flames.

01:17:46It is five months of running an empire I didn't ask for.

01:17:50Learning the weight of a gun and the patience required to wait for someone who promised to

01:17:54come back.

01:17:55He is not a good man in the simple sense.

01:17:58I know what he runs and what it costs and I have made my peace with the distance between

01:18:03who he is out there and who he is in this room.

01:18:06Holding our daughter like she's the most fragile and important thing he's ever been handed.

01:18:10He is sitting in the chair beside my bed and she is asleep on his chest and he is not

01:18:14looking

01:18:15at anything in the room except her.

01:18:16She has his dark eyes.

01:18:18She has already, even at one day old, a particular expression of absolute conviction that I recognize

01:18:23from watching him walk into rooms.

01:18:25I saved a man in an alley once.

01:18:27I was 22 and afraid and I had no idea what I was saving him into.

01:18:31Best mistake I ever made.

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