EngSub The Blackmailed Bride Falling in Love With a Criminal Boss 🌎Aurora

FutureFilms

Transcript

00:00:02I once read that the most dangerous thing a woman can do is save a man's life.

00:00:06I didn't believe it.

00:00:07I was 22, idealistic, and three semesters short of a nursing degree.

00:00:13When I found a man bleeding out in an alley behind a fast food restaurant, I didn't think about danger.

00:00:18I just pressed my hands to the wound.

00:00:20I didn't know his name.

00:00:21I didn't know that the blood soaking through my uniform belonged to the most feared cartel boss on the East

00:00:26Coast.

00:00:27I didn't know that behind those dark, half-conscious eyes was a man who would remember everything I did.

00:00:32Every word.

00:00:33Every touch.

00:00:34Every desperate instruction I gave him in the dark.

00:00:36I didn't know he would come back for me.

00:00:38Three months later, a man named Emilio Reyes walked into my life and told me I had inherited a fortune

00:00:44from my late aunt on one condition.

00:00:46Marriage.

00:00:47To him.

00:00:48Immediately.

00:00:49No.

00:00:50I said no.

00:00:51He smiled like I hadn't spoken at all.

00:00:54This is the story of how I married a criminal.

00:00:57How I hated him.

00:00:58Feared him.

00:00:59And somewhere in the middle of all the lies he built our life on, fell desperately, irreversibly in love with

00:01:04him.

00:01:05I want to tell you I fought it.

00:01:07I want to tell you I was smarter than this.

00:01:09But the truth is, the moment I pressed my hands to his chest in that alley, I was already his.

00:01:15I just didn't know it yet.

00:01:17The alley behind the shop smells like grease and rain.

00:01:21I take the trash out at midnight.

00:01:24Because Miguel never does.

00:01:26And I'm too tired to fight about it.

00:01:32That's when I hear it.

00:01:33A shuffle.

00:01:35A grunt.

00:01:36The unmistakable sound of someone about to do something terrible.

00:01:40I peek my head out.

00:01:41First mistake of the night.

00:01:46Hello?

00:01:50New men immediately pin me against the wall.

00:01:52I open my mouth to scream.

00:01:54Someone beats me to it.

00:01:55He steps out of the dark like he owns it.

00:01:58Tall.

00:01:58Jaw tight.

00:02:00One hand pressed to his ribs.

00:02:02He's bleeding.

00:02:03I can see it soaking through his shirt.

00:02:05In a dark, spreading stain.

00:02:07He shouldn't be standing.

00:02:09Standing anyway.

00:02:10Let her go.

00:02:13The men charge.

00:02:15He moves.

00:02:16Fast.

00:02:17Precise.

00:02:18Brutal.

00:02:19And it's over in seconds.

00:02:21One man clutches his arm.

00:02:23Screaming.

00:02:24The other is already gone.

00:02:28And then the stranger folds like paper.

00:02:31Ding the wet pavement before I can catch him.

00:02:35I drag him inside.

00:02:37I don't know why.

00:02:42I'm a nursing school dropout.

00:02:44With shaking hands.

00:02:46And no business saving anyone.

00:02:48But I press gauze to his chest.

00:02:51And count his breaths.

00:02:53And tell him to stay with me.

00:02:55And somewhere between one breath and the next.

00:02:57I start to believe he might actually listen.

00:02:59He opens his eyes.

00:03:01Grabs my wrist hard enough to bruise.

00:03:04No one has ever seen me like this.

00:03:08You're dead.

00:03:09Stop moving or you'll bleed more.

00:03:11He lets go.

00:03:14He passes out.

00:03:16I keep working.

00:03:17By the time I come back with antibiotics.

00:03:20He's gone.

00:03:21The room is empty.

00:03:23Except for the bloody gons.

00:03:24And the faint smell of something expensive.

00:03:27Cologne.

00:03:28Maybe.

00:03:28Or power.

00:03:33I stand in the doorway.

00:03:35And feel something I can't name settle into my chest.

00:03:40Hope you make it.

00:03:42Stranger.

00:03:47The days pass.

00:03:49My life goes on.

00:03:51The midnight shifts blur into each other.

00:03:54And I almost convinced myself the whole thing was a fever dream.

00:03:59The blood.

00:04:00The alley.

00:04:01The man who threatened to kill me while I was saving his life.

00:04:06Almost.

00:04:08It isn't until three months later.

00:04:11That I understand the mistake I made that night.

00:04:14It wasn't peeking my head out into that alley.

00:04:17It was pulling the stranger back from the edge.

00:04:20I'm wiping down the counter.

00:04:22When his face fills the TV screen above the register.

00:04:27Emilio Reyes.

00:04:28East Coast Cartel King.

00:04:31Dangerous.

00:04:32Untouchable.

00:04:34The customers are whispering.

00:04:36The word monster drifts past my ear like smoke.

00:04:40I stare at the screen.

00:04:42And the memory hits me like a cold wave.

00:04:45His hand locked around my wrist.

00:04:47Even through the blood loss.

00:04:51No one has ever seen me like this.

00:04:55You're dead.

00:04:58Shit.

00:04:59I set down the tray.

00:05:01I turn for the door.

00:05:02A black bag drops over my head.

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

00:05:08You're coming with us.

00:05:16They take the bag off in a room that costs more than my entire life.

00:05:19He's standing by the window with his back to me.

00:05:22And even from behind I can feel the weight of him.

00:05:25The absolute unharried certainty of a man who has never once been told no.

00:05:31He turns around slowly.

00:05:33Like he has all the time in the world.

00:05:36Like I'm not hyperventilating in the middle of his Persian rug.

00:05:39He looks at me the way you look at something you already own.

00:05:42Hello wife.

00:05:44Wife?

00:05:45He pulls out a file and slides it across the desk.

00:05:49Leticia Vierito.

00:05:51My aunt.

00:05:52Who I barely knew.

00:05:53Who apparently knew him very well.

00:05:55She raised him.

00:05:56He called her family.

00:05:57And when she died.

00:05:59She left everything to me.

00:06:01One million dollars.

00:06:04I stare at the number until the zeros blur.

00:06:08You're handing out one million dollars to me?

00:06:10Just like this?

00:06:12Of course not.

00:06:14Your inheritance comes with a condition.

00:06:16Marry me for one year.

00:06:18Part of me wants to laugh.

00:06:19The part that's been eating ramen for six months.

00:06:22Drowning in debt.

00:06:24Too proud to ask for help.

00:06:25One million dollars.

00:06:27I could breathe again.

00:06:28I could actually breathe.

00:06:30But then the other part of me kepts up.

00:06:33The part that recognizes his face from every news broadcast.

00:06:36Every whispered warning.

00:06:38Every story that ends badly.

00:06:41Marry a mafia king with a promise of one million dollars?

00:06:44Is this Watmack novel really happening to me?

00:06:46Me?

00:06:47I set down the file.

00:06:49What do you get out of this?

00:06:51I... I'm a nobody.

00:06:53He steps closer.

00:06:55Close enough that I have to tilt my head back to hold his gaze.

00:06:58And I hate that I do it.

00:07:01You're not a nobody.

00:07:04Don't ever say that again.

00:07:08He says it quietly.

00:07:10Too quietly.

00:07:11Too gently.

00:07:12Like he means it.

00:07:14Like he's been thinking about it.

00:07:16And the words land somewhere soft and unprotected.

00:07:19Before I can get my guard back up.

00:07:23I don't know what to do with them.

00:07:25So I look away, down at the floor, and that's when I see it.

00:07:28A dark stain in the carpet.

00:07:30Old and brown at the edges.

00:07:33Blood.

00:07:33Someone's blood.

00:07:35Soaked into the fibers and never fully cleaned away.

00:07:38The word yes dies in my throat.

00:07:40No.

00:07:42Then you just made your first mistake as my future wife.

00:07:47No.

00:07:50His hand moves toward his hip.

00:07:52My survival instincts shoot up.

00:07:56Wait.

00:07:57I... I didn't mean no.

00:07:59I just... I need time.

00:08:01To think.

00:08:03I'm allowed to think, right?

00:08:05A beat.

00:08:06His hand stills.

00:08:07Of course.

00:08:09I try the door.

00:08:12Locked.

00:08:13Of course it's locked.

00:08:16My heart hammers against my ribs as his foot steps cross the room behind me.

00:08:20Quiet.

00:08:21Unhurried.

00:08:22Inevitable.

00:08:23His hand covers mine on the knob.

00:08:25His mouth is close enough to my ear that I feel the warmth of his breath.

00:08:29And every rational thought I have dissolves.

00:08:32I'm a king, Mia.

00:08:34Don't even think about running.

00:08:38I'll see you at the altar.

00:08:40He twists the knob.

00:08:41The door swings open.

00:08:42I don't walk out.

00:08:43I flee.

00:08:45I nearly collide with a man in the hallway.

00:08:48Younger than Emilio.

00:08:49Easier to read.

00:08:50With a smile that doesn't reach his eyes.

00:08:52He watches me scramble past and says nothing.

00:08:55Behind me, I hear him say something to Emilio in a low voice.

00:08:59I don't stop to listen.

00:09:00Back in my apartment, Serena screams at me through the phone for ten solid minutes.

00:09:05I hold it away from my ear and stare at the ceiling.

00:09:07You should've left him bleeding in that alley!

00:09:10I know.

00:09:11He's a monster!

00:09:12My food's here.

00:09:13Talk later.

00:09:17I open the door expecting delivery.

00:09:20A gun barrel, cold metal, pointed at my face.

00:09:24Behind it, a man I've never seen before, silver-haired and soft-voiced.

00:09:29With the calm of someone who has done terrible things for a very long time.

00:09:34And at his feet.

00:09:35Crumbled.

00:09:36Bleeding.

00:09:36Reaching for my ankle.

00:09:38A boy I've never met.

00:09:39But somehow, recognizing the shape of his jaw, the curve of his nose.

00:09:45A stranger smiles.

00:09:46Mia Espinosa.

00:09:49Mia Espinosa.

00:09:50We need to talk.

00:09:54His name is Franco Palacio.

00:09:57I am Franco.

00:09:58He says it like a title, like something I should already know and fear.

00:10:02He says it while one of his men pins my arms behind me, and another kicks the boy hard enough

00:10:08to crack ribs.

00:10:10Tomas.

00:10:11Tomas.

00:10:11Your cousin.

00:10:12Leticia's only son.

00:10:14I didn't even know I had a cousin.

00:10:18I'm Emilio Reyes' worst nightmare.

00:10:21I don't know Emilio.

00:10:23That's a lie.

00:10:25Of course I lied.

00:10:26I would say anything to get out of this.

00:10:31This gangster war I've somehow wandered into.

00:10:34Dragging a cousin I've never met along with me.

00:10:37Maybe I really shouldn't have saved Emilio that night.

00:10:44He ignores me, and crouches beside Tomas, dragging a knife down his cheek so slowly, so precisely,

00:10:51that the line of red it draws looks almost surgical.

00:10:55Tomas makes a sound I'll hear in my sleep for years.

00:10:58You're gonna marry Emilio Reyes.

00:10:59You're gonna give him an heir.

00:11:05And that child will be born under my command.

00:11:10What?

00:11:11A wife.

00:11:12A baby.

00:11:13That's all it takes to ruin a man like him.

00:11:18You're gonna be my weapon, sweetheart.

00:11:21He stands, moves back to Tomas, and presses the flat of the blade against his eyelid.

00:11:27One month.

00:11:28Get pregnant.

00:11:33Or your cousin loses more than an eye.

00:11:36I can't breathe.

00:11:38I can't think.

00:11:39The room has shrunk to the size of that knife.

00:11:41That eye.

00:11:42That terrible soft sound Tomas makes when the blade presses harder.

00:11:47Stop.

00:11:48Left eye.

00:11:50Or right.

00:11:52Stop!

00:11:53I'll do it!

00:11:54The blade lifts.

00:11:55Franco smiles, like I've given him a gift.

00:11:58Then the front door Sweeney splinters off its hinges.

00:12:04Emilio doesn't come in like a rescue.

00:12:06He comes in like weather.

00:12:08Sudden.

00:12:09Total.

00:12:09Impossible to argue with.

00:12:11His men fan out behind him.

00:12:14Franco's men scatter.

00:12:16And then it's just the two of us.

00:12:18And Tomas is gone.

00:12:19Dragged out in the chaos.

00:12:21And I'm on the floor.

00:12:24With my knees pulled to my chest.

00:12:27And my whole body shaking so hard my teeth click together.

00:12:30I don't hear him cross the room.

00:12:32I just feel the air change.

00:12:35Mia.

00:12:35His voice is different.

00:12:37Softer than I've heard it.

00:12:38I look up.

00:12:39And something in his face does things I don't expect.

00:12:43It cracks.

00:12:44Just at the edges.

00:12:46Just for a second.

00:12:47I don't decide to move.

00:12:49I just do it.

00:12:50I throw myself at him.

00:12:54And his arms close around me before I can second guess it.

00:12:58And I press my face into his chest.

00:13:01And cry in a way I haven't cried since I was a little girl.

00:13:06Ugly and desperate and completely undignified.

00:13:10He holds me like he means it.

00:13:13He doesn't speak.

00:13:15Doesn't ask questions.

00:13:17Just keeps one hand on the back of my head.

00:13:20And breathes slowly.

00:13:22Steadily.

00:13:23Like he's trying to teach me how.

00:13:25And gradually my shaking slows.

00:13:27When I finally pull back his expression has closed again.

00:13:30But his eyes haven't.

00:13:33You're my woman, Mia.

00:13:36Your tears belong to me.

00:13:38I should have a response to that.

00:13:40I don't.

00:13:41I just look at him.

00:13:43And feel the words settle somewhere deep and permanent.

00:13:47Like a key turning in a lock I didn't know I had.

00:13:50He wipes my face with his thumb.

00:13:52Gentle.

00:13:54Careful.

00:13:54Like I'm something worth being careful with.

00:13:58I'm not your woman.

00:14:00I haven't agreed to anything yet.

00:14:03I know.

00:14:04We should talk.

00:14:06He says it quietly.

00:14:07He doesn't push.

00:14:09He just looks at me like he's already decided.

00:14:11And he's willing to wait.

00:14:13That might be the most frightening thing he's done yet.

00:14:17The next morning, we sit on opposite sides of a conference table with a contract between us sick enough to

00:14:23stop a bullet.

00:14:25Our marriage contract.

00:14:28Read it.

00:14:31Terms and conditions.

00:14:34We'll discuss today.

00:14:40I keep my spine straight as I flip through the pages.

00:14:43I try very hard to absorb what I'm about to sign my life onto.

00:14:48But not a single word makes it to my brain.

00:14:54Instead, Franco's voice echoes like a curse on a loop.

00:14:58Marry Emilio.

00:15:00Baby.

00:15:01One month.

00:15:05My weapon.

00:15:07To save a cousin I barely know in a gangster war I never asked to be part of?

00:15:11I'm going to lie to a cartel king, sitting right across from me, expecting a real marriage.

00:15:18Of course I'll sign this contract.

00:15:20But it's not my choice.

00:15:22It was never my choice.

00:15:24I am completely, utterly out of control of this situation, and I have to pretend otherwise.

00:15:29Perfectly.

00:15:31Or Thomas pays for it.

00:15:33Everything okay?

00:15:36I startle.

00:15:38He's watching me.

00:15:40Of course he's watching me.

00:15:42Men like him watch everything.

00:15:47I need to smooth this over.

00:15:49For my cousin.

00:15:51The contract doesn't mention sleeping arrangements.

00:15:55He goes very still.

00:15:58Sleeping arrangements.

00:16:02We'd be married.

00:16:06It would be natural that we...

00:16:09The chair scrapes back.

00:16:11He's in front of me in two steps, leaning over the table, with both hands planted on either side of

00:16:18the contract, close enough that I can smell his cologne, and feel the warmth radiating off his skin.

00:16:24It's natural we fuck.

00:16:27My breath stops.

00:16:32Do you want me to fuck you?

00:16:36There is no good answer to that question.

00:16:43There is only the truth.

00:16:45Yes.

00:16:46Obviously.

00:16:47Embarrassingly.

00:16:49Inconveniently yes.

00:16:50And the reason behind it...

00:16:52Which I can never tell him.

00:16:57That's what husbands and wives do.

00:17:00We're not real husband and wife.

00:17:02This is a contract.

00:17:07You're attractive and rich.

00:17:10Any woman would want you.

00:17:15He tilts his head, something dangerous flickering in his eyes.

00:17:20You think I'm attractive?

00:17:25Yes.

00:17:26Are you lying to me?

00:17:31No.

00:17:32I'm not lying.

00:17:34That's the problem.

00:17:36I'm not lying at all, and he can see it.

00:17:39And the slow curve of his mouth tells him he's been able to see it this whole time.

00:17:45He lifts me onto the table in one motion.

00:17:48I gasp.

00:17:50Not in fear, which would make sense, in something that runs hotter than fear.

00:17:55He nudges my knees apart.

00:17:57Not roughly.

00:17:59Just firmly.

00:18:00With the uncurried confidence of a man who already knows the answer.

00:18:07You can lie with words.

00:18:09Not with your body.

00:18:11His hand slides up my inner thigh.

00:18:17Tell me you want me.

00:18:19Tell me it's not just the contract.

00:18:21And God help me, I do.

00:18:22What do you want me to do?

00:18:27I do.

00:18:28I do.

00:18:32I do.

00:18:35I do.

00:18:41I do.

00:18:44I do.

00:18:49I do.

00:18:50Kenneth stutters.

00:18:52Is this for me?

00:18:57Do I get you this wet, just by talking to you?

00:19:04Yes!

00:19:04Her voice comes out wrecked, and small, and honest, and it pulls me back from the edge of something I

00:19:12can't afford.

00:19:14That voice. That lying, beautiful voice.

00:19:18I know something happened between her and Franco.

00:19:21I've known since the moment I walked into her apartment, and found her on the floor, because I wasn't there

00:19:26to rescue her.

00:19:27I was there to make her talk.

00:19:31Franco's men were already scattering when I kicked the door in.

00:19:34I had my gun up, finger on the trigger, Franco in my sights, and then I saw her.

00:19:41I curled on the floor, shaking.

00:19:45Small in a way that hit me somewhere, I don't let things hit me.

00:19:48I lowered the gun, I crossed the room, and the second she threw herself against my chest,

00:19:57I let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding.

00:20:03The will I showed her, I fabricated it.

00:20:07My nanny, Letrichia, was a kind woman, not a wealthy one.

00:20:13She didn't leave a million dollars.

00:20:15I forged every page.

00:20:18I needed a reason to keep Mia close.

00:20:22Somewhere I could watch her.

00:20:25Pull the truth out of her slowly.

00:20:27But that day, with her crying in my arms, I stopped caring about the plan.

00:20:34I decided I had to have her.

00:20:37One way or another, I never expected the other way to involve this many lies.

00:20:42I hate lies.

00:20:48Mia, you have no idea I'm going to torture the truth out of you.

00:20:53I shove my hand back between her legs, fingers flying to my shoulders.

00:21:01Tell me to stop if you don't want this.

00:21:07She doesn't stop me.

00:21:09Good.

00:21:10I push her panties aside and press one finger inside her.

00:21:13She moans, hips rolling forward instinctually.

00:21:19Hands gripping my shoulders like she needs something to hold on to.

00:21:25Emilio?

00:21:26God, my name in her mouth like that.

00:21:32I add a second finger and move faster, watching her come undone.

00:21:37And I am aching with how much I want her.

00:21:41But I have a mission.

00:21:42I need her confession.

00:21:44If I handed you the inheritance right now, no strings, no cracks, would you still want me?

00:21:51Emilio?

00:21:52Answer me!

00:21:54Yes!

00:21:55More lies.

00:21:57Oh, you little liar.

00:21:58You have no idea what you just walked into.

00:22:04He stops.

00:22:05The absence of his touch is so sudden it punches the air out of me.

00:22:08I look at him, chest heaving, completely undone, and his face has already closed.

00:22:13Composed.

00:22:14Cool.

00:22:14Like none of it happened.

00:22:19You're hiding something from me.

00:22:21Bad girls don't get to come.

00:22:23Sign the contract.

00:22:24Diego will help you move in tomorrow.

00:22:26I sit on the edge of the conference table with his handkerchief in my hands and the ghost

00:22:30of his touch still burning under my skin.

00:22:33And I stare at the closed door and try to remember who I am and why I'm here.

00:22:38Stay focused, Mia.

00:22:39Toas.

00:22:40One month.

00:22:41That's all that matters.

00:22:43His mansion is the size of my entire neighborhood.

00:22:45I drag my suitcase through the front door and try not to look like I've never seen marble

00:22:48floors before.

00:22:49The staff lines up to greet me.

00:22:51I shake everyone's hand and smile until my face hurts.

00:22:53And somewhere in the middle of it, Emilio appears from a hallway and I make the mistake

00:22:56of asking if I'll be staying in his room.

00:22:58We don't sleep in the same room.

00:23:02He gives me a guest room with a bed too big for one person and curtains the color of champagne.

00:23:06He drops a ring box into my palm without ceremony or eye contact.

00:23:09Wear it in public.

00:23:11It fits perfectly.

00:23:13I don't know why that makes my chest ache.

00:23:14Why are you so cold today?

00:23:16I thought we'd...

00:23:16Do you know what I do to people who betray me?

00:23:18No.

00:23:19I kill them.

00:23:19Every single one.

00:23:21Betrayal doesn't exist in my world.

00:23:24Are you keeping something from me, Mia?

00:23:25Tell him.

00:23:26Just tell him.

00:23:27The words crowd my throat.

00:23:28Franco Tomas, the knife, the deadline.

00:23:31When I look up, Emilio is gone.

00:23:33I need to get pregnant.

00:23:35I need to do something.

00:23:39I need to do something.

00:23:41This will have to do.

00:23:45I carry a plate of cookies down the hall like an offering, which, honestly, is exactly what it is.

00:23:49This is the plan.

00:23:50This is the whole plan.

00:23:51I push open the study door.

00:23:53Fifteen men look up at me simultaneously.

00:23:55Leave.

00:23:56Not you.

00:24:01I stand there tugging the hem of my shorts down and trying to look like I haven't just made a

00:24:05catastrophic mistake.

00:24:06You didn't just bring me cookies dressed like this.

00:24:08I didn't know you were in a meeting.

00:24:09I'm half-mined to shoot every man who was just in this room.

00:24:11Please don't.

00:24:13What do I do to a bad girl who interrupts my meeting?

00:24:15Do I bend you over this desk and spank your pretty little ass?

00:24:17I shiver.

00:24:18I should not shiver.

00:24:19I shiver anyway.

00:24:20Or do I force you down on your knees and make you take my cock?

00:24:22Or you could take me.

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

00:24:29No.

00:24:30No condoms.

00:24:32You're not on birth control.

00:24:33I know.

00:24:34Something shifts in his expression.

00:24:35The heat drains out of it, replaced by something colder and more careful.

00:24:38You want my baby.

00:24:39Why?

00:24:40Because your biggest enemy has my cousin and gave me a deadline and I have no other options.

00:24:44And I'm terrified and I'm sorry.

00:24:46Because you're handsome and I'd really love to...

00:24:49Get out.

00:24:50What?

00:24:51Get out.

00:24:53I slide to the floor and stand there for one horrible second, completely exposed.

00:24:56The cookies, the shorts, the desperate transparent wanting of all of it, and then I turn and

00:25:01walk out with whatever dignity I have left, which is not much.

00:25:04I need a new plan.

00:25:07Serena, can you meet me?

00:25:08I need to tell you everything.

00:25:10Outside my window, the city hums and glitters like it doesn't know anything is wrong.

00:25:14Like the world is perfectly ordinary, and I haven't spent the last week tangled up in

00:25:17a cartel king who sees straight through every lie I tell, except the one that might get

00:25:21us both killed.

00:25:22What did I get myself into?

00:25:28Thank God!

00:25:29Are you okay?

00:25:30He didn't chain you up somewhere?

00:25:31He's not.

00:25:32No.

00:25:33No dungeons.

00:25:34I'm fine.

00:25:35You don't look fine.

00:25:36She's right.

00:25:37I don't feel fine.

00:25:38I feel like I'm playing three different chess games at once and losing all of them.

00:25:41I start to tell her about Franco, about Tomas, about the deadline.

00:25:44But before I can get past the first sentence...

00:25:46Are you okay?

00:25:47You seem terrified of him.

00:25:48Of course I'm terrified.

00:25:49His men run the entire East Coast.

00:25:51He could be listening to us right now, Mia.

00:25:52Serena, you're not making sense.

00:25:54Why do you even know so much about him?

00:25:55Who's your dad?

00:25:56Something shifts in her expression.

00:25:58Something serious and old and tired, like she's been waiting for this question and dreading

00:26:02it at the same time.

00:26:03Mia, it's time you know who I am.

00:26:04The door exploding open.

00:26:06A masked man with a gun raised, screaming at everyone to get on the floor.

00:26:09The cafe erupts into chaos.

00:26:10I freeze.

00:26:12I stand in the middle of it all and my body simply refuses to move like it's deciding

00:26:15whether any of this is real.

00:26:17Mia, get down.

00:26:18I can't move.

00:26:20You deaf!

00:26:21I said down!

00:26:22The robber spots me.

00:26:23Move!

00:26:24Why can't I move?

00:26:32For one second, I think it's over.

00:26:34Marco, put it down.

00:26:37Please.

00:26:42I stand there with a stranger's arm around neck and think absurdly about the alley three

00:26:46months ago.

00:26:46About how I peeked my head out and said hello like an idiot.

00:26:49About how that one bad decision led to every bad decision after it.

00:26:52A chain of dominoes I set off the moment I dragged a bleeding cartel king off the pavement.

00:26:56I really shouldn't have saved him.

00:26:57Then the door opens again.

00:26:58Emilio walks in like he has nowhere else to be.

00:27:00Like this is a meeting he scheduled.

00:27:02Gun raised.

00:27:03Jaw set.

00:27:03Eyes finding me in under a second.

00:27:05Oh yeah?

00:27:06Who's she?

00:27:06The president's wife?

00:27:07Emilio shoots him in the arm.

00:27:08The arm around my throat goes slack.

00:27:10I drop.

00:27:11Serena catches me.

00:27:13No, you're fucking not.

00:27:14I don't see what happens next.

00:27:16The world tilts, goes soft at the edges, and I stop being able to hold myself up.

00:27:20The last thing I feel before I feign is someone lifting me.

00:27:23His arms, his cologne, that particular steadiness that shouldn't feel like safety but does.

00:27:30I wake up in a bed that isn't mine.

00:27:31It's too big, too soft, smells too expensive.

00:27:34The ceiling is high and unfamiliar, and for a disoriented moment I have no idea where I

00:27:38am or what year it is.

00:27:39Then I remember the gun, the arm around my throat, the sound of a shot.

00:27:42I sit up too fast.

00:27:43My head swims.

00:27:44Are you okay?

00:27:45He's still in his suit.

00:27:46He's looking at me with an intensity that doesn't belong on a face pretending not to care.

00:27:50I think so.

00:27:51Where am I?

00:27:52My bedroom.

00:27:54Your bedroom?

00:27:55I thought we had separate rooms.

00:27:56You also walked into my meeting in a pair of shorts and asked me to get you pregnant.

00:28:00Rules are flexible.

00:28:02Does that mean I can stay in your room now?

00:28:05Do you want to sleep with me that badly?

00:28:07Yes, says every nerve in my body.

00:28:09Yes, but not for the reason you think, says the part of me that remembers Tomas and Franco

00:28:13and the deadline that is still ticking.

00:28:15What if I say yes?

00:28:16His eyes darken.

00:28:17For one suspended second I think he's going to close the distance between us,

00:28:21and my heart rate does something embarrassing.

00:28:23He stands instead.

00:28:24Adjusts his jacket.

00:28:25Rest.

00:28:26Tomorrow's a big day.

00:28:27What's tomorrow?

00:28:28The engagement party, where I tell the world you're mine.

00:28:30Am I falling for him?

00:28:31No.

00:28:32Focus.

00:28:32Tomas.

00:28:33One month.

00:28:36The next morning, a small army arrives at my door.

00:28:38They work on me for two hours.

00:28:40I sit in the chair and let them, and feel like a doll being dressed for a party I didn't

00:28:44ask

00:28:44to attend, which is, technically, exactly what's happening.

00:28:47I slip out when they're arguing about earrings.

00:28:49Down the hall, through the tall living room windows, I spot Emilio outside with Diego.

00:28:54He's in a sharp suit, and he's furious.

00:28:56Jaw tight, gesturing hard, words muffled through the glass, but unmistakably sharp.

00:28:59He's beautiful when he's angry.

00:29:01I notice this, and immediately wish I hadn't.

00:29:06You're going to tell me why you want my baby, and what it'd have to do with Palacio?

00:29:10Who?

00:29:10The man at your apartment.

00:29:12He knows.

00:29:12He's known.

00:29:13The realization lands slowly, and then all at once, and I think about every moment since

00:29:17he showed up at my door.

00:29:18The conference table, the handkerchief, the drawer full of condoms, and understand that

00:29:21he has been pulling at this thread the entire time.

00:29:24I don't know what you're talking about.

00:29:25Do you know what happened to the last person who lied to me?

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

00:29:32I hate them.

00:29:32I blink hard.

00:29:33He's a monster, I tell myself.

00:29:35Remember that.

00:29:36This isn't over.

00:29:37I know.

00:29:38It's never over.

00:29:39That's the problem.

00:29:42I walk in on Emilio's arm in a dress that cost more than three months of my old salary.

00:29:46Diamonds at my throat, and I feel like a very convincing fake.

00:29:50Emilio greets people with a smile that doesn't touch his eyes, and steers me through the room

00:29:53with a hand at the small of my back that feels like both a claim and a warning.

00:29:58Stay close.

00:29:59Don't talk to anyone.

00:30:00I'm not allowed to talk to people?

00:30:01You've caused enough trouble on your own.

00:30:03That wasn't in the contract.

00:30:04I'm a cartel boss, Mia.

00:30:06A contract won't stop me from doing whatever I want.

00:30:10I don't see Franco until his hand closes around my arm and yanks me into the shadows.

00:30:14Hello, little Mia.

00:30:15You didn't forget our deal?

00:30:17What are you doing here?

00:30:18Emilio invited me.

00:30:19Go way back.

00:30:20Emilio invited him.

00:30:21The information sits in my chest on the stone.

00:30:23I think about the look on Emilio's face through the window.

00:30:25Furious.

00:30:26Deliberate.

00:30:26I think about this isn't over.

00:30:27You've been living with him for three weeks, little Mia.

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

00:30:39What did you do to her?

00:30:40Nothing.

00:30:41We were just talking.

00:30:42Why don't you ask her?

00:30:44The scissors land between us like a grenade.

00:30:46I watch Emilio's grip loosen, just slightly, just for a moment, and see it on his face.

00:30:50The recalculation.

00:30:51The betrayal trying to find its shape.

00:30:53Our eyes meet, and I have never felt so exposed in my life.

00:30:56Then DeLeon is there, murmuring something about engagement photos, and Emilio exhale through

00:31:00his teeth and goes.

00:31:02I watch him walk away with his shoulders set and his jaw tight, and something aching and

00:31:06hollow opens up in the middle of my chest.

00:31:08You know something's wrong.

00:31:10Tell him yourself before this ends badly.

00:31:11I can't.

00:31:13Under the bright lights of the photo area, Emanuel and I stand six inches apart like strangers.

00:31:18The photographer keeps asking us to move closer.

00:31:21We comply in small, miserable increments.

00:31:23Is it that unborable standing next to me?

00:31:24Only when you're mad at me.

00:31:25I'm mad because you're hiding something.

00:31:27I can't.

00:31:27Perfect.

00:31:28Now give each other a little kiss.

00:31:30The silence that follows is approximately a thousand years long.

00:31:33Then Emilio grabs my chin and kisses me.

00:31:35It's not gentle.

00:31:36It's a question with teeth.

00:31:37Demanding and frustrated and searingly humiliatingly effective.

00:31:40The camera flashes go off like a small storm.

00:31:43That was my first kiss.

00:31:44That was my first kiss, and he used it like perpuntuation.

00:31:49His mouth was just there.

00:31:51Angry and warm and nothing like I'd imagined, and I have absolutely been imagining it, and

00:31:56that is a problem I don't have time for right now.

00:31:58He was furious, and I still got turned off.

00:32:01What is wrong with me?

00:32:04Did you sleep with him?

00:32:05What?

00:32:05Who?

00:32:06Franco Palazzo.

00:32:06Is that what you're hiding?

00:32:07Is that why you wouldn't kiss me?

00:32:08No, I didn't sleep with him!

00:32:09You shoved me away like I was contagious!

00:32:11Because I couldn't breathe!

00:32:11I've never...

00:32:11I haven't...

00:32:12The fury in his expression shifts.

00:32:14Slowly, like a tide going out, it gives way to something quiet and more careful.

00:32:18Breathe through your nose.

00:32:19He presses his lips to mine, and this time it's nothing like before.

00:32:22Soft, slow, like he's asking instead of taking.

00:32:24Like he has all the time in the world and intends to use it.

00:32:27One more.

00:32:28I don't say no.

00:32:29I don't say anything.

00:32:30He kisses me again, deeper, one hand sliding to the back of my neck, and I stop being able

00:32:34to think in anything but sensation, warmth and the smell of his cologne and the ridiculous,

00:32:38inconvenient certainty that I am in very serious trouble.

00:32:41Say yes, ma'am.

00:32:42Yes.

00:32:46Then he stops.

00:32:47Not all at once.

00:32:47He trails his lips down my throat, unhurried, while I'm still trying to remember what air

00:32:51is for.

00:32:51His hands are at my waist, mine are in his hair.

00:32:53The whole world has narrowed down to this locked bathroom, this basin, his mouth.

00:32:56But I don't think you deserve it yet.

00:32:58What?

00:32:58You're still hiding something from me.

00:33:00You and my worst enemy.

00:33:01I can't tell you.

00:33:02I'm sorry.

00:33:02He drops to his knees in front of me, parting my legs, and I barely have time to process

00:33:07what's happening before his mouth is on me, and my head snaps back and I forget every

00:33:11coherent thought I've ever had.

00:33:12You'll tell me eventually, before it's too late.

00:33:15He's using this against me.

00:33:16I know he's using this against me.

00:33:18I can't make myself care.

00:33:20A security guard threatening to break it down.

00:33:22Promise me you'll tell me the truth, or that guard walks in and finds you like this.

00:33:26That's...

00:33:26You can't...

00:33:27That's blackmail.

00:33:27Yes, I promise.

00:33:29I'll tell you everything.

00:33:30Turns back to me, eyes dark.

00:33:33Remember your promise.

00:33:36He leaves.

00:33:37I sit on the basin in the sudden quiet, chest-heaving, ring glittering on my finger and press my hands

00:33:41to my face.

00:33:42He used pleasure as a weapon.

00:33:44And the worst part, the part I can't stop thinking about as I swipe off the basin and

00:33:48fix my lipstick and walk back out into the party, is that I would let him do it again.

00:33:54Sleep well?

00:33:56Hmm.

00:33:56You don't look like you slept well.

00:33:58I can arrange a sleep therapist.

00:34:00You used sex to blackrail me?

00:34:02No.

00:34:03I don't need a therapist.

00:34:03I need a cop.

00:34:04You think a cop would help?

00:34:05No.

00:34:06Because you're the cartel king and you do whatever you want.

00:34:09Not everything I want.

00:34:10Not when it comes to you.

00:34:12I don't know what to do with that.

00:34:13I look at my hands.

00:34:14I don't like being lied to, Mia.

00:34:16I grew up in this world.

00:34:17Betrayal is the worst sin there is.

00:34:19But I'll wait.

00:34:20Tell me when you're ready.

00:34:21Something in my chest loosens just slightly.

00:34:23The first millimeter of relief in weeks.

00:34:25I'll tell you.

00:34:26At the right time.

00:34:27I need to think it through.

00:34:29That's all I need.

00:34:31I have money.

00:34:32You have peanuts.

00:34:33Buy whatever you want.

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

00:34:35I look up from five credit cards and the ring on my finger and the ghost of his mouth on

00:34:39mine

00:34:39and I think about Tobos and Franco's deadline and the promise I made in a locked bathroom.

00:34:44I'll tell him.

00:34:44At the right time.

00:34:46My phone buzzes.

00:34:47It's a message from an unknown number.

00:34:48A photo.

00:34:49Toas.

00:34:50Beaten.

00:34:50Barely consciousness.

00:34:51A map pin.

00:34:52One line of text.

00:34:53Come alone.

00:34:54I'm running some errands today.

00:34:55You can come along.

00:34:56Let's see how long you last.

00:35:00I know that's what it was.

00:35:02A list of errands Emilio had quietly arranged.

00:35:05A list of things I was supposed to need.

00:35:06A list of reasons to stay close to the house.

00:35:09I ditched them at the corner of Fifth and Carator, slipped into a doorway while they ran

00:35:12past in the wrong direction, and stood there for three whole seconds, feeling like I'd

00:35:17actually won something.

00:35:18The address was a neighborhood that had given up on itself.

00:35:21Cracked pavement, bored windows, a smell like rust and old rain.

00:35:25The building at the end of the block looked like it was held together by habit.

00:35:28I pushed the door open anyway.

00:35:30He needs me, I told myself.

00:35:32He can't hurt me yet.

00:35:33There's no baby.

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

00:35:38Little Mia.

00:35:39Took you long enough.

00:35:41I had to get rid of Emilio's people.

00:35:42I'm not talking about that.

00:35:43I'm talking about why you're not pregnant yet.

00:35:44He looked up when he heard me.

00:35:45My stomach turned.

00:35:46He started pulling one of the women closer, making a show of it, watching my face.

00:35:53When something slammed into the building from the back, a sound like the world rearranging

00:35:58itself.

00:36:03Franco got one hand on my arm before a gunshot punched through the air, and he dropped.

00:36:12Emilio stood in the doorway, guns still raised, still smoking.

00:36:17He looked at Franco on the floor for exactly one second.

00:36:21Then he looked at me.

00:36:23You okay?

00:36:24Did he hurt you?

00:36:25I couldn't make words happen.

00:36:27I just shook my head against his chest and kept shaking.

00:36:30Take care of the rest.

00:36:31We're leaving.

00:36:32Then he lifted me.

00:36:34Literally lifted me.

00:36:35And carried me out of that building like I weighed nothing.

00:36:37Like it was the most natural thing in the world.

00:36:39Like he'd been doing it his whole life.

00:36:41Outside, the afternoon light was so ordinary, it almost hurt.

00:36:47I kept waiting for him to put me down to say something cold, to remind me that this was

00:36:51a contract and feelings weren't included.

00:36:53He didn't.

00:36:54He just held me against his chest in the back seat while Diego drove and the city slipped

00:36:58past the windows like a film I wasn't part of.

00:37:00He set me on the living room sofa, carefully, gently, and told the staff to leave with a single

00:37:05look.

00:37:05The room emptied in seconds.

00:37:06It was just us, and the afternoon quiet, and the weight of everything that had happened

00:37:11in that filthy room.

00:37:12He threatened my cousin.

00:37:13He wanted me to have your baby so he could use the child as leverage against you.

00:37:17Why didn't you come to me?

00:37:18He said he'd kill Tomas if I did.

00:37:20Your cousin was working with Galadio.

00:37:22He owed him money.

00:37:24They built this trap together.

00:37:25For you.

00:37:26The word together landed like a stone.

00:37:30What?

00:37:31He gambled himself into a grave.

00:37:33Galadio owned him.

00:37:34I stared at my hands.

00:37:36The whole architecture of the pastures rearranged itself in my head.

00:37:39Toa sweeping on my floor, the threats, all of it planned.

00:37:42All of it aimed at me.

00:37:44Sorry isn't gonna cut it.

00:37:48I thought he was going to be cold about it.

00:37:50That's what I braced for.

00:37:51The cartel king voice.

00:37:52The gun on the table voice.

00:37:54That I told you so wrapped in ice.

00:37:56Instead, he said something I didn't expect at all.

00:38:00You own me.

00:38:01I dropped meetings to pull you out of that coffee shop.

00:38:03I kissed you at our engagement party when I should have been shaking hands.

00:38:06I couldn't kill you when you lied to my face three times and I tried.

00:38:09I sat there and I tried and I couldn't do it.

00:38:11Don't quote that stupid contract to me when you own me, Mia Espinosa.

00:38:15Body and soul.

00:38:16As much as I own you.

00:38:18Kiss me like you own me.

00:38:20His jaw worked.

00:38:21He said something about not being able to stop once he started.

00:38:24I didn't let him finish.

00:38:25I grabbed his collar and pulled him down to me and for one second he went still with pure shock.

00:38:30And then he took over, kissing me like he'd been keeping it locked up for months, which I think he

00:38:34had.

00:38:35Yes.

00:38:36Do whatever you want to me.

00:38:38Punish me.

00:38:39Fuck me like you own me.

00:38:41He looked at me for a long moment.

00:38:43Something fierce and half undone in his face.

00:38:46Don't say I didn't warn you, Mia.

00:38:53There's a mirror above the dresser in his bedroom.

00:38:55I didn't notice it until he bent me over the drawers and his mouth found my neck.

00:38:58And I looked up and saw us.

00:39:00His hands in my hair, my face flushed, his eyes burning into mine through the glass.

00:39:05Look in the mirror.

00:39:06Look how slutty you get for me.

00:39:08I couldn't look away.

00:39:09I'm the only one who gets to see you like this.

00:39:12Do you understand?

00:39:13Yes.

00:39:14Lift your dress.

00:39:16Watch when I take you.

00:39:17What followed I will not describe in detail because there are no adequate words for it.

00:39:21I'll say that every time my eyes dropped, he cupped my chin and brought my gaze back to the mirror.

00:39:26Mine.

00:39:27Every time he said mine.

00:39:28I believed him more completely than I've believed anything in my life.

00:39:32Mine.

00:39:33Mine.

00:39:36Mine.

00:39:37Afterward, we lay in the dark, his arm across my waist, his breath slow and even.

00:39:42I stared at the ceiling and felt the particular silence of someone who has crossed a line they

00:39:46can't cross back over.

00:39:47You own me, Mia Espinoza.

00:39:49I pressed my face into his shoulder and tried not to feel how much I wanted that to be true.

00:39:53Don't fall, I told myself.

00:39:55I was already falling.

00:39:59One week later, I came home to flowers.

00:40:01That's not quite accurate.

00:40:03I came home to an abundance of flowers, a proliferation, a situation that had clearly escalated

00:40:07well beyond what any reasonable person would call a floral arrangement.

00:40:11Every surface in the living room held a different vase.

00:40:13The whole space smelled like a greenhouse had moved in while I was out.

00:40:16Standing in the middle of it, introducing herself with a warm, professional smile, was a woman

00:40:20named Ollie.

00:40:21She was in her 30s, polished, very pretty, and she was looking at the door behind me

00:40:25in a way that told me exactly who she was waiting for.

00:40:28Emilio came in 30 seconds later.

00:40:29He stopped, swept his eyes across the flowers, then across me, and something in his face went

00:40:33immediately soft, and that way it only does when it's just us.

00:40:36Hello, wife.

00:40:37I missed you.

00:40:38He dropped kisses on my forehead.

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

00:40:45You must be Mr. Reyes?

00:40:47I'm Ollie.

00:40:48I'm helping Mrs. Reyes with the wedding florets.

00:40:50Emilio looked at all the flowers again.

00:40:52How many flowers does a wedding need?

00:40:54As many as I like.

00:40:55You told me I could have whatever I wanted.

00:40:57He leaned in close, eyes warming.

00:41:01I was thinking of something else entirely when I said that.

00:41:04I shoved his chest.

00:41:05He laughed and pulled me into his side.

00:41:08I didn't notice Ollie's expression yet.

00:41:11I would.

00:41:14The roses were imported from Bulgaria, apparently.

00:41:18Perfect for expressing passion.

00:41:20A good fit for your character, sir.

00:41:22I looked at Emilio.

00:41:24He was looking at me.

00:41:25What do you think?

00:41:27They look pretty.

00:41:28Ollie pivoted to Lily's before I finished the sentence.

00:41:31They open with just a little attention.

00:41:33And her eyes lingered on Emilio the way eyes linger when they're not really looking at flowers.

00:41:39They look cheap.

00:41:41Then orchids.

00:41:43High main taintiness.

00:41:44But a man like you can definitely afford to spoil someone.

00:41:47Stop.

00:41:48Both of them looked at me.

00:41:50I know what you're doing.

00:41:52And I don't like it.

00:41:54Ollie gave me a polished, innocent smile.

00:41:57Mrs. Reyes, I assure you...

00:41:59It's Mrs. Reyes.

00:42:00You're flirting with my man in my house.

00:42:04I don't like that.

00:42:05Emilio made a sound that was almost a laugh.

00:42:08He lowered his mouth to my ear.

00:42:09You're about to become a mob queen.

00:42:11Show her your claws.

00:42:13I turned back to Ollie.

00:42:14You're fired.

00:42:15You heard my wife.

00:42:16Security came.

00:42:18She went.

00:42:19The door closed.

00:42:21Emilio was grinning.

00:42:22You called me your man.

00:42:23Because you are.

00:42:26I told him he was sleeping on the couch.

00:42:29In respect, this was optimistic of me.

00:42:32For what sin exactly?

00:42:33You didn't shut her down.

00:42:35You just stood there.

00:42:36I was looking at you the whole time.

00:42:38I didn't hear a word she said.

00:42:40That's not the point.

00:42:41Couch.

00:42:42I turned to walk away.

00:42:43He caught my wrist.

00:42:44I had about one second of thinking I'd won before he lifted me over his shoulder like

00:42:49I was a bag he was rearranging.

00:42:52I squealed.

00:42:53I couldn't help it.

00:42:55Put me down.

00:42:57You'll be down when I decide you're down.

00:42:59He carried me out of the room while I laughed and hit his back and told him he was ridiculous.

00:43:03He ignored all of it with complete serenity.

00:43:06On the other side of the city, in the abandoned house where Franco had died, Damien moved through

00:43:10the filthy rooms alone.

00:43:11He stopped at the body, crouched down, studied what was left of the man who had been his instrument.

00:43:17He stood up slowly.

00:43:19Coward.

00:43:21He looked around at the decay.

00:43:23The silence.

00:43:24The ruined plan.

00:43:26Then he pulled out his phone.

00:43:29Guess I'm on my own now.

00:43:33The letter appeared with breakfast.

00:43:36Morning, wife.

00:43:37You got a letter.

00:43:39I read the first line and went completely still.

00:43:42It was an admission letter.

00:43:43Nursing school.

00:43:44I never applied for this.

00:43:45I did.

00:43:46He said it casually like it was obvious.

00:43:48Like the most natural thing in the world was for a cartel boff to submit nursing school

00:43:52applications on behalf of a woman he'd coerced into a contract marriage.

00:43:55How did you even know I wanted to go back?

00:43:57He stopped moving.

00:43:59Turned to look at me with an expression I'd never seen on him before.

00:44:03Completely serious.

00:44:04Completely open.

00:44:06The night you saved me.

00:44:07You said you were a nursing school dropout.

00:44:09The storage room.

00:44:11The blood.

00:44:13His voice fading in and out as I pressed gauze to his chest.

00:44:16Trying to keep him here.

00:44:18I'm a nursing school dropout.

00:44:21You'll survive.

00:44:22He'd been carrying that for months.

00:44:24I listen to everything you say.

00:44:26He took my hand and kissed the back of it.

00:44:28Told me the semester started on the 18th.

00:44:30Two weeks.

00:44:30He'd arranged bodyguards.

00:44:31I started to object.

00:44:32He said two.

00:44:33Not a convoy.

00:44:34And I let it go.

00:44:34Then I sat very still.

00:44:36Looking at the letter.

00:44:37The 18th.

00:44:38My period was late.

00:44:40More than late.

00:44:41I thought about the soreness I'd been ignoring for a week.

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

00:44:46Fast and certain.

00:44:48Bathroom.

00:44:50I was already gone.

00:44:54I sat on the bathroom floor for a long time.

00:44:58The test was in my hand.

00:45:00Two lines.

00:45:02Unmistakable.

00:45:02Sitting there in the morning light like the simplest and most complicated fact in the world.

00:45:08Pregnant.

00:45:09I pressed my palm flat against my stomach.

00:45:11Nothing felt different yet.

00:45:13The same body.

00:45:14The same skin.

00:45:15But somewhere in there, something had started.

00:45:18Something that was half me and half the man in the kitchen who had kissed the back of my hand

00:45:21and said I listened to everything you say.

00:45:23The man who had carried me out of that building.

00:45:26Who said you own me and meant it with his whole body.

00:45:28The man I needed to tell.

00:45:30I thought about what it meant to be pregnant with the cartel king's child.

00:45:34The leverage of it.

00:45:35The danger of it.

00:45:36The way a baby becomes a weapon in this world whether you want it to or not.

00:45:40I thought about Tomos.

00:45:41About all the traps I'd walked into already.

00:45:44And then I stopped thinking about danger and just felt it.

00:45:48I'm going to be a mother.

00:45:49Emilio is going to be a father.

00:45:52I wiped my face.

00:45:54Stood up.

00:45:55Opened the door.

00:45:56Diego was in the hall.

00:45:58Where's Emilio?

00:46:00Meeting, miss.

00:46:01With Damian.

00:46:02Take me to him.

00:46:03Please.

00:46:05It's important.

00:46:06The boss doesn't like to be disturbed.

00:46:09But something in my face must have convinced him.

00:46:11He nodded.

00:46:14I followed him out.

00:46:15The test folded in my palm.

00:46:17My heart running ahead of my feet.

00:46:22Diego walked me to the study door and left.

00:46:24I could hear voices inside.

00:46:26Emilio and Damrian.

00:46:28Low and urgent.

00:46:29I raised my hand to knock and stopped.

00:46:31The test was still in my palm.

00:46:33Two lines.

00:46:34The most important thing I'd ever held.

00:46:36Then Amadio's voice cut through the door.

00:46:38Mia's cousin?

00:46:40He's a fucking clown.

00:46:41My hand dropped.

00:46:43I stood very still.

00:46:44I knew I should walk away.

00:46:46I knew that eavesdropping on the cartel king's private meetings was the kind of thing that ended badly in this

00:46:51world.

00:46:51I pressed my ear to the door anyway.

00:46:54He could have been useful.

00:46:56He's Mia's only blood relative.

00:46:58Tied to Palosio's mob.

00:47:01It was leverage.

00:47:03What the hell is going on with you?

00:47:06I'm just saying, as the East Coast Cartel King, you could play more strategically.

00:47:10Like not shooting your cousin-in-law in the head.

00:47:13My blood went cold.

00:47:18I couldn't move.

00:47:20What I have with Mia is none of your fucking business.

00:47:23Damian said something else.

00:47:25Something about fixing things with her.

00:47:27Keeping Tomas alive as a peace offering.

00:47:29But the words were coming through water now.

00:47:31Muffled and distant.

00:47:33Shooting your cousin-in-law in the head.

00:47:36Tomas was dead.

00:47:39Emilio had killed him.

00:47:41My cousin, the only blood family I'd left, the person whose life I'd accepted a mob marriage to save, and

00:47:46Emilio had shot him.

00:47:48While Tomas was under his roof.

00:47:50While I was sleeping down the hall, thinking I'd kept him safe.

00:47:53Damian said something about the forged will next.

00:47:56Lying about her inheritance just to marry her.

00:47:59A sound at the door.

00:48:01Emilio's voice sharpened.

00:48:03Who's there?

00:48:08I turned and ran.

00:48:11I was packing before I fully decided to pack.

00:48:14The suitcase was open on the bed, and my hands were moving.

00:48:17And the test was still in my fist.

00:48:20I don't know why I kept holding it.

00:48:22And Emilio came through the door, 20 seconds later, face pale.

00:48:26Wait.

00:48:26What are you doing?

00:48:28What does it look like?

00:48:29Mia, let's talk.

00:48:31I don't negotiate with the devil.

00:48:32I tried to pass him.

00:48:34He grabbed my arm.

00:48:35Stop.

00:48:36Let's talk.

00:48:37I jerked free.

00:48:38You lied.

00:48:40You killed my cousin.

00:48:41Then you lied again.

00:48:43There's nothing left to say.

00:48:44He exhaled, sharp and frustrated.

00:48:46Is killing your scumbag cousin really that big of a deal?

00:48:49I stared at him.

00:48:50I waited for a moment to feel shocked, but there was none left.

00:48:52Of course he said that.

00:48:53Of course.

00:48:54He was a criminal boss who ran an empire built on violence, and I had somehow convinced

00:48:57myself that the version of him who kissed my forehead and listened to everything I said

00:49:01was the real one.

00:49:02Does a human life mean anything to you?

00:49:05I'm a criminal boss.

00:49:07You knew that when you signed the contract.

00:49:11Which you forged.

00:49:13My aunt never wanted me to marry you, did she?

00:49:17A long silence.

00:49:19He didn't deny it.

00:49:21You added the marriage clause to trap me.

00:49:23So what?

00:49:24I run a mob.

00:49:26Be grateful I didn't take you by force.

00:49:28The words landed like a slap.

00:49:30Grateful.

00:49:31He wanted me to be grateful.

00:49:32So grateful.

00:49:34Grateful you dragged me into this hell, got my cousin killed, and got me...

00:49:38The test was still in my hand.

00:49:40I looked down at it.

00:49:41The two lines looked back.

00:49:42You'll never know, I thought.

00:49:44You don't deserve to.

00:49:46I zipped the suitcase shut.

00:49:50Just let me go, Emilio.

00:49:52You know I can't.

00:49:53In one motion, I reached across him and grabbed the gun from his hip.

00:49:57I had it pressed against myself before I'd thought about what I was doing.

00:50:00The barrel cold against my ribs.

00:50:02My hand shaking, tears running down my face.

00:50:05Mia.

00:50:06His voice had changed completely.

00:50:08All the cold stripped out of it.

00:50:11Either you let me walk out, or I pull this trigger.

00:50:16He went very still.

00:50:18Then he extended his hand.

00:50:20Palm up.

00:50:21The way you'd extend a hand to a frightened animal.

00:50:23Give me the gun.

00:50:25And I'll let you leave.

00:50:27Just like that?

00:50:28Yes.

00:50:30You know I can't say no to you.

00:50:33Just give me the gun.

00:50:34Please.

00:50:35The please undid something in my chest.

00:50:38I hated that it did.

00:50:41After a long moment, I laid the gun in his palm.

00:50:44He tucked it away without breaking eye contact.

00:50:46We can fix this.

00:50:48We can pretend none of this happened.

00:50:50I can't pretend.

00:50:52Everything between us was built on lies.

00:50:55He stepped closer.

00:50:56His voice dropped.

00:50:57Thick with something he was fighting to contain.

00:51:00My feelings for you aren't lies.

00:51:01A tear ran down my face.

00:51:03I looked at his face.

00:51:05Really looked at it.

00:51:06This man who had saved me and lied to me and killed my cousin and kissed my forehead in the

00:51:11morning.

00:51:11All of it true at the same time.

00:51:13None of it simple.

00:51:14I took his hand.

00:51:15I placed the ring in his palm.

00:51:17Goodbye, Emilio.

00:51:18He stood frozen, fist closing around the ring.

00:51:21As I walked out the door.

00:51:26I went to Serena's.

00:51:28She opened the door before I finished knocking, took one look at my face, and pulled me inside without asking

00:51:33any questions.

00:51:34She made tea.

00:51:35She handed me tissues.

00:51:37She sat with me on the sofa and let me cry until there was nothing left.

00:51:41Then she waited.

00:51:42He killed my cousin.

00:51:46He lied about the inheritance.

00:51:49Everything from the beginning was fabricated to get me into that house.

00:51:54Serena was very quiet.

00:51:56She handed me another tissue.

00:52:00Too quiet.

00:52:03I looked at her.

00:52:05Serena.

00:52:07He killed my cousin.

00:52:09Why aren't you shocked?

00:52:11She couldn't meet my eyes.

00:52:13Serena.

00:52:15Why do you look like you already knew?

00:52:17A long silence.

00:52:18The kind that means the answer is going to change things.

00:52:21I brought Thomas to him.

00:52:23The room tilted.

00:52:25What?

00:52:29My dad is a Mafia Don.

00:52:32I heard the words.

00:52:34I process them in a very distant, clinical way.

00:52:38The way you process information that is too large to fit into the ordinary world.

00:52:44You lied to me.

00:52:47For five years.

00:52:49I hid it to protect you.

00:52:51So you'd never get dragged into this mob world.

00:52:55But then Emilio showed up and...

00:52:57Did you know he killed my cousin?

00:52:59The silence that followed was the worst silence of my life.

00:53:02Yes.

00:53:04Emilio shot your cousin in front of me.

00:53:06I pulled away from her.

00:53:08She reached for my arm.

00:53:11Mia, please.

00:53:12My family doesn't change who I am.

00:53:14What you mean to me.

00:53:18You sound just like him.

00:53:20I lied to protect you.

00:53:23You watched him die and you didn't tell me?

00:53:26I stood up.

00:53:28She scrambled after me.

00:53:29Saying my name, reaching for my arm.

00:53:31I got to the door.

00:53:33Mia, wait.

00:53:34We're done, Serena.

00:53:36I ran.

00:53:39The street was cold.

00:53:42Serena chased me for half a block before her phone rang and she stopped.

00:53:45I didn't look back.

00:53:46I just walked.

00:53:47Arms wrapped around myself.

00:53:49No destination.

00:53:49No plan.

00:53:50Just moving because stopping felt like drowning.

00:53:52I thought about my mother who had died and left me in a world I didn't understand.

00:53:56I thought about Toas who had sold me to a monster for gambling debts.

00:53:59I thought about the ring I'd left in Emilio's hand and the test still folded in my pocket

00:54:03and the fact that I was pregnant and alone in the dark with nowhere to go.

00:54:06The city moved around me, indifferent.

00:54:09A car slowed alongside me.

00:54:11I squinted.

00:54:12Emilio?

00:54:13The door opened.

00:54:15Not Emilio.

00:54:16Damien.

00:54:35I stared at him.

00:54:41Damien was smiling that easy smile, hands in his pockets, like he was offering him a

00:54:45ride to the airport.

00:54:46Nothing in his face looked wrong.

00:54:48Why would you help me?

00:54:49You're his brother.

00:54:51I'd like to balance out some of the bad I've done.

00:54:53I'll handle your phone.

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

00:54:56Even works when it's off.

00:54:58I looked down at my phone.

00:55:00Then at him.

00:55:01Then at the dark street stretching in both directions with nowhere to go.

00:55:05I handed him the phone.

00:55:06He took it and I climbed into the back seat.

00:55:09I was so tired.

00:55:10I was so tired of being afraid, of running, of trying to stay one step ahead of men with

00:55:15more power than I would ever have.

00:55:17The leather seat was warm.

00:55:18Damien got into the front without speaking.

00:55:20There's water in the back if you need it.

00:55:24I reached for the bottle.

00:55:26Opened it.

00:55:27Took a long drink.

00:55:28Thank you Damien.

00:55:29You're a good man.

00:55:30He watched me in the rear view mirror and something moved across his face that I didn't

00:55:34have time to read.

00:55:38The water tasted like water.

00:55:40That was the last thing I registered clearly.

00:55:43Then the edges of the window started to blur.

00:55:45The street lights smeared into long yellow streaks.

00:55:48My hand felt very heavy.

00:55:50I looked down at the bottle in my lap and thought, distantly, that something was wrong.

00:55:56What?

00:55:58The thought didn't finish.

00:56:01I slumped sideways and the world went out like a light.

00:56:05In the front seat, Damien watched me through the mirror.

00:56:09His easy smile had changed into something else entirely.

00:56:13Something that had been waiting behind it all along.

00:56:16Sweet little Mia, you have no idea what's coming.

00:56:19For you or for my arrogant half-brother.

00:56:25We're on our way.

00:56:27Have the island ready.

00:56:28Outside, the city light slid past and fell behind us, and Emilio's mansion disappeared

00:56:32into the dark.

00:56:33And I was gone before I knew I'd been taken.

00:56:38I woke up to the sound of ocean.

00:56:40That was wrong.

00:56:42I lived in the city.

00:56:43The city didn't sound like that.

00:56:45Steady and vast and indifferent, like breathing from a long way away.

00:56:49I lay still for a moment with my eyes closed, waiting for the world to reassemble itself

00:56:54into something familiar.

00:56:55It didn't.

00:56:56I opened my eyes.

00:56:58An unfamiliar room.

00:56:59Whitewashed walls.

00:57:00Wooden shutters.

00:57:01Light coming in sideways in gold.

00:57:03Not a hotel.

00:57:04Not anywhere I'd ever been.

00:57:06I got up and went to the window.

00:57:09Trees.

00:57:10Ocean.

00:57:11Nothing else in any direction.

00:57:12The door opened behind me.

00:57:14Good.

00:57:15You're awake.

00:57:16I turned around.

00:57:18I turned around.

00:57:19He was standing in the frame, hands in his pockets, looking pleased with himself in that

00:57:24particular way that meant something had gone exactly according to plan.

00:57:28Where am I?

00:57:29Somewhere no one can find you.

00:57:31Not even my brother.

00:57:33The memory came back all at once.

00:57:36The car.

00:57:37The water.

00:57:38The bottle in my hand.

00:57:39The edges of the window blurring.

00:57:42You kidnapped me.

00:57:43Smart girl.

00:57:45I see why Emilio kept you around.

00:57:48But not smart enough.

00:57:50He moved into the room.

00:57:52And I stepped back until the wall found me.

00:57:58He told me about Palacio.

00:58:01Not the way I'd understood it.

00:58:02Franco as Emilio's enemy, using me as a pawn.

00:58:04Damien had been behind Franco the whole time.

00:58:07He'd found my cousin the moment he ran my background check.

00:58:09He'd built the trap, handed Tomas to Franco, and watched the whole thing play out from inside

00:58:13Emilio's house.

00:58:14Franco Palano was a fucking idiot.

00:58:16But he was a useful one, until your cartel king shot him in the head.

00:58:21My cousin died because of you.

00:58:24His expression didn't change.

00:58:26I slapped him.

00:58:27His head snapped sideways.

00:58:29A beat of absolute silence.

00:58:31Then he turned back.

00:58:32And the easy smile was gone.

00:58:34Replaced by something that had always been underneath it.

00:58:38He grabbed my throat and slammed me into the wall.

00:58:41You're lucky I need you.

00:58:44Or I'd choke the life out of you right now.

00:58:47His eyes moved over me in a way that made my skin crawl.

00:58:50If my cold-hearted brother is obsessed with you, there must be something worth exploring.

00:58:55He leaned in.

00:58:58I bit him.

00:58:59Hard.

00:59:02He pulled back with a snarl.

00:59:04And I saw his arm draw back.

00:59:06Don't!

00:59:06Please!

00:59:07I'm pregnant!

00:59:08His fist stopped.

00:59:09The room went very quiet.

00:59:11Damien stared at me.

00:59:12The hiri draining out of his face.

00:59:14And being replaced by something more dangerous.

00:59:16Calculation.

00:59:17You're pregnant.

00:59:19With Emilio's baby?

00:59:20I nodded.

00:59:22My throat ached where his hand had been.

00:59:23He stepped back.

00:59:24Then he started laughing.

00:59:26Really laughing.

00:59:27The kind that fills a room.

00:59:28And I stood against the wall and watched him and felt a cold, creeping dread.

00:59:32Oh, this is gold.

00:59:33Palami actually pulled it off.

00:59:35I thought his plan to knock you up was ridiculous.

00:59:37Emilio would never.

00:59:38Never what?

00:59:38There's a rumor he's infertile.

00:59:40Maybe it's real.

00:59:41Maybe he spread it so women wouldn't chase him.

00:59:43Either way, you and that baby just changed everything.

00:59:45He headed for the door, still grinning.

00:59:48What are you going to do to me?

00:59:49He turned, one hand on the frame.

00:59:52Relax.

00:59:54I was going to let my men have some fun with you.

00:59:57But now, I need that baby unharmed.

01:00:03He told me about the island.

01:00:07Pacific.

01:00:08Private.

01:00:09Surrounded by his army.

01:00:11And buried in the ground all around the house.

01:00:14Explosives.

01:00:14Enough to bring everything down.

01:00:16Triggered by a detonator he kept on his person.

01:00:18If Emilio tries anything, boom.

01:00:21Then he left me there.

01:00:23I slid down the wall and sat on the floor and tried to think.

01:00:27The ocean kept making its vast in a myrient sound outside the shuttered window.

01:00:32You're on a private Pacific island.

01:00:34Surrounded by a full army.

01:00:36With bombs underneath you.

01:00:38I pressed both hands flat against my stomach.

01:00:41I'm going to get us out of here.

01:00:43I didn't know if that was true.

01:00:45I said it anyway because someone had to.

01:00:48I thought about the note Emilio had tucked into a nursing school envelope.

01:00:52I listened to everything you say.

01:00:54I thought about the way he'd lifted me out of Franco's building like I was something worth carrying.

01:00:59I thought about his fist closing around my ring.

01:01:02Find me, I thought.

01:01:03Please find me.

01:01:06The door stayed closed.

01:01:07The ocean kept breathing.

01:01:10I stayed on the floor and I waited.

01:01:14On the third night, a hand touched my shoulder.

01:01:17I jolted awake.

01:01:18Already pulling back.

01:01:19Already opening my mouth to scream.

01:01:20And a hand covered it.

01:01:21A familiar weight.

01:01:22A familiar smell.

01:01:23Mia, it's me.

01:01:25A voice in my ear.

01:01:27Barely a breath.

01:01:28I collapsed into him.

01:01:29He held me for exactly three seconds.

01:01:31His arms around me.

01:01:33His chin on my head.

01:01:34The realness of him solid and overwhelming.

01:01:36And then he pulled back and cupped my face and checked me the way he'd checked me in the warehouse

01:01:40all those months ago.

01:01:42Systematic and frantic at the same time.

01:01:44Are you hurt?

01:01:45No.

01:01:46How did you-

01:01:46Serena.

01:01:47Serena.

01:01:47And your mafia princess friend has a helicopter.

01:01:49He pressed his lips to my forehead.

01:01:51Quick and fierce.

01:01:52Follow my lead.

01:01:52We're heading to the chopper.

01:01:53Stay close.

01:01:54Stay quiet.

01:01:55He had a gun in his hand.

01:01:56He opened the door, checked the corridor, and guided me out into the dark.

01:02:01We made it thirty feet.

01:02:03Damien's voice came from ahead of us.

01:02:05Easy and amused.

01:02:07Like he'd been waiting.

01:02:07Since when does the cartel king use knockout drugs to sneak in?

01:02:12Emilio stopped.

01:02:13Gun raised.

01:02:15Since when do you skip dinner?

01:02:19Damien stepped out of the shadows.

01:02:21In his hand, raised between two fingers like a cigarette, was the detonator.

01:02:27Since the day dad handed you the cartel.

01:02:31His thumb hovered over the button.

01:02:33Emilio moved in front of me without thinking about it, blocking me with his body.

01:02:37Drop the gun, brother.

01:02:43Emilio dropped it.

01:02:45You want the cartel?

01:02:46Fine.

01:02:47I'll give it to you.

01:02:48I don't want the stupid mob!

01:02:50It's you!

01:02:51It's always been you!

01:02:52His voice had broken open, and underneath the ease and the planning and the long, patient game was something rawer.

01:02:58Something that had been sitting in that house for years, growing in the dark.

01:03:01Then take me.

01:03:03Do whatever you want.

01:03:04But let Mia go.

01:03:06Don't drag her into this.

01:03:09It happened in less than a second.

01:03:11Emilio crossing the corridor in two strides, shoulder dropping, crashing into his brother.

01:03:15The detonator flew from Damien's hand.

01:03:17But Damien's smile came back.

01:03:19Colder than before.

01:03:20No.

01:03:21Your offspring isn't getting out today, either.

01:03:25He turned to me.

01:03:26Slowly.

01:03:27And in that moment, nothing in his face was the cartel king.

01:03:30Nothing was the man who made rooms go silent and had people removed.

01:03:34He just looked at me like I was the only thing in the room that mattered.

01:03:37You're pregnant.

01:03:39I nodded.

01:03:40His jaw set.

01:03:42He turned back to Damien.

01:03:45Not happening.

01:03:48Then we all die.

01:03:50His thumb moved.

01:03:52Emilio lunged.

01:03:53He of them hit the window behind them and went through it in a shower of glass and frame and

01:03:58night air.

01:04:02Emilio!

01:04:05Silence.

01:04:06Then the night outside was just the ocean and the dark and the sound of my own breathing, ragged and

01:04:12desperate.

01:04:13I ran for the door.

01:04:16They were both on the ground outside.

01:04:20Unconscious.

01:04:21Not moving.

01:04:22Damien face down in the dirt.

01:04:24Emilio on his back with his eyes closed and one arm thrown wide and glass in his hair.

01:04:29I heard voices.

01:04:30Serena, Marco, running toward me.

01:04:33I dropped to my knees beside Emilio.

01:04:38Emilio!

01:04:39Emilio!

01:04:40Wake up!

01:04:41We have to go!

01:04:42Mia!

01:04:44Marco was already beside me, hands on Emilio's chest, pressing and counting.

01:04:49I sat there and held Emilio's hand and watched Marco's face and couldn't breathe.

01:04:55Come back.

01:04:56Come back.

01:04:57Come back.

01:05:02Emilio coughed.

01:05:03His chest heaved.

01:05:05His eyes opened.

01:05:07Everyone let out a breath at the same time.

01:05:11I'm okay.

01:05:13We need to move.

01:05:14He started to get up.

01:05:15I helped him, my hands shaking.

01:05:17Chopper's ready!

01:05:18This way!

01:05:20Emilio stood, unsteady, and looked at Damien's limp body.

01:05:26You go ahead.

01:05:27I need to finish him.

01:05:32I'm not leaving you.

01:05:33You want to watch me shoot my own brother?

01:05:37I don't care!

01:05:39You're pregnant, Mia.

01:05:41Go.

01:05:42His voice was gentle but final.

01:05:44The voice that meant he'd already decided.

01:05:47Promise you'll come.

01:05:48I promise.

01:05:50Serena took my arm.

01:05:51I let her pull me away, looking back over my shoulder at Emilio standing over his brother in the dark.

01:05:56He didn't look back at me.

01:05:57He was already somewhere else.

01:05:58Somewhere cold and necessary.

01:06:00He's going to be fine.

01:06:01He's Emilio Reyes.

01:06:02We were 20 yards from the house, then 30.

01:06:05The helicopter was somewhere ahead, its blades beginning to turn.

01:06:09I kept walking.

01:06:10He promised.

01:06:11He promised.

01:06:12He promised.

01:06:15The world turned white.

01:06:17The sound hit me a full second after the light.

01:06:20A wall of pressure and noise that knocked me sideways.

01:06:23Serena's grip tearing loose.

01:06:25I turned around.

01:06:26The house was on fire.

01:06:28Not catching fire.

01:06:30Already fire.

01:06:31Instant and total.

01:06:32A column of flame reaching up into the dark sky.

01:06:35The windows gone.

01:06:36The roof already folding.

01:06:37The air tasted like smoke.

01:06:41I couldn't move.

01:06:42Serena was saying something.

01:06:44Marco was saying something.

01:06:45The helicopter blades were louder now.

01:06:47Someone was pulling at my arm, and I couldn't move, because Emilio was in that house, and

01:06:51he had promised, and he was in that house.

01:06:53No!

01:06:54The word came out of me like something being torn out.

01:06:57No!

01:06:58Emilio!

01:06:58Serena had both arms around me from behind, holding me back.

01:07:01I fought her.

01:07:02I don't remember deciding to fight her.

01:07:04My body just refused to go anywhere without him.

01:07:07Mia!

01:07:07Let me sit there!

01:07:08He's Mia!

01:07:09Stop!

01:07:10Marco was already running back toward the burning house, calling into his radio.

01:07:15I stopped fighting.

01:07:16I just stood there in Serena's arms, and watched the fire eat the house, and felt the

01:07:21heat on my face, and thought about a man in a study saying, I listened to everything

01:07:25you say, and a man in a corridor with his shoulder dropping and his body going through

01:07:28glass.

01:07:29Going through glass to keep a detonator out of his brother's hand.

01:07:32Going through glass for me.

01:07:34The flames climbed higher.

01:07:36The night was orange and black.

01:07:38I pressed both hands over the small life inside me, and I waited, and I waited, and I waited,

01:07:44and no one came.

01:07:48Five months later.

01:07:49That's what the subtitle would say if my life were a movie.

01:07:52Five months later.

01:07:54A neat jump cut.

01:07:56All the grief, and the waiting, and the nights I lay awake with one hand on my stomach and

01:08:01the other pressed to my mouth to keep quiet, compressed into three words, and a hard cut

01:08:05to a woman on a street corner in white gloves.

01:08:08Me.

01:08:09I'm eight months pregnant, and I'm wearing white gloves, and I'm standing on a sidewalk

01:08:13watching a homeless man run.

01:08:15He thinks he's running from the two cars that boxed him in.

01:08:20He's not.

01:08:21He's running from me.

01:08:23The car door opens.

01:08:25I step out.

01:08:27Damien stops.

01:08:28He looks older.

01:08:30Thinner.

01:08:31Five months on the street will do that.

01:08:32Five months knowing that the woman whose house you burnt out is carrying the air to the

01:08:36Ray S. cartel and is looking for you.

01:08:38That will do it too.

01:08:40I pull off one gloves, finger by finger.

01:08:44Hello, brother-in-law.

01:08:47My men take him before he can speak.

01:08:51Wait!

01:08:52Mia!

01:08:54We should talk!

01:08:55Yes.

01:08:56We should.

01:09:00The basement of the Reyes mansion is very quiet.

01:09:03I had Diaz repaint it.

01:09:05New lighting.

01:09:06A good chair for me to sit in, positioned at exactly the right distance.

01:09:09I learned from the best, after all.

01:09:11I watched Emilio run this house for months.

01:09:13I know how it's done.

01:09:15I sit with my legs, rapes crossed, and my hands folded over my stomach, and I watch

01:09:20two of my men work.

01:09:21Mia!

01:09:22Damien screams.

01:09:24He begs.

01:09:25He says my name like it's a password that will open a door, like some part of him still

01:09:29believes I'm the nursing student from the fast food restaurant who cried on a sofa and

01:09:32couldn't look Emilio in the eye.

01:09:34I'm not her anymore.

01:09:35Make this stop, please!

01:09:38I give the men a look.

01:09:40They hit harder.

01:09:41After a while I raise a hand and they stop.

01:09:43The basement goes quiet, except for Damien's raggled breathing and the distant sound of the

01:09:48city outside.

01:09:48I stand up and walk over to him.

01:09:54Tell me where he is.

01:09:56Damien looks up at me through blood.

01:09:59His smile is still there, somehow cracked and terrible.

01:10:03Come closer.

01:10:05I'll tell you.

01:10:14He's rotting in hell, just like you will be, you stupid.

01:10:19I straightened up.

01:10:21I pulled the gun from the back of my waistband.

01:10:25The one Diego had started leaving on my night state three months ago, after the first two

01:10:29attempts on my life, after I'd started running this operation alone.

01:10:33And I shot Damien once.

01:10:35He slumped.

01:10:36I stood there for a moment and looked at him.

01:10:39Emilio's brother.

01:10:39The man who had built every trap I'd walked into.

01:10:42The man who had burned down the house with Emilio inside it.

01:10:45Then I peeled off the other glove, folded both of them together, and walked out.

01:10:53Diego was waiting in the Rordo with a package.

01:10:55Mail address to your name, ma'am.

01:10:57He held it out.

01:10:58The label read Mia Espinoza.

01:11:01I frowned.

01:11:02I thought I changed my last name on everything.

01:11:05Could be from before.

01:11:08I took it.

01:11:12I opened it in the study.

01:11:16A file.

01:11:17Legal documents.

01:11:19A will.

01:11:19Notarized.

01:11:20Witness.

01:11:21Dated three months before Leshia died.

01:11:22I read the first page and had to sit down.

01:11:26One hundred million dollars.

01:11:28Her actual inheritance.

01:11:29Not the fabricated claws Amicio had invented to get me into his house.

01:11:32The real thing.

01:11:33The money she'd spent her life accumulating.

01:11:35And had always meant to give to the niece she wrote letters to and called her girl.

01:11:39Where it all started, I thought.

01:11:41Diego stood near the door.

01:11:43Mr. Reyes would have found you regardless of the inheritance.

01:11:50Sounds like him.

01:11:52I turned to the last page, and a small piece of paper fell out.

01:11:55Folded once.

01:11:56The size of a fortune cookie slip.

01:11:57I picked it up.

01:11:58The handwriting was Emilio's.

01:12:00I'd seen it on a hundred things.

01:12:01Notes.

01:12:02Contracts.

01:12:03The margin of a book he'd left open on the kitchen counter.

01:12:05I'd have known it anywhere.

01:12:06It said, love at first sight.

01:12:08I sat there holding that small piece of paper for a long time.

01:12:11Then I pressed it against my chest and closed my eyes.

01:12:14I'll find you Emilio Reyes.

01:12:16Wherever you are.

01:12:19He was in Sicily.

01:12:21I didn't know that yet.

01:12:23I knew it the way you know things when you've been running someone's empire for five months

01:12:26and you've learned to read Diego's face.

01:12:28There was somewhere he wouldn't look.

01:12:30Some piece of information that lived just behind his careful professional expression.

01:12:35But he wouldn't tell me.

01:12:36And I understood why.

01:12:38Emilio had told him not to.

01:12:40So I waited.

01:12:41On a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean, a man in a wheelchair watched the ocean.

01:12:47He'd been watching it for weeks.

01:12:48The light changed.

01:12:50The water changed.

01:12:52He watched it all with the patience of someone who has decided not to go anywhere until they're

01:12:56ready.

01:12:57Serena flew to Sicily on a Tuesday.

01:13:00She found him on the balcony, thinner than she'd left him, the ocean wind moving through

01:13:04his hair.

01:13:04She dropped a photograph on his lap without greeting him first.

01:13:08In the photo, Damien.

01:13:10Dead.

01:13:11Emilio picked up the photo, looked at it for a long moment.

01:13:14That's my girl.

01:13:18She's gonna be pissed if you're not there when she gives birth.

01:13:22I can't see her like this.

01:13:24You could show up as a worm and she'd still love you.

01:13:27I'm tired of lying to my best friend.

01:13:29Again.

01:13:31She'll forgive you.

01:13:33Serena ground and sat down on the low wall beside his chair.

01:13:36The Mediterranean was the specific blue it gets in the late afternoon, almost violet at

01:13:41the edges.

01:13:42Come back with me tomorrow.

01:13:43I'm flying out in the morning.

01:13:45No.

01:13:46Emilio.

01:13:47I'll return when I can stand on my own feet.

01:13:50I want her to know I'm still the man who can protect her.

01:13:53And our baby.

01:13:55Serena stared at him for a long moment.

01:13:57Toxic masculinity from a cartel king.

01:13:59Who would have thought?

01:14:00A beat.

01:14:01You know, you're kinda cute in a wheelchair.

01:14:04Don't let your bodyguard hear that.

01:14:06He helps me to the bathroom.

01:14:07Serena laughed.

01:14:08A real laugh.

01:14:09Surprised out of her.

01:14:10She stood up and kissed the top of his head.

01:14:12Don't take too long.

01:14:14She walked out.

01:14:17Emilio stayed on the balcony until the light was gone.

01:14:22He reached into his pocket.

01:14:24The ring was small and cold and familiar.

01:14:27Mia's engagement ring.

01:14:28The one she'd placed in his palm in the bedroom and walked away from.

01:14:32He'd been carrying it since that night.

01:14:34Through the crash, through the window, through however many surgeries he didn't fully remember.

01:14:39Through the months of physical therapy on this balcony overlooking the sea.

01:14:42He turned it in his fingers.

01:14:43He thought about the night in the alley when he'd looked up from the pavement and seen a woman he'd

01:14:47never met pressing gons to his chest and telling him to stop moving or he'd bleed more.

01:14:51He'd been half dead and delirious and he thought, I know you.

01:14:53I don't know you yet, but I know you.

01:14:55Lietia had talked about her for years.

01:14:57Her niece.

01:14:58The nursing student.

01:14:59The girl who sent letters and called every Sunday and had her mother's stubbornness and her own fierce particular kindness.

01:15:05He'd carried the shape of her before he knew her face.

01:15:08He closed his hand around the ring.

01:15:10I'm coming back to you, Mia.

01:15:12The ocean was dark now.

01:15:14The stars were coming out one by one over Sicily.

01:15:18I'm coming back.

01:15:22Two months later, I thought giving birth at home would be easier.

01:15:26I was wrong.

01:15:27It's never easy.

01:15:28I hate you.

01:15:30I hate you, Emilio Reyes.

01:15:32Almost there.

01:15:33One more push.

01:15:34I hate you.

01:15:36I pushed.

01:15:37The world split open and then there was a sound.

01:15:40Small and indignant and completely certain of itself.

01:15:44And the doctor was saying something I couldn't hear.

01:15:46And someone was crying and I thought it might be me.

01:15:49Ma'am, you need to stay with us.

01:15:51You haven't seen your baby.

01:15:52But I'm just so tired.

01:15:54I was tired in a way I had never been tired before.

01:15:57Down into the marrow, my body suddenly hollow and enormous at the same time.

01:16:01Stay.

01:16:02Stay.

01:16:02You have to stay.

01:16:03My eyes closed.

01:16:04Someone said my name.

01:16:06I tried to hold on.

01:16:07Then, at the edge of the light, a silhouette appeared in the doorway.

01:16:11Not Diego.

01:16:12Not Serena.

01:16:14Not a doctor.

01:16:15A silhouette that moved the way only one person in my life had ever moved.

01:16:21He was standing on his own feet.

01:16:23That was the first thing I registered.

01:16:25Not that he was there, not even that he was alive, but that he was standing.

01:16:28On his own two feet.

01:16:29In the doorway of my hospital room, wearing clothes I didn't recognize,

01:16:32thinner than I remembered, with a look on his face that I had no word for.

01:16:36Mia.

01:16:36My name in his voice.

01:16:38I had been so tired.

01:16:39A moment ago the darkness had been pulling me down and I had been letting it because

01:16:42I didn't have anything left to fight with.

01:16:44But my eyes opened.

01:16:47Emilio.

01:16:47He crossed the room.

01:16:48He dropped to his knees beside the bed.

01:16:50He took my face in both hands and pressed his forehead to mine.

01:16:53I felt him shaking.

01:16:53This man who never shook.

01:16:54Who never showed anything.

01:16:55Who had spent 32 years building a wall around himself and had spent six months tearing it

01:16:58down for me.

01:16:59He was shaking.

01:17:00Somewhere behind him a baby was crying.

01:17:02Our baby.

01:17:02Ours.

01:17:03You came.

01:17:04I told you I was coming back.

01:17:05Outside the hospital window, the city was beginning its ordinary morning,

01:17:09entirely aware that something fundamental had just changed.

01:17:11Inside, I closed my eyes and held on to him and listened to the small,

01:17:14indignant, perfect sound of our daughter announcing herself to the world.

01:17:17We were here.

01:17:18Both of us.

01:17:19Finally.

01:17:22This is what I know now.

01:17:24I know that love is not the clean, safe thing I thought it would be.

01:17:27When I was 22 and working at a fast food counter and keeping a wish list of what my life

01:17:31was

01:17:31supposed to become, I thought love would feel like arriving somewhere.

01:17:34I thought it would be warm and certain and uncomplicated.

01:17:37It is none of those things.

01:17:40It is a man pressing gauze to a wound in a back room.

01:17:44It is a ring in a palm and a door closing and a house going up in flames.

01:17:50It is five months of running an empire I didn't ask for learning the weight of a gun and the

01:17:55patience required to wait for someone who promised to come back.

01:17:59He is not a good man in the simple sense.

01:18:31I was 22 and afraid and I had no idea what I was saving him into.

01:18:35Best mistake I ever made.

01:18:38Best mistake I ever made.

01:18:39Best mistake I ever made.

01:18:40Best mistake I ever made.

01:18:41Best mistake I ever made.

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