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The Blackmailed Bride- Falling in Love With a Criminal Boss-Drama FULL MOVIES ENGLISH SUB
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00:02Thank God. Are you okay? He didn't chain you up somewhere. He's not. No, no dungeons. I'm fine.
00:09You don't look fine. She's right. I don't feel fine. I feel like I'm playing three different
00:13chess games at once and losing all of them. I start to tell her about Franco, about Tomas,
00:17about the deadline. But before I can get past the first sentence, are you okay? You seem terrified
00:22of him. Of course I'm terrified. His men run the entire East Coast. He could be listening to us
00:26right now, Mia. Serena, you're not making sense. Why do you even know so much about him? Who's
00:29your dad? Something shifts in her expression. Something serious and old and tired like she's
00:34been waiting for this question and dreading it at the same time. Mia, it's time you know
00:38who I am. The door exploding open. A masked man with a gun raised screaming at everyone
00:42to get on the floor. The cafe erupts into chaos. I freeze. I stand in the middle of it all
00:47and
00:47my body simply refuses to move like it's deciding whether any of this is real. Mia, get down.
00:52I can't move. You deaf? I said down. The robber spots me. Move. Why can't I move?
01:09Marco, put it down. Please.
01:16I stand there with a stranger's arm around neck and think absurdly about the alley three months
01:20ago. About how I peeked my head out and said hello like an idiot. About how that one bad
01:24decision led to every bad decision after it. A chain of dominoes I set off the moment I dragged
01:28a bleeding cartel king off the pavement. I really shouldn't have saved him. Then the door opens
01:32again. Emilio walks in like he has nowhere else to be. Like this is a meeting he scheduled. Gun
01:36raised. Jaw set. Eyes finding me in under a second. Oh yeah? Who's she? The president's wife?
01:41Emilio shoots him in the arm. The arm around my throat goes slack. I drop. Serena catches me.
01:47No you're fucking not. I don't see what happens next. The world tilts, goes soft at the edges and I
01:52stop being able to hold myself up. The last thing I feel before I feign is someone lifting me.
01:56His arms. His cologne. That particular steadiness that shouldn't feel like safety but does.
02:04The next morning a small army arrives at my door. They work on me for two hours. I sit in
02:09the chair
02:09and let them and feel like a doll being dressed for a party I didn't ask to attend. Which is
02:14technically exactly what's happening. I slip out when they're arguing about earrings. Down the hall
02:18through the tall living room windows I spot Emilio outside with Diego. He's in a sharp suit and he's
02:23furious. Jaw tight, gesturing hard, words muffled through the glass but unmistakably sharp. He's
02:28beautiful when he's angry. I noticed this and immediately wish I hadn't.
02:34You're gonna tell me why you want my baby and what it have to do with Palacio?
02:38Who?
02:38The man at your apartment.
02:40He knows. He's known. The realization lands slowly and then all at once and I think about
02:44every moment since he showed up at my door. The conference table, the handkerchief, the drawer full
02:48of condoms and understand that he has been pulling at this thread the entire time. I don't know what
02:52you're talking about. Do you know what happened to the last person who lied to me? I cut out their
02:58tongue and made them eat it. I hate them. I blink hard. He's a monster, I tell myself. Remember that.
03:04This isn't over. I know. It's never over. That's the problem.
03:10I walk in on Emilio's arm in a dress that cost more than three months of my old salary. Diamonds
03:15at my
03:15throat and I feel like a very convincing fake. Emilio greets people with a smile that doesn't touch
03:20his eyes and steers me through the room with a hand at the small of my back that feels like
03:24both a claim
03:24and a warning.
03:26Stay close. Don't talk to anyone.
03:28I'm not allowed to talk to people?
03:30You've caused enough trouble on your own.
03:31That wasn't in the contract.
03:33I'm a cartel boss, Mia. A contract won't stop me from doing whatever I want.
03:38I don't see Franco until his hand closes around my arm and yanks me into the shadows.
03:43Hello, little Mia. You didn't forget our deal?
03:45What are you doing here?
03:47Emilio invited me. Go way back.
03:48Emilio invited him. The information sits in my chest like a stone. I think about the look on
03:52Emilio's face through the window. Furious. Deliberate. I think about this isn't over.
03:56You've been living with him for three weeks, little Mia. Why aren't you pregnant yet?
04:07What did you do to her?
04:08Nothing. We were just talking. Why don't you ask her?
04:12This is his land between us like a grenade. I watch Emilio's grip loosen, just slightly,
04:17just for a moment and see it on his face, the recalculation, the betrayal trying to find its shape.
04:21Our eyes meet and I have never felt so exposed in my life.
04:24Then DeLeon is there, murmuring something about engagement photos, and Emilio exhale through his teeth
04:29and goes. I watch him walk away with his shoulders set and his jaw tight, and something aching and
04:34hollow opens up in the middle of my chest. You know something's wrong. Tell him yourself before
04:39this ends badly. I can't. Under the bright lights of the photo area, Emanio and I stand six inches
04:45apart like strangers. The photographer keeps asking us to move closer. We comply in small,
04:50miserable increments. Is it that unborable standing next to me?
04:53Only when you're mad at me. I'm mad because you're hiding something.
04:55I can't. Perfect. Now give each other a little kiss.
04:58The silence that follows is approximately a thousand years long. Then Emilio grabs my chin
05:02and kisses me. It's not gentle. It's a question with teeth. Demanding and frustrated and searingly
05:07humiliatingly effective. The camera flashes go off like a small storm. That was my first kiss.
05:12That was my first kiss and he used it like perpuntuation.
05:17His mouth was just there. Angry and warm and nothing like I'd imagined and I have absolutely been
05:23imagining it and that is a problem I don't have time for right now.
05:26He was furious and I still got turned on. What is wrong with me?
05:32Did you sleep with him?
05:33What? Who?
05:34Franco Palazzo. Is that what you're hiding? Is that why you wouldn't kiss me?
05:36No, I didn't sleep with him!
05:37You shoved me away like I was contagious!
05:38Because I couldn't breathe! I've never... I haven't...
05:40The fury in his expression shifts. Slowly, like a tide going out, it gives way to something
05:45quiet and more careful.
05:46Breathe through your nose.
05:47He presses his lips to mine and this time it's nothing like before. Soft, slow, like he's
05:51asking instead of taking. Like he has all the time in the world and intends to use it.
05:56One more.
05:56I don't say no. I don't say anything. He kisses me again, deeper, one hand sliding to the back
06:01of my neck and I stop being able to think in anything but sensation. Warmth and the smell of
06:05his cologne and the ridiculous, inconvenient certainty that I am in very serious trouble.
06:09Say yes, Mia.
06:10Yes.
06:14Then he stops. Not all at once. He trails his lips down my throat, unhurried, while I'm still trying to
06:18remember
06:19what air is for. His hands are at my waist, mine are in his hair. The whole world has narrowed
06:22down
06:22to this locked bathroom, this basin, his mouth.
06:24But I don't think you deserve it yet.
06:26What?
06:26You're still hiding something from me. You and my worst enemy.
06:29I can't tell you. I'm sorry.
06:31He drops to his knees in front of me, parting my legs, and I barely have time to process what's
06:35happening before his mouth is on me and my head snaps back and I forget every coherent thought
06:40I've ever had.
06:41You'll tell me eventually, before it's too late.
06:43He's using this against me. I know he's using this against me. I can't make myself care.
06:48A security guard threatening to break it down.
06:50Promise me you'll tell me the truth, or that guard walks in and finds you like this.
06:54That's- you can't- that's blackmail!
06:56Yes, I promise. I'll tell you everything.
06:58Turns back to me, eyes dark.
07:01Remember your promise.
07:04He leaves. I sit on the basin in the sudden quiet, chest heaving, ring glittering on my
07:08finger and press my hands to my face. He used pleasure as a weapon. And the worst part,
07:13the part I can't stop thinking about as I swipe off the basin and fix my lipstick and
07:17walk back out into the party is that I would let him do it again.
07:23Sleep well?
07:25You don't look like you slept well. I can arrange a sleep therapist.
07:29You used sex to blackrail me? No, I don't need a therapist. I need a cop.
07:32You think a cop would help?
07:33No, because you're the cartel king and you do whatever you want.
07:37Not everything I want. Not when it comes to you.
07:40I don't know what to do with that. I look at my hands.
07:42I don't like being lied to, Mia. I grew up in this world. Betrayal is the worst sin there is.
07:47But I'll wait. Tell me when you're ready.
07:49Something in my chest loosens just slightly. The first millimeter of relief in weeks.
07:54I'll tell you. At the right time. I need to think it through.
07:57That's all I need.
07:59I have money.
08:00You have peanuts. Buy whatever you want. I'll see you tonight, fiance.
08:03I look up from five credit cards and the ring on my finger and the ghost of his mouth on
08:07mine,
08:07and I think about Tobos and Franco's deadline and the promise I made in a locked bathroom.
08:12I'll tell him. At the right time. My phone buzzes. It's a message from an unknown number.
08:17A photo. Toas. Beaten. Barely consciousness. A map pin. One line of text. Come alone.
08:22I'm running some errands today. You can come along. Let's see how long you last.
08:29I know that's what it was. A list of errands Emilio had quietly arranged. A list of things
08:33I was supposed to need. A list of reasons to stay close to the house. I ditched them at the
08:38corner
08:38of Fifth and Carator, slipped into a doorway while they ran past in the wrong direction,
08:42and stood there for three whole seconds, feeling like I'd actually won something.
08:46The address was a neighborhood that had given up on itself. Cracked pavement,
08:50board windows, a smell like rust and old rain. The building at the end of the block looked like it
08:55was held together by habit. I pushed the door open anyway. He needs me, I told myself. He can't
09:01hurt me yet. There's no baby. The whole scene arranged like something from a bad movie.
09:06Little Mia. Took you long enough. I had to get rid of Emilio's people.
09:10I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about why you're not pregnant yet.
09:12He looked up when he heard me. My stomach turned. He started pulling one of the women closer,
09:17making a show of it, watching my face.
09:21When something slammed into the building from the back. A sound like the world rearranging itself.
09:31Franco got one hand on my arm before a gunshot punched through the air, and he dropped.
09:40Emilio stood in the doorway, guns still raised, still smoking. He looked at Franco on the floor for
09:47exactly one second. Then he looked at me. You okay? Did he hurt you? I couldn't make words happen.
09:55I just shook my head against his chest and kept shaking. Take care of the rest. We're leaving.
10:00Then he lifted me, literally lifted me, and carried me out of that building like I weighed nothing,
10:05like it was the most natural thing in the world, like he'd been doing it his whole life. Outside,
10:10the afternoon light was so ordinary it almost hurt.
10:15I kept waiting for him to put me down to say something cold, to remind me that this was a
10:19contract and feelings weren't included. He didn't. He just held me against his chest in the back seat
10:24while Diego drove and the city slipped past the windows like a film I wasn't part of. He set me
10:28on
10:29the living room sofa, carefully, gently, and told the staff to leave with a single look. The room
10:33emptied in seconds. It was just us, and the afternoon quiet, and the weight of everything that had happened in
10:39that filthy room. He threatened my cousin. He wanted me to have your baby so he could use
10:43the child as leverage against you. Why didn't you come to me? He said he'd kill Tomas if I did.
10:48Your cousin was working with Galadio. He owed him money. They built this trap together, for you.
10:54The word together landed like a stone.
10:59What? He gambled himself into a grave. Galadio owned him. I stared at my hands. The whole architecture of the
11:05pastures rearranged itself in my head. Toa sweeping on my floor. The threats. All of it planned.
11:10All of it aimed at me. Sorry isn't gonna cut it.
11:16I thought he was going to be cold about it. That's what I braced for. The cartel king voice.
11:21The gun on the table voice. That I told you so, wrapped in ice. Instead, he said something I didn't
11:26expect at all. You own me. I dropped meetings to pull you out of that coffee shop. I kissed you
11:32at our
11:32engagement party when I should have been shaking hands. I couldn't kill you when you lied to my
11:36face three times and I tried. I sat there and I tried and I couldn't do it. Don't quote that
11:40stupid
11:40contract to me when you own me, Mia Espinosa. Body and soul. As much as I own you.
11:46Kiss me like you own me. His jaw worked. He said something about not being able to stop once he
11:52started. I didn't let him finish. I grabbed his collar and pulled him down to me and for one second
11:56he went still with pure shock. And then he took over, kissing me like he'd been keeping it locked up
12:01for
12:01months which I think he had. Yes. Do whatever you want to me. Punish me. Fuck me like you own
12:08me.
12:09He looked at me for a long moment. Something fierce and half undone in his face.
12:14Don't say I didn't warn you, Mia.
12:21There's a mirror above the dresser in his bedroom. I didn't notice it until he bent me over the drawers
12:25and his mouth found my neck. And I looked up and saw us. His hands in my hair, my face
12:30flushed,
12:30his eyes burning into mine through the glass. Look in the mirror. Look how slutty you get for me.
12:36I couldn't look away. I'm the only one who gets to see you like this. Do you understand?
12:41Yes. Lift your dress. Watch when I take you. What followed I will not describe in detail because
12:48there are no adequate words for it. I'll say that every time my eyes dropped, he cupped my chin and
12:52brought my gaze back to the mirror. Mine. Every time he said mine, I believed him more completely than
12:57I've believed anything in my life. Mine. Mine.
13:05Mine. Afterward, we lay in the dark, his arm across my waist, his breath slow and even. I stared at
13:10the
13:10ceiling and felt the particular silence of someone who has crossed a line they can't cross back over.
13:15You own me, Mia Espinoza. I pressed my face into his shoulder and tried not to feel how much I
13:20wanted
13:20that to be true. Don't fall, I told myself. I was already falling.
13:27One week later, I came home to flowers. That's not quite accurate. I came home to an abundance of
13:32flowers. A proliferation. A situation that had clearly escalated well beyond what any reasonable
13:37person would call a floral arrangement. Every surface in the living room held a different vase.
13:41The whole space smelled like a greenhouse had moved in while I was out. Standing in the middle of it,
13:45introducing herself with a warm, professional smile was a woman named Ollie. She was in her 30s,
13:50polished, very pretty, and she was looking at the door behind me in a way that told me exactly who
13:55she was waiting for. Emilio came in 30 seconds later. He stopped, swept his eyes across the flowers,
13:59then across me, and something in his face went immediately soft and that way it only does when
14:03it's just us. Hello, wife. I missed you. He dropped kisses on my forehead. I held his forearms
14:10and forgot for a moment that there was a third person in the room. You must be Mr. Reyes. I'm
14:15Ollie. I'm helping Mrs. Reyes with the wedding florets. Emilio looked at all the flowers again.
14:20How many flowers does a wedding need? As many as I like. You told me I could have whatever I
14:25wanted.
14:26He leaned in close, eyes warming. I was thinking of something else entirely when I said that.
14:32I shoved his chest. He laughed and pulled me into his side. I didn't notice Ollie's expression yet.
14:39I would.
14:42The roses were imported from Bulgaria, apparently. Perfect for expressing passion. A good fit for
14:49your character, sir. I looked at Emilio. He was looking at me. What do you think?
14:55They look pretty. Ollie pivoted to Lily's before I finished the sentence. They opened with just a
15:00little attention. And her eyes lingered on Emilio the way eyes linger when they're not really looking
15:06at flowers. They look cheap. Then orchids. High maintenance. But a man like you can definitely
15:14afford to spoil someone. Stop. Both of them looked at me. I know what you're doing. And I don't like
15:21it.
15:22Ollie gave me a polished, innocent smile. Mrs. Reyes, I assure you- It's Mrs. Reyes. You're flirting with my
15:30man in my house. I don't like that. Emilio made a sound that was almost a laugh. He lowered his
15:36mouth
15:37to my ear. You're about to become a mob queen. Show her your claws. I turned back to Ollie.
15:42You're fired. You heard my wife. Security came. She went. The door closed. Emilio was grinning.
15:50You called me your man. Because you are. I told him he was sleeping on the couch. In respect this
15:58was
15:58optimistic of me. For what sin exactly? You didn't shut her down. You just stood there. I was looking
16:05at you the whole time. I didn't hear a word she said. That's not the point. Couch. I turned to
16:11walk
16:11away. He caught my wrist. I had about one second of thinking I'd won before he lifted me over his
16:16shoulder like I was a bag he was rearranging. I squealed. I couldn't help it. Put me down.
16:25You'll be down when I decide you're down. He carried me out of the room while I laughed and
16:29hit his back and told him he was ridiculous. He ignored all of it with complete serenity.
16:34On the other side of the city, in the abandoned house where Franco had died, Damien moved through
16:38the filthy rooms alone. He stopped at the body, crouched down, studied what was left of the man who had
16:44been his instrument. He stood up slowly. Coward. He looked around at the decay, the silence,
16:52the ruined plan. Then he pulled out his phone. Guess I'm on my own now.
17:01The letter appeared with breakfast. Morning, wife. You got a letter.
17:07I read the first line and went completely still. It was an admission letter. Nursing school. I never
17:12applied for this. I did. He said it casually like it was obvious. Like the most natural thing in the
17:18world was for a cartel boff to submit nursing school applications on behalf of a woman he'd
17:22coerced into a contract marriage. How did you even know I wanted to go back? He stopped moving. Turned to
17:28look at me with an expression I'd never seen on him before. Completely serious. Completely open.
17:34The night you saved me, you said you were a nursing school dropout. The storage room.
17:39The blood. His voice fading in and out as I pressed gauze to his chest, trying to keep him here.
17:47I'm a nursing school dropout. You'll survive. He'd been carrying that for months.
17:52I listened to everything you say. He took my hand and kissed the back of it. Told me the semester
17:56started on the 18th. Two weeks. He'd arranged bodyguards. I started to object. He said two,
18:01not a convoy. And I let it go. Then I sat very still, looking at the letter. The 18th. My
18:07period was
18:07late. More than late. I thought about the soreness I'd been ignoring for a week and a cold plerry moved
18:13through me, fast and certain. Bathroom. I was already gone.
18:22I sat on the bathroom floor for a long time. The test was in my hand. Two lines, unmistakable,
18:30sitting there in the morning light like the simplest and most complicated fact in the world.
18:36Pregnant. I pressed my palm flat against my stomach. Nothing felt different yet. The same body,
18:42the same skin. But somewhere in there, something had started. Something that was half me and half
18:47the man in the kitchen who had kissed the back of my hand and said, I listen to everything you
18:50say.
18:51The man who had carried me out of that building. Who said you own me and meant it with his
18:56whole body.
18:56The man I needed to tell. I thought about what it meant to be pregnant with the cartel king's child.
19:01The leverage of it. The danger of it. The way a baby becomes a weapon in this world whether you
19:06want it to or not. I thought about Tomos. About all the traps I'd walked into already.
19:12And then I stopped thinking about danger and just felt it. I'm going to be a mother. Emilio is going
19:19to be a father. I wiped my face. Stood up. Opened the door. Diego was in the hall.
19:26Where's Emilio? Meeting, miss. With Damian. Take me to him. Please. It's important.
19:34The boss doesn't like to be disturbed. But something in my face must have convinced him. He nodded.
19:42I followed him out. The test folded in my palm, my heart running ahead of my feet.
19:50Diego walked me to the study door and left. I could hear voices inside. Emilio and Damrian,
19:55low and urgent. I raised my hand to knock and stopped. The test was still in my palm. Two lines.
20:01The most important thing I'd ever held. Then Imadio's voice cut through the door.
20:06Mia's cousin? He's a fucking clown.
20:09My hand dropped. I stood very still. I knew I should walk away. I knew that eavesdropping on
20:15the cartel king's private meetings was the kind of thing that ended badly in this world. I pressed my
20:20ear to the door anyway. He could have been useful. He's Mia's only blood relative.
20:26Tied to Palosio's mob. It was leverage. What the hell is going on with you?
20:33I'm just saying, as the east coast cartel king, you could play more strategically. Like not shooting
20:39your cousin-in-law in the head. My blood went cold.
20:46I couldn't move. What I have with Mia is none of your fucking business. Damian said something else.
20:52Something about fixing things with her. Keeping Tomas alive as a peace offering. But the words were
20:58coming through water now, muffled and distant. Shooting your cousin-in-law in the head. Tomas was
21:05dead. Emilio had killed him. My cousin, the only blood family I'd left, the person whose life I'd
21:12accepted a mob marriage to save, and Emilio had shot him. While Tomanis was under his roof. While I was
21:19sleeping down the hall, thinking I'd kept him safe. Damian said something about the forged will next.
21:24Lying about her inheritance just to marry her. A sound at the door. Emilio's voice sharpened.
21:30Who's there?
21:36I turned and ran.
21:39I was packing before I fully decided to pack. The suitcase was open on the bed, and my hands were
21:45moving. And the test was still in my fist. I don't know why I kept holding it. And Emilio came
21:50through
21:51the door 20 seconds later, face pale. Wait. What are you doing? What does it look like?
21:57Mia, let's talk. I don't negotiate with the devil. I tried to pass him. He grabbed my arm.
22:03Stop. Let's talk. I jerked free. You lied. You killed my cousin. Then you lied again.
22:11There's nothing left to say. He exhaled, sharp and frustrated.
22:14Is killing your scumbag cousin really that big of a deal?
22:17I stared at him. I waited for a moment to feel shocked, but there was none left. Of course he
22:21said
22:21that. Of course. He was a criminal boss who ran an empire built on violence, and I had somehow
22:25convinced myself that the version of him who kissed my forehead and listened to everything I said was the
22:29real one. Does a human life mean anything to you? I'm a criminal boss. You knew that when you signed
22:36the contract. Which you forged. My aunt never wanted me to marry you, did she?
22:45A long silence. He didn't deny it. You added the marriage clause to trap me.
22:51So what? I run a mob. Be grateful I didn't take you by force.
22:56The words landed like a slap. Grateful. He wanted me to be grateful. So grateful. Grateful you dragged
23:02me into this hell, got my cousin killed, and got me- The test was still in my hand. I
23:08looked down at it.
23:09The two lines looked back. You'll never know, I thought. You don't deserve to.
23:14I zipped the suitcase shut.
23:18Just let me go, Emilio. You know I can't.
23:21In one motion, I reached across him and grabbed the gun from his hip. I had it pressed against myself
23:26before I'd thought about what I was doing. The barrel cold against my ribs. My hands shaking,
23:31tears running down my face. His voice had changed completely. All the cold stripped out of it.
23:38Either you let me walk out, or I pull this trigger.
23:44He went very still. Then he extended his hand,
23:48palm up, the way you'd extend a hand to a frightened animal.
23:51Give me the gun, and I'll let you leave.
23:55Just like that?
23:56Yes. You know I can't say no to you. Just give me the gun. Please.
24:03The please undid something in my chest. I hated that it did. After a long moment,
24:10I laid the gun in his palm. He tucked it away without breaking eye contact.
24:14We can fix this. We can pretend none of this happened.
24:18I can't pretend. Everything between us was built on lies. He stepped closer. His voice dropped,
24:25thick with something he was fighting to contain. My feelings for you aren't lies.
24:29A tear ran down my face. I looked at his face. Really looked at it. This man who had saved
24:35me,
24:36and lied to me, and killed my cousin, and kissed my forehead in the morning. All of it true at
24:40the
24:40same time. None of it simple. I took his hand. I placed the ring in his palm. Goodbye, Emilio.
24:46He stood frozen, fist closing around the ring, as I walked out the door.
24:54I went to Serena's. She opened the door before I finished knocking, took one look at my face,
24:59and pulled me inside without asking any questions. She made tea. She handed me tissues. She sat with
25:05me on the sofa and let me cry until there was nothing left. Then she waited. He killed my cousin.
25:13He lied about the inheritance. Everything from the beginning was fabricated to get me into that house.
25:22Serena was very quiet. She handed me another tissue.
25:28Too quiet. I looked at her.
25:33Serena. Serena. He killed my cousin. Why aren't you shocked? She couldn't meet my eyes. Serena.
25:43Why do you look like you already knew? A long silence. The kind that means the answer
25:48is going to change things. I brought Thomas to him. The room tilted. What?
25:57My dad is a mafia don. I heard the words. I processed them in a very distant, clinical way.
26:06The way you process information that is too large to fit into the ordinary world.
26:11You lied to me. For five years. I hid it to protect you. So you'd never get dragged into this
26:21mob world.
26:23But then Emilio showed up and did you know he killed my cousin? The silence that followed was the
26:28worst silence of my life. Yes. Emilio shot your cousin in front of me. I pulled away from her. She
26:36reached for my arm. Mia, please. My family doesn't change who I am, what you mean to me.
26:45You sound just like him. I lied to protect you. You watched him die and you didn't tell me?
26:54I stood up. She scrambled after me, saying my name, reaching for my arm. I got to the door.
27:01Mia, wait! We're done, Serena. I ran.
27:07The street was cold. Serena chased me for half a block before her phone rang and she stopped.
27:13I didn't look back. I just walked. Arms wrapped around myself. No destination. No plan. Just
27:18moving because stopping felt like drowning. I thought about my mother, who had died and left
27:22me in a world I didn't understand. I thought about Toas, who had sold me to a monster for gambling
27:26debts.
27:27I thought about the ring I'd left in Emilio's hand and the test still folded in my pocket and the
27:31fact
27:31that I was pregnant and alone in the dark with nowhere to go. The city moved around me, indifferent.
27:37A car slowed alongside me. I squinted. Emilio? The door opened. Not Emilio. Damien.
27:49Relax. I'm not dragging you anywhere. Then what do you want? I have orders to stay with you. But
27:56I can take you to a safe house. Emilio won't know. He watched my face, patient, almost gentle.
28:03I can even get you out of the country.
28:07I stared at him. Damien was smiling that easy smile, hands in his pockets, like he was offering
28:13him a ride to the airport. Nothing in his face looked wrong. Why would you help me? You're his
28:17brother. I'd like to balance out some of the bad I've done. I'll handle your phone. He put a tracker
28:23on it. Even works when it's off. I looked down at my phone. Then at him. Then at the dark
28:30street,
28:30stretching in both directions with nowhere to go. I handed him the phone. He took it and I climbed
28:35into the back seat. I was so tired. I was so tired of being afraid, of running, of trying to
28:41stay one step ahead of men with more power than I would ever have. The leather seat was warm. Damien
28:46got into the front without speaking. There's water in the back if you need it.
28:52I reached for the bottle, opened it, took a long drink. Thank you Damien. You're a good man.
28:58He watched me in the rear view mirror, and something moved across his face that I didn't
29:02have time to read. The water tasted like water. That was the last thing I registered clearly.
29:11Then the edges of the window started to blur. The street lights smeared into long yellow streaks.
29:16My hand felt very heavy. I looked down at the bottle in my lap and thought,
29:21distantly, that something was wrong. What?
29:26The thought didn't finish. I slumped sideways and the world went out like a light.
29:33In the front seat, Damien watched me through the mirror. His easy smile had changed into something
29:39else entirely. Something that had been waiting behind it all along.
29:43Sweet little Mia, you have no idea what's coming. For you, or for my arrogant half-brother.
29:53We're on our way. Have the island ready. Outside, the city light slid past and fell behind us,
29:59and Emilio's mansion disappeared into the dark. And I was gone before I knew I'd been taken.
30:06I woke up to the sound of ocean. That was wrong. I lived in the city. The city didn't sound
30:12like that.
30:13Steady and vast and indifferent, like breathing from a long way away.
30:17I lay still for a moment with my eyes closed, waiting for the world to reassemble itself into
30:22something familiar. It didn't. I opened my eyes. An unfamiliar room. Whitewashed walls. Wooden shutters.
30:29Light coming in sideways in gold. Not a hotel. Not anywhere I'd ever been.
30:34I got up and went to the window. Trees. Ocean. Nothing else in any direction.
30:40The door opened behind me. Good. You're awake.
30:44I turned around. He was standing in the frame, hands in his pockets, looking pleased with himself
30:52in that particular way that meant something had gone exactly according to plan. Where am I?
30:57Somewhere no one can find you. Not even my brother. The memory came back all at once.
31:04The car. The water. The bottle in my hand. The edges of the window blurring.
31:09You kidnapped me. Smart girl. I see why Emilio kept you around. But not smart enough.
31:18He moved into the room. And I stepped back until the wall found me.
31:26He told me about Palacio. Not the way I'd understood it. Franco as Emilio's enemy,
31:31using me as a pawn. Damian had been behind Franco the whole time. He'd found my cousin the moment he
31:36ran my background check. He'd built the trap, handed Tomas to Franco and watched the whole thing play out
31:40from inside Emilio's house. Franco Palano was a fucking idiot. But he was a useful one,
31:45until your cartel king shot him in the head. My cousin died because of you. His expression didn't
31:53change. I slapped him. His head snapped sideways, a beat of absolute silence. Then he turned back,
32:00and the easy smile was gone, replaced by something that had always been underneath it.
32:06He grabbed my throat and slammed me into the wall. You're lucky I need you. Or I'd choke the life
32:13out of you right now. His eyes moved over me in a way that made my skin crawl. If my
32:18cold-hearted
32:19brother is obsessed with you, there must be something worth exploring. He leaned in. I bit him, hard.
32:30He pulled back with a snarl, and I saw his arm draw back. Don't. Please. I'm pregnant. His fist
32:36stopped. The room went very quiet. Damian stared at me, the fury draining out of his face and being
32:42replaced by something more dangerous. Calculation. You're pregnant? With Emilio's baby? I nodded. My
32:49throat ached where his hand had been. He stepped back. Then he started laughing, really laughing,
32:54the kind that fills a room. And I stood against the wall and watched him and felt a cold, creeping
32:59dread. Oh, this is gold. Palami actually pulled it off. I thought his plan to knock you up was
33:04ridiculous. Emilio would never. Never what? There's a rumor he's infertile. Maybe it's real. Maybe he
33:09spread it so women wouldn't chase him. Either way, you and that baby just changed everything. He headed
33:13for the door, still grinning. What are you going to do to me? He turned, one hand on the frame.
33:20Relax.
33:22I was going to let my men have some fun with you. But now, I need that baby unharmed.
33:31He told me about the island. Pacific, private, surrounded by his army, and buried in the ground
33:40all around the house. Explosives, enough to bring everything down, triggered by a detonator he kept
33:45on his person. If Emilio tries anything, boom. Then he left me there. I slid down the wall and
33:52sat on the floor and tried to think. The ocean kept making its vast in a myrient sound outside
33:58the shuttered window. You're on a private Pacific island, surrounded by a full army, with bombs
34:04underneath you. I pressed both hands flat against my stomach. I'm going to get us out of here.
34:10I didn't know if that was true. I said it anyway, because someone had to.
34:15I thought about the note Emilio had tucked into a nursing school envelope.
34:20I listened to everything you say. I thought about the way he'd lifted me out of Franco's
34:24building like I was something worth carrying. I thought about his fist closing around my ring.
34:30Find me, I thought. Please find me.
34:33The door stayed closed. The ocean kept breathing. I stayed on the floor and I waited.
34:41On the third night, a hand touched my shoulder. I jolted awake, already pulling back, already
34:47opening my mouth to scream, and a hand covered it. A familiar weight, a familiar smell.
34:51Mia, it's me.
34:53A voice in my ear, barely a breath. I collapsed into him. He held me for exactly three seconds.
34:59His arms around me, his chin on my head, the realness of him solid and overwhelming, and then
35:04he pulled back and cupped my face and checked me the way he'd checked me in the warehouse all those
35:08months ago, systematic and frantic at the same time.
35:12Are you hurt?
35:13No. How did you-
35:14Serena, and your mafia princess friend has a helicopter.
35:17He pressed his lips to my forehead, quick and fierce.
35:19Follow my lead, we're heading to the chopper. Stay close, stay quiet.
35:22He had a gun in his hand. He opened the door, checked the corridor, and guided me out into the
35:26dark.
35:29We made it 30 feet. Damien's voice came from ahead of us, easy and amused, like he'd been waiting.
35:36Since when does the cartel king use knockout drugs to sneak in?
35:40Emilio stopped, gun raised.
35:42Since when do you skip dinner?
35:47Damien stepped out of the shadows. In his hand, raised between two fingers like a cigarette,
35:53was the Dectinator.
35:55Since the day Dad handed you the cartel.
35:58His thumb hovered over the button.
36:01Emilio moved in front of me without thinking about it, blocking me with his body.
36:05Drop the gun, brother.
36:10Emilio dropped it.
36:12You want the cartel? Fine. I'll give it to you.
36:16I don't want the stupid mob! It's you! It's always been you!
36:20His voice had broken open, and underneath the ease and the planning and the long,
36:24patient game was something rawer. Something that had been sitting in that house for years,
36:28growing in the dark.
36:29Then take me. Do whatever you want. But let Mia go. Don't drag her into this.
36:37It happened in less than a second. Emilio crossing the corridor in two strides,
36:40shoulder dropping, crashing into his brother. The Dectinator flew from Damien's hand,
36:44but Damien's smile came back, colder than before. No. Your offspring isn't getting out today either.
36:52He turned to me, slowly, and in that moment nothing in his face was the cartel king.
36:57Nothing was the man who made rooms go silent and had people removed. He just looked at me like I
37:03was
37:03the only thing in the room that mattered. You're pregnant.
37:06I nodded. His jaw set. He turned back to Damien. Not happening.
37:16Then we all die. His thumb moved. Emilio lunged. He of them hit the window behind
37:22them and went through it in a shower of glass and frame and night air.
37:29Emilio!
37:32Silence. Then the night outside was just the ocean and the dark and the sound of my own breathing,
37:39ragged and desperate. I ran for the door.
37:44They were both on the ground outside. Unconscious. Not moving. Damien face down in the dirt,
37:51Emilio on his back with his eyes closed and one arm thrown wide and glass in his hair.
37:57I heard voices. Serena. Marco. Running toward me. I dropped to my knees beside Emilio.
38:06Emilio! Emilio! Wake up! We have to go!
38:10Mia! Marco was already beside me, hands on Emilio's chest, pressing and counting.
38:16I sat there and held Emilio's hand and watched Marco's face and couldn't breathe.
38:22Come back. Come back. Come back.
38:30Emilio coughed. His chest heaved. His eyes opened. Everyone let out a breath at the same time.
38:38I'm okay. We need to move.
38:42He started to get up. I helped him, my hands shaking.
38:45Chopper's ready! This way!
38:47Emilio stood, unsteady, and looked at Damien's limp body.
38:53You go ahead. I need to finish him.
38:59I'm not leaving you.
39:01You want to watch me shoot my own brother?
39:04I don't care!
39:07You're pregnant, Mia. Go.
39:10His voice was gentle, but final. The voice that meant he'd already decided.
39:14Promise you'll come.
39:16I promise.
39:17I promise.
39:18Serena took my arm. I let her pull me away, looking back over my shoulder at Emilio standing
39:22over his brother in the dark. He didn't look back at me. He was already somewhere else. Somewhere
39:26cold and necessary.
39:27He's going to be fine. He's Emilio Reyes.
39:30We were 20 yards from the house, then 30. The helicopter was somewhere ahead, its blades
39:35beginning to turn. I kept walking. He promised. He promised. He promised.
39:43The world turned white. The sound hit me a full second after the light. A wall of pressure and
39:48noise that knocked me sideways. Serena's grip tearing loose. I turned around. The house was on
39:55fire. Not catching fire. Already fire. Instant and total. A column of flame reaching up into
40:01the dark sky. The windows gone. The roof already folding. The air tasted like smoke.
40:08I couldn't move. Serena was saying something. Marco was saying something. The helicopter blades
40:14were louder now. Someone was pulling at my arm, and I couldn't move, because Emilio was in that
40:18house, and he had promised, and he was in that house. The word came out of me like something being
40:24torn out. Serena had both arms around me from behind, holding me back. I fought her. I don't
40:30remember deciding to fight her. My body just refused to go anywhere without him. Marco was already
40:39running back toward the burning house, calling into his radio. I stopped fighting. I just stood
40:44there in Serena's arms, and watched the fire eat the house, and felt the heat on my face, and thought
40:49about a man in a study saying, I listen to everything you say, and a man in a corridor with
40:54his shoulder
40:55dropping and his body going through glass. Going through glass to keep a detonator out of his
40:59brother's hand. Going through glass for me. The flames climbed higher. The night was orange and black.
41:05I pressed both hands over the small life inside me, and I waited, and I waited, and I waited, and
41:12no one came.
41:15Five months later. That's what the subtitle would say if my life were a movie. Five months later.
41:22A neat jump cut. All the grief, and the waiting, and the nights I lay awake with one hand on
41:28my
41:28stomach and the other pressed to my mouth to keep quiet, compressed into three words, and a hard cut
41:33to a woman on a street corner in white gloves. Me. I'm eight months pregnant, and I'm wearing white
41:39gloves, and I'm standing on a sidewalk watching a homeless man run. He thinks he's running from the two
41:44cars that boxed him in. He's not. He's running from me. The car door opens. I step out. Damien stops.
41:56He looks older. Thinner. Five months on the street will do that. Five months knowing that the woman whose
42:02house you burnt out is carrying the air to the Reyes cartel is looking for you, that will do it
42:07too.
42:07I pull off one gloves, finger by finger. Hello, brother-in-law.
42:15My men take him before he can speak. Wait. Mia. We should talk. Yes. We should.
42:27The basement of the Reyes mansion is very quiet. I had Diaz repaint it. New lighting. A good chair for
42:34me to sit in, positioned at exactly the right distance. I learned from the best after all.
42:39I watched Emilio run this house for months. I know how it's done. I sit with my legs rapes crossed,
42:44and my hands folded over my stomach, and I watched two of my men work.
42:50Damien screams. He begs. He says my name like it's a password that will open a door,
42:55like some part of him still believes I'm the nursing student from the fast food restaurant
42:59who cried on a sofa and couldn't look Emilio in the eye. I'm not her anymore.
43:03Make this stop, please. Mia.
43:06I give the men a look. They hit harder. After a while, I raise a hand and they stop. The
43:11basement
43:11goes quiet, except for Damien's raggled breathing and the distant sound of the city outside.
43:16I stand up and walk over to him.
43:21Tell me where he is. Damien looks up at me through blood. His smile is still there,
43:28somehow cracked and terrible. Come closer. I'll tell you.
43:36I leaned down. His mouth was near my ear, and I stayed perfectly still and waited.
43:42He's rotting in hell, just like you will be, you stupid.
43:46I straightened up. I pulled the gun from the back of my waistband.
43:52The one Diego had started leaving on my night state three months ago, after the first two attempts
43:57on my life, after I'd started running this operation alone. And I shot Damien once. He slumped. I stood
44:04there for a moment and looked at him. Emilio's brother. The man who had built every trap I'd
44:08walked into. The man who had burned down the house with Emilio inside it. Then I peeled off the other
44:14glove, folded both of them together, and walked out. Diego was waiting in the Rorto with a package.
44:23Mail address to your name, ma'am. He held it out. The label read Mia Espinoza. I frowned.
44:30I thought I changed my last name on everything. Could be from before.
44:36I took it. I opened it in the study. A file. Legal documents. A will. Notarized. Witness.
44:48Dated three months before Leshia died. I read the first page and had to sit down.
44:53One hundred million dollars. Her actual inheritance. Not the fabricated claws Amicio had invented to get me
44:59into his house. The real thing. The money she'd spent her life accumulating. And had always meant
45:04to give to the niece she wrote letters to and called her girl. Where it all started, I thought.
45:08Diego stood near the door. Mr. Reyes would have found you regardless of the inheritance.
45:17Sounds like him. I turned to the last page, and a small piece of paper fell out. Folded once,
45:23the size of a fortune cookie slip. I picked it up. The handwriting was Emilio's. I'd seen it on a
45:28hundred things. Notes. Contracts. The margin of a book he'd left open on the kitchen counter.
45:32I'd have known it anywhere. It said, love at first sight. I sat there holding that small piece of
45:37paper for a long time. Then I pressed it against my chest and closed my eyes. I'll find you Emilio
45:42Reyes.
45:43Wherever you are.
45:47He was in Sicily. I didn't know that yet. I knew it the way you know things when you've been
45:52running
45:52someone's empire for five months and you've learned to read Diego's face. There was somewhere he
45:57wouldn't look. Some piece of information that lived just behind his careful professional expression.
46:02But he wouldn't tell me, and I understood why. Emilio had told him not to. So I waited.
46:09On a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean, a man in a wheelchair watched the ocean.
46:14He'd been watching it for weeks. The light changed. The water changed. He watched it all with the patience
46:21of someone who has decided not to go anywhere until they're ready. Serena flew to Sicily on a Tuesday.
46:27She found him on the balcony, thinner than she'd left him, the ocean wind moving through his hair.
46:32She dropped a photograph on his lap without greeting him first. In the photo, Damien. Dead. Emilio picked
46:39up the photo, looked at it for a long moment. That's my girl.
46:45She's gonna be pissed if you're not there when she gives birth.
46:49I can't see her like this. You could show up as a worm and she'd still love you. I'm tired
46:55of lying to my best friend.
46:56Again. She'll forgive you. Serena ground and sat down on the low wall beside his chair.
47:04The Mediterranean was the specific blue it gets in the late afternoon, almost violet at the edges.
47:09Come back with me tomorrow. I'm flying out in the morning.
47:12No. Emilio.
47:14I'll return when I can stand on my own feet. I want her to know I'm still the man who
47:19can protect her.
47:20And our baby. Serena stared at him for a long moment. Toxic masculinity from a cartel king.
47:26Who would have thought? A beat. You know, you're kinda cute in a wheelchair.
47:31Don't let your bodyguard hear that. He helps me to the bathroom.
47:35Serena laughed. A real laugh. Surprised out of her. She stood up and kissed the top of his head.
47:40Don't take too long. She walked out. Emilio stayed on the balcony until the light was gone.
47:49He reached into his pocket. The ring was small and cold and familiar.
47:54Mia's engagement ring. The one she'd placed in his palm in the bedroom and walked away from.
47:59He'd been carrying it since that night. Through the crash, through the window,
48:03through however many surgeries he didn't fully remember. Through the months of physical therapy
48:07on this balcony overlooking the sea. He turned it in his fingers. He thought about the night in
48:12the alley when he'd looked up from the pavement and seen a woman he'd never met pressing gons to
48:16his chest and telling him to stop moving or he'd bleed more. He'd been half dead and delirious and he
48:20thought, I know you. I don't know you yet, but I know you. Lietia had talked about her for years.
48:24Her niece, the nursing student, the girl who sent letters and called every Sunday and had her
48:29mother's stubbornness and her own fierce particular kindness. He'd carried the shape of her before he
48:34knew her face. He closed his hand around the ring. I'm coming back to you, Mia.
48:39The ocean was dark now. The stars were coming out one by one over Sicily.
48:45I'm coming back.
48:50Two months later, I thought giving birth at home would be easier. I was wrong. It's never easy.
48:56I hate you! I hate you, Emilio Reyes!
49:00Almost there! One more push!
49:02I hate you!
49:03I pushed. The world split open and then there was a sound. Small and indignant and completely
49:09certain of itself. And the doctor was saying something I couldn't hear. And someone was crying
49:15and I thought it might be me. Ma'am, you need to stay with us. You haven't seen your baby.
49:20But I'm just so tired. I was tired in a way I had never been tired before. Down into the
49:25marrow,
49:26my body suddenly hollow and enormous at the same time. Stay. Stay. You have to stay.
49:30My eyes closed. Someone said my name. I tried to hold on. Then, at the edge of the light,
49:36a silhouette appeared in the doorway. Not Diego. Not Serena. Not a doctor.
49:42A silhouette that moved the way only one person in my life had ever moved.
49:49He was standing on his own feet. That was the first thing I registered. Not that he was there,
49:53not even that he was alive, but that he was standing. On his own two feet. In the doorway of
49:57my hospital room, wearing clothes I didn't recognize, thinner than I remembered, with a look on his face that
50:02I had no word for. Mia. My name in his voice. I had been so tired. A moment ago the
50:07darkness had
50:08been pulling me down and I had been letting it because I didn't have anything left to fight with.
50:12But my eyes opened. Emilio. He crossed the room. He dropped to his knees beside the bed. He took my
50:18face in both hands and pressed his forehead to mine. I felt him shaking. This man who never shook,
50:21who never showed anything, who had spent 32 years building a wall around himself and had spent six
50:25months tearing it down for me. He was shaking. Somewhere behind him a baby was crying. Our baby. Ours.
50:30You came. I told you I was coming back. Outside the hospital window, the city was beginning its
50:35ordinary morning, entirely aware that something fundamental had just changed. Inside, I closed my
50:39eyes and held onto him and listened to the small, indignant, perfect sound of our daughter announcing
50:44herself to the world. We were here. Both of us. Finally. This is what I know now. I know that
50:52love is
50:52not the clean, safe thing I thought it would be. When I was 22 and working at a fast food
50:56counter and
50:57keeping a wish list of what my life was supposed to become, I thought love would feel like arriving
51:01somewhere. I thought it would be warm and certain and uncomplicated. It is none of those things.
51:08It is a man pressing gauze to a wound in a back room. It is a ring in a palm
51:13and a door closing and
51:14a house going up in flames. It is five months of running an empire I didn't ask for. Learning the
51:21weight of a gun and the patience required to wait for someone who promised to come back.
51:26He is not a good man in the simple sense. I know what he runs and what it costs and
51:31I have made my
51:32peace with the distance between who he is out there and who he is in this room. Holding our
51:37daughter like she's the most fragile and important thing he's ever been handed. He is sitting in the
51:42chair beside my bed and she is asleep on his chest and he is not looking at anything in the
51:46room except
51:46her. She has his dark eyes. She has already, even at one day old, a particular expression of absolute
51:53conviction that I recognize from watching him walk into rooms. I saved a man in an alley once. I was
51:5822
51:59and afraid and I had no idea what I was saving him into. Best mistake I ever made.
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