- 13 hours ago
The Blackmailed Bride: Falling in Love With a Criminal Boss - Full
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00:00I once read that the most dangerous thing a woman can do is save a man's life.
00:00:04I didn't believe it.
00:00:06I was 22, idealistic, and three semesters short of a nursing degree.
00:00:11When I found a man bleeding out in an alley behind a fast food restaurant, I didn't think about danger.
00:00:16I just pressed my hands to the wound.
00:00:18I didn't know his name.
00:00:19I didn't know that the blood soaking through my uniform belonged to the most feared cartel boss on the East
00:00:24Coast.
00:00:25I didn't know that behind those dark half-conscious eyes was a man who would remember everything I did.
00:00:30Every word, every touch, every desperate instruction I gave him in the dark.
00:00:34I didn't know he would come back for me.
00:00:37Three months later, a man named Emilio Reyes walked into my life and told me I had inherited a fortune
00:00:42from my late aunt on one condition.
00:00:44Marriage. To him. Immediately.
00:00:47No. I said no.
00:00:49He smiled like I hadn't spoken at all.
00:00:52This is the story of how I married a criminal.
00:00:55How I hated him, feared him.
00:00:57And somewhere in the middle of all the lies he built our life on, fell desperately, irreversibly in love with
00:01:02him.
00:01:03I want to tell you I fought it.
00:01:05I want to tell you I was smarter than this.
00:01:07But the truth is, the moment I pressed my hands to his chest in that alley, I was already his.
00:01:13I just didn't know it yet.
00:01:15The alley behind the shop smells like grease and rain.
00:01:19I take the trash out at midnight, because Miguel never does, and I'm too tired to fight about it.
00:01:30That's when I hear it.
00:01:31A shuffle.
00:01:33A grunt.
00:01:34The unmistakable sound of someone about to do something terrible.
00:01:38I peek my head out.
00:01:40First mistake of the night.
00:02:05Let her go.
00:02:11The men charge.
00:02:13He moves.
00:02:14Fast.
00:02:15Precise.
00:02:16Brutal.
00:02:17And it's over in seconds.
00:02:19One man clutches his arm, screaming.
00:02:22The other is already gone.
00:02:26And then the stranger folds like paper.
00:02:29Gidding the wet pavement before I can catch him.
00:02:33I drag him inside.
00:02:35I don't know why.
00:02:40I'm a nursing school dropout, with shaking hands and no business saving anyone.
00:02:46But I press gauze to his chest, and count his breaths, and tell him to stay with me.
00:02:53And somewhere between one breath and the next, I start to believe he might actually listen.
00:02:58He opens his eyes, grabs my wrist hard enough to bruise.
00:03:02No one has ever seen me like this.
00:03:06You're dead.
00:03:07Stop moving or you'll bleed more.
00:03:09He lets go.
00:03:12He passes out.
00:03:14I keep working.
00:03:15By the time I come back with antibiotics, he's gone.
00:03:19The room is empty, except for the bloody gons, and the faint smell of something expensive, cologne, maybe, or power.
00:03:31I stand in the doorway, and feel something I can't name settle into my chest.
00:03:39Hope you make it, stranger.
00:03:45The days pass.
00:03:47My life goes on.
00:03:49The midnight shifts blur into each other, and I almost convince myself the whole thing was a fever dream.
00:03:57The blood.
00:03:58The alley.
00:04:00The man who threatened to kill me while I was saving his life.
00:04:04Almost.
00:04:06It isn't until three months later, that I understand the mistake I made that night.
00:04:12Wasn't peeking my head out into that alley.
00:04:15It was pulling the stranger back from the edge.
00:04:18I'm wiping down the counter, when his face fills the TV screen above the register.
00:04:25Emilio Reyes.
00:04:26East Coast Cartel King.
00:04:29Dangerous.
00:04:30Untouchable.
00:04:32The customers are whispering.
00:04:33The word monster drifts past my ear like smoke.
00:04:38I stare at the screen, and the memory hits me like a cold wave.
00:04:43His hand locked around my wrist, even through the blood loss.
00:04:49No one has ever seen me like this.
00:04:53You're dead.
00:04:56Shit.
00:04:57I set down the tray.
00:04:59I turn for the door.
00:05:01A black bag drops over my head.
00:05:03The last thing I hear before the world goes dark.
00:05:06You're coming with us.
00:05:14They take the bag off in a room that costs more than my entire life.
00:05:18He's standing by the window with his back to me, and even from behind I can feel the weight of
00:05:22him.
00:05:23The absolute, unharried certainty of a man who has never once been told no.
00:05:29He turns around slowly, like he has all the time in the world, like I'm not hyperventilating in the middle
00:05:36of his Persian rug.
00:05:37He looks at me the way you look at something you already own.
00:05:40Hello, wife.
00:05:42Wife?
00:05:43He pulls out a file and slides it across the desk.
00:05:47Leticia Verito, my aunt, who I barely knew, who apparently knew him very well.
00:05:53She raised him.
00:05:54He called her family.
00:05:55And when she died, she left everything to me.
00:05:59One million dollars.
00:06:02I stare at the number until the zeros blur.
00:06:06You're handing out one million dollars to me?
00:06:08Just like this?
00:06:10Of course not.
00:06:12Your inheritance comes with a condition.
00:06:14Marry me for one year.
00:06:16Part of me wants to laugh.
00:06:17The part that's been eating ramen for six months.
00:06:20Drowning in debt.
00:06:22Too proud to ask for help.
00:06:23One million dollars.
00:06:25I could breathe again.
00:06:26I could actually breathe.
00:06:28But then, the other part of me kepts up.
00:06:31The part that recognizes his face from every news broadcast.
00:06:34Every whispered warning.
00:06:36Every story that ends badly.
00:06:39Marry a mafia king with a promise of one million dollars?
00:06:42Is this Watt Mac novel really happening to me?
00:06:44Me?
00:06:45I set down the file.
00:06:47What do you get out of this?
00:06:50I'm a nobody.
00:06:51He steps closer.
00:06:53Close enough that I have to tilt my head back to hold his gaze.
00:06:56And I hate that I do it.
00:06:59You're not a nobody.
00:07:02Don't ever say that again.
00:07:06He says it quietly.
00:07:08Too quietly.
00:07:09Too gently.
00:07:10Like he means it.
00:07:12Like he's been thinking about it.
00:07:14And the words land somewhere soft and unprotected.
00:07:17Before I can get my guard back up.
00:07:21I don't know what to do with them.
00:07:23So I look away, down at the floor.
00:07:25And that's when I see it.
00:07:27A dark stain in the carpet.
00:07:29Old and brown at the edges.
00:07:31Blood.
00:07:32Someone's blood.
00:07:33Soaked into the fibers and never fully cleaned away.
00:07:35The word yes dies in my throat.
00:07:38No.
00:07:40Then you just made your first mistake as my future wife.
00:07:48His hand moves toward his hip.
00:07:50My survival instincts shoot up.
00:07:54Wait.
00:07:55I didn't mean no.
00:07:57I just...
00:07:58I need time.
00:07:59To think.
00:08:01I'm allowed to think, right?
00:08:03A beat.
00:08:04His hand stills.
00:08:05Of course.
00:08:07I try the door.
00:08:10Locked.
00:08:11Of course it's locked.
00:08:14My heart hammers against my ribs as his footsteps cross the room behind me.
00:08:18Quiet.
00:08:19Unhurried.
00:08:20Inevitable.
00:08:21His hand covers mine on the knob.
00:08:23His mouth is close enough to my ear that I feel the warmth of his breath.
00:08:27And every rational thought I have dissolves.
00:08:30I'm a king, Mia.
00:08:32Don't even think about running.
00:08:36I'll see you at the altar.
00:08:38He twists the knob.
00:08:39The door spins open.
00:08:40I don't walk out.
00:08:42I flee.
00:08:43I nearly collide with a man in the hallway.
00:08:46Younger than Emilio.
00:08:47Easier to read.
00:08:48With a smile that doesn't reach his eyes.
00:08:50He watches me scramble past and says nothing.
00:08:53Behind me, I hear him say something to Emilio in a low voice.
00:08:57I don't stop to listen.
00:08:58Back in my apartment, Serena screams at me through the phone for ten solid minutes.
00:09:03I hold it away from my ear and stare at the ceiling.
00:09:05You should have left him bleeding in that alley.
00:09:08I know.
00:09:09He's a monster.
00:09:11My food's here.
00:09:11Talk later.
00:09:15I open the door expecting delivery.
00:09:18A gun barrel.
00:09:19Cold metal.
00:09:21Pointed at my face.
00:09:22Behind it.
00:09:23A man I've never seen before.
00:09:26Silver haired and soft voiced.
00:09:28With the calm of someone who has done terrible things for a very long time.
00:09:32And at his feet, crumbled, bleeding, reaching for my ankle.
00:09:36A boy I've never met.
00:09:38But somehow, recognizing the shape of his jaw, the curve of his nose.
00:09:43A stranger smiles.
00:09:46Mia Espinosa.
00:09:49We need to talk.
00:09:53His name is Franco Palacio.
00:09:55I am Franco.
00:09:56He says it like a title.
00:09:58Like something I should already know and fear.
00:10:00He says it while one of his men pins my arms behind me.
00:10:04And another kicks the boy hard enough to crack ribs.
00:10:08Tomas.
00:10:09Your cousin.
00:10:11Leticia's only son.
00:10:12I didn't even know I had a cousin.
00:10:16I'm Emilio Reyes' worst nightmare.
00:10:19I don't know, Emilio.
00:10:22That's a lie.
00:10:23Of course I lied.
00:10:24I would say anything to get out of this.
00:10:29This gangster war I've somehow wandered into.
00:10:32Dragging a cousin I've never met along with me.
00:10:35Maybe I really shouldn't have saved Emilio that night.
00:10:42He ignores me and crouches beside Tomas, dragging a knife down his cheek so slowly, so precisely,
00:10:49that the line of red it draws looks almost surgical.
00:10:53Tomas makes a sound I'll hear in my sleep for years.
00:10:56You're gonna marry Emilio Reyes.
00:10:58You're gonna give him an heir.
00:11:03And that child will be born under my command.
00:11:08What?
00:11:09A wife.
00:11:10A baby.
00:11:12That's all it takes to ruin a man like him.
00:11:16You're gonna be my weapon, sweetheart.
00:11:19He stands, moves back to Tomas, and presses the flat of the blade against his eyelid.
00:11:25One month.
00:11:26Get pregnant.
00:11:31Or your cousin loses more than an eye.
00:11:34I can't breathe.
00:11:36I can't think.
00:11:37The room has shrunk to the size of that knife.
00:11:39That eye.
00:11:40That terrible, soft sound Tomas makes when the blade presses harder.
00:11:45Stop.
00:11:46Left eye?
00:11:48Or right?
00:11:49Stop!
00:11:50I'll do it!
00:11:52The blade lifts.
00:11:53Franco smiles, like I've given him a gift.
00:11:56Then the front door sweener splinters off its hinges.
00:12:02Emilio doesn't come in like a rescue.
00:12:04He comes in like weather.
00:12:06Sudden, total, impossible to argue with.
00:12:09His men fan out behind him.
00:12:12Franco's men scatter.
00:12:14And then it's just the two of us.
00:12:16And Tomas is gone.
00:12:17Dragged out in the chaos.
00:12:19And I'm on the floor with my knees full to my chest.
00:12:25And my whole body shaking so hard my teeth click together.
00:12:29I don't hear him cross the room.
00:12:30I just feel the air change.
00:12:33Mia.
00:12:33His voice is different.
00:12:35Softer than I've heard it.
00:12:36I look up and something in his face does thing I don't expect.
00:12:41It cracks.
00:12:42Just at the edges.
00:12:44Just for a second.
00:12:45I don't decide to move.
00:12:47I just do it.
00:12:48I throw myself at him.
00:12:52And his arms close around me before I can second guess it.
00:12:56And I press my face into his chest.
00:12:59And cry in a way I haven't cried since I was a little girl.
00:13:03I feel ugly and desperate and completely undignified.
00:13:08He holds me like he means it.
00:13:11He doesn't speak.
00:13:13Doesn't ask questions.
00:13:15Just keeps one hand on the back of my head.
00:13:18And breathes slowly.
00:13:20Steadily.
00:13:21Like he's trying to teach me how.
00:13:23And gradually my shaking slows.
00:13:25When I finally pull back his expression has closed again.
00:13:28But his eyes haven't.
00:13:31You're my woman, Mia.
00:13:33Your tears belong to me.
00:13:36I should have a response to that.
00:13:38I don't.
00:13:39I just look at him.
00:13:41And feel the words settle somewhere deep and permanent.
00:13:45Like a key turning in a lock I didn't know I had.
00:13:48He wipes my face with his thumb.
00:13:51Gentle.
00:13:52Careful.
00:13:52Like I'm something worth being careful with.
00:13:56I'm not your woman.
00:13:58I haven't agreed to anything.
00:14:00Yet.
00:14:01I know.
00:14:03We should talk.
00:14:04He says it quietly.
00:14:06He doesn't push.
00:14:07He just looks at me like he's already decided.
00:14:09And he's willing to wait.
00:14:11That might be the most frightening thing he's done yet.
00:14:15The next morning we sit on opposite sides of a conference table with a contract between us sick enough to
00:14:21stop a bullet.
00:14:22Our marriage contract.
00:14:25Read it.
00:14:29Terms and conditions.
00:14:32We'll discuss today.
00:14:38I keep my spine straight as I flip through the pages.
00:14:41I try very hard to absorb what I'm about to sign my life onto.
00:14:46But not a single word makes it to my brain.
00:14:52Instead, Franco's voice echoes like a curse on a loop.
00:14:57Marry Emilio.
00:14:58Marry Emilio.
00:14:59Baby.
00:15:00One month.
00:15:03My weapon.
00:15:05To save a cousin I barely know in a gangster war I never asked to be part of?
00:15:09I'm going to lie to a cartel king sitting right across from me, expecting a real marriage.
00:15:16Of course I'll sign this contract.
00:15:18But it's not my choice.
00:15:20It was never my choice.
00:15:22I am completely, utterly out of control of this situation.
00:15:25And I have to pretend otherwise.
00:15:28Perfectly.
00:15:29Or Thomas pays for it.
00:15:31Everything okay?
00:15:34I startle.
00:15:36He's watching me.
00:15:37Of course he's watching me.
00:15:40Men like him watch everything.
00:15:45I need to smooth this over.
00:15:47For my cousin.
00:15:49The contract doesn't mention sleeping arrangements.
00:15:53He goes very still.
00:15:56Sleeping arrangements.
00:16:00We'd be married.
00:16:04It would be natural that we...
00:16:07The chair scrapes back.
00:16:09He's in front of me in two steps.
00:16:11Leaning over the table.
00:16:13With both hands.
00:16:14Planted on either side of the contract.
00:16:17Close enough that I can smell his cologne.
00:16:18And feel the warmth radiating off his skin.
00:16:22It's natural we fuck.
00:16:25My breath stops.
00:16:30Do you want me to fuck you?
00:16:34There is no good answer to that question.
00:16:41There is only the truth.
00:17:05You're attractive and rich.
00:17:08Any woman would want you.
00:17:13He tilts his head.
00:17:14Something dangerous flickering in his eyes.
00:17:18You think I'm attractive?
00:17:22Yes.
00:17:24Are you lying to me?
00:17:29No.
00:17:30I'm not lying.
00:17:32That's the problem.
00:17:34I'm not lying at all.
00:17:36And he can see it.
00:17:37And the slow curve of his mouth tells him he's been able to see it this whole time.
00:17:43He lifts me onto the table in one motion.
00:17:46I gasp.
00:17:48Not in fear.
00:17:49Which would make sense.
00:17:51In something that runs hotter than fear.
00:17:53He nudges my knees apart.
00:17:55Not roughly.
00:17:57Just firmly.
00:17:58With the uncurried confidence of a man who already knows the answer.
00:18:05You can lie with words.
00:18:07Not with your body.
00:18:09His hand slides up my inner thigh.
00:18:15Tell me you want me.
00:18:17Tell me it's not just the contract.
00:18:19And God help me, I do.
00:18:21I do.
00:18:22I do.
00:18:27She's sitting on my conference table with her knees apart.
00:18:31And her eyes blown wide.
00:18:33And I have never wanted to ruin someone so completely in my life.
00:18:40I pull my hand back slowly.
00:18:42Letting her watch her own wetness dripping on my fingers.
00:18:47Her breath stutters.
00:18:49Is this for me?
00:18:55Do I get you this wet just by talking to you?
00:19:02Yes.
00:19:03Her voice comes out wrecked and small and honest.
00:19:07And it pulls me back from the edge of something I can't afford.
00:19:12That voice.
00:19:13That lying, beautiful voice.
00:19:16I know something happened between her and Franco.
00:19:19I've known since the moment I walked into her apartment and found her on the floor.
00:19:23Because I wasn't there to rescue her.
00:19:25I was there to make her talk.
00:19:29Franco's men were already scattering when I kicked the door in.
00:19:32I had my gun up, finger on the trigger.
00:19:35Franco in my sights.
00:19:38And then I saw her.
00:19:40Curled on the floor, shaking.
00:19:43Small in a way that hit me somewhere, I don't let things hit me.
00:19:46I lowered the gun.
00:19:48I crossed the room.
00:19:50And the second she threw herself against my chest, I let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding.
00:20:01The will I showed her, I fabricated it.
00:20:05My nanny, Letrichia, was a kind woman, not a wealthy one.
00:20:11She didn't leave a million dollars.
00:20:13I forged every page.
00:20:16I needed a reason to keep Mia close.
00:20:20Somewhere I could watch her.
00:20:23Pull the truth out of her slowly.
00:20:25But that day, with her crying in my arms,
00:20:29I stopped caring about the plan.
00:20:32I decided I had to have her.
00:20:35One way or another,
00:20:36I never expected the other way to involve this many lies.
00:20:40I hate lies.
00:20:45Mia.
00:20:47You have no idea I'm going to torture the truth out of you.
00:20:50I shove my hand back between her legs.
00:20:54Fingers flying to my shoulders.
00:20:59Tell me to stop if you don't want this.
00:21:05She doesn't stop me.
00:21:07Good.
00:21:07I push her panties aside and press one finger inside her.
00:21:11She moans, hips rolling forward instinctually.
00:21:17Hands gripping my shoulders like she needs something to hold on to.
00:21:23Emilio.
00:21:24God.
00:21:25My name in her mouth like that.
00:21:30I add a second finger and move faster.
00:21:33Watching her come undone.
00:21:35And I am aching with how much I want her.
00:21:38But I have a mission.
00:21:40I need her confession.
00:21:42If I handed you the inheritance right now,
00:21:45no strings, no cracks,
00:21:47would you still want me?
00:21:48No.
00:21:50Answer me!
00:21:52Yes.
00:21:53More lies.
00:21:55Oh, you little liar.
00:21:56You have no idea what you just walked into.
00:22:01He stops.
00:22:03The absence of his touch is so sudden it punches the air out of me.
00:22:06I look at him, chest heaving, completely undone,
00:22:09and his face has already closed.
00:22:11Composed.
00:22:12Cool.
00:22:12Like none of it happened.
00:22:17You're hiding something from me.
00:22:19Bad girls don't get to come.
00:22:21Sign the contract.
00:22:22Diego will help you move in tomorrow.
00:22:24I sit on the edge of the conference table with his handkerchief in my hands
00:22:27and the ghost of his touch still burning under my skin.
00:22:31And I stare at the closed door
00:22:32and try to remember who I am and why I'm here.
00:22:36Stay focused, Mia.
00:22:37Toas.
00:22:38One month.
00:22:39That's all that matters.
00:22:41His mansion is the size of my entire neighborhood.
00:22:43I drag my suitcase through the front door
00:22:45and try not to look like I've never seen marble floors before.
00:22:47The staff lines up to greet me.
00:22:49I shake everyone's hand and smile until my face hurts.
00:22:51And somewhere in the middle of it,
00:22:52Emilio appears from a hallway
00:22:53and I make the mistake of asking if I'll be staying in his room.
00:22:56We don't sleep in the same room.
00:23:00He gives me a guest room with a bed too big for one person
00:23:03and curtains the color of champagne.
00:23:04He drops a ring box into my palm without ceremony or eye contact.
00:23:07Wear it in public.
00:23:09It fits perfectly.
00:23:10I don't know why that makes my chest ache.
00:23:12Why are you so cold today?
00:23:14I thought-
00:23:14Do you know what I do to people who betray me?
00:23:16No.
00:23:17I kill them.
00:23:17Every single one.
00:23:19Betrayal doesn't exist in my world.
00:23:21Are you keeping something from me, Mia?
00:23:23Tell him.
00:23:24Just tell him.
00:23:25The words crowd my throat.
00:23:26Franco Tomas the 9th, the deadline.
00:23:29When I look up, Emilio is gone.
00:23:31I need to get pregnant.
00:23:33I need to do something.
00:23:39This will have to do.
00:23:42I carry a plate of cookies down the hall like an offering,
00:23:45which, honestly, is exactly what it is.
00:23:47This is the plan.
00:23:48This is the whole plan.
00:23:49I push open the study door.
00:23:5115 men look up at me simultaneously.
00:23:53Leave.
00:23:54Not you.
00:23:59I stand there tugging the hem of my shorts down
00:24:01and trying to look like I haven't just made a catastrophic mistake.
00:24:04You didn't just bring me cookies dressed like this.
00:24:06I didn't know you were in a meeting.
00:24:07I'm half-mined to shoot every man who was just in this room.
00:24:09Please don't-
00:24:10What do I do to a bad girl who interrupts my meeting?
00:24:13Do I bend you over this desk and spank your pretty little ass?
00:24:15I shiver.
00:24:16I should not shiver.
00:24:17I shiver anyway.
00:24:17Or do I force you down on your knees and make you take my cock?
00:24:19Or you could take me.
00:24:21I can give you an air.
00:24:27No.
00:24:28No condoms.
00:24:29You're not on birth control.
00:24:31I know.
00:24:32Something shifts in his expression.
00:24:33The heat drains out of it, replaced by something colder and more careful.
00:24:36You want my baby.
00:24:37Why?
00:24:37Because your biggest enemy has my cousin and gave me a deadline and I have no other options
00:24:42and I'm terrified and I'm sorry.
00:24:44Because you're handsome and I'd really love to-
00:24:47Get out.
00:24:48What?
00:24:49Get out.
00:24:51I slide to the floor and stand there for one horrible second, completely exposed.
00:24:55The cookies, the shorts, the desperate transparent wanting of all of it,
00:24:58and then I turn and walk out with whatever dignity I have left, which is not much.
00:25:02I need a new plan.
00:25:05Serena, can you meet me?
00:25:06I need to tell you everything.
00:25:08Outside my window, the city hums and glitters like it doesn't know anything is wrong.
00:25:11Like the world is perfectly ordinary and I haven't spent the last week tangled up in a cartel king
00:25:16who sees straight through every lie I tell, except the one that might get us both killed.
00:25:20What did I get myself into?
00:25:26Thank God!
00:25:27Are you okay?
00:25:28He didn't chain you up somewhere?
00:25:29He's not.
00:25:30No.
00:25:30No dungeons.
00:25:32I'm fine.
00:25:33You don't look fine.
00:25:34She's right.
00:25:35I don't feel fine.
00:25:36I feel like I'm playing three different chess games at once and losing all of them.
00:25:39I start to tell her about Franco, about Tomas, about the deadline.
00:25:42But before I can get past the first sentence...
00:25:44Are you okay?
00:25:45You seem terrified of him.
00:25:46Of course I'm terrified.
00:25:47His men run the entire East Coast.
00:25:49He could be listening to us right now, Mia.
00:25:50Serena, you're not making sense.
00:25:52Why do you even know so much about him?
00:25:53Who's your dad?
00:25:54Something shifts in her expression.
00:25:56Something serious and old and tired, like she's been waiting for this question and dreading it at the same time.
00:26:01Mia, it's time you know who I am.
00:26:02The door exploding open.
00:26:03A masked man with a gun raised, screaming at everyone to get on the floor.
00:26:07The cafe erupts into chaos.
00:26:08I freeze.
00:26:10I stand in the middle of it all and my body simply refuses to move like it's deciding whether any
00:26:14of this is real.
00:26:15Mia!
00:26:15Get down!
00:26:16I can't move!
00:26:18You deaf!
00:26:19I said down!
00:26:20The robber spots me.
00:26:21Move!
00:26:21Why can't I move?
00:26:30For one second, I think it's over.
00:26:32Marco, put it down.
00:26:34Please.
00:26:40I stand there with a stranger's arm around neck and think absurdly about the alley three months ago.
00:26:44About how I peeked my head out and said hello like an idiot.
00:26:47About how that one bad decision led to every bad decision after it.
00:26:50A chain of dominoes I set off the moment I dragged a bleeding cartel king off the pavement.
00:26:54I really shouldn't have saved him.
00:26:55Then the door opens again.
00:26:56Emilio walks in like he has nowhere else to be.
00:26:58Like this is a meeting he scheduled.
00:27:00Gun raised.
00:27:00Jaw set.
00:27:01Eyes finding me in under a second.
00:27:03Oh yeah?
00:27:03Who's she?
00:27:04The president's wife?
00:27:05Emilio shoots him in the arm.
00:27:06The arm around my throat goes slack.
00:27:08I drop.
00:27:09Serena catches me.
00:27:10No, you're fucking not.
00:27:12I don't see what happens next.
00:27:13The world tilts, goes soft at the edges, and I stop being able to hold myself up.
00:27:17The last thing I feel before I feign is someone lifting me.
00:27:21His arms, his cologne, that particular steadiness that shouldn't feel like safety but does.
00:27:27I wake up in a bed that isn't mine.
00:27:29It's too big, too soft, smells too expensive.
00:27:31The ceiling is high and unfamiliar, and for a disoriented moment I have no idea where I am or what
00:27:36year it is.
00:27:37Then I remember the gun.
00:27:38The arm around my throat.
00:27:39The sound of a shot.
00:27:40I sit up too fast.
00:27:41My head swims.
00:27:42Are you okay?
00:27:43He's still in his suit.
00:27:44He's looking at me with an intensity that doesn't belong on a face pretending not to care.
00:27:48I think so.
00:27:49Where am I?
00:27:50My bedroom.
00:27:51Your bedroom?
00:27:53I thought we had separate rooms.
00:27:54You also walked into my meeting in a pair of shorts and asked me to get you pregnant.
00:27:58The rules are flexible.
00:28:00Does that mean I can stay in your room now?
00:28:03Do you want to sleep with me that badly?
00:28:05Yes, says every nerve in my body.
00:28:07Yes, but not for the reason you think, says the part of me that remembers Tomas and Franco and the
00:28:11deadline that is still ticking.
00:28:13What if I say yes?
00:28:14His eyes darken.
00:28:15For one suspended second, I think he's going to close the distance between us, and my heart rate does something
00:28:20embarrassing.
00:28:20He stands instead.
00:28:22Adjusts his jacket.
00:28:23Rest.
00:28:23Tomorrow's a big day.
00:28:24What's tomorrow?
00:28:25The engagement party.
00:28:26Where I tell the world you're mine.
00:28:28Am I falling for him?
00:28:29No.
00:28:29Focus.
00:28:30Tomas.
00:28:31One month.
00:28:33The next morning, a small army arrives at my door.
00:28:36They work on me for two hours.
00:28:38I sit in the chair and let them, and feel like a doll being dressed for a party I didn't
00:28:42ask to attend, which is, technically, exactly what's happening.
00:28:45I slip out when they're arguing about earrings.
00:28:47Down the hall, through the tall living room windows, I spot Emilio outside with Diego.
00:28:51He's in a sharp suit, and he's furious.
00:28:53Jaw tight, gesturing hard, words muffled through the glass but unmistakably sharp.
00:28:57He's beautiful when he's angry.
00:28:59I notice this and immediately wish I hadn't.
00:29:04You're going to tell me why you want my baby and what it have to do with Palacio?
00:29:07Who?
00:29:08The man at your apartment.
00:29:09He knows.
00:29:10He's known.
00:29:11The realization lands slowly and then all at once, and I think about every moment since he showed up at
00:29:15my door.
00:29:15The conference table, the handkerchief, the drawer full of condoms, and understand that he has been pulling at this thread
00:29:20the entire time.
00:29:21I don't know what you're talking about.
00:29:23Do you know what happened to the last person who lied to me?
00:29:27I cut out their tongue and made them eat it.
00:29:29I hate them.
00:29:30I blink hard.
00:29:31He's a monster, I tell myself.
00:29:32Remember that.
00:29:33This isn't over.
00:29:35I know.
00:29:35It's never over.
00:29:36That's the problem.
00:29:39I walk in on Emilio's arm in a dress that cost more than three months of my old salary.
00:29:44Diamonds at my throat, and I feel like a very convincing fake.
00:29:48Emilio greets people with a smile that doesn't touch his eyes and steers me through the room with a hand
00:29:52at the small of my back that feels like both a claim and a warning.
00:29:55Stay close.
00:29:56Don't talk to anyone.
00:29:58I'm not allowed to talk to people.
00:29:59You've caused enough trouble on your own.
00:30:01That wasn't in the contract.
00:30:02I'm a cartel boss, Mia.
00:30:04The contract won't stop me from doing whatever I want.
00:30:07I don't see Franco until his hand closes around my arm and yanks me into the shadows.
00:30:12Hello, little Mia.
00:30:13You didn't forget our deal?
00:30:15What are you doing here?
00:30:16Emilio invited me.
00:30:17We go way back.
00:30:18Emilio invited him.
00:30:19The information sits in my chest on the stone.
00:30:21I think about the look on Emilio's face through the window.
00:30:23Furious.
00:30:23Deliberate.
00:30:24I think about this isn't over.
00:30:25You've been living with him for three weeks, little Mia.
00:30:28Why aren't you pregnant yet?
00:30:37What did you do to her?
00:30:38Nothing.
00:30:38We were just talking.
00:30:40Why don't you ask her?
00:30:41The scissors land between us like a grenade.
00:30:44I watch Emilio's grip loosen, just slightly, just for a moment and see it on his face.
00:30:48The recalculation, the betrayal trying to find its shape.
00:30:51Our eyes meet and I have never felt so exposed in my life.
00:30:54Then DeLeon is there, murmuring something about engagement photos and Emilio exhale through
00:30:58his teeth.
00:30:59And goes.
00:30:59I watch him walk away with his shoulders set and his jaw tight and something aching and
00:31:03hollow opens up in the middle of my chest.
00:31:06You know something's wrong.
00:31:07Tell him yourself before this ends badly.
00:31:09I can't.
00:31:11Under the bright lights of the photo area, Emilio and I stand six inches apart like strangers.
00:31:16The photographer keeps asking us to move closer.
00:31:18We comply in small, miserable increments.
00:31:20Is it that unborable standing next to me?
00:31:22Only when you're mad at me.
00:31:23I'm mad because you're hiding something.
00:31:25I can't.
00:31:25Perfect.
00:31:26Now give each other a little kiss.
00:31:27The silence that follows is approximately a thousand years long.
00:31:31Then Emilio grabs my chin and kisses me.
00:31:33It's not gentle.
00:31:34It's a question with teeth.
00:31:35Demanding and frustrated and searingly humiliatingly effective.
00:31:38The camera flashes go off like a small storm.
00:31:41That was my first kiss.
00:31:42That was my first kiss and he used it like propunctuation.
00:31:47His mouth was just there.
00:31:49Angry and warm and nothing like I'd imagined.
00:31:51And I have absolutely been imagining it.
00:31:53And that is a problem I don't have time for right now.
00:31:56He was furious and I still got turned on.
00:31:59What is wrong with me?
00:32:01Did you sleep with him?
00:32:03What?
00:32:03Who?
00:32:03Franco Palazzo.
00:32:04Is that what you're hiding?
00:32:05Is that why you wouldn't kiss me?
00:32:06No, I didn't sleep with him.
00:32:07You shoved me away like I was contagious.
00:32:08Because I couldn't breathe.
00:32:09I've never, I haven't.
00:32:09The fury in his expression shifts.
00:32:12Slowly, like a tide going out.
00:32:13It gives way to something quiet and more careful.
00:32:15Breathe through your nose.
00:32:16He presses his lips to mine.
00:32:18And this time it's nothing like before.
00:32:19Soft, slow, like he's asking instead of taking.
00:32:22Like he has all the time in the world and intends to use it.
00:32:25One more.
00:32:26I don't say no.
00:32:26I don't say anything.
00:32:28He kisses me again, deeper, one hand sliding to the back of my neck.
00:32:31And I stop being able to think in anything but sensation.
00:32:34Warmth and the smell of his cologne.
00:32:35And the ridiculous, inconvenient certainty that I am in very serious trouble.
00:32:39Say yes, ma'am.
00:32:40Yes.
00:32:43Then he stops.
00:32:44Not all at once.
00:32:45He trails his lips down my throat, unhurried, while I'm still trying to remember what air is for.
00:32:49His hands are at my waist, mine are in his hair.
00:32:51The whole world has narrowed down to this locked bathroom, this basin, his mouth.
00:32:54But I don't think you deserve it yet.
00:32:55What?
00:32:56You're still hiding something from me.
00:32:57You and my worst enemy.
00:32:58I can't tell you.
00:33:00I'm sorry.
00:33:00He drops to his knees in front of me, parting my legs.
00:33:03And I barely have time to process what's happening before his mouth is on me.
00:33:07And my head snaps back and I forget every coherent thought I've ever had.
00:33:10You'll tell me eventually, before it's too late.
00:33:12He's using this against me.
00:33:14I know he's using this against me.
00:33:15I can't make myself care.
00:33:17A security guard threatening to break it down.
00:33:19Promise me you'll tell me the truth, or that guard walks in and finds you like this.
00:33:24That's...
00:33:24You can't.
00:33:24That's blackmail.
00:33:25Yes, I promise.
00:33:26I'll tell you everything.
00:33:28Turns back to me, eyes dark.
00:33:30Remember your promise.
00:33:33He leaves.
00:33:34I sit on the basin in the sudden quiet, chest heaving, ring glittering on my finger and press
00:33:39my hands to my face.
00:33:40He used pleasure as a weapon.
00:33:42And the worst part, the part I can't stop thinking about as I swipe off the basin and fix
00:33:45my lipstick and walk back out into the party, is that I would let him do it again.
00:33:52Sleep well?
00:33:53Hmm.
00:33:54You don't look like you slept well.
00:33:56I can arrange a sleep therapist.
00:33:58You used sex to blackrail me?
00:34:00No.
00:34:00I don't need a therapist.
00:34:01I need a cop.
00:34:02You think a cop would help?
00:34:03No.
00:34:03Because you're the cartel king and you do whatever you want.
00:34:06Not everything I want.
00:34:08Not when it comes to you.
00:34:10I don't know what to do with that.
00:34:11I look at my hands.
00:34:12I don't like being lied to, Mia.
00:34:14I grew up in this world.
00:34:15Betrayal is the worst sin there is.
00:34:17But I'll wait.
00:34:17Tell me when you're ready.
00:34:19Something in my chest loosens just slightly.
00:34:21The first millimeter of relief in weeks.
00:34:23I'll tell you.
00:34:24At the right time.
00:34:25I need to think it through.
00:34:27That's all I need.
00:34:29I have money.
00:34:29You have peanuts.
00:34:30Buy whatever you want.
00:34:31I'll see you tonight, fiancé.
00:34:33I look up from five credit cards and the ring on my finger and the ghost of his mouth
00:34:36on mine and I think about Tobos and Franco's deadline and the promise I made in a locked
00:34:41bathroom.
00:34:41I'll tell him.
00:34:42At the right time.
00:34:43My phone buzzes.
00:34:44It's a message from an unknown number.
00:34:46A photo.
00:34:47Toas.
00:34:47Beaten.
00:34:48Barely consciousness.
00:34:49A map pin.
00:34:50One line of text.
00:34:51Come alone.
00:34:52I'm running some errands today.
00:34:53You can come along.
00:34:54Let's see how long you last.
00:34:58I know that's what it was.
00:35:00A list of errands Emilio had quietly arranged.
00:35:02A list of things I was supposed to need.
00:35:04A list of reasons to stay close to the house.
00:35:06I ditched them at the corner of Fifth and Carator, slipped into a doorway while they
00:35:10ran past in the wrong direction, and stood there for three whole seconds, feeling like
00:35:14I'd actually won something.
00:35:16The address was a neighborhood that had given up on itself.
00:35:18Cracked pavement, bored windows, a smell like rust and old rain.
00:35:22The building at the end of the block looked like it was held together by habit.
00:35:26I pushed the door open anyway.
00:35:28He needs me, I told myself.
00:35:29He can't hurt me yet.
00:35:31There's no baby.
00:35:32The whole scene arranged like something from a bad movie.
00:35:36Little Mia, took you long enough.
00:35:38I had to get rid of Emilio's people.
00:35:40I'm not talking about that.
00:35:41I'm talking about why you're not pregnant.
00:35:42He looked up when he heard me.
00:35:43My stomach turned.
00:35:44He started pulling one of the women closer, making a show of it, watching my face.
00:35:50When something slammed into the building from the back, a sound like the world rearranging
00:35:55itself.
00:36:01Franco got one hand on my arm before a gunshot punched through the air, and he dropped.
00:36:10Emilio stood in the doorway, guns still raised, still smoking.
00:36:14He looked at Franco on the floor for exactly one second.
00:36:19Then he looked at me.
00:36:21You okay?
00:36:22Did he hurt you?
00:36:23I couldn't make words happen.
00:36:24I just shook my head against his chest and kept shaking.
00:36:28Take care of the rest.
00:36:29We're leaving.
00:36:30Then he lifted me.
00:36:31Literally lifted me.
00:36:32And carried me out of that building like I weighed nothing.
00:36:35Like it was the most natural thing in the world.
00:36:37Like he'd been doing it his whole life.
00:36:39Outside, the afternoon light was so ordinary it almost hurt.
00:36:44I kept waiting for him to put me down to say something cold, to remind me that this was
00:36:49a contract and feelings weren't included.
00:36:51He didn't.
00:36:52He just held me against his chest in the back seat while Diego drove and the city slipped
00:36:55past the windows like a film I wasn't part of.
00:36:57He set me on the living room sofa, carefully, gently, and told the staff to leave with a single
00:37:02look.
00:37:03The room emptied in seconds.
00:37:04It was just us, and the afternoon quiet, and the weight of everything that had happened
00:37:08in that filthy room.
00:37:09He threatened my cousin.
00:37:10He wanted me to have your baby so he could use the child as leverage against you.
00:37:15Why didn't you come to me?
00:37:16He said he'd kill Tomas if I did.
00:37:18Your cousin was working with Galatio.
00:37:20He owed him money.
00:37:21They built this trap together.
00:37:23For you.
00:37:24The word together landed like a stone.
00:37:28What?
00:37:29He gambled himself into a grave.
00:37:31Galatio owned him.
00:37:32I stared at my hands.
00:37:34The whole architecture of the passwords rearranged itself in my head.
00:37:37Toa sweeping on my floor.
00:37:38The threats.
00:37:39All of it planned.
00:37:40All of it aimed at me.
00:37:41Sorry isn't gonna cut it.
00:38:10I thought he was going to be cold about it.
00:38:13The whole.
00:38:13As much as I own you.
00:38:16Kiss me like you own me.
00:38:17His jaw worked.
00:38:19He said something about not being able to stop once he started.
00:38:22I didn't let him finish.
00:38:23I grabbed his collar and pulled him down to me, and for one second he went still with
00:38:27pure shock.
00:38:28And then he took over, kissing me like he'd been keeping it locked up for months, which
00:38:31I think he had.
00:38:32Yes.
00:38:34Do whatever you want to me.
00:38:36Punish me.
00:38:37Fuck me like you own me.
00:38:38He looked at me for a long moment.
00:38:40Something fierce and half undone in his face.
00:38:44Don't say I didn't warn you, Mia.
00:38:50There's a mirror above the dresser in his bedroom.
00:38:53I didn't notice it until he bent me over the drawers and his mouth found my neck.
00:38:56And I looked up and saw us.
00:38:58His hands in my hair.
00:38:59My face flushed.
00:39:00His eyes burning into mine.
00:39:01Through the glass.
00:39:02Look in the mirror.
00:39:03Look how slutty you get from me.
00:39:06I couldn't look away.
00:39:07I'm the only one who gets to see you like this.
00:39:09Do you understand?
00:39:11Yes.
00:39:11Lift your dress.
00:39:13Watch when I take you.
00:39:15What followed I will not describe in detail because there are no adequate words for it.
00:39:19I'll say that every time my eyes dropped, he cupped my chin and brought my gaze back
00:39:23to the mirror.
00:39:24Mine.
00:39:24Every time he said mine.
00:39:25I believed him more completely than I've believed anything in my life.
00:39:29Mine.
00:39:30Mine.
00:39:34Mine.
00:39:34Afterward we lay in the dark, his arm across my waist, his breath slow and even.
00:39:39I stared at the ceiling and felt the particular silence of someone who has crossed a line
00:39:43they can't cross back over.
00:39:45You own me, Mia Espinosa.
00:39:47I pressed my face into his shoulder and tried not to feel how much I wanted that to be true.
00:39:51Don't fall, I told myself.
00:39:52I was already falling.
00:39:56One week later, I came home to flowers.
00:39:59That's not quite accurate.
00:40:00I came home to an abundance of flowers.
00:40:02A proliferation.
00:40:03A situation that had clearly escalated well beyond what any reasonable person would call
00:40:07a floral arrangement.
00:40:08Every surface in the living room held a different vase.
00:40:11The whole space smelled like a greenhouse had moved in while I was out.
00:40:14Standing in the middle of it introducing herself with a warm professional smile was a woman
00:40:18named Ollie.
00:40:19She was in her 30s, polished, very pretty, and she was looking at the door behind me
00:40:23in a way that told me exactly who she was waiting for.
00:40:25Emilio came in 30 seconds later.
00:40:27He stopped, swept his eyes across the flowers, then across me, and something in his face went
00:40:31immediately soft and that way it only does when it's just us.
00:40:33Hello, wife.
00:40:34I missed you.
00:40:36He dropped kisses on my forehead.
00:40:38I held his forearms and forgot for a moment that there was a third person in the room.
00:40:43You must be Mr. Reyes.
00:40:44I'm Ollie.
00:40:45I'm helping Mrs. Reyes with the wedding florets.
00:40:47Emilio looked at all the flowers again.
00:40:49How many flowers does a wedding need?
00:40:52As many as I like.
00:40:53You told me I could have whatever I wanted.
00:40:55He leaned in close, eyes warming.
00:40:58I was thinking of something else entirely when I said that.
00:41:01I shoved his chest.
00:41:03He laughed and pulled me into his side.
00:41:06I didn't notice Ollie's expression yet.
00:41:08I would.
00:41:11The roses were imported from Bulgaria, apparently.
00:41:15Perfect for expressing passion.
00:41:18A good fit for your character, sir.
00:41:20I looked at Emilio.
00:41:22He was looking at me.
00:41:23What do you think?
00:41:24They look pretty.
00:41:25Ollie pivoted to Lily's before I finished the sentence.
00:41:28They opened with just a little attention.
00:41:30And her eyes lingered on Emilio the way eyes linger when they're not really looking at flowers.
00:41:36They look cheap.
00:41:38Then orchids.
00:41:40High main taint in it.
00:41:42But a man like you can definitely afford to spoil someone.
00:41:45Stop.
00:41:46Both of them looked at me.
00:41:47I know what you're doing.
00:41:50And I don't like it.
00:41:52Ollie gave me a polished, innocent smile.
00:41:55Mrs. Reyes, I assure you...
00:41:57It's Mrs. Reyes.
00:41:58You're flirting with my man.
00:42:00In my house.
00:42:01I don't like that.
00:42:03Emilio made a sound that was almost a laugh.
00:42:05He lowered his mouth to my ear.
00:42:07You're about to become a mob queen.
00:42:09Show her your claws.
00:42:10I turned back to Ollie.
00:42:12You're fired.
00:42:13You heard my wife.
00:42:14Security came.
00:42:15She went.
00:42:17The door closed.
00:42:18Emilio was grinning.
00:42:20You called me your man.
00:42:21Because you are.
00:42:24I told him he was sleeping on the couch.
00:42:26In respect, this was optimistic of me.
00:42:29For what sin exactly?
00:42:30You didn't shut her down.
00:42:32You just stood there.
00:42:34I was looking at you the whole time.
00:42:35I didn't hear a word she said.
00:42:37That's not the point.
00:42:39Couch.
00:42:39I turned to walk away.
00:42:41He caught my wrist.
00:42:42I had about one second of thinking I'd won before he lifted me over his shoulder like
00:42:46I was a bag he was rearranging.
00:42:50I squealed.
00:42:51I couldn't help it.
00:42:52Put me down.
00:42:54You'll be down when I decide you're down.
00:42:56He carried me out of the room while I laughed and hit his back and told him he was ridiculous.
00:43:01He ignored all of it with complete serenity.
00:43:03On the other side of the city, in the abandoned house where Franco had died, Damien moved through
00:43:08the filthy rooms alone.
00:43:09He stopped at the body, crouched down, studied what was left of the man who had been his instrument.
00:43:14He stood up slowly.
00:43:17Coward.
00:43:18He looked around at the decay, the silence, the ruined plan.
00:43:24Then he pulled out his phone.
00:43:26Guess I'm on my own now.
00:43:30The letter appeared with breakfast.
00:43:33Morning, wife.
00:43:34You got a letter.
00:43:37I read the first line and went completely still.
00:43:39It was an admission letter.
00:43:40Nursing school.
00:43:41I never applied for this.
00:43:43I did.
00:43:44He said it casually like it was obvious.
00:43:46Like the most natural thing in the world was for a cartel boff to submit nursing school
00:43:49applications on behalf of a woman he'd coerced into a contract marriage.
00:43:53How did you even know I wanted to go back?
00:43:55He stopped moving.
00:43:57Turned to look at me with an expression I'd never seen on him before.
00:44:00Completely serious.
00:44:02Completely open.
00:44:03The night you saved me, you said you were a nursing school dropout.
00:44:07The storage room.
00:44:08The blood.
00:44:10His voice fading in and out as I pressed gauze to his chest, trying to keep him here.
00:44:16I'm a nursing school dropout.
00:44:18You'll survive.
00:44:20He'd been carrying that for months.
00:44:22I listened to everything you say.
00:44:23He took my hand and kissed the back of it.
00:44:25Told me the semester started on the 18th.
00:44:27Two weeks.
00:44:28He'd arranged bodyguards.
00:44:29I started to object.
00:44:30He said two.
00:44:30Not a convoy.
00:44:31And I let it go.
00:44:32Then I sat very still, looking at the letter.
00:44:35The 18th.
00:44:36My period was late.
00:44:38More than late.
00:44:38I thought about the soreness I'd been ignoring for a week, and a cold plerry moved through me.
00:44:43Fast and certain.
00:44:45Bathroom.
00:44:47I was already gone.
00:44:52I sat on the bathroom floor for a long time.
00:44:55The test was in my hand.
00:44:58Two lines, unmistakable, sitting there in the morning light like the simplest and most complicated fact in the world.
00:45:06Pregnant.
00:45:06I pressed my palm flat against my stomach.
00:45:09Nothing felt different yet.
00:45:10The same body, the same skin.
00:45:12But somewhere in there, something had started.
00:45:15Something that was half me and half the man in the kitchen who had kissed the back of my hand
00:45:19and said,
00:45:19I listened to everything you say.
00:45:20The man who had carried me out of that building.
00:45:23Who said you own me and meant it with his whole body.
00:45:26The man I needed to tell.
00:45:28I thought about what it meant to be pregnant with the cartel king's child.
00:45:31The leverage of it.
00:45:32The danger of it.
00:45:33The way a baby becomes a weapon in this world, whether you want it to or not.
00:45:37I thought about Tomos.
00:45:39About all the traps I'd walked into already.
00:45:42And then I stopped thinking about danger and just felt it.
00:45:45I'm going to be a mother.
00:45:47Emilio is going to be a father.
00:45:49I wiped my face.
00:45:51Stood up.
00:45:52Opened the door.
00:45:53Diego was in the hall.
00:45:55Where's Emilio?
00:45:57Meeting, miss.
00:45:58With Damian.
00:45:59Take me to him.
00:46:01Please.
00:46:02It's important.
00:46:04The boss doesn't like to be disturbed.
00:46:06But something in my face must have convinced him.
00:46:09He nodded.
00:46:11I followed him out.
00:46:12The test folded in my palm.
00:46:14My heart running ahead of my feet.
00:46:19Diego walked me to the study door and left.
00:46:22I could hear voices inside.
00:46:24Emilio and Damrian.
00:46:25Low and urgent.
00:46:26I raised my hand to knock and stopped.
00:46:28The test was still in my palm.
00:46:30Two lines.
00:46:31The most important thing I'd ever held.
00:46:33Then Imadio's voice cut through the door.
00:46:36Mia's cousin?
00:46:37He's a fucking clown.
00:46:39My hand dropped.
00:46:40I stood very still.
00:46:41I knew I should walk away.
00:46:43I knew that eavesdropping on the Cartel King's private meetings was the kind of thing that
00:46:47ended badly in this world.
00:46:49I pressed my ear to the door anyway.
00:46:51He could have been useful.
00:46:53He's Mia's only blood relative.
00:46:56Tied to Alosio's mob.
00:46:58It was leverage.
00:47:01What the hell is going on with you?
00:47:03I'm just saying, as the East Coast Cartel King, you could play more strategically.
00:47:08Like, not shooting your cousin-in-law in the head.
00:47:11My blood went cold.
00:47:15I couldn't move.
00:47:17What I have with Mia is none of your fucking business.
00:47:20Damian said something else.
00:47:22Something about fixing things with her.
00:47:24Keeping Tomas alive as a peace offering.
00:47:26But the words were coming through water now, muffled and distant.
00:47:30Shooting your cousin-in-law in the head.
00:47:34Tomas was dead.
00:47:36Emilio had killed him.
00:47:38My cousin, the only blood family I'd left, the person whose life I'd accepted a mob marriage
00:47:43to save, and Emilio had shot him.
00:47:45While Tomas was under his roof.
00:47:47While I was sleeping down the hall, thinking I'd kept him safe.
00:47:51Damian said something about the forged will next.
00:47:54Lying about her inheritance just to marry her.
00:47:56A sound at the door.
00:47:58Emilio's voice sharpened.
00:48:00Who's there?
00:48:05I turned and ran.
00:48:08I was packing before I fully decided to pack.
00:48:12The suitcase was open on the bed, and my hands were moving.
00:48:15And the test was still in my fist.
00:48:17I don't know why I kept holding it.
00:48:19And Emilio came through the door, 20 seconds later, face pale.
00:48:23Wait.
00:48:24What are you doing?
00:48:25What does it look like?
00:48:27Mia, let's talk.
00:48:28I don't negotiate with the devil.
00:48:30I tried to pass him.
00:48:31He grabbed my arm.
00:48:33Stop.
00:48:34Let's talk.
00:48:35I jerked free.
00:48:36You lied.
00:48:37You killed my cousin.
00:48:39Then you lied again.
00:48:40There's nothing left to say.
00:48:41He exhaled, sharp and frustrated.
00:48:44Is killing your scumbag cousin really that big of a deal?
00:48:46I stared at him.
00:48:47I waited for a moment to feel shocked, but there was none left.
00:48:50Of course he said that.
00:48:51Of course.
00:48:51He was a criminal boss who ran an empire built on violence,
00:48:54and I had somehow convinced myself that the version of him who kissed my forehead
00:48:57and listened to everything I said was the real one.
00:48:59Does a human life mean anything to you?
00:49:02I'm a criminal boss.
00:49:04You knew that when you signed the contract.
00:49:08Which you forged.
00:49:10My aunt never wanted me to marry you, did she?
00:49:15A long silence.
00:49:16He didn't deny it.
00:49:18You added the marriage clause to trap me.
00:49:21So what?
00:49:22I run a mob.
00:49:23Be grateful I didn't take you by force.
00:49:26The words landed like a slap.
00:49:27Grateful.
00:49:28He wanted me to be grateful.
00:49:29So grateful.
00:49:31Grateful you dragged me into this hell, got my cousin killed, and got me-
00:49:35The test was still in my hand.
00:49:37I looked down at it.
00:49:38The two lines looked back.
00:49:40You'll never know, I thought.
00:49:41You don't deserve to.
00:49:43I zipped the suitcase shut.
00:49:48Just let me go, Emilio.
00:49:49You know I can't.
00:49:50In one motion, I reached across him and grabbed the gun from his hip.
00:49:54I had it pressed against myself before I'd thought about what I was doing.
00:49:57The barrel cold against my ribs.
00:49:59My hand shaking.
00:50:00Tears running down my face.
00:50:02Mia.
00:50:03His voice had changed completely.
00:50:06All the cold stripped out of it.
00:50:08Either you let me walk out,
00:50:10or I pull this trigger.
00:50:14He went very still.
00:50:16Then he extended his hand.
00:50:17Palm up.
00:50:18The way you'd extend a hand to a frightened animal.
00:50:21Give me the gun.
00:50:22And I'll let you leave.
00:50:24Just like that?
00:50:25Yes.
00:50:27You know I can't say no to you.
00:50:30Just give me the gun.
00:50:31Please.
00:50:33The please undid something in my chest.
00:50:36I hated that it did.
00:50:38After a long moment, I laid the gun in his palm.
00:50:41He tucked it away without breaking eye contact.
00:50:44We can fix this.
00:50:45We can pretend none of this happened.
00:50:47I can't pretend.
00:50:50Everything between us was built on lies.
00:50:52He stepped closer.
00:50:53His voice dropped.
00:50:54Thick with something he was fighting to contain.
00:50:57My feelings for you aren't lies.
00:50:59A tear ran down my face.
00:51:00I looked at his face.
00:51:02Really looked at it.
00:51:03This man who had saved me and lied to me and killed my cousin and kissed my forehead in the
00:51:08morning.
00:51:08All of it true at the same time.
00:51:10None of it simple.
00:51:11I took his hand.
00:51:13I placed the ring in his palm.
00:51:15Goodbye, Emilio.
00:51:16He stood frozen, fist closing around the ring.
00:51:19As I walked out the door.
00:51:23I went to Serena's.
00:51:25She opened the door before I finished knocking, took one look at my face, and pulled me inside without asking
00:51:30any questions.
00:51:32She made tea.
00:51:33She handed me tissues.
00:51:34She sat with me on the sofa and let me cry until there was nothing left.
00:51:38Then she waited.
00:51:39He killed my cousin.
00:51:43He lied about the inheritance.
00:51:46Everything from the beginning was fabricated to get me into that house.
00:51:51Serena was very quiet.
00:51:53She handed me another tissue.
00:51:58Too quiet.
00:51:59I looked at her.
00:52:03Serena.
00:52:04Serena.
00:52:05Serena.
00:52:07Serena.
00:52:08Serena.
00:52:28Serena.
00:52:57I heard the words.
00:53:00Emilia.
00:53:01In the face of her, Emilio shot your cousin in front of me.
00:53:04I pulled away from her.
00:53:05She reached for my arm.
00:53:08Mia, please.
00:53:09My family doesn't change who I am, what you mean to me.
00:53:15you sound just like him i lied to protect you
00:53:20you watched him die and you didn't tell me i stood up she scrambled after me saying my name
00:53:27reaching for my arm i got to the door mia wait we're done serena i ran
00:53:36the street was cold serena chased me for half a block before her phone rang and she stopped
00:53:42i didn't look back i just walked arms wrapped around myself no destination no plan just moving
00:53:48because stopping felt like drowning i thought about my mother who had died and left me in a
00:53:52world i didn't understand i thought about toas who had sold me to a monster for gambling debts
00:53:56i thought about the ring i'd left in emilio's hand and the test still folded in my pocket and the
00:54:01fact that i was pregnant and alone in the dark with nowhere to go the city moved around me
00:54:05indifferent a car slowed alongside me i squinted emilio the door opened
00:54:12not emilio damien
00:54:19relax i'm not dragging you anywhere then what do you want i have orders to stay with you
00:54:26but i can take you to a safe house emmanuel won't know he watched my face patient almost gentle
00:54:32i can even get you out of the country
00:54:37i stared at him damien was smiling that easy smile hands in his pockets like he was offering
00:54:42him a ride to the airport nothing in his face looked wrong why would you help me you're his
00:54:47brother i'd like to balance out some of the bad i've done i'll handle your phone he put a tracker
00:54:53on it even works when it's off i looked down at my phone then at him then at the dark
00:54:59street
00:55:00stretching in both directions with nowhere to go i handed him the phone he took it and i climbed
00:55:05into the back seat i was so tired i was so tired of being afraid of running of trying to
00:55:11stay one step
00:55:11ahead of men with more power than i would ever have the leather seat was warm damien got into
00:55:16the front without speaking there's water in the back if you need it i reached for the bottle opened
00:55:23it took a long drink thank you damien you're a good man he watched me in the rearview mirror
00:55:29and something moved across his face that i didn't have time to read
00:55:35the water tasted like water that was the last thing i registered clearly then the edges of the
00:55:41window started to blur the street lights smeared into long yellow streaks my hand felt very heavy
00:55:47i looked down at the bottle in my lap and thought distantly that something was wrong
00:55:53what
00:55:56the thought didn't finish
00:55:58i slumped sideways and the world went out like a light
00:56:02in the front seat damien watched me through the mirror
00:56:05his easy smile had changed into something else entirely something that had been waiting behind
00:56:12it all along sweet little mia you have no idea what's coming for you or for my arrogant half-brother
00:56:22we're on our way have the island ready outside the city light slid past and fell behind us
00:56:28and emilio's mansion disappeared into the dark and i was gone before i knew i'd been taken
00:56:35i woke up to the sound of ocean that was wrong i lived in the city the city didn't sound
00:56:41like that
00:56:42steady and vast and indifferent like breathing from a long way away
00:56:46i lay still for a moment with my eyes closed waiting for the world to reassemble itself into
00:56:52something familiar it didn't i opened my eyes an unfamiliar room whitewashed walls wooden shutters
00:56:58light coming in sideways and gold not a hotel not anywhere i'd ever been
00:57:03i got up and went to the window trees ocean nothing else in any direction the door opened behind me
00:57:11good you're awake i turned around
00:57:16he was standing in the frame hands in his pockets looking pleased with himself in that particular way
00:57:22that meant something had gone exactly according to plan where am i somewhere no one can find you
00:57:28not even my brother the memory came back all at once the car the water the bottle in my hand
00:57:36the
00:57:37edges of the window blurring you kidnapped me smart girl i see why emilio kept you around
00:57:45but not smart enough he moved into the room and i stepped back until the wall found me
00:57:56he told me about palacio not the way i'd understood it franco as emilio's enemy using me as a pawn
00:58:01damian had been behind franco the whole time he'd found my cousin the moment he ran my background check
00:58:06he'd built the trap handed tomas to franco and watched the whole thing play out from inside emilio's house
00:58:11franco palano was a fucking idiot but he was a useful one until your cartel king shot him in the
00:58:17head
00:58:18my cousin died because of you his expression didn't change i slapped him his head snapped sideways
00:58:26a beat of absolute silence then he turned back and the easy smile was gone replaced by something that
00:58:32had always been underneath it he grabbed my throat and slammed me into the wall you're lucky i need you
00:58:41or i'd choke the life out of you right now his eyes moved over me in a way that made
00:58:46my skin crawl
00:58:47if my cold-hearted brother is obsessed with you there must be something worth exploring he leaned in
00:58:55i bit him hard
00:58:59he pulled back with a snarl and i saw his arm draw back don't please i'm pregnant his fist stopped
00:59:06the room went very quiet damian stared at me the fury draining out of his face and being replaced by
00:59:12something more dangerous calculation you're pregnant with emilio's baby i nodded my throat ached where
00:59:19his hand had been he stepped back then he started laughing really laughing the kind that fills a room
00:59:25and i stood against the wall and watched him and felt a cold creeping dread oh this is gold palami
00:59:31actually pulled it off i thought his plan to knock you up was ridiculous emilio would never never what
00:59:35there's a rumor he's infertile maybe it's real maybe he spread it so women wouldn't chase him
00:59:40either way you and that baby just changed everything he headed for the door still grinning
00:59:45what are you going to do to me he turned one hand on the frame relax i was gonna let
00:59:52my men have some
00:59:53fun with you but now i need that baby unharmed
01:00:00he told me about the island pacific private surrounded by his army and buried in the ground all around the
01:00:10house explosives enough to bring everything down triggered by a detonator he kept on his person if
01:00:16emilio tries anything boom then he left me there i slid down the wall and sat on the floor and
01:00:22tried to
01:00:23think the ocean kept making its vast in a merrient sound outside the shuttered window you're on a private
01:00:30pacific island surrounded by a full army with bombs underneath you i pressed both hands flat against my
01:00:38stomach i'm going to get us out of here i didn't know if that was true i said it anyway
01:00:43because
01:00:43someone had to i thought about the note emilio had tucked into a nursing school envelope i listened to
01:00:50everything you say i thought about the way he'd lifted me out of franco's building like i was something
01:00:55worth carrying i thought about his fist closing around my ring find me i thought please find me
01:01:03the door stayed closed the ocean kept breathing i stayed on the floor and i waited
01:01:11on the third night a hand touched my shoulder i jolted awake already pulling back already opening my
01:01:17mouth to scream and a hand covered it a familiar weight a familiar smell mia it's me a voice in
01:01:23my ear
01:01:23barely a breath i collapsed into him he held me for exactly three seconds his arms around me his chin
01:01:30on
01:01:30my head the realness of him solid and overwhelming and then he pulled back and cupped my face and
01:01:36checked me the way he checked me in the warehouse all those months ago systematic and frantic at the
01:01:40same time are you hurt no how did serena and your mafia princess friend has a helicopter he pressed his
01:01:47lips to my forehead quick and fierce follow my lead we're heading to the chopper stay close stay quiet
01:01:51he had a gun in his hand he opened the door checked the corridor and guided me out into the
01:01:56dark
01:01:58we made it 30 feet damien's voice came from ahead of us easy and amused like he'd been waiting since
01:02:05when does the cartel king use knockout drugs to sneak in emilio stopped gun raised since when do you
01:02:13skip dinner
01:02:16damien stepped out of the shadows in his hand raised between two fingers like a cigarette
01:02:22was the detonator since the day dad handed you the cartel his thumb hovered over the button
01:02:30emilio moved in front of me without thinking about it blocking me with his body drop the gun brother
01:02:40emilio dropped it you want the cartel fine i'll give it to you i don't want the stupid mob
01:02:47it's you it's always been you his voice had broken open and underneath the ease and the planning and
01:02:53the long patient game was something rawr something that had been sitting in that house for years
01:02:57growing in the dark then take me do whatever you want but let mia go don't drag her into this
01:03:06it happened in less than a second emilio crossing the corridor in two strides shoulder dropping crashing
01:03:11into his brother the detonator flew from damien's hand but damio's smile came back colder than before
01:03:16no your offspring isn't getting out today either he turned to me slowly and in that moment nothing in
01:03:25his face was the cartel king nothing was the man who made rooms go silent and had people removed
01:03:30he just looked at me like i was the only thing in the room that mattered you're pregnant
01:03:36i nodded his jaw set he turned back to demand not happening
01:03:45then we all die his thumb moved emilio lunged he of them hit the window behind
01:03:52them and went through it in a shower of glass and frame and night air
01:03:59emilio
01:04:02silence then the night outside was just the ocean and the dark and the sound of my own breathing
01:04:08ragged and desperate i ran for the door
01:04:13they were both on the ground outside unconscious not moving damien face down in the dirt emilio on his
01:04:22back with his eyes closed and one arm thrown wide and glass in his hair i heard voices serena
01:04:28marco running toward me i dropped to my knees beside emilio
01:04:35emilio emilio wake up we have to go
01:04:39mia marco was already beside me hands on emilio's chest pressing and counting
01:04:45i sat there and held emilio's hand and watched marco's face and couldn't breathe
01:04:52come back come back
01:04:54come back
01:04:59emilio coughed his chest heaved his eyes opened
01:05:04everyone let out a breath at the same time
01:05:08i'm okay
01:05:10we need to move
01:05:11he started to get up i helped him my hands shaking choppers ready this way emilio stood
01:05:18unsteady and looked at damien's limp body
01:05:23you go ahead i need to finish him
01:05:29i'm not leaving you you want to watch me shoot my own brother
01:05:34i don't care
01:05:36you're pregnant mia go his voice was gentle but final the voice that meant he'd already
01:05:43decided promise you'll come
01:05:45i promise serena took my arm i let her pull me away looking back over my shoulder at emilio
01:05:51standing over his brother in the dark he didn't look back at me he was already somewhere else
01:05:55somewhere cold and necessary he's going to be fine he's emilio reyes we were 20 yards from the house
01:06:01then 30 the helicopter was somewhere ahead its blades beginning to turn i kept walking he promised
01:06:07he promised he promised
01:06:12the world turned white the sound hit me a full second after the light a wall of pressure and
01:06:18noise that knocked me sideways serena's grip tearing loose i turned around the house was on fire
01:06:25not catching fire already fire instant and total a column of flame reaching up into the dark sky
01:06:31the windows gone the roof already folding the air tasted like smoke
01:06:37i couldn't move serena was saying something marco was saying something the helicopter blades were
01:06:43louder now someone was pulling at my arm and i couldn't move because emilio was in that house
01:06:48and he had promised and he was in that house no the word came out of me like something being
01:06:53torn
01:06:54out no emilio serena had both arms around me from behind holding me back i fought her i don't remember
01:07:00deciding to fight her my body just refused to go anywhere without him
01:07:03mia let me sit there he's mia stop marco was already running back toward the burning house
01:07:10calling into his radio i stopped fighting i just stood there in serena's arms and watched the fire
01:07:16eat the house and felt the heat on my face and thought about a man in a study saying i
01:07:21listened
01:07:21to everything you say and a man in a corridor with his shoulder dropping and his body going through
01:07:25glass going through glass to keep a detonator out of his brother's hand going through glass for me
01:07:31the flames climbed higher the night was orange and black i pressed both hands over the small life
01:07:37inside me and i waited and i waited and i waited and no one came
01:07:45five months later that's what the subtitle would say if my life were a movie five months later a
01:07:52neat jump cut all the grief and the waiting and the nights i lay awake with one hand on my
01:07:57stomach
01:07:58and the other pressed to my mouth to keep quiet compressed into three words and a hard cut to a
01:08:02woman on a street corner in white gloves me i'm eight months pregnant and i'm wearing white gloves and
01:08:09i'm standing on a sidewalk watching a homeless man run he thinks he's running from the two cars that
01:08:14boxed him in he's not he's running from me the car door opens i step out damien stops he looks
01:08:26older
01:08:26thinner five months on the street will do that five months knowing that the woman whose house you burnt
01:08:32out is carrying the air to the ray s cartel and is looking for you that will do it too
01:08:36i pull off one
01:08:38gloves finger by finger hello brother-in-law
01:08:44my men take him before he can speak wait mia we should talk yes we should
01:08:56the basement of the reyes mansion is very quiet i had diaz repaint it new lighting a good chair for
01:09:03me to sit in positioned at exactly the right distance i learned from the best after all i
01:09:08watched emilio run this house for months i know how it's done i sit with my legs rapes crossed and
01:09:14my hands folded over my stomach and i watched two of my men work damien screams he begs he says
01:09:22my name
01:09:23like it's a password that will open a door like some part of him still believes i'm the nursing
01:09:26student from the fast food restaurant who cried on a sofa and couldn't look emilio in the eye i'm not
01:09:31her anymore make this stop please i give the men a look they hit harder after a while i raise
01:09:39a hand
01:09:40and they stop the basement goes quiet except for damien's raggled breathing and the distant sound of
01:09:44the city outside i stand up and walk over to him tell me where he is damien looks up at
01:09:54me through
01:09:55blood his smile is still there somehow cracked and terrible come closer i'll tell you
01:10:05i lean down his mouth was near my ear and i stayed perfectly still and waited he's rotting in hell
01:10:13just like you will be you stupid i straightened up i pulled the gun from the back of my waistband
01:10:22the one diego had started leaving on my night state three months ago after the first two attempts
01:10:27on my life after i'd started running this operation alone and i shot damien once he slumped i stood there
01:10:34for a moment and looked at him emilio's brother the man who had built every trap i'd walked into
01:10:39the man who had burned down the house with emilio inside it then i peeled off the other glove
01:10:44folded both of them together and walked out
01:10:50diego was waiting in the rordo with a package mail address to your name ma'am he held it out
01:10:55the label read mia espinoza i frowned i thought i changed my last name on everything could be from
01:11:02before
01:11:05i took it
01:11:09i opened it in the study
01:11:13a file legal documents a will notarized witness dated three months before lesia died
01:11:19i read the first page and had to sit down one hundred million dollars her actual inheritance
01:11:26not the fabricated claws amicio had invented to get me into his house the real thing the money she'd
01:11:31spent her life accumulating and had always meant to the niece she wrote letters to and called her
01:11:35girl where it all started i thought diego stood near the door mr reyes would have found you regardless
01:11:42of the inheritance sounds like him i turned to the last page and a small piece of paper fell out
01:11:51folded once the size of a fortune cookie slip i picked it up the handwriting was emilio's i'd seen
01:11:57it on a hundred things notes contracts the margin of a book he'd left open on the kitchen counter
01:12:01i'd have known it anywhere it said love at first sight i sat there holding that small piece of paper
01:12:07for a long time then i pressed it against my chest and closed my eyes i'll find you emirio reyes
01:12:12wherever
01:12:13you are
01:12:16he was in sicily i didn't know that yet i knew it the way you know things when you've been
01:12:21running
01:12:22someone's empire for five months and you've learned to read diego's face there was somewhere he wouldn't
01:12:27look some piece of information that lived just behind his careful professional expression but he
01:12:32wouldn't tell me and i understood why emirio had told him not to so i waited on a balcony overlooking
01:12:40the mediterranean a man in a wheelchair watched the ocean he'd been watching it for weeks the light
01:12:46changed the water changed he watched it all with the patience of someone who has decided not to go
01:12:52anywhere until they're ready serena flew to sicily on a tuesday she found him on the balcony thinner than
01:12:59she'd left him the ocean wind moving through his hair she dropped a photograph on his lap without
01:13:04greeting him first in the photo damien dead emilio picked up the photo looked at it for a long moment
01:13:11that's my girl
01:13:15she's gonna be pissed if you're not there when she gives birth
01:13:19i can't see her like this you could show up as a worm and she'd still love you i'm tired
01:13:25of lying to
01:13:25my best friend again she'll forgive you serena ground and sat down on the low wall beside his
01:13:33chair the mediterranean was the specific blue it gets in the late afternoon almost violet at the
01:13:38edges come back with me tomorrow i'm flying out in the morning no emilio i'll return when i can stand
01:13:45on my own feet i want her to know i'm still the man who can protect her and our baby
01:13:51serena stared at
01:13:53him for a long moment toxic masculinity from a cartel king who would have thought a beat you know
01:13:58you're kind of cute in a wheelchair don't let your bodyguard hear that he helps me to the bathroom serena
01:14:05laughed a real laugh surprised out of her she stood up and kissed the top of his head don't take
01:14:09too long
01:14:11she walked out emilio stayed on the balcony until the light was gone
01:14:19he reached into his pocket the ring was small and cold and familiar mia's engagement ring the one
01:14:26she'd placed in his palm in the bedroom and walked away from he'd been carrying it since that night
01:14:31through the crash through the window through however many surgeries he didn't fully remember
01:14:35through the months of physical therapy on this balcony overlooking the sea he turned it in his
01:14:40fingers he thought about the night in the alley when he'd looked up from the pavement and seen a
01:14:44woman he'd never met pressing gans to his chest and telling him to stop moving or he'd bleed more
01:14:47he'd been half dead and delirious and he thought i know you i don't know you yet but i know
01:14:51you
01:14:52lietia had talked about her for years her niece the nursing student the girl who sent letters and
01:14:57called every sunday and had her mother's stubbornness and her own fierce particular kindness he'd carried
01:15:03the shape of her before he knew her face he closed his hand around the ring i'm coming back to
01:15:08you
01:15:08mia the ocean was dark now the stars were coming out one by one over sicily i'm coming back
01:15:19two months later i thought giving birth at home would be easier
01:15:23i was wrong it's never easy i hate you i hate you emilio reyes almost there one more push
01:15:31i hate you i pushed the world split open and then there was a sound small and indignant and
01:15:38completely certain of itself and the doctor was saying something i couldn't hear and someone was
01:15:44crying and i thought it might be me ma'am you need to stay with us you haven't seen your
01:15:48baby
01:15:49but i'm just so tired i was tired in a way i had never been tired before down into the
01:15:54marrow my body
01:15:55suddenly hollow and enormous at the same time stay stay you have to stay my eyes closed someone
01:16:02said my name i tried to hold on then at the edge of the light a silhouette appeared in the
01:16:07doorway
01:16:08not diego not serena not a doctor a silhouette that moved the way only one person in my life had
01:16:15ever
01:16:15moved he was standing on his own feet that was the first thing i registered not that he was there
01:16:22not even that he was alive but that he was standing on his own two feet in the doorway of
01:16:27my hospital room wearing clothes i didn't recognize thinner than i remembered with a look
01:16:31on his face that i had no word for mia my name in his voice i had been so tired
01:16:35a moment ago the
01:16:37darkness had been pulling me down and i had been letting it because i didn't have anything
01:16:40left to fight with but my eyes opened emilio he crossed the room he dropped to his knees beside
01:16:47the bed he took my face in both hands and pressed his forehead to mine i felt him shaking
01:16:50this man who never shook who never showed anything who had spent 32 years building a
01:16:53wall around himself and had spent six months tearing it down for me he was shaking somewhere
01:16:57behind him a baby was crying our baby ours you came i told you i was coming back outside the
01:17:03hospital window the city was beginning its ordinary morning entirely aware that something fundamental
01:17:07had just changed inside i closed my eyes and held on to him and listened to the small indignant
01:17:12perfect sound of our daughter announcing herself to the world we were here both of us finally
01:17:19this is what i know now i know that love is not the clean safe thing i thought it would
01:17:23be
01:17:24when i was 22 and working at a fast food counter and keeping a wish list of what my life
01:17:28was supposed
01:17:28to become i thought love would feel like arriving somewhere i thought it would be warm and certain
01:17:33and uncomplicated it is none of those things it is a man pressing gauze to a wound in a back
01:17:40room
01:17:41it is a ring in a palm and a door closing and a house going up in flames it is
01:17:47five months of running
01:17:48an empire i didn't ask for learning the weight of a gun and the patience required to wait for someone
01:17:54who promised to come back he is not a good man in the simple sense i know what he runs
01:17:59and what it
01:18:00costs and i have made my peace with the distance between who he is out there and who he is
01:18:04in this room
01:18:06holding our daughter like she's the most fragile and important thing he's ever been handed he is
01:18:11sitting in the chair beside my bed and she is asleep on his chest and he is not looking at
01:18:15anything in
01:18:15the room except her she has his dark eyes she has already even at one day old a particular expression
01:18:22of absolute conviction that i recognize from watching him walk into rooms i saved a man in an alley once
01:18:27i was 22 and afraid and i had no idea what i was saving him into best mistake i ever
01:18:33made
01:18:35is
01:18:35this
01:18:35the
01:18:35the
01:18:35the
01:18:35You
Comments