the pawn cousin Dailymotion- Trending Drama

StoryEchoWorks

Welcome to Titan Drama – your ultimate premium destination for the hottest trending short dramas and the newest viral drama shorts in stunning HD quality!  We curate and upload the most addictive short drama clips that are dominating global trends right now: passionate romance, intense revenge stories, emotional family sagas, billionaire twists, heart-breaking betrayals and powerful thrillers from around the world. All content comes with perfect multi-language support (English, Spanish, Arabic and more) so every viewer can enjoy without barriers.  Daily fresh uploads of the latest and most talked-about short dramas – the exact clips everyone is searching for and sharing. Whether you have 5 minutes or want to binge the hottest new releases, Titan Drama delivers non-stop, high-energy entertainment that keeps you coming back for more.  Stay ahead of every trend. Turn on notifications and never miss the newest viral short drama hit!

Transcript

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

00:00:47No. I said no.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

00:01:07But the truth is,

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

00:01:11I was already his.

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

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

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

00:01:22because Miguel never does

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

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

00:01:31A shuffle.

00:01:33A grunt.

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

00:01:37I peek my head out.

00:01:40First mistake of the night.

00:01:44Hello?

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

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

00:01:52Someone beats me to it.

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

00:01:56Tall, jaw tight.

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

00:02:00He's bleeding.

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

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

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

00:02:07Standing anyway.

00:02:08Let her go.

00:02:11The men charge.

00:02:13He moves.

00:02:13Fast, precise, brutal.

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

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

00:02:22The other is already gone.

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

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

00:02:33I drag him inside.

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

00:02:40I'm a nursing school dropout with shaking hands

00:02:43and no business saving anyone.

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

00:02:48and count his breaths

00:02:50and tell him to stay with me.

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

00:02:55I start to believe he might actually listen.

00:02:57He 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,

00:03:18he's gone.

00:03:19The room is empty except for the bloody gons

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

00:03:25cologne, maybe, or power.

00:03:31I stand in the doorway

00:03:32and feel something I can't name settle into my chest.

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

00:03:45The days pass.

00:03:47My life goes on.

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

00:03:52and I almost convince myself

00:03:54the whole thing was a fever dream.

00:03:57The blood.

00:03:58The alley.

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

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

00:04:04Almost.

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

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

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

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

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

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

00:04:25Emilio Reyes.

00:04:26East Coast Cartel King.

00:04:29Dangerous.

00:04:30Untouchable.

00:04:32The customers are whispering.

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

00:04:38I stare at the screen

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

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

00:04:45Even through the blood loss.

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

00:04:53You're dead.

00:04:56Shit.

00:04:57I set down the tray.

00:04:59I turn for the door.

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

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

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

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

00:05:17He's standing by the window with his back to me,

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

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

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

00:06:24I could breathe again.

00:06:26I could actually breathe.

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

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

00:06:34Every whispered warning.

00:06:36Every story that ends badly.

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

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

00:06:44Me?

00:06:45I set down the file.

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

00:06:50I'm a nobody.

00:06:51He steps closer.

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

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

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

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

00:07:06He says it quietly.

00:07:08Too quietly.

00:07:09Too gently.

00:07:10Like he means it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

00:07:28Old and brown at the edges.

00:07:31Blood.

00:07:32Someone's blood.

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

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

00:07:38No.

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

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

00:07:50My survival instincts shoot up.

00:07:54Wait.

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

00:07:57I just...

00:07:57I need time.

00:07:59To think.

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

00:08:03A beat.

00:08:04His hand stills.

00:08:05Of course.

00:08:07I try the door.

00:08:10Locked.

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

00:08:13My 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 swings open.

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

00:08:42I flee.

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

00:08:46Younger than Emilio.

00:08:47Easier to read.

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

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

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

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

00:08:58Back in my apartment, 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!

00:09:10My 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, a 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.

00:09:37But somehow, recognizing the shape of his jaw, the curve of his nose.

00:09:43A stranger smiles.

00:09:46Mia Espinosa.

00:09:48We need to talk.

00:09:53His name is Franco Palacio.

00:09:55I am Franco.

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

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

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

00:10:08Tomas.

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.

00:10:21That'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?

00:10:57You'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.

00:11:11That'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.

00:11:25Get pregnant.

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

00:11:35I can't breathe.

00:11:36I can't think.

00:11:36The 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.

00:11:45Left 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, and then it's just the two of us, and Tomas is gone, dragged out in the chaos.

00:12:19And I'm on the floor, with my knees pulled to my chest, and my whole body shaking so hard my

00:12:27teeth click together.

00:12:28I don't hear him cross the room, I don't hear him cross the room, I just feel the air change.

00:12:32Mia.

00:12:33His voice is different, softer than I've heard it.

00:12:36I look up, and something in his face does things I don't expect.

00:12:41It cracks, just at the edges, just for a second.

00:12:45I don't decide to move, I 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, and cry in a way I haven't cried since I was a

00:13:02little girl.

00:13:04Ugly, 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, and breathes slowly, steadily, like he's trying to teach me

00:13:22how.

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, and 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, gentle, careful, like I'm something worth being careful with.

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

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

00:14:01I know.

00:14:02We should talk.

00:14:04He says it quietly.

00:14:05He doesn't push.

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

00:14:23Our marriage contract.

00:14:26Read it.

00:14:29Terms and conditions.

00:14:37I keep my spine straight as I flip through the pages.

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

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

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

00:14:56Marry Emilio.

00:14:58Baby.

00:14:59One month.

00:15:02My weapon.

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

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

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

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

00:15:19It was never my choice.

00:15:22I am completely, utterly out of control of this situation, and I have to pretend otherwise.

00:15:28Perfectly.

00:15:28Or Tomas pays for it.

00:15:31Everything okay?

00:15:35I startle.

00:15:36He's watching me.

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

00:15:40Men like him watch everything.

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

00:15:47I 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, leaning over the table with both hands planted on either side of

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

00:16:20It's natural we fuck.

00:16:25My breath stops.

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

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

00:16:41There is only the truth.

00:16:43Yes.

00:16:44Obviously.

00:16:45Embarrassingly.

00:16:46Inconveniently yes.

00:16:48And the reason behind it.

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

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

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

00:17:00This is a contract.

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

00:17:08Any woman would want you.

00:17:13He tilts his head.

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

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

00:17:20I'm attractive.

00:17:22Yes.

00:17:24Are you lying to me?

00:17:29No.

00:17:30I'm not lying.

00:17:32That's the problem.

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

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

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

00:17:46I gasp.

00:17:48Not in fear, which would make sense.

00:17:50In something that runs hotter than fear.

00:17:53He nudges my knees apart.

00:17:55Not roughly.

00:17:56Just firmly.

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

00:18:05You 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.

00:18:19Thank God help me, I 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, letting her watch her own wetness dripping on my fingers.

00:18:47Her breath stutters.

00:18:49Is this for me?

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

00:19:02Yes.

00:19:02Her 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.

00:19:37And 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,

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

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

00:20:05My nanny, Leticia, 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.

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

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

00:21:16Hands 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?

00:21:48Emilio.

00:21:49Answer 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.

00:22:18Bad girls don't get to come.

00:22:21Sign the contract.

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

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

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

00:22:30And I stare at the closed door

00:22:32and try to remember who I am

00:22:34and why I'm here.

00:22:36Stay focused, Mia.

00:22:37Toas.

00:22:38One month.

00:22:39That's all that matters.

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

00:22:43I drag my suitcase through the front door

00:22:44and try not to look like I've never seen marble floors before.

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

00:22:48I 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

00:23:02and 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 we...

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

00:23:16No.

00:23:16I 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 knife, the deadline.

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

00:23:31I need to get pregnant.

00:23:33I need to do something.

00:23:39This will have to do.

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

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

00:23:47This is the plan.

00:23:48This is the whole plan.

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

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

00:23:53Leave.

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.

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

00:24:27No.

00:24:28No condoms.

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

00:24:31I know.

00:24:32Something shifts in his expression.

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

00:24:36You want my baby.

00:24:37Why?

00:24:38Because your biggest enemy has my cousin and gave me a deadline

00:24:41and I have no other options and 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?

00:24:50Get out.

00:24:51I slide to the floor and stand there for one horrible second,

00:24:53completely exposed.

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

00:24:58and then I turn and walk out with whatever dignity I have left,

00:25:00which 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

00:25:13and I haven't spent the last week tangled up in a cartel king

00:25:16who sees straight through every lie I tell,

00:25:18except 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.

00:25:48He 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,

00:25:57like she's been waiting for this question and dreading it at the same time.

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

00:26:02The door exploding open.

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

00:26:06The cafe erupts into chaos.

00:26:08I freeze.

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

00:26:14of this is real.

00:26:15Mia, get 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.

00:26:59Gun raised, jaw set, eyes 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.

00:27:20His arms, his cologne, that particular steadiness that shouldn't feel like safety but does.

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

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

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

00:27:36year it is.

00:27:36Then I remember the gun.

00:27:38The arm around my throat, the sound of a shot.

00:27:40I sit up too fast.

00:27:41My head swims.

00:27:42Are you okay?

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

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

00:27:48I think so.

00:27:49Where am I?

00:27:50My bedroom.

00:27:51Your bedroom?

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

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

00:27:58Rules are flexible.

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

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

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

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

00:28:11deadline that is still ticking.

00:28:12What if I say yes?

00:28:14His eyes darken.

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

00:28:20embarrassing.

00:28:20He stands instead.

00:28:21Adjusts his jacket.

00:28:23Rest.

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

00:28:24What's tomorrow?

00:28:25The engagement party, where I tell the world you're mine.

00:28:28Am I falling for him?

00:28:29No.

00:28:29Focus.

00:28:30Tomas.

00:28:30One month.

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

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

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

00:28:42ask 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.

00:29:47Emilio 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

00:30:12Hello, little Mia.

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

00:30:15What are you doing here?

00:30:16Emilio invited.

00:30:17We go way back.

00:30:18Emilio invited him.

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

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

00:30:23Furious.

00:30:23Deliberate.

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

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

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

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

00:30:38Nothing.

00:30:38We were just talking.

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

00:30:41This is her's 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 and 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.

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

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

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

00:31:41That was my first kiss.

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

00:31:47His mouth was just there.

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

00:31:54is 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?

00:32:02Did you sleep with him?

00:32:03What?

00:32:03Who?

00:32:03Franco Palagio.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

00:32:11Slowly, like a tide going out, it gives way to something quiet and more careful.

00:32:15Breathe through your nose.

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

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

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

00:32:25One more.

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

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

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

00:32:32to think in anything but sensation.

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

00:32:37serious 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

00:32:48is for.

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

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

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

00:32:55What?

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

00:32:57You and my worst enemy.

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

00:33:00I'm sorry.

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

00:33:04what's happening before his mouth is on me and my head snaps back and I'm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

00:33:23That's, you can't, that'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

00:33:38press my 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

00:33:45fix my 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, I don't need a therapist, I need a cop.

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

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

00:34:06Not everything I want.

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

00:34:10I don't know what to do with that, I 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, tell me when you're ready.

00:34:18Something in my chest loosens just slightly.

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

00:34:23I'll tell you, at the right time.

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

00:34:27That's all I need.

00:34:28I have money.

00:34:29You have peanuts.

00:34:30Buy whatever you want.

00:34:31I'll see you tonight, 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, at the right time.

00:34:43My phone buzzes.

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

00:34:46A photo, Toas, beaten, barely 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 ran past in

00:35:10the wrong direction and stood there for three whole seconds, feeling like I'd actually won

00:35:15something.

00:35:15The 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.

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

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

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

00:35:31There's no baby.

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

00:35:36Little Mia.

00:35:37Took you long enough.

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

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

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

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?

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

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

00:36:28Take care of the rest.

00:36:29We're leaving.

00:36:30Then he lifted me.

00:36:31Literally lifted me.

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

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

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

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

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

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

00:36:51He didn't.

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

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

00:37:02single look.

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.

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

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

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

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

00:37:20He owed him money.

00:37:21They built this track together.

00:37:23For you.

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

00:37:27What?

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

00:37:31Galadio owned him.

00:37:32I stared at my hands.

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

00:37:37Toa sweeping on my floor.

00:37:38The threats.

00:37:39All of it planned.

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

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

00:37:45I thought he was going to be cold about it.

00:37:47That's what I braced for.

00:37:48The cartel king voice.

00:37:50The gun on the table voice.

00:37:51That I told you so wrapped in ice.

00:37:54Instead he said something I didn't expect at all.

00:37:57You own me.

00:37:58I dropped meetings to pull you out of that coffee shop.

00:38:01I kissed you at our engagement party when I should have been shaking hands.

00:38:03I couldn't kill you when you lied to my face three times and I tried.

00:38:07I sat there and I tried and I couldn't do it.

00:38:09Don't quote that stupid contract to me when you own me, Mia Espinosa.

00:38:12Body and soul.

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

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

00:38:18His jaw worked.

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

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

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

00:38:28And then he took over.

00:38:29Kissing me like he'd been keeping it locked up for months, which I 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, my face flushed, his eyes burning into mine through the glass.

00:39:02Look in the mirror.

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

00:39:05I couldn't look away.

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

00:39:09Do you understand?

00:39:10Yes.

00:39:11Lift your dress.

00:39:13Watch when I take you.

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

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

00:39:24Mine.

00:39:24Every time he said mine.

00:39:25I believed him more completely than I've believed anything in my life.

00:39:29Mine.

00:39:31Mine.

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 they

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

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

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

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

00:39:53I 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.

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

00:40:17named Ollie.

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

00:40:23way 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?

00:40:51As 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.

00:41:05I 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.

00:41:21He was looking at me.

00:41:23What do you think?

00:41:24They look pretty.

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

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

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

00:41:36They look cheap.

00:41:38Then orchids.

00:41:40High-main taint in it.

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

00:41:45Stop.

00:41:45Both 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.

00:42:13Security came.

00:42:15She went.

00:42:17The door closed.

00:42:18Emilio was grinning.

00:42:20You called me your man.

00:42:21Because you are.

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

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

00:42:29For what sin exactly?

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

00:42:32You just stood there.

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

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

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

00:42:38Couch.

00:42:39I turned to walk away.

00:42:41He caught my wrist.

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

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,

00:43:06Damien moved through the 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 applications

00:43:50on 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 listen to everything you say.

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

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

00:44:27Two weeks.

00:44:28He'd arranged bodyguards.

00:44:29I started to object.

00:44:30He said two, not 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.

00:44:37More than late.

00:44:39I thought about the soreness I'd been ignoring for a week, and a cold plerry moved through

00:44:42me, fast 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.

00:44:57Two lines, unmistakable, sitting there in the morning light like the simplest and most

00:45:03complicated fact in the world.

00:45:05Pregnant.

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

00:45:09Nothing felt different yet.

00:45:10The same body.

00:45:11The same skin.

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

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

00:45:18my hand and said, I listen to everything you say.

00:45:20The man who had carried me out of that building, who said you own me and meant it with his

00:45:25whole

00:45:25body.

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, the leverage

00:45:31of it, the danger of it, the way a baby becomes a weapon in this world whether you want it

00:45:36to or not.

00:45:37I thought about Tomos.

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

00:45:41And then I stopped thinking about danger and just felt it.

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

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

00:45:49I wiped my face.

00:45:51Stood up.

00:45:52Opened the door.

00:45:53Diego was in the hall.

00:45:55Where's Emilio?

00:45:57Meeting, miss.

00:45:58With Damian.

00:45:59Take me to him.

00:46:01Please.

00:46:02It's important.

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

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

00:46:09He nodded.

00:46:11I followed him out.

00:46:12The test folded in my palm, my 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 Damian, low 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.

00:46:34Then Amadio's voice cut through the door.

00:46:36Mia's cousin?

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

00:46:38My 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.

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

00:46:58It was leverage.

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

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

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

00:47:10My blood went cold.

00:47:15I 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.

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

00:47:29Muffled and distant.

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

00:47:34Tomas was dead.

00:47:36Emilio had killed him.

00:47:38My cousin, 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 Tomanas 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, and I had somehow convinced myself

00:48:55that the version of him who kissed my forehead and listened to everything I said was the real

00:48:58one.

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.

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

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

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

00:49:59My hand shaking, tears 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, or I pull this trigger.

00:50:14He went very still.

00:50:15Then he extended his hand, palm up, the way you'd extend a hand to a frightened animal.

00:50:21Give me the gun, and 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, please.

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

00:50:36I hated that it did.

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

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

00:50:44We can fix this.

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

00:50:47I can't pretend.

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

00:50:51He stepped closer.

00:50:53His voice dropped, thick 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.

00:51:14Goodbye, Emilio.

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

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

00:51:24She opened the door before I finished knocking, took one look at my face, and pulled me inside without asking

00:51:30any questions.

00:51:31She made tea.

00:51:33She handed me tissues.

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

00:51:38Then she waited.

00:51:39He killed my cousin.

00:51:43He lied about the inheritance.

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

00:51:51Serena was very quiet.

00:51:52She handed me another tissue.

00:51:58Too quiet.

00:52:00I looked at her.

00:52:03Serena.

00:52:04He killed my cousin.

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

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

00:52:10Serena.

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

00:52:14A long silence.

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

00:52:18I brought Thomas to him.

00:52:20The room tilted.

00:52:22What?

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

00:52:30I heard the words.

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

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

00:52:41You lied to me.

00:52:44For five years.

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

00:52:48So you'd never get dragged into this mob world.

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

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

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

00:52:59Yes.

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

00:53:04I pulled away from her.

00:53:05She reached for my arm.

00:53:08Mia, please.

00:53:09My family doesn't change who I am.

00:53:12What you mean to me.

00:53:15You sound just like him.

00:53:17I lied to protect you.

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

00:53:23I stood up.

00:53:25She scrambled after me.

00:53:26Saying my name, reaching for my arm.

00:53:29I got to the door.

00:53:31Mia, wait.

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

00:53:33I ran.

00:53:36The street was cold.

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

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

00:53:43I just walked.

00:53:44Arms wrapped around myself.

00:53:46No destination.

00:53:47No plan.

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

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

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

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

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

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

00:54:06A car slowed alongside me.

00:54:08I squinted.

00:54:10Emilio?

00:54:10The door opened.

00:54:12Not Emilio.

00:54:13Damien.

00:54:18Relax.

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

00:54:21Then what do you want?

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

00:54:25But...

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

00:54:28Emilio won't know.

00:54:29He watched my face.

00:54:31Patient.

00:54:31Almost gentle.

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

00:54:37I stared at him.

00:54:38Damien was smiling that easy smile.

00:54:40Hands in his pockets.

00:54:42Like he was offering him a ride to the airport.

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

00:54:45Why would you help me?

00:54:46You're his brother.

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

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

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

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

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

00:54:57Then at him.

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

00:55:02I handed him the phone.

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

00:55:06I was so tired.

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

00:55:10Of running.

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

00:55:14The leather seat was warm.

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

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

00:55:21I reached for the bottle.

00:55:23Opened it.

00:55:24Took a long drink.

00:55:25Thank you Damien.

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

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

00:55:32read.

00:55:35The water tasted like water.

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

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

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

00:55:45My 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?

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

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

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

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

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

00:56:13Sweet little Mia, you have no idea what's coming.

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

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

00:56:24Have the island ready.

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

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

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

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

00:56:37That was wrong.

00:56:39I lived in the city.

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

00:56:42Steady and vast and indifferent.

00:56:44Like breathing from a long way away.

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

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

00:56:53It didn't.

00:56:54I opened my eyes.

00:56:55An unfamiliar room.

00:56:56Whitewashed walls.

00:56:58Wooden shutters.

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

00:57:00Not a hotel.

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

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

00:57:06Trees.

00:57:07Ocean.

00:57:08Nothing else in any direction.

00:57:10The door opened behind me.

00:57:11Good.

00:57:12You're awake.

00:57:14I turned around.

00:57:17He was standing in the frame.

00:57:19Hands in his pockets.

00:57:20Looking pleased with himself in that particular way that meant something had gone exactly according to plan.

00:57:25Where am I?

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

00:57:29Not even my brother.

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

00:57:33The car.

00:57:34The water.

00:57:35The bottle in my hand.

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

00:57:39You kidnapped me.

00:57:40Smart girl.

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

00:57:45But not smart enough.

00:57:47He moved into the room.

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

00:57:55He told me about Palacio.

00:57:58Not the way I'd understood it.

00:57:59Franco is Emilio's enemy, using me as a pawn.

00:58:02Damien had been behind Franco the whole time.

00:58:04He'd found my cousin the moment he ran my background check.

00:58:06He'd built the trap, handed Tomas to Franco, and watched the whole thing play out from inside Emilio's house.

00:58:10Franco Palano was a fucking idiot.

00:58:13But he was a useful one, until your cartel king shot him in the head.

00:58:18My cousin died because of you.

00:58:21His expression didn't change.

00:58:23I slapped him.

00:58:24His head snapped sideways.

00:58:26A beat of absolute silence.

00:58:28Then he turned back, and the easy smile was gone.

00:58:31Replaced by something that had always been underneath it.

00:58:35He grabbed my throat and slammed me into the wall.

00:58:39You're lucky I need you.

00:58:41Or I'd choke the life out of you right now.

00:58:44His eyes moved over me in a way that made my skin crawl.

00:58:47If my cold-hearted brother is obsessed with you, there must be something worth exploring.

00:58:52He leaned in.

00:58:55I bit him.

00:58:56Hard.

00:58:59He pulled back with a snarl, and I saw his arm draw back.

00:59:03Don't!

00:59:03Please!

00:59:04I'm pregnant!

00:59:05His fist stopped.

00:59:06The room went very quiet.

00:59:08Damien stared at me, the fury draining out of his face, and being replaced by something more dangerous.

00:59:13Calculation.

00:59:14You're pregnant?

00:59:16With Emilio's baby?

00:59:18I nodded.

00:59:19My throat ached where his hand had been.

00:59:20He stepped back.

00:59:21Then he started laughing.

00:59:23Really laughing.

00:59:24The kind that fills a room.

00:59:25And I stood against the wall and watched him and felt a cold, creeping dread.

00:59:29Oh, this is gold.

00:59:30Palami actually pulled it off.

00:59:32I thought his plan to knock you up was ridiculous.

00:59:34Emilio would never.

00:59:35Never what?

00:59:35There's a rumor he's infertile.

00:59:37Maybe it's real.

00:59:38Maybe he spread it so women wouldn't chase him.

00:59:40Either way, you and that baby just changed everything.

00:59:42He headed for the door, still grinning.

00:59:45What are you going to do to me?

00:59:46He turned, one hand on the frame.

00:59:49Relax.

00:59:51I was going to let my men have some fun with you.

00:59:54But now, I need that baby unharmed.

01:00:00He told me about the island.

01:00:04Pacific.

01:00:05Private.

01:00:06Surrounded by his army.

01:00:08And buried in the ground all around the house.

01:00:11Explosives.

01:00:11Enough to bring everything down.

01:00:13Triggered by a detonator he kept on his person.

01:00:15If Emilio tries anything, boom.

01:00:18Then he left me there.

01:00:20I slid down the wall and sat on the floor and tried to think.

01:00:24The ocean kept making its vast, inumerient sound outside the shuttered window.

01:00:29You're on a private Pacific island.

01:00:31Surrounded by a full army.

01:00:33With bombs underneath you.

01:00:35I pressed both hands flat against my stomach.

01:00:38I'm going to get us out of here.

01:00:40I didn't know if that was true.

01:00:42I said it anyway because someone had to.

01:00:45I thought about the note Emilio had tucked into a nursing school envelope.

01:00:49I listened to everything you say.

01:00:51I thought about the way he'd lifted me out of Franco's building like I was something worth carrying.

01:00:56I thought about his fist closing along my ring.

01:00:59Find me, I thought.

01:01:00Please find me.

01:01:03The door stayed closed.

01:01:05The ocean kept breathing.

01:01:06I stayed on the floor and I waited.

01:01:11On the third night, a hand touched my shoulder.

01:01:13I jolted awake, already pulling back, already opening my mouth to scream and a hand covered it.

01:01:18A familiar weight, a familiar smell.

01:01:20Mia, it's me.

01:01:22A voice in my ear, barely a breath.

01:01:24I collapsed into him.

01:01:26He held me for exactly three seconds.

01:01:28His arms around me, his chin on my head, the realness of him solid and overwhelming, and

01:01:33then he pulled back and cupped my face and checked me the way he'd checked me in the

01:01:37warehouse all those months ago, systematic and frantic at the same time.

01:01:41Are you hurt?

01:01:42No.

01:01:43How did you-

01:01:43Serena, and your mafia princess friend has a helicopter.

01:01:46He pressed his lips to my forehead, quick and fierce.

01:01:49Follow my lead, we're heading to the chopper.

01:01:50Stay close, stay quiet.

01:01:51He had a gun in his hand.

01:01:53He opened the door, checked the corridor, and guided me out into the dark.

01:01:58We made it thirty feet.

01:02:00Damien's voice came from ahead of us, easy and amused, like he'd been waiting.

01:02:05Since when does the cartel king use knockout drugs to sneak in?

01:02:09Emilio stopped.

01:02:10Gun raised.

01:02:12Since when do you skip dinner?

01:02:16Damien stepped out of the shadows.

01:02:18In his hand, raised between two fingers like a cigarette, was the detonator.

01:02:24Since the day Dad handed you the cartel.

01:02:27His thumb hovered over the button.

01:02:30Emilio moved in front of me without thinking about it, blocking me with his body.

01:02:34Drop the gun, brother.

01:02:40Emilio dropped it.

01:02:42You want the cartel?

01:02:43Fine.

01:02:44I'll give it to you.

01:02:45I don't want the stupid mob!

01:02:47It's you!

01:02:48It's always been you!

01:02:49His voice had broken open, and underneath the ease and the planning and the long, patient game was something rawer.

01:02:55Something that had been sitting in that house for years, growing in the dark.

01:02:58Then take me.

01:03:00Do whatever you want.

01:03:01But let Mia go.

01:03:03Don't drag her into this.

01:03:06It happened in less than a second.

01:03:08Emilio crossing the corridor in two strides, shoulder dropping, crashing into his brother.

01:03:12The detonator flew from Damien's hand.

01:03:14But Damien's smile came back.

01:03:15Colder than before.

01:03:16No.

01:03:18Your offspring isn't getting out today, either.

01:03:22He turned to me.

01:03:23Slowly.

01:03:24And in that moment, nothing in his face was the cartel king.

01:03:27Nothing was the man who made rooms go silent and had people removed.

01:03:31He just looked at me like I was the only thing in the room that mattered.

01:03:34You're pregnant.

01:03:36I nodded.

01:03:37His jaw set.

01:03:38He turned back to Damien.

01:03:41Not happening.

01:03:45Then we all die.

01:03:47His thumb moved.

01:03:49Emilio lunged.

01:03:50He of them hit the window behind them and went through it in a shower of glass and frame and

01:03:55night air.

01:03:59Emilio!

01:04:02Silence.

01:04:03Then the night outside was just the ocean and the dark and the sound of my own breathing, ragged and

01:04:09desperate.

01:04:10I ran for the door.

01:04:13They were both on the ground outside.

01:04:17Unconscious.

01:04:18Not moving.

01:04:19Damien face down in the dirt.

01:04:21Emilio on his back with his eyes closed and one arm thrown wide and glass in his hair.

01:04:26I heard voices.

01:04:27Serena.

01:04:28Marco.

01:04:29Running toward me.

01:04:30I dropped to my knees beside Emilio.

01:04:35Emilio!

01:04:36Emilio!

01:04:37Wake up!

01:04:38We have to go!

01:04:39Mia!

01:04:41Marco was already beside me, hands on Emilio's chest, pressing and counting.

01:04:46I sat there and held Emilio's hand and watched Marco's face and couldn't breathe.

01:04:52Come back.

01:04:53Come back.

01:04:54Come back.

01:04:59Emilio coughed.

01:05:00His chest heaved.

01:05:02His eyes opened.

01:05:04Everyone let out a breath at the same time.

01:05:07I'm okay.

01:05:10We need to move.

01:05:11He started to get up.

01:05:12I helped him, my hands shaking.

01:05:14Chopper's ready!

01:05:15This way!

01:05:16Emilio stood, unsteady, and looked at Damien's limp body.

01:05:23You go ahead.

01:05:24I need to finish him.

01:05:29I'm not leaving you.

01:05:30You want to watch me shoot my own brother?

01:05:33I don't care!

01:05:36You're pregnant, Mia.

01:05:38Go.

01:05:39His voice was gentle, but final.

01:05:41The voice that meant he'd already decided.

01:05:43Promise you'll come.

01:05:45I promise.

01:05:47Serena took my arm.

01:05:48I let her pull me away, looking back over my shoulder at Emilio standing over his brother

01:05:52in the dark.

01:05:53He didn't look back at me.

01:05:54He was already somewhere else.

01:05:55Somewhere cold and necessary.

01:05:57He's going to be fine.

01:05:58He's Emilio Reyes.

01:05:59We were 20 yards from the house, then 30.

01:06:02The helicopter was somewhere ahead, its blades beginning to turn.

01:06:06I kept walking.

01:06:06He promised.

01:06:07He promised.

01:06:08He promised.

01:06:12The world turned white.

01:06:13The sound hit me a full second after the light.

01:06:17A wall of pressure and noise that knocked me sideways.

01:06:20Serena's grip tearing loose.

01:06:22I turned around.

01:06:23The house was on fire.

01:06:25Not catching fire.

01:06:27Already fire.

01:06:28Instant and total.

01:06:29A column of flame reaching up into the dark sky.

01:06:31The windows gone.

01:06:33The roof already folding.

01:06:34The air tasted like smoke.

01:06:37I couldn't move.

01:06:39Serena was saying something.

01:06:41Marco was saying something.

01:06:42The helicopter blades were louder now.

01:06:44Someone was pulling at my arm and I couldn't move because Amalio was in that house and he

01:06:48had promised and he was in that house.

01:06:51The word came out of me like something being torn out.

01:06:55Serena had both arms around me from behind, holding me back.

01:06:58I fought her.

01:06:59I don't remember deciding to fight her.

01:07:01My body just refused to go anywhere without him.

01:07:03Mia, let me sit there.

01:07:05He's Mia.

01:07:06Stop.

01:07:07Marco was already running back toward the burning house, calling into his radio.

01:07:12I stopped fighting.

01:07:13I just stood there in Serena's arms and watched the fire eat the house and felt the heat on

01:07:18my face and thought about a man in a study saying, I listened to everything you say.

01:07:22And a man in a corridor with his shoulder dropping and his body going through glass.

01:07:26Going through glass to keep a detonator out of his brother's hand.

01:07:29Going through glass for me.

01:07:30The flames climbed higher.

01:07:33The night was orange and black.

01:07:35I pressed both hands over the small life inside me and I waited and I waited and I waited

01:07:41and no one came.

01:07:45Five months later.

01:07:46That's what the subtitle would say if my life were a movie.

01:07:49Five months later.

01:07:51A neat jump cut.

01:07:53All the grief and the waiting and the nights I lay awake with one hand on my stomach and

01:07:58the other pressed to my mouth to keep quiet, compressed into three words and a hard cut to

01:08:02a woman on a street corner in white gloves.

01:08:05Me.

01:08:06I'm eight months pregnant and I'm wearing white gloves and I'm standing on a sidewalk watching

01:08:10a homeless man run.

01:08:12He thinks he's running from the two cars that boxed him in.

01:08:17He's not.

01:08:18He's running from me.

01:08:20The car door opens.

01:08:22I step out.

01:08:24Damien stops.

01:08:25He looks older.

01:08:26Thinner.

01:08:27Five months on the street will do that.

01:08:29Five months knowing that the woman whose house you burnt out is carrying the air to

01:08:33the Reyes cartel and is looking for you.

01:08:35That will do it too.

01:08:37I pull off one gloves, finger by finger.

01:08:41Hello brother-in-law.

01:08:44My men take him before he can speak.

01:08:48Wait, Mia, we should talk.

01:08:52Yes, we should.

01:08:56The basement of the Reyes mansion is very quiet.

01:09:00I had Diaz repaint it, new lighting, a good chair for me to sit in, positioned at exactly

01:09:05the right distance.

01:09:06I learned from the best after all.

01:09:08I watched Emilio run this house for months.

01:09:10I know how it's done.

01:09:12I sit with my legs rapes crossed and my hands folded over my stomach.

01:09:16And I watched two of my men work.

01:09:19Damien screams.

01:09:20He begs.

01:09:22He says my name like it's a password that will open a door, like some part of him still

01:09:25believes I'm the nursing student from the fast food restaurant who cried on a sofa and

01:09:29couldn't look Emilio in the eye.

01:09:31I'm not her anymore.

01:09:32Make this stop, please.

01:09:35Mia!

01:09:35I give the men a look.

01:09:37They hit harder.

01:09:38After a while I raise a hand and they stop.

01:09:40The basement goes quiet, except for Damien's raggled breathing and the distant sound of

01:09:44the city outside.

01:09:46I stand up and walk over to him.

01:09:51Tell me where he is.

01:09:53Damien looks up at me, through blood.

01:09:55His smile is still there, somehow cracked and terrible.

01:09:59Come closer.

01:10:01I'll tell you.

01:10:05I leaned down.

01:10:06His mouth was near my ear and I stayed perfectly still and waited.

01:10:11He's rotting in hell, just like you will be, you stupid.

01:10:15I straightened up.

01:10:17I pulled the gun from the back of my waistband.

01:10:22The one Diego had started leaving on my night state three months ago, after the first two

01:10:26attempts on my life, after I'd started running this operation alone.

01:10:30And I shot Damien once.

01:10:32He slumped.

01:10:33I stood there for a moment and looked at him.

01:10:35Emilio's brother.

01:10:36The man who had built every trap I'd walked into.

01:10:39The man who had burned down the house with Emilio inside it.

01:10:42Then I peeled off the other glove, folded both of them together, and walked out.

01:10:49Diego was waiting in the Rorto with a package.

01:10:52Mail address to your name, ma'am.

01:10:54He held it out.

01:10:55The label read Mia Espinoza.

01:10:58I frowned.

01:10:59I thought I changed my last name on everything.

01:11:02Could be from before.

01:11:05I took it.

01:11:09I opened it in the study.

01:11:13A file.

01:11:14Legal documents.

01:11:15A will.

01:11:16Notarized.

01:11:17Witness.

01:11:18Dated three months before Leschia died.

01:11:20I read the first page and had to sit down.

01:11:23One hundred million dollars.

01:11:24Her actual inheritance.

01:11:26Not the fabricated claws Emilio had invented to get me into his house.

01:11:29The real thing.

01:11:30The money she'd spent her life accumulating.

01:11:32And had always meant to give to the niece she wrote letters to and called her girl.

01:11:36Where it all started, I thought.

01:11:38Diego stood near the door.

01:11:40Mr. Reyes would have found you regardless of the inheritance.

01:11:47Sounds like him.

01:11:48I turned to the last page, and a small piece of paper fell out.

01:11:52Folded once.

01:11:53The size of a fortune cookie slip.

01:11:54I picked it up.

01:11:55The handwriting was Emilio's.

01:11:57I'd seen it on a hundred things.

01:11:58Notes.

01:11:59Contracts.

01:11:59The margin of a book he'd left open on the kitchen counter.

01:12:02I'd have known it anywhere.

01:12:03It said, love at first sight.

01:12:05I sat there holding that small piece of paper for a long time.

01:12:08Then I pressed it against my chest and closed my eyes.

01:12:11I'll find you Emilio Reyes.

01:12:13Wherever you are.

01:12:16He was in Sicily.

01:12:18I didn't know that yet.

01:12:19I knew it the way you know things when you've been running someone's empire for five months

01:12:23and you've learned to read Diego's face.

01:12:25There was somewhere he wouldn't look.

01:12:27Some piece of information that lived just behind his careful professional expression.

01:12:31But he wouldn't tell me.

01:12:33And I understood why.

01:12:35Emilio had told him not to.

01:12:36So I waited.

01:12:38On a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean, a man in a wheelchair watched the ocean.

01:12:43He'd been watching it for weeks.

01:12:45The light changed.

01:12:47The water changed.

01:12:48He watched it all with the patience of someone who has decided not to go anywhere until they're ready.

01:12:54Serena flew to Sicily on a Tuesday.

01:12:56She found him on the balcony, thinner than she'd left him, the ocean wind moving through his hair.

01:13:02She dropped a photograph on his lap without greeting him first.

01:13:05In the photo, Damien.

01:13:07Dead.

01:13:08Emilio picked up the photo, looked at it for a long moment.

01:13:11That's my girl.

01:13:15She's gonna be pissed if you're not there when she gives birth.

01:13:19I can't see her like this.

01:13:21You could show up as a worm and she'd still love you.

01:13:24I'm tired of lying to my best friend.

01:13:26Again.

01:13:28She'll forgive you.

01:13:30Serena ground and sat down on the low wall beside his chair.

01:13:33The Mediterranean was the specific blue it gets in the late afternoon, almost violet at the edges.

01:13:39Come back with me tomorrow.

01:13:40I'm flying out in the morning.

01:13:41No.

01:13:43Emilio.

01:13:44I'll return when I can stand on my own feet.

01:13:47I want her to know I'm still the man who can protect her.

01:13:50And our baby.

01:13:52Serena stared at him for a long moment.

01:13:54Toxic masculinity from a cartel king.

01:13:56Who would have thought?

01:13:57A beat.

01:13:58You know, you're kinda cute in a wheelchair.

01:14:00Don't let your bodyguard hear that.

01:14:02He helps me to the bathroom.

01:14:04Serena laughed.

01:14:05A real laugh.

01:14:06Surprised out of her.

01:14:07She stood up and kissed the top of his head.

01:14:09Don't take too long.

01:14:11She walked out.

01:14:13Emilio stayed on the balcony until the light was gone.

01:14:18He reached into his pocket.

01:14:20The ring was small and cold and familiar.

01:14:24Mia's engagement ring.

01:14:25The one she'd placed in his palm in the bedroom and walked away from.

01:14:29He'd been carrying it since that night.

01:14:31Through the crash, through the window, through however many surgeries he didn't fully remember.

01:14:35Through the months of physical therapy on this balcony overlooking the sea.

01:14:39He turned it in his fingers.

01:14:40He 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 gons to his chest and telling him to stop moving or he'd

01:14:47bleed more.

01:14:47He'd been half dead and delirious and he thought,

01:14:49I know you.

01:14:50I don't know you yet, but I know you.

01:14:52Lietia had talked about her for years.

01:14:54Her niece.

01:14:55The nursing student.

01:14:56The girl who sent letters and called every Sunday and had her mother's stubbornness

01:15:00and her own fierce particular kindness.

01:15:02He'd carried the shape of her before he knew her face.

01:15:05He closed his hand around the ring.

01:15:07I'm coming back to you, Mia.

01:15:08The ocean was dark now.

01:15:10The stars were coming out one by one over Sicily.

01:15:15I'm coming back.

01:15:19Two months later, I thought giving birth at home would be easier.

01:15:23I was wrong.

01:15:24It's never easy.

01:15:25I hate you.

01:15:27I hate you, Emilio Reyes.

01:15:29Almost there.

01:15:30One more push.

01:15:31I hate you.

01:15:33I pushed.

01:15:34The world split open and then there was a sound.

01:15:37Small and indignant and completely certain of itself.

01:15:40And the doctor was saying something I couldn't hear.

01:15:43And someone was crying and I thought it might be me.

01:15:46Ma'am, you need to stay with us.

01:15:47You haven't seen your baby.

01:15:49But I'm just so tired.

01:15:51I was tired in a way I had never been tired before.

01:15:54Down into the marrow, my body suddenly hollow and enormous at the same time.

01:15:58Stay.

01:15:59You have to stay.

01:16:00My eyes closed.

01:16:01Someone said my name.

01:16:03I tried to hold on.

01:16:04Then, at the edge of the light, a silhouette appeared in the doorway.

01:16:08Not Diego.

01:16:09Not Serena.

01:16:10Not a doctor.

01:16:12A silhouette that moved the way only one person in my life had ever moved.

01:16:18He was standing on his own feet.

01:16:20That was the first thing I registered.

01:16:22Not that he was there, not even that he was alive, but that he was standing.

01:16:24On his own two feet, in the doorway of my hospital room, wearing clothes I didn't recognize,

01:16:29thinner than I remembered, with a look on his face that I had no word for.

01:16:32Mia.

01:16:33My name and his voice.

01:16:34I had been so tired.

01:16:36A moment ago, the darkness had been pulling me down and I had been letting it because I

01:16:39didn't have anything left to fight with.

01:16:41But my eyes opened.

01:16:43Emilio.

01:16:44He crossed the room.

01:16:45He dropped to his knees beside the bed.

01:16:47He took my face in both hands and pressed his forehead to mine.

01:16:49I felt him shaking.

01:16:50This man who never shook, who never showed anything, who had spent 32 years building

01:16:53a wall around himself and had spent six months tearing it down for me.

01:16:56He was shaking.

01:16:57Somewhere behind him, a baby was crying.

01:16:58Our baby.

01:16:59Ours.

01:17:00You came.

01:17:01I told you I was coming back.

01:17:02Outside the hospital window, the city was beginning its ordinary morning, entirely aware

01:17:06that something fundamental had just changed.

01:17:08Inside, I closed my eyes and held onto him and listened to the small, indignant, perfect

01:17:12sound of our daughter announcing herself to the world.

01:17:14We were here.

01:17:15Both of us.

01:17:16Finally.

01:17:19This is what I know now.

01:17:21I know that love is not the clean, safe thing I thought it would be.

01:17:24When I was 22 and working at a fast food counter and keeping a wish list of what my life

01:17:27was

01:17:28supposed to become, I thought love would feel like arriving somewhere.

01:17:31I thought it would be warm and certain and uncomplicated.

01:17:34It is none of those things.

01:17:37It is a man pressing gauze to a wound in a back room.

01:17:41It is a ring in a palm and a door closing and a house going up in flames.

01:17:46It is five months of running an empire I didn't ask for.

01:17:50Learning the weight of a gun and the patience required to wait for someone who promised to

01:17:54come back.

01:17:55He is not a good man in the simple sense.

01:17:58I know what he runs and what it costs, and I have made my peace with the distance between

01:18:02who he is out there and who he is in this room.

01:18:06Holding our daughter like she's the most fragile and important thing he's ever been handed.

01:18:10He is sitting in the chair beside my bed, and she is asleep on his chest and he is not

01:18:14looking at anything in the room except her.

01:18:16She has his dark eyes.

01:18:18She has, already, even at one day old, a particular expression of absolute conviction that I recognize

01:18:23from watching him walk into rooms.

01:18:25I saved a man in an alley once.

01:18:27I was 22 and afraid and I had no idea what I was saving him into.

01:18:32Best mistake I ever made.

01:18:33Best mistake I ever made.

01:18:34Best mistake I ever made.

01:18:35Best mistake I ever made.

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended