Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 127201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Nero, the party boy who didn’t fear death and cared for few things in life, was tense. His mouth pressed into a pale line as he met Miguel’s gaze. “You might have more family left.”
“What? What do you mean?” he asked, but his mind already drifted to Elisa’s empty coffin.
Nero’s eyelid twitched. “I’m not entirely sure, because it’s been years, but I think I’ve met your older sister. When I was still a kid.”
Miguel pried Nero away from him and got up, desperate for a cigarette. “You knew about my sister?” he asked, trying to make sense of a thousand thoughts, which twisted and turned quicker than he could grasp them.
“What do you mean ‘knew’?” Nero asked, rising to his feet.
Miguel faced him as soon as he got the cig and lighter. “I’m asking if you knew my sister was alive after that massacre?” He raised his voice, fighting to stay sane now that he was facing the seemingly impossible. But then again, he’d also been declared dead on paper and had since then lived as his mother’s nephew. His memories of the murders were a traumatizing mess, so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that he hadn’t seen Elisa being taken. Or that she never joined him in that hole in the ground to begin with.
Nero scowled, and his chest filled with air, but he must have decided to cool down and exhaled instead of blowing up. “No. But I know the girl who had the quinceañera in your family picture. She lived with me for a few months a long time ago.”
Miguel leaned against the door and was only able to think it through once he inhaled the first drag of smoke. Nero was younger than him, so he wouldn’t have even been ten at the time Miguel’s family had been slaughtered. On top of that, he hadn’t known where Miguel was from until earlier tonight. The suspicions that flared up in him still hurt though, exacerbated by the news of his mother’s death.
“Your father took her,” Miguel said with pain flashing in his chest. It wasn’t a question at this point. Miguel didn’t want to imagine the horrors she must have gone through at the Cannibal’s house.
“She should be safe somewhere, because… she had my half-sister.”
Cigarette smoke poisoned Miguel’s throat and made him nauseated as the invisible wall between him and Nero grew higher.
“He didn’t kill her? Tell me more.” If Nero knew this, Cano might too.
Nero shook his head and crossed his hands over his groin, as if he were embarrassed of his nakedness. “No. She had a baby, and when a woman gives birth to a girl, he usually ships her off somewhere so she can raise the kid.”
Miguel pushed himself away from the door and stepped closer. “But he let your mother go, because she gave him a son. Do you know where Elisa is? If she never contacted my mother, she must be held captive in one way or another.”
Nero swallowed, his skin shining with sweat as he hunched his shoulders. “I don’t know. But I’m sure we could find out.”
Miguel took another step his way and grabbed his hand. “We need to find her before Cano does.”
Nero’s fingers squeezed his, and green eyes shone at Miguel, full of sympathy and remorse, even though it hadn’t been him who’d taken Elisa away. “Okay. Yeah, of course.”
“I hate to think that… she might still be suffering, after all those years.” Miguel shook his head when more revelations stabbed at his chest. “My mother. She arranged the funerals and must have been the one to put the doll inside the coffin. She let me believe all my sisters were dead so I wouldn’t go looking for Elisa. She’d given up on her.”
“But we won't,” Nero said, pulling Miguel closer, his eyes scanning his face in search of…something.
“We won’t.” Miguel nodded and exhaled some smoke through his nose, letting them both drown in the fumes. His mother had always been a hard woman, more than capable of making difficult choices for the greater good, even if those choices involved forgetting that her eldest daughter still lived. It hurt to think of her deception, but Miguel had always kept both his feet firmly on the ground and wouldn’t run from the truth, no matter how uncomfortable he found it.
Nero exhaled and pulled him in, bringing their warm bodies together despite the dark cloud hanging above them. “It’s late. We can think of our next step in the morning.”
Miguel kissed the side of Nero’s head and shut his eyes, suddenly fearful. So far, his lover had survived on his bravado, but what if he perished after Miguel dragged him on another warpath? This wasn’t Nero’s fight but he wouldn’t argue about it when they were both so tired.