Paco stormed into the house, rallied his Chipmunks and they all left. I watched from my window as the black BMW sped off from the front gates on a cloud of dust. Celestina went back inside and a while later came upstairs with a pile of my folded washing. She normally had her hair scraped back in a messy bun, but it was down, almost covering her face.

‘Gracias, señora,’ I said as she placed the pile on the end of my bed. ‘Are you all right?’

‘Yes, gracias,’ she said, vanishing as quickly as she’d arrived. There was no way she wanted a conversation.

When she’d gone, I wrapped a towel around me and went down to the office to speak to Tenoch.

‘Paco and Celestina were arguing.’

‘What about?’

‘I don’t know. She doesn’t usually speak to him, though. She always leaves as soon as he gets here. He must have cornered her.’

‘Celestina can handle it. She’s not a scared girl around him anymore.’

‘She told me what Paco did to her.’

Tenoch sat back in his chair. ‘How do you feel about that?’

‘I don’t know why you still employ him. He’s a rotten apple.’

‘He has not touched a woman since.’

‘So?’

‘So… maybe people deserve second chances. Working for me, maybe that’s his second chance.’

‘He’s a rapist. Fact.’

‘And you’re a serial killer. Fact.’

‘I’d rather employ a cockroach than a rapist.’

‘Good job you are not the one who has to employ him then, isn’t it?’

I scuffed my foot into the hallway carpet and hurt my big toenail in the process. ‘Can I kill him yet?’

Tenoch snickered and sat forward in his chair. ‘No, you cannot.’

‘Well, you know where I am.’ I made to leave, stopping to check my nose for the millionth time in the hallway mirror – it was so nice being able to breathe properly again without my teeth aching.

‘Your sister’s getting a hard time, isn’t she?’ he called out.

‘Yeah.’ I leaned on the door frame. ‘I don’t like it.’

‘If my sister had called the cops on me, her head would be on a spike outside her house right now.’

‘Paco said the same thing.’

‘But you not say that. You not like us. You care about her, don’t you?’

‘I don’t want her dead. So yeah, I must do.’

He spun the laptop towards me and clicked play on a video from my niece Mabli’s vlog – she was crying on camera. Her brother Ashton’s rabbit had got out of its hutch and been killed on the road and the pig had got too big and had to be sent to a farm. Her dad Cody had bought them both Tamagotchis to replace them but hers had died after she took it swimming.