He shrugged, like it was more than his job was worth and I wrenched and pulled at the fender again to at least try and get one of the legs loose, kicking out and screaming and wailing like the mad woman I was always pretending not to be. It still didn’t budge. And my wrist ached purple.

‘Fuck—’ said Ming, placing his soda can on the counter. At first I thought he’d meant me, then I saw what he was looking at.

Paco and Stuzzy had entered from the hall, holding two wriggling sacks.

It was the screams that did it – when they wrenched open the sacks, one by one, a small dishevelled child tumbled out, whimpering. Mátilda and Saúl, their mouths bound, hands and feet tied. Paco went outside and brought in another bundle without a sack – David. But although he was tied too, David wasn’t moving. I couldn’t see him breathing.

I couldn’t speak or scream, it was all backed up in my throat. Saúl and Mátilda saw me, bloody, swollen and chained to the fender. Their noses were bloodied too, their eyes full of tears.

‘You’ll talk now,’ said Paco. ‘Or I will kill them all, big to small.’

All I could do was cry. Like a child. I wanted someone to come to me, hold me. I wanted my dad. I wanted Seren. I wanted Rafael.

‘I can’t tell you anything, Paco, because I don’t know. I would tell you if I did, you know I would. Please… please don’t hurt them. I’ll do whatever you want. I… don’t… please don’t hurt them.’

Outside, a scream – distant but definite. It came again and again – the scream only a mother could produce. It tore a fire right through me—

Celestina.

Her distant screams grew louder and more desperate. She was rattling the front gates ferociously, screeching, roaring – a ravenous lioness separated from her three cubs.

‘Go and quiet that bitch,’ Paco yelled at Stuzzy, along with something else in fast Spanish. ‘If you can’t quiet her, put a fucking bullet in her.’ Stuzzy nodded shortly and left the room.

And then Paco came to me.

I was still crying, and peeing too by this point. Nothing had changed. But everything had changed.

‘This is how I get to you, huh?’ he said, carrying Mátilda and bending down to grab my chin hard. ‘This is what I have to do to get through to you? This is what makes you piss your panties?’

He placed the child on the rug next to me and grabbed her throat. A gunshot rang out somewhere and all the screaming stopped.