Mercedes shakes her head. “No, Santi—”

“You will marry her today!” he roars.

She pulls her fingers away from mine, that soft warmth gone. She takes a step toward him, and Marco, his driver and personal guard, appears in the doorway, confused momentarily at the sight that greets him, then shocked as his gaze settles on Mercedes.

“I won’t marry him,” Mercedes says. I see what it takes for her to steel herself. “You can’t make me anymore.”

It’s the wrong thing to say because her brother turns his rage-darkened eyes to her. But the instant he steps toward her, I am between them, shielding her with my body.

“Get the hell out of my way,” he tells me.

Marco comes into the room. I can take each of them separately. Probably not both at once, though.

“I am responsible, not her. You won’t punish her.”

Santiago’s gaze is cold, jaw set, eyes narrowed. “She will do as I say. And so will you. You will marry her. Today.”

I set my jaw too. How long have we been friends? How much have we been through together? His darkness I know. The violence that killed his father and brother. That ultimately took his mother. That claimed pieces of him. I was there for him through it all.

But my darkness? The truth that lurks inside me? He has never seen my rage, my beast. I have never allowed it. What kind of friend am I? One-sided. He doesn’t know me. Doesn’t know what I’m capable of. If he did, he certainly wouldn’t allow me to marry his sister. He wouldn’t ever have let me near her.

“Do you fucking hear me?” he demands of me.

My heart races, a fresh coat of sweat breaks out over my forehead, and I'm transported back to the punishment room, where I stand watching as my grandfather rages. As he tears into the skin of my mother’s back while his beast roars, all teeth and hate and savagery. And I am paralyzed in the face of his fury.

What did I feel then? Anything? Fear? For myself or her? Fear of him. Fear that I am like him.

I can't keep Mercedes. Because keeping her will inevitably lead her to that place. To stand where my mother stood and bear the consequence of my beast. No. I have to let her go. It’s the only right thing to do, yet I'm not strong enough to do it. It’s why she’s been here so long. Why I’ve kept her even though I’ve known all along it was only a matter of time. I need Santiago to take her away knowing what it means for our friendship, the scraps left of it.

“I can’t do that,” I say, my voice steady but different. Hoarse and with an edge. “But I will take responsibility for the child—”