Judge steps forward, and for one split second, our eyes lock, and I freeze. I’m too emotional to understand what’s happening, but something in his gaze tells me it’s going to be okay. He silently implores me to listen and not to make this difficult, and for a moment, I want to believe in that false comfort. I want to collapse into his arms, if for no other reason than I need someone to comfort me right now. Just for a minute. But I would have to be delusional to believe Judge could ever offer that to me. He didn’t come here to soothe me. He came to capture me.

I bolt for Santiago, prepared to beg and plead for my life. I will do anything, say anything… but I don’t even make it to him. Judge intercepts me, snatching me from the side and wrapping a steel arm around my waist, yanking me back against his huge frame.

An agonizing sound heaves from my lungs as I try to fight, but it’s useless. Within seconds, he has my arms pinned behind my back and my body snug against his. I’m too exhausted to challenge him. I’ve already fought for my life once tonight. Now, all I can do is scream.

“Santi, please don’t do this!”

“Go,” Judge tells him. “I will handle this.”

My brother looks at me one last time, and all I can see is his betrayal.

“You won’t do this to me,” I whisper. “I know you won’t.”

“It’s already done.” He tears his gaze away and doesn’t glance back as he walks out the door.

“Shh,” Judge murmurs against my ear as I let out one last wail. “That’s enough now. Just relax. Don’t make this any worse, Mercedes. I don’t want to hurt you.”

It isn’t his threat that makes my body collapse against him. It’s my adrenaline crashing, something else taking over. It’s so heavy, I can’t move. I have nothing left to fight for. The one person I thought would always protect me just discarded me like I’m nothing. And surely, there is something more terrifying on the horizon in the clutches of this man, but right now, I can’t see anything but the truth in front of me.

My life as I know it is over.

2

Judge

The door closes, the sound of it a demarcation of time. A forking of the road in all of our lives.

Mercedes watches the space where her brother stood for a long moment as if waiting for the door to reopen and for him to reappear. Not quite believing what’s happened, she goes limp in my arms, an anguished sound coming from somewhere deep inside her.