Celia slowly removed her shawl. And when my gaze fell on her left shoulder, I froze.
It had a dark, round moon with an irregular edge.
The same.
In the same place.
The same mark that my mother had always had on her collarbone.
I raised my hand, trembling.
—That mark… why do you have it?
Celia closed her eyes and took a step back.
The air grew heavy. The room stopped feeling like a suite and began to feel like a trap.
“Because I can no longer remain silent,” she whispered.
And when she opened her mouth to tell the truth, I understood that she couldn’t believe what was about to happen…
PART 2
I didn’t sit down. I couldn’t.
Celia did. She slumped down on the edge of the bed as if the years had suddenly fallen upon her.
—Twenty years ago —he finally said— I had a son.
First I felt strangeness. Then anger. After that, a kind of fear that tightened my chest.
—And what does that have to do with me?
She looked directly at me.
-All.
She told me that, at forty, she was married to Octavio Beltrán , an agribusiness businessman with money, influence, and a clean reputation on the outside, but rotten on the inside. Owner of land, contracts, political favors, and armed men. A luxury cage, that’s what she said her marriage had been.
When she wanted to leave, he wouldn’t let her.
When she became pregnant, she understood that the child would not be a son for Octavio, but an heir that he could control like just another piece of property.
“I knew that if I tried to run away with you in my arms, he would find us,” she said, now crying. “And if he found you, he would make you his.”
The word hit me before I could stop it.
With you.
I felt my ears ringing.
-No.
—Yes, Efraín.
-No.
—You are that son.
Everything inside me shattered.
I laughed, but not with laughter: with horror.
—You’re sick.
“I didn’t recognize you at first,” she blurted out, as if trying to catch me off guard before I exploded. “When I met you at the house, I just saw a good, intelligent, noble young man… and I approached him. Then I started noticing dates, stories, gestures. I had someone investigate. Eight months ago, I learned the truth.”
I looked at her the way you look at someone who has just set your life on fire.
—Eight months ago? And you still married me?
Celia lowered her head.
—I tried to push you away.
