My husband never touched me in three years of marriage. Then one stormy night, I heard a stranger’s voice coming from my mother-in-law’s room… And the truth behind that door made my blood run cold.

“Yes, I am.” He does not raise his voice, but the force in it makes even her go still. “I should’ve left years ago. I know that. But I’m leaving now.”

Adrián steps forward. “You can’t just walk away and drop this on her in one night.”

Elías gives him a look so full of old contempt it nearly crackles. “That’s rich coming from you.”

The brothers stare at each other, same face divided by history and bad choices. In another life maybe they could have been ordinary men, irritating each other over inheritance or football scores or who forgot to buy batteries. Instead they stand there like two versions of damage built from the same blueprint.

I realize then something that turns my stomach anew.

“Does anyone else know?”

Teresa answers. “No.”

That, at least, is almost certainly a lie. Lies like this never survive on only three people. But perhaps no one else knows the whole shape of it. Perhaps that is how Teresa has always won, by making sure everyone carries only one poisonous fragment and therefore no one can assemble the full machine.

I look at Adrián. “How sick are you?”