2

For a moment, time seems to freeze.

He lifts his head and looks around the room, his eyes scanning the space with almost predatory precision. My heart races, pounding so hard in my chest that I can feel the pulse echoing in my ears.

It’s as if he knows. As if he can feel my presence, as if that piercing gaze could pierce through the wood of the door behind which I’m hiding.

But he does nothing. He doesn’t approach, doesn’t say anything. He just looks away, almost indifferently, as if he’s decided that whatever is here – me – isn’t worth his attention.

With firm steps, he walks to the bedroom door and exits without looking back. Only when I hear the soft click of the door closing does my body finally relax, and air flows back into my lungs. My legs are shaky, and my fingers still grip the towels as if they’re the last thing keeping me grounded in reality.

But one thing is certain: as much as he didn’t see me – or chose to ignore me – the feeling that this man exudes danger, power, and mystery unsettles me in a way I can’t explain.

The door opens again, but this time, the hairs on the back of my neck don’t stand up. Still, my body shrinks instinctively. I turn my face and see my mom enter, carrying her huge purse that always seems too heavy, as if it holds not only objects but intentions I’d rather not know.

“Ravena?” Her voice sounds more like a command than a question.

I slowly step out of the bathroom, still holding the towels against my chest like a shield. “Hi, Mom. I’m done.”

She looks around, her eyes narrowing as she sweeps the room with a look of disdain. “It took two hours. If you keep this up, you’ll spend the whole week here.”

“I was making everything perfect,” I say, trying to control the indignation in my voice.

She laughs softly, a sound devoid of humor. “You didn’t.” Her criticism is sharp, as always, and her cold gaze turns to me, evaluating me as if I were just another unfinished task on her list. Her eyes land on the towels I’m holding, and before I can react, she steps forward. “Put those towels here.”

“But...” I clutch the towels tighter, trying to muster the courage to argue. “They might be missed.”

My voice sounds hesitant, as if I already know it won’t make a difference.

She sighs in impatience, shaking her head as if I’m the most naïve person in the world. “There’s a laundry on the first floor full of these expensive towels. Besides, they might make me some money if I sell them in the right place.”

Without waiting for a response, she yanks the towels from my hands, her fingers firm and determined. I watch the soft fabric disappear into her purse, which swallows the items like a black hole.

“Now let’s go,” she says, already heading for the door, her voice laden with urgency and irritation. “We need to find your sister at home.”

I stand there, motionless for a second, my arms empty, feeling a mix of shame, anger, and something deeper I can’t name. This isn’t the first time she’s done this – taking things that don’t belong to her, to us, and dragging me along as an accomplice in something I never wanted to be part of.

I follow her in silence, but the feeling that something is about to crumble won’t leave me.

**

1 WEEK LATER

I tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep.

I had been staring at the ceiling for hours, my eyes wide open, refusing to close, and this had nothing to do with the fact that my bed was in the living room. In fact, it was a sofa bed. I had been sleeping there since Sandra, my older sister, decided she needed privacy and kicked me out of the bedroom. The second room in our small house was occupied by our mother.

Not that I was complaining. Sleeping in the living room wasn’t as uncomfortable as it seemed. There were worse things happening in that house, like the harassment from the disgusting men that they occasionally brought over.

That was how my mother made a living. Either by stealing small things and selling them, or by selling herself to men who didn’t even look her in the face the next day.

The little world we lived in was sordid, and what kept me from running away from it was the certainty that it was all about to end. More specifically, in four months, when I would turn eighteen and be free to do whatever I wanted with my life.

I already had plans for this new chapter of my life. When I made my cry of freedom, I planned to move to the capital with my best friend, Marina, where we would share rent on an apartment, find new jobs, and take a pre-college course in hopes of getting into a public university, since neither of us could afford a private one.

Until then, I needed to continue enduring my mother and sister firmly, just as they did with me. Not that I hated them, far from it, I just disagreed with what both of them did, and because of that, I was the outcast in the family, the one who was treated with hostility. I only still lived in that house because my mother needed the alimony my father paid every month, on the condition that I was never involved in her dirty dealings.

Of course, that rule was never followed. My mother dragged me into each of her schemes.

It wasn’t the same father as Sandra’s. She didn’t even know who hers was. My father was already married to another woman when I was conceived and had to leave the city to save his marriage. Another condition he set in exchange for paying the alimony was that I would never show up at his house, where he lived with his wife and my other half-siblings.

The alimony would be cut off as soon as I turned eighteen, so I would be an adult, and my mother wouldn’t be able to stop me from leaving the house anymore, nor would she care if I were left without the alimony. I just wouldn’t be lucky, because I already had my plans in place.

I couldn’t wait for it all to happen. By then, the school year would be over, I would have graduated from high school, and I would be free in every way a human being can be.

The dealings my family was involved in were the worst imaginable. My mother and sister, along with Daniel, Sandra’s boyfriend, made up a small gang that scammed rich men.

Of course, small scams. They didn’t have the courage or the capability to pull off big schemes. All they could do was set a trap here and there.