He chuckles under his breath as he runs up to me. “Are you mad at me?”
“Yes!” I spit like a little brat.
“You told me you’d take me to Tulum with you.”
“I’m not a little bird!” I snap at him. “And you promised!”
“It was a good thing you didn’t come, little Esme,” Cesar tells me, putting his fingers under my chin and pushing my face up to meet his eyes. “It was… not what I expected.”
I frown, noticing for the first time the expression my brother is wearing. In only six days, he has aged a decade, it seems. His eyes are dark and sunken. New lines mark his face.
He shakes his head. “Papa showed me some things.”
He hesitates. “Scary things,” he says eventually.
His eyes are turned inward like he’s remembering what happened in Tulum.
Whatever was done to him.
I don’t understand what h
