Chapter 82
Five days passed with no word from Marco.
I checked my email obsessively—every hour, sometimes every few minutes. Nothing. Just the automated confirmation that he'd received the payment.
The waiting was torture. Every day that went by was another day Rafael worked himself to exhaustion, another day Lorenzo's lies went unchallenged, another day closer to the legal battle that would drain everything.
I tried to act normal. I had breakfast with Rafael when he wasn't rushing out early. I pretended to read books I couldn't focus on. I smiled at Mrs. Santos and made small talk about nothing.
But inside, I was screaming.
On the sixth day, Rafael cornered me in the library where I'd been staring at the same page for twenty minutes.
"Maliya." His voice was gentle but firm. "What's
