Gleice continued painting my nails but paused to look at me seriously.
"Look, Elize, life in the slum isn't easy. It really isn't. Some girls suffer a lot, go through things you can't even imagine. But even so, everything has a limit." She sighed, carefully applying the nail polish brush again. "My life wasn't easy either. I've gotten into a lot of trouble, made some real blunders. But making up something like this, accusing a man of being a jack. In the slum, that's the end."
I gulped, feeling a chill down my spine.
"Have you thought about what would happen if the Captain believed that absurd story?" she continued, staring at me with a steady gaze. "Alemão would be dead, Elize. Dead. Because neither the Captain, nor Navalha, nor the Lieutenant turn a blind eye to this kind of thing. Th
