REINA
I was terrified.
The fear did not come as a quick slice. It came like water filling my lungs, slow and heavy, while another kind of heat flooded lower.
I kept thinking about what Paolo would do if he ever found out what I had been doing with his father. It would not only stop at divorce. He would tear my life apart and make me watch.
He would make my aunt return every single thing he had ever given me, because he could, because I cheated on him with his father.
The car. The house. The tuition fee for my cousins. All of it. He knew exactly where I was soft. He knew my aunt had raised me when no one else wanted to. He knew my cousins depended on their single mother. He knew I would do anything to keep them safe.
I told myself to get out of the pool. I told myself to be smart a
