He pauses, then slowly lowers the tool. He looks at my rigid posture, then at his wife’s trembling hands. “What’s wrong?”
I walk over and silently hand him my phone.
He stares down at the illuminated screen. I stand there and watch the terrible progression: confusion flickers across his youthful face, followed rapidly by unease, and then, a sickening shift into recognition when Lucía’s face suddenly appears in one of the images. His thumb trembles as he scrolls to the three-second video. He taps play.
“Whose phone did these come from?” he asks, his hollow voice indicating he already carries the devastating answer.
“They came from Esteban’s hidden burner phone,” I reply, the words tasting like copper in my mouth.
Lucía makes a pathetic sound then—a wet, choked noise somewhere between a sob and a desperate plea. Tomás slowly looks up from the screen at her, and finally sees the raw terror that he has been completely refusing to acknowledge for weeks. The color violently drains from his face.
“What happened?” he asks her, his voice dropping to an unrecognizable whisper.
Lucía cannot form the words. She is drowning in her tears.
So, I do it for her. I play the role of the executioner.
I tell him everything. The inappropriate remarks. The heavy footsteps lingering in the hallway. The turning doorknob in the dead of night. The blinding flashlight sweeping the floorboards. I do not soften a single syllable of the story, because offering softness now would only protect the monster.
When I finally finish speaking, Tomás slowly turns to his wife.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asks, his voice utterly broken.
Lucía begins to wail, burying her face in her hands. “Because… because I was so afraid you’d think I was a liar trying to destroy your perfect family.”
Tomás drops to his knees on the rug in front of her so suddenly that his knee clips the broken fan, sending it crashing violently clattering against the hardwood floor. He reaches out and takes both of her violently shaking hands in his.
“You are my family,” he cries, the tears finally spilling hot down his own cheeks. “Lucía, you are my family.”
I immediately look away toward the window. Downstairs, the heavy door connecting the garage to the kitchen violently slams shut. Heavy footsteps sound on the stairs. Fast. Confident.
Esteban suddenly appears in the open doorway of the sitting room and stops dead in his tracks.
His dark eyes rapidly scan the room, taking in the chaotic tableau all at once. His handsome face shows absolutely no guilt. It shows cold, rapid calculation.
“What’s going on up here?” he asks, his tone entirely too casual.
Tomás rises from the floor, his movements slow and deliberate. Tear tracks still mark his dusty face, yet his voice, when he finally speaks, is flat enough to cut glass. “You tell me, Esteban.”
Esteban’s eyes flick sharply to the phone in my hand. For a brief, terrifying second, something akin to pure contempt hardens his gaze.
“This is ridiculous,” Esteban scoffs, crossing his arms over his chest.
I lift the phone up, pointing the screen at him like a weapon. “Whose phone is this?”
He shrugs, rolling his eyes perfectly. “An old work phone. I haven’t used it in years. I have no idea what garbage is on there. It must have been hacked.”
