My body went still.
Then she said the words that woke something old and vicious inside me.
“He hit Sofi too.”
I stared at her.
“Sofía?”
She nodded, crying openly now. “She’s three, Nay. He came home drunk. He lost money gambling. He slapped her. I tried to stop him and he locked me in the bathroom. I thought he was going to kill us both.”
For a moment, the hospital disappeared. The walls. The nurses. The years. All of it.
All I could see was my sister sitting in front of me with a little girl at home learning terror before she had even learned safety.
I stood up.
“You didn’t come to visit me.”
Lidia blinked through tears. “What?”
“You came here for help.”
Her face changed, confusion turning into fear as she understood what I meant.
“No,” she said immediately. “No, Nay. You can’t.”
