The times the teenager begged him, crying for no apparent reason, not to leave her alone at home. Ernesto’s furious refusal to take her to the doctor, his morbid insistence that she was “just pretending” so no one would examine her and discover his atrocious crime.

“Ernesto…” Rebecca whispered, and the name tasted like poison, like betrayal, like the most putrid garbage. Her own husband, the man she slept with every night, was the monster who had devoured the life of her little girl.

The social worker nodded slowly, confirming the horror. She told them they couldn’t return to that house.

A security protocol would be activated immediately.

Rebeca entered the office. Valeria stared at her, her eyes swollen and terrified, expecting the rejection, the scolding, the disbelief the monster had assured her she would receive. But Rebeca didn’t hesitate for a second.

She ran to her daughter, wrapped her in her arms with the strength of a lioness defending her cub, and kissed her sweat-drenched forehead.

—I believe you, my love. I believe you and I swear on my life that that wretch will pay for every tear he made you shed. You are not alone anymore.

They left the clinic and got into the car. Rebeca didn’t look back. She drove her daughter straight to her sister Leonor’s house in the municipality of Tonalá.

The journey felt endless. Gray clouds began to gather in the sky, heralding an unusual storm for the season. When they arrived at the house with the black gate, Leonor opened the door, surprised. Seeing her sister’s distraught face and her niece trembling, she immediately let them in.

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