“What did you do?”
I looked out at the city.
“To what?”
“To the house.”
“What house?”
“Don’t play with me, Amara.”
His voice was shaking. Not with sadness. With panic.
Behind him, I heard Valentina.
“What is happening? Why won’t the gate open?”
Mauricio lowered the phone, but not enough.
“The code isn’t working,” he snapped.
Then Lidia’s voice, sharp and furious, cut through the background.
“She changed the locks? That witch changed the locks?”
I smiled.
“No, Lidia,” I said calmly. “I sold the house.”
There was silence.
Then chaos.
“You what?” Mauricio shouted.
“I sold the house.”
“You can’t sell our home!”
“It was never our home.”
“You are my wife!”
“That did not stop you from getting another one.”
Valentina gasped.
Lidia started speaking rapidly, but Mauricio shouted over her.
“You had no right!”
“Mauricio,” I said softly, “you should be very careful with that phrase tonight.”
He went quiet for half a second.
Good.
Fear had entered the room.
“I can explain,” he said.
“I’m sure you practiced.”
“It wasn’t what it looked like.”
“It looked like a wedding.”
“It was symbolic.”
“With a legal certificate?”
He said nothing.
I continued, “Did you enjoy Cancún?”
His silence told me everything.
“Did Valentina enjoy the bracelet?”
Valentina’s voice rose in the background.
“What bracelet? Mauricio, who is she talking to?”
I almost laughed again.
He had lied to her too.
