The warden noticed. The guard noticed. Lucía noticed.
Oscar tried to recover. “Because this is cruel. She is about to die, and you’re letting this boy fill her head with fantasy.”
Lucía looked at him. “No. For the first time in six years, someone in this family is telling the truth.”
Warden Harris stepped out, already speaking into her radio. The room erupted behind her. Oscar demanded a lawyer. Camila asked if she could call someone in Nuevo Laredo. Emiliano clung to his mother, sobbing into her uniform. Lucía closed her eyes and held him as tightly as the restraints allowed.
“My baby,” she whispered. “Why did you carry this alone?”
“He said Camila would disappear,” Emiliano cried. “Like Canela. He said nobody would find her. He said you were already gone.”
Camila covered her mouth and turned away.
Canela. The little brown dog Samuel had rescued from the market. She had slept by Emiliano’s crib every night. One week before Samuel was killed, Canela vanished. Oscar told everyone the dog had slipped through the gate. Emiliano had screamed for days. Lucía remembered that. She remembered Samuel arguing with Oscar about it outside the shop. She remembered Oscar laughing and saying, “It’s just a dog.” She remembered Samuel saying, “No, it’s a warning.”
