CHAPTER 5: THE SILENT WIFE PERSONA

POV: Xitllali De La Rosa

The opportunity I waited eighteen months for finally came when Guillermo was called away for an emergency meeting in another state. There had been a dispute near the border, and he had to take his senior enforcers with him to settle it before sunrise.

He left around two in the morning. Once his convoy drove off, the estate settled into its usual night routine. Four guards stayed outside, two remained in the security room, and one guard walked down the main hallway every twenty minutes.

I stayed in bed until three in the morning, listening to the clock on the wall tick by while my heart pounded in my chest.

If I wanted to escape, I needed one specific thing: the master security codes inside his office safe. Without those codes, the main gates wouldn't open, and the tracking devices on the estate cars would alert his men the second I drove away. I would be caught before I even reached the highway.

When I heard the hall guard's footsteps fade down the far wing, I got out of bed. I pulled on dark trousers and a black sweater I had hidden in the very back of my closet, tied my hair up, and walked out barefoot so my feet wouldn't make a sound on the floor.

Guillermo's office was at the end of the corridor. I have stood beside him enough times to memorize his keypad code. He had never shielded the code from me because he never thought his quiet wife would care about numbers.

4-9-2-8-0.

I typed in the code. The keypad flashed green, and the lock opened with a soft click.

I slipped inside and shut the door behind me. The room smelled like dark leather and Guillermo's cologne. I pulled a small penlight from my pocket and walked straight to the big bookshelf on the wall.

I reached behind a heavy book, searching for the small brass lever I had seen him press months ago.

I clicked on it, and a hidden panel slid back, revealing his steel safe. My hands were cold, but I didn't let them shake. I typed in his birthdate in reverse, and the heavy safe door swung open.

Inside lay stacks of cash, three fake passports, and the black leather notebook containing the master gate codes.

I reached for the notebook, but right underneath it, I saw a thick Manila folder stamped with Guillermo's personal seal. 

I was so curious to know what was in it, so I opened it.

Inside it was a sheet of heavy white paper. I held my flashlight close and read the clean typed words:

If you keep the De La Rosa girl at your side, your territory will bleed. Her father will not survive the month, and her family in Monterrey will be taken one by one. Send her away, or watch everyone who shares her blood die.

Tucked behind the letter was a clear photo of my father stepping out of his car in Guadalajara. A red circle was drawn around his head, with a target mark in the corner of the picture.

I suddenly couldn't breathe. My hands shook so hard that the photo almost fell.

Guillermo had received this threat for a while and hidden it in his safe. He didn't tell me a word about it. He was handling it in the dark, and keeping me locked in his house while someone was threatening to kill my father.

I realized the horrifying truth right then. If I stayed married to Guillermo, my family would eventually be killed in his war. If I begged him to let me leave, his pride would never allow it. He would tighten the security, and turn the estate into a fortress where I would never see the sun again.

There was only one way to save my father and get my freedom. I had to fake my death. If I turned into ash, the enemy would have no target left, and Guillermo would have no bride to hide.

Suddenly, a floorboard creaked out in the hallway.

I froze. The beam of my flashlight trembled against the steel safe.

The heavy door handle of Guillermo's office slowly began to turn.

PRESENT DAY — SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS

The sound of breaking glass slammed me right out of the memory and brought me back to reality.

I stumbled back against my flower bench, and I dropped my shears, my heart was hammering as the cold rain blew into the shop.

A man stepped in through the shattered frame.

He was broad-shouldered and tall, wearing a dark wool coat soaked with rain. He stepped over the broken glass with a slow, terrifying calm, his heavy boots making sounds on the floor.

He raised his head, and the streetlamp light caught his sharp jawline, his dark hair, and those hazel-amber eyes that had haunted my dreams for two long years.

Guillermo.

He stood in my small shop, looking straight at me. The room was completely silent except for the falling rain.

"Two years, mi vida," Guillermo whispered, his voice low and rough. "Did you really think you could fake your death in a car fire and hide from me forever?"

Before I could reach under the counter for my knife, Guillermo reached inside his coat.

I braced myself because I thought he was going to point a gun at me.

Instead, he pulled out a matte-black handgun and placed it softly on the wooden counter between us.

Then, the most feared man in Mexico dropped slowly to one knee in front of me, lowered his head, and pushed the gun right into my shaking hands.