All Chapters of TO HATE, TO TOUCH, TO RUIN: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

59 Chapters

Scarred by His Shadow

Dinner at the Serrano house never stayed quiet. Unless you were dead or had just shot someone. I hadn’t done either today, so the clatter of silverware mixed with laughter, muttering, and dramatic stories like always.I scooped arroz con pollo onto my plate for the third time. There were empanadas, arepas, pastelitos, even papaya that Mama swore was good for “spiritual purification.” Me? I’m just hungry. The after-being-kidnapped kind of hungry.“My sweet sister,” Bretta watched me from the far end of the table, her face dipped in telenovela-level concern. “You’re sure you don’t want beet juice? It helps with post-war trauma.”“I prefer post-chili trauma. Thanks.”Mama shot me a look, then piled more empanadas onto my plate like they could rinse my sins away. “If you can still be snarky, you’re not eating enough,” she said. “And you need cleansing. I already called Pastor Rodrigo. He’s coming in the morning.”“Pastor?” I muttered, chewing. “I thought all we needed was a hitman and a t

You Hold Me, He Haunts Me

We lay on the bed with the lights off, the only glow coming from the balcony, slipping across the pale linen sheets.Matteo pressed in behind me, one arm locked around my waist. No space. His breath landed steady on my neck, but his grip never fully eased. There was always a hint of pressure, like if he let go, I’d disappear again.I didn’t protest. I didn’t pull away. I didn’t shift. I was just too drained to push anyone out of my bed tonight, and Matteo… he is my husband, even if the word felt more like a business contract than a sacred vow. At least he is familiar. Safe, in the loosest sense of the word.We didn’t talk. No questions from him about what I’d done, where I’d been, or what happened while I was in Zach Romano’s hands. He didn’t ask, and I didn’t offer anything.Because if I opened my mouth, I was afraid my voice would betray what was happening in my head.The way Zach’s stare could stop me faster than a weapon. The way my body reacted before my brain could say no. The w

Don’t Turn Around

This afternoon, Medellín feels like a city fresh out of the shower: streets still damp, sunlight cutting through low buildings, the air laced with coffee and sweet dust.I walk alone along the sidewalk without a hint of fear. This city is my home, my blood, and Papa built half the blocks in this district. No one is stupid enough to mess with me in Medellín.Very different from Bogotá, where Matteo would send a small squad every time I said “I’m going to buy bread.”I pull my new phone from my bag. Isabella has called three times since morning. I finally answer.“KRYSTAL SERRANO, ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!” Her scream nearly drills through my skull.I hold the phone slightly away. “Honey, if I were dead, who would remind you that your new eyebrows aren’t symmetrical?”“DON’T JOKE ABOUT MY EYEBROW!” she shrieks again. “I was about to book your funeral mass!”I roll my eyes as I step into the centro comercial, the biggest mall near my house. Cold AC hits my skin, the smell of popcorn mixes wi

Reminder

“Found.”The word clings to the back of my teeth as my brow tightens. The little sea glass is cold against my fingers, but my head feels smoked out.Found.Not I love you. Not I miss you. Not even something I could twist into sweetness if I were desperate enough to justify being an idiot again.Found.If Zach just wanted revenge, he didn’t need to get poetic with a shard of ocean glass.I lift my gaze to Jared. “So…” my voice comes out rough, and I clear my throat, “what does he actually want from me?”The café noise keeps moving like nothing is happening. Spoons clink. A barista calls out someone’s name. Laughter cracks from a corner table. Life goes on. Ordinary. Unfortunately, mine never is.Jared doesn’t answer right away. He tilts his head a little, eyes tracing my face, drifting to the first box still closed, then to the sea glass pendant in my hand.“If he just wanted revenge,” I go on, twirling the necklace between my fingers, “Matteo should’ve been the one getting a surprise

Serrano Circus

The Serrano dinner table looked the same as always tonight: too full, too loud, and with too few people actually paying attention to their food.I stared at my plate like it was a math exam.Roasted chicken with crisp skin, fragrant yellow rice, fresh salad… on any other night, I’d clear a plate like this down to the bone. Now, my fork just pushed the rice around, carving tiny meaningless lines.My neck felt… empty.Reflexively, my hand lifted, brushing the skin just below my collarbone. No cool chain. No green sea glass hanging like a small claim on my skin. The necklace was in my room drawer, wrapped in tissue paper. Far enough not to be seen. Not far enough to forget.“Wow.”Javier’s voice sliced into my thoughts like a dull knife. Slow and annoying.“Look who suddenly went on a diet.” He shoveled rice into his own mouth, then eyed my plate. “Is this because Matteo’s not here? You only eat properly when your husband’s around, is that it?”One comment. One second. I wanted to throw m

Bare

The room feels bigger once the door closes behind me.Sounds from downstairs still drift up in fragments: Bretta’s shrill laugh, Gemma shrieking about something involving ice cream, Mama scolding someone over plates. It all blurs into a low hum, like a TV left on in another room.I drop onto the bed.The mattress bounces lightly. Cold sheets brush my bare back beneath an oversized T-shirt. My jeans are draped over the chair. My bra is God knows where. Only one lamp is on, a dim yellow glow on the nightstand, throwing long shadows on the wall and soft lines across the ceiling.My hand slides down my arm, then reaches for my phone beside the pillow. The screen lights up, catching my reflection for a second: hair tied up in a lazy knot, eyeliner barely hanging on, naked lips. I look like the discount version of myself.Perfect for tonight.My thumb hovers over the one chat icon that matters most.Bogotá & the Idiots.Their profile picture is pure nepotism energy: Isabella in red lipstick

Found, Forgotten, and Everything In Between

Morning in the Serrano house never understood the meaning of the word slow.Somewhere down the hall, a blender roared to life. Children’s laughter bounced off the walls. The old kitchen radio murmured soft reggaeton. And someone—God knew who—had already started yelling about shoes before the sun had even fully hauled itself up.I stood at the kitchen sink, fingers curled over the cold granite edge, letting the faucet run for a second before I shut it off again.My neck felt… bare.Instinct tugged my hand upward, stopping halfway. Upstairs, in the drawer of my room, rested a single piece of sea-glass on a chain, engraved with one small word on the back. Found.“If you stand there any longer, the floor’s going to get depressed,” a warm, raspy voice called from near the stove.I blinked, lifting my head.Aunt Marisol stood before the big stove, spatula in one hand, cast-iron pan in the other, a red checkered apron cinched around her waist. Her dark hair, streaked with white, was twisted

The Coffee Grove and the Ghost I Googled

Papa’s coffee grove stretched behind the mansion like a small world that didn’t care who married who or who got kidnapped by whom last month. On the left side, there was Mama’s chili patch, not big at all but guarded like a national border.I dropped onto the oversized rattan daybed beneath a cream canvas umbrella. The linen pillows were warm from the sun. My bare feet touched the fabric and immediately went limp. Medellín’s late-morning air had that infuriatingly perfect temperature, with the smell of damp soil from watering, coffee leaves, and something sweet from flowers whose names I never remember.On my stomach, my new phone lit up.In front of me, Gemma and Sofia were already running like two rejects from a finishing school for toddlers.“DON’T STEP ON ABUELA’S PLANTS!” I yelled without lifting my head.“OKAAY!” Sofia shouted back from far away, which usually meant yes, but later.Gemma, craftier and calmer, didn’t shout anything. She just looked over her shoulder while she ran

Sunglasses, Secrets, and Stupid Men

I opened my eyes again, staring up at the blue sky between the coffee leaves, and the sentence I’d just read resurfaced in my head like an annoying song.[You never see him. You just know when he’s there because everyone else starts acting careful.]“Yes,” I muttered under my breath. “I know.”But that wasn’t the part that made my throat feel bitter. It wasn’t the fact that Zach knew we were going to Los Angeles. It wasn’t even the way he texted like my neck was property of the Romano family.What made me sick was the simple part. The part too domestic for my life.Papa had only mentioned the L.A. trip at the family dinner table. And I had only mentioned it in one chat.Bogotá & the Idiots.That was it.Two circles. Two possibilities. And one of them leaked.I lifted my phone off my chest, unlocked the screen again, and opened the old chat with the +39 number. The two messages were still there neat, cold, like fingerprints on glass.[Your neck is empty.][Don’t go to Los Angeles witho

Public Air

This night, I decided to go out.Not run away. Not do something stupid like disappear without a bodyguard and end up on the eleven o’clock news with a dramatic caption and a blurry CCTV photo.I just wanted to go out.There was a small difference there. Usually ignored by the men in my life because they were too busy equating a woman moving with a national security threat.I stood in front of my bedroom mirror and stared at myself very seriously for three full seconds.The oversized white T-shirt fell almost to mid-thigh, the fabric soft from being washed too many times. There was a faded print across the chest, some American college logo I had no idea where Javier had gotten. Underneath, I was wearing Javier’s dark gray boxers, which I had found in a pile of clean laundry near the family room.I didn’t know they were his when I put them on.Okay. I knew a little.But Javier was at the office with Jevan, handling the Serrano oil company that supposedly controlled half of Colombia and

1 2 3 4 5 6

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP