They took us.”
Lourdes let out a muffled sound, half a moan, half disbelief. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and continued reading.
“I had noticed from the second day that a man was watching us near the hotel.
I thought it was just a coincidence, but I was wrong. When I went for a walk with Tala, he approached me and said something that chilled me to the bone: he knew my movements, he knew which school you worked at, and he mentioned my brother Αrturo by name.
He told me that if I wanted to protect you, I should accompany him without making a scene.”
I thought they just wanted to rob me, but it was worse. Αrturo had been involved in businesses I knew nothing about for years.
I’d signed some papers for him to help him out, never imagining they were linked to trafficking and money laundering.
By the time I tried to back out, it was too late.
Those men needed to make sure I wouldn’t talk.
I tried to resist, but I saw that one of them already had Tala by the hand, smiling at her as if it were a game.
They put us in a van. Then they drove us along mountain roads to an isolated house.
