Tears streamed down my face, blurring my vision as I watched the police car take Juan away. The handcuffs on his wrists seemed like chains tightening around my heart.
"Leave me alone!" I pleaded with Juan's men, who offered reassurances. "He'll be fine, ma'am," one of them said, but their words provided little solace.
Alone with my thoughts, I crumpled to the ground. Juan,despite his flaws, was the only one I trusted in SanCasas. Now, it was my turn to protect him, and I felt utterly powerless. He had killed Carlos, but I knew he did it to shield me, even though Carlos didn't deserve death.
Soon, Juan's men guided me to a waiting vehicle. The drive to the secret apartment was a silent one, each passing moment filled with an unbearable weight of the unknown. I clutched the edge of the seat, desperate for answers, desperate for Juan. The complexity of my emotions overwhelmed me; was it love I felt for Juan, or was it merely a twisted sense of loyalty in this unforgiving city?
Upon arrival at the secret apartment, the air crackled with tension. Isabel rushed over, embracing me tightly. "I'm so sorry, Nia. You shouldn't have to go through this," she murmured, her embrace a fleeting comfort.
Diego appeared, calling me "Carmen," and I enveloped him in a tight hug, showering him with kisses. Relief flooded me; he was safe.
"Sofia is fine," I managed to say, offering a reassuring smile as Diego thanked me and left. His safety eased a fraction of my worry.
Isabel and I walked into the room, the silence punctuated by the echo of our footsteps.
"Juan, Juan," I called out to Isabel, desperation clinging to my voice.
"You love him, Nia," she stated, her eyes piercing mine.
"I don't know. I'm so scared, Isa. I don't understand what's always happening. I've never had a happy time in SanCasas. I regret coming here. My life would have been less complicated," I confessed, my emotions raw.
"If you didn't come, they would have come for you," she cryptically replied, sending shivers down my spine.
"Who would come for me?" I pressed for answers, confusion and fear etching my face.
She shot me a strange look. "It's nothing, Nia."
I insisted, my patience wearing thin. "Isabel, are you hiding something from me? Please, tell me what's happening." Frustration edged my voice.
"Juan is doing his best to protect you. You have nowhere to run, Nia. Going back to LA would make things harder. They would still come after you," she cryptically explained, her words leaving me more puzzled.
"Who is coming after me? Who am I running from? Why am I running? Please, tell me. What's the real reason Sofia got kidnapped?" I bombarded her with questions.
"I'm not meant to say this to you, Nia. Juan would kill me. SanCasas is a dangerous place. I used to be like you; I was captured too," she confessed, the weight of her words hanging in the air.
"What do you mean you were captured?" I asked, my heart pounding in my chest. Isabel hesitated..
"There's a lot about SanCasas you need to know. It had always been like this, even when you were a kid. I'm also a foreigner. I came to SanCasas to visit my cousin, who used to be a dealer for the El Chupadores. Juan is the leader of El Chupadores cartel, and they are the drug dealers and human traffickers. Then there are the Corrers, the organ harvesters, and the head of them, the Pelligros."
Isabel's revelations sent chills down my spine. The dark secrets of SanCasas unfurled before me ,revealing a world I never knew existed.
"I was taken as collateral for my cousin and was supposed to be trafficked to Mencia's group, the Corrers. But Juan stopped them, and that's one of the reasons I've been so loyal to him. He had always stood up for me," Isabel continued, her voice filled with a mix of sorrow and defiance.
She then raised her hair, revealing a tattoo under her neck that bore the ominous sign of El Chupadores. The weight of her words hung in the air, and echoed the helplessness that surrounded us.
"I'm always a victim; I would always be," she concluded, the resignation in her voice .
"But why are they after me? Why do they want me?" I pressed, desperation edging into my voice. She kept mute, a veil of secrecy shrouding her words.
"I can't tell you, Nia," Isabel finally spoke, her eyes carrying the weight of the untold truth. I pleaded with her, my desperation growing with each passing second.
"Please, Isabel, I beg of you," I implored. She sighed, the tension in the room thickening. "Your father's journal. That's what they want—the missing piece, and you're the only one that can find it and unlock it"
My mind raced, struggling to grasp the magnitude of what she was revealing. "Wait, what?! What does my dad have to do with all of this?" I demanded, shock written across my face.
"I don't even know who he is, not to talk of knowing he had a journal. And why would an ordinary journal ruin my life?" I bombarded her with questions, seeking answers that seemed to elude me.
She chuckled, a bitter sound that echoed in the room. "You called the journal ordinary. The word 'ordinary' there can destroy countries and cities ,it's POWER ," she remarked cryptically. The gravity of her words sank in as she continued.
"What's in the journal?" I asked, the urgency in my voice betraying the anxiety bubbling within me. I awaited her response, the weight of the unknown pressing down on me.
"I really don't know," Isabel replied, her words leaving an unsettling uncertainty in the air. Skepticism crept into my mind; could she be hiding something? The pieces of this puzzle seemed to slip further from my grasp.
"I get why those police officers tried hurting me when I made a complaint about Sofia," I mused aloud, connecting the dots of the perilous game I had unwittingly stepped into.
"I'll find that journal before anyone and destroy it if it's that important," I declared with determination, ready to face the danger head-on.
"Finding the journal is putting your life in danger," Isabel cautioned, her eyes reflecting the shadows of unspoken threats. But my resolve remained unshaken.
"Please, let Juan handle it. If he knows about it, he would get mad at me, and you know what happens when Juan gets mad," she pleaded, a plea laced with the weight of shared history and unspoken fears.
"I'm tired of running, Isabel. I need to save Sofia. I'm tired of my loved ones getting hurt because they are trying to protect me. If they want to play my game,they'll follow my rules," I asserted,the resolve in my voice cutting through the air like a blade.