“I let the pill rest on my tongue, then slid it under my cheek and forced a sleepy smile. ‘Goodnight, love,’ my husband whispered, kissing my forehead as always. Minutes later, I heard the bedroom door creak open again. ‘She’s asleep,’ he murmured. But when I cracked my eyes open and saw who was walking into the room behind him, my blood ran cold… and I realized the pills were the least scary part.”

“Goodnight, darling,” my husband, Javier, whispered, kissing my forehead as always. I closed my eyes and waited. I’d suspected for almost three weeks that he was sedating me. Every morning I woke up groggy, with a dry mouth, a headache, and the feeling that I’d wasted hours of my life. He always had an explanation: stress, anemia, exhaustion. He even insisted on going with me to the doctor and vouching for me. Too attentive. Too proper.

That night I decided to find out.

Barely ten minutes had passed when I heard the bedroom door open again. “She’s asleep,” Javier murmured. The mattress dipped slightly, as if someone else had entered. I opened my eyes just enough to see a silhouette behind him. It was my sister-in-law, Lucía. A brutal chill ran through my body. I didn’t understand what she was doing there at midnight. I held my breath.

“Hurry up,” she said softly. “We can’t keep doing this much longer.”

Javier went to my closet. I heard the clang of a box and the rustling of papers. “I just need to find the original document,” he replied. “Without it, the house is still in both our names.”