Rosa studied the older woman for a long moment. Something in Clara’s tired but steady gaze must have convinced her.
“The girl came six months ago,” Rosa finally said. “Her uncle Javier brought her. Said he couldn’t manage anymore—too much work, too many travel obligations. But there were bruises on her arms when she arrived. No explanation. Since then she barely speaks, eats little, barely sleeps. Nightmares every night.”
Clara felt ice slide down her spine.
“And after the prison visit?”
Rosa looked down at her hands. “Since she came back, not one word. The doctors say physically she’s fine. It’s like… she said everything she needed to say, and now the silence is permanent.”
Through the window Clara could see a small girl with light brown hair sitting alone on a bench in the yard, staring at nothing.
“Does anyone know what she whispered to her father?” Clara asked.
“No one. But whatever it was, it’s eating her alive from the inside.”
Five years earlier—on the night everything shattered—the Vargas home had been quiet.
Laura had tucked five-year-old Elena into bed early, the way she always did.