—18—

[Lucero's POV]

After mama gets out of the room I try to get to Cara but she doesn't want to speak.

She keeps staring mindlessly at the wall.

I slide the ring back into her finger but she screams bloody murder and tells me to get out. I put the ring down on the bed and before I get out to give her some space I say, "You'll attend Dalia's birthday party today, I bought a dress for you, it's in your closet. I'll meet you out front at 10 in the morning. For now go back to sleep and don't forget to put on the ring." Opening the door, I take a step outside but her tiny voice shocks me.

"Can I stay in your room?" She's trying to hold back her sobs, that much is clear in her voice.

I nodded and led her to my room. Giving her one of my hoodies to change into she quickly goes to the bathroom and changes herself.

I turn the bed heater on and let her have the right side of the bed because she usually sleeps on that side.

"I know you pity me." She says when she gets on the bed.

"I don't do pity." I turn to my left side and close the lights.

"Sure you do. You looked at me with pity just now."

I can feel her sobs. I may have looked at her with a little pity but not a lot that it'll be visible if you don't look closely enough. "You wanna talk about your dream?"

"No, you know what dream I had." She says through sobs.

"What made you think I'd know?" I turn to my right and see her body in a fetus position, with her back towards me.

"Because I saw you there."

"What?" I scrunch my eyebrow and pull her body so she faces me. "Saw me where?"

"In my dream. You were going to kill me and you told me you wanted me dead from the start and that I should watch my back. You stabbed me and my cousin and aunt and uncle too." Her tears glide down her rosy cheeks. "You killed my family."

"You were shocked. Were you crying because of that?" I tuck her hair behind her ear, not understanding why she was crying because of that dream and not the dream where she's surrounded by scary creatures.

"What else would I cry about?" She hiccups and closes her mouth while she bawls again.

"I don't know maybe the part of the dream where you were in a class full of monsters."

"That's so lame why would I cry about that?"

She must have had that other dream of me killing her while I was touching Rhys's hands.

"Then why did you want to stay with me tonight?" Her eyes slowly trail to mine and she says with a timid voice.

"That way I'll know what's coming. Like if you decide to stab me in my sleep. It'll be my own fault and not yours. Because I chose to trust you." She shakes slightly so I pull the cover over her higher.

"Don't trust anyone. That's a fatal mistake for a human like you."

"But I can't not trust anyone. If I live my life without trusting anyone why would I live? That's like you going on a skydiving and not trusting your parachute will open to save you."

I nod taking her words in. "Sleep now." I caress her head and she slowly drifts off to sleep.

|The next morning|

I stayed awake since there were only 8 hours left until it was 10 so I did my work while she slept.

Cara woke up shortly after the breakfast arrived. She looks better now, but I know once she figures out her family's rotten side, she would freak out and her mood will turn sour again.

It's now 9 and I'm driving us to the event not very far from here.

Before going inside I look toward Cara, "Listen, you have to pretend not to know them."

"What?"

"Don't ask questions, I'm already kind enough to let you see them, just listen to me this once and you'll see for yourself. They won't recognize you so don't even bother trying."

"What do you mean?" She scrunches her eyebrows and looks around for a mirror.

She gasps when she sees her face wasn't her face anymore.

"I cast a spell on you and it'll go away at midnight. Though I can still see your real face." I mutter the last part more to myself.

We enter the event together, the party has started and everyone is drinking, talking, and some dancing.

We make our way to a table in the far corner observing people passing by.

"So, aren't you going to wish your cousin a happy birthday?"

"She won't even recognize me." She says with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"She will." I push her toward her cousin and she glares at me but continues walking toward Dalia.

I saw them talking and catching up with each other like old friends. That's good.

"Sir, your phone." One of my men hands me my phone. "It's been ringing for a while."

It's an unknown number.

"Alright, keep an eye on Cara." I point to the girl who's still talking to Dalia.

Making my way outside, I picked up the call.

The other person speaks first, "Lucero, long time no see."

I tilt my head behind me to see the guy who's talking to me through the phone standing in front of me.

"Wales."

He salutes me and says, "Hey cousin."