Seduction

I crossed the palace threshold wearing a golden mask and with my heart racing. That night, masked hands awaited me while he watched from the shadows.

When I woke on the wet stone and saw her slipping off her swimsuit, I knew that blow to the head had taken me somewhere I’d never come back from the same.

I found him on my bed with one of my panties in his hand and a wad of bills on the spread. What came next wasn’t about the money.

My cousin had gone to the beach with her friends. When I rang the bell, my aunt opened the door wearing her apron and a smile I’d never seen before.

When Marcos closed the apartment door and asked whether they were going to sleep with their “new partner,” the four of them fell silent and said everything.

I wanted him from my first lovers and never dared to tell him. That afternoon, in front of his camera, I discovered my brother had been holding the same thing back for years.

He showed up at the door unannounced, looking for a fight and carrying a bottle under his arm. By three in the morning, nothing I knew about him was true anymore.

When the car wash brushes erased the world outside, my sister leaned over the seat, moved my hair from my forehead, and whispered something I could no longer ignore.

I’d been in a coma for a month when a warm hand slipped under the sheet in the dead of night. Only when I opened my eyes did I learn who had decided to wake me.

At two in the morning I went downstairs barefoot for a glass of water and heard them arguing in low voices about me, with that married-couple tone.

I came home early with the image of my freshly showered sister-in-law Renata stuck in my head. An hour later, she knocked on my door wrapped in a robe.

When Lucía came out of the water and looked at them from the shore, they both knew that afternoon wasn’t going to end in their sun loungers.

I’ve spent years thinking about that moment: Valeria in the empty classroom, her finger pointing at my crotch and that smile promising everything that never happened.

I went to his house thinking I was doing a good deed. I found my photos on his phone, and what I did next I haven’t told anyone until today.

Nine months of failed independence sent her back to her father’s house, to Carmen’s rules and Marcos’s gaze, which from day one made her feel things she shouldn’t.

I went to that party alone, thinking I’d dance for a while and forget. I never expected Diego or what came after to change my night completely.

She wore fishnet stockings and a black skirt. I stood two meters away playing the stranger while he devoured her with his eyes from the floor.

The moment he shut the taxi door, his hands were already under my blouse. What came next the driver watched from the mirror, not missing a thing.

I had waited months for that Saturday. High heels, lace lingerie, the estate all to myself. No one was supposed to see me. Then Roberto from the estate across the way arrived.

Marcos controlled her from his table, one finger on the app and his eyes fixed on her. Every time he pressed the button, Clara had to bite her lip to keep from moaning.