Siblings

She knew exactly what that dress would do; what she didn’t expect was for him to dare whisper it in her ear, right in front of the whole family.

For months he’d pretended her uniform didn’t affect him. That afternoon, with her thigh bandaged and his hands trembling on her skin, he knew he couldn’t hold back anymore.

When I saw the bills my sister had hidden in the drawer, I knew our life at that bus stop was about to change forever—and that nothing between us would ever be innocent again.

My mother rented out the extra room to two newly arrived brothers, and from the first day I felt them stripping me with their eyes. I never imagined how far it would go.

When I saw my sister crossing the restaurant with that new sway, I knew the game I'd invented to arouse my lover had stopped being a game for me.

For days I’d been imagining that weekend: every order, every punishment, every broken limit. I wrote it all in one message and hit send without thinking twice.

Two weeks had passed since the defeat, and she still couldn’t figure out how a skinny, provocative rival had brought her to her knees. Her sister did want to find out.

The wedding ring appeared at the bottom of a glass of Baileys, and Damián was smiling as if he knew exactly how much it cost her to ask him to leave before her husband got home.

I had been stealing his dirty laundry for years without anyone knowing. The night he caught me, instead of hating me, he decided to use my weakness like a leash.

The straps tightened the more I pulled. I was tied, blind, and soaked on my own bed when the bedroom door opened and I heard two voices.

Esa mañana mi hermana me prestó su nombre, su vestido y su vida entera. Esa tarde, un chico me miró como nadie me había mirado y, por primera vez, me reconocí.

Eight years abroad turned me into the woman I was always meant to be. But when I crossed the threshold at home, the first thing I found was Mauricio’s hungry look.

They treated him like furniture, absolutely sure nothing they did touched him. It took them weeks to learn how wrong they were.

I offered to massage her tired feet and, without realizing it, crossed the only line I should never have crossed with her that night.

I was left alone with him, pretending to be sick when I wasn’t. I knew what would happen as soon as my sister passed through the gate and left me alone with her husband.

I joked that she should sleep with me that night. I never imagined that after midnight, my bedroom door would actually open.

I thought she’d laugh at me, that she’d say I was crazy. But when I led her by the wrist to the half-open door, my sister could no longer look away.

I’d spent months covering for him among the worst pack in the prison. The day he told me who the woman in his visits really was, everything changed.

She shut the sacristy door, placed her cold hand over mine, and told me she wasn’t a little girl anymore. The wind howled outside and I knew I was lost.

I had never worn a thong, but that afternoon I decided to break it in in the busiest corner of the market, right where no one could stop staring at me.