PART 2
WHEN JULIAN LIFTED THE BLANKET, HE SAW THE TRUTH HIS MOTHER HAD SPENT WEEKS HIDING
For several seconds…
Julian forgot how to breathe.
The blanket slipped from his fingers.
His entire body went cold.
Because beneath the blue fabric was not a secret.
Not a betrayal.
Not something Mariana had been ashamed of.
It was evidence.
Evidence of what someone had done to the woman carrying his child.
Her legs were covered in dark bruises.
Not one.
Not two.
Several.
Some older.
Some newer.
The kind of marks that told a story no one wanted to hear.
Julian stared.
Unable to speak.
His eyes moved slowly from Mariana’s face…
to her trembling hands…
then to his mother standing behind him.
And suddenly every strange moment from the past few weeks returned.
Every silence.
