Page 55 of Cavern of Silence

"Do you get them a lot?"

"Mm-hmm."

"What about?"

She slowly looks up. "The men who died fighting. Jonas branding me."

I push the hair off her face and kiss her cheek. "It feels like you're reliving it?"

"Yes. How do you know?"

"I've had them before."

Concern fills her brown eyes. "What about?"

"War."

She slides her fingers in my hair. "Do you have them a lot?"

"Not anymore."

"What did you do to stop them?"

I hesitate.

"You can tell me."

I swallow the thick knot forming in my throat. "I worked on coming to terms with what I saw and did."

She quietly replies, "Maybe I need to accept my role in those events."

"No. You didn't do anything wrong. You were a victim of Jonas Torres's sadistic actions."

"But if I hadn't talked to my boss or tried to help Zoe—"

"He would have done something else to hurt you. Men like that don't need a reason. They only want to show their control and spread evil."

"Well, if I never tried to make more money, I wouldn't have been on those planes in the first place."

I cup her face. "Julieta, you tried to do something nice for your husband because you loved him. None of this is your fault. You couldn't have known."

She sniffles and looks around the room. "When we first got this place, I was going to transfer to Belize and reduce my schedule so we could start a family. I wanted to try in my late twenties, but Miguel wasn't ready. He promised me when we got the land, it would be the right time. When my sister had his baby, I knew it was his. He couldn't stay away from her and moved her in here because he said she needed our support. And when Liliana was about two months old, I saw his features in her."

"Did you ask Miguel or your sister about it?"

She turns to the wall. "No. I tried to convince myself I was going crazy. But I told him I had a work trip, and I pretended to go away. In the middle of the night, I snuck in the house, and they were in bed together."

Anger seeps through me. How any man could cheat on his wife has always baffled me, but what Miguel did to Julieta is exceptionally cruel.

"He doesn't deserve you."

She blinks hard. "Can we change the subject?"

I kiss her on the forehead. "Okay."

"What time is it?"

I glance at the clock. "Four."