MILDRED

"Oh no, Ximena! Please wake up! We've just found each other, don't leave me now!" I screamed, my voice shaking with desperation. Ximena's body lay limp on the ground, her eyes closed, her chest bleeding from the gunshot wound.

"Take this madman away!" Enid yelled, and the police dragged Elias away, wresting the gun from his hand.

Ximena's eyes flickered open, and she gazed at me with tears streaming down her face. "I'm so glad I found you, sister," she whispered, her voice weak. "Navaeh took me from our mother when we were babies. She used it to blackmail me, but I'm free now."

I held her hand, my...