"Oh." His mouth hung open, realising why Lorena had mentioned Alma earlier on.

"Anyway, to survive after we lost everything, I had to be married off." He felt her hands on him tremble, her voice thinning out. He pulled his arms away and covered her hands with his instead. She looked at their hands joined together, then up into his eyes.

"Go on." He urged, squeezing her hands gently.

"Yeah, I was pretty young then, so I had no say in anything. I got married to Hector, and just as you may guess, it was a nightmare. He was all kinds of abusive to me---" Her voice broke, and he...