LILA

I'm going to die. Die. Three words, short, and cruel. But powerful enough to drown me in dread.

Turns out my mom was protecting me all along... even if her version of protection meant breaking Rafael piece by piece. 

Even if her love wore the face of the villain.

It doesn't justify anything. But she loved me, i know that. I was all she had left after he died. All she clung to after Theo left the face of this world.

I was young. Naive. Loud-mouthed. But even then, I could see her pain. The way she cried quietly at night. The way she never let me see her...