Page 4 of Violent Attraction

All that is left is me and my father.

“This will be a good life for you.” My father says seconds before it’s our turn to walk.

I don’t say anything. I just keep my vision straight.

Out of all the lives I envisioned for myself, this wasn’t one of them. This type of life will never be good for me.

The march starts, and soon we’re walking.

Everything about this church is beautiful and like my dress, under different circumstances, I would be admiring it but not today. Not when the only thing that I can concentrate on is the menacing smile that Emilio is currently sporting at the front of the chapel.

A smile that will haunt me for the rest of my life.

The music stops when my father and I approach the altar and as my hand is about to be placed in Emilio’s, a shot rings out.

One shot.

Just one single shot that is so silent that only the people around it would have been able to hear.

But yet, it was enough.

There is chaos. There are screams.

And all I can concentrate on is on the splatter of red that is currently covering my hand.

Is it mine?

Someone else’s?

I don’t know but all I can seem to ask myself is, has there ever been a moment in my life where blood and pain weren’t the focus?

2

12 years old

“Isabella, hija, ven por favor,” I hear my mom call me from somewhere in the house. At the sound of her voice, I put down my pencil and go looking for her.

When mamá calls, you answer, no matter what you’re doing.

I walk through the house to find her. The house itself is big, so big that when we first moved in here I would get lost. There are so many rooms that you would think it was a castle or something. But even with living in a big house, it’s not a lot of work to find my mom.

She’s in the sewing room that my dad made for her, looking down at some pictures.

“¿Si mamá?” I enter the room and as I walk closer to the table, I get a good look at the pictures she is looking at. They are of beautiful summer dresses. A smile takes over my face when I realize what she is doing.

We are going to start a new project.

“Mi niña bonita, I need you to pick a dress pattern that you like. I want to make some for you and your sister since you’ are going to be out of school soon. You need something to wear beside your school uniform.”

I hate my school uniform. Sometimes I wish that we could go to a regular school like the kids on TV get to do, and be able to wear anything we want.

I give my mom a bright smile before picking up one of the pictures. “Can I help you make them?”

My mom gives me the most beautiful smile that I have ever seen. I wish that when I’m older I look just like her and can have that pretty of a smile.

“Of course, mi niña. Let’s pick out the ones that you like and then I will go to the fabric store sometime this week, so that we can get started.”

For the next hour or so, my mom and I pick out dress after dress to make for me and Camila. I pick out all the ones with the flowers for my sister and I take all the ones with the solid colors.