Neither Abel nor I speak as he pulls off the driveway. I feel humiliated. Mortified. What just happened in that house is only now fully dawning on me, and all I can do is sit here in the passenger seat with my knees drawn up under my chin and my face turned out the window so he won’t see my tears.
“Take your boots off the seat.”
“Fuck you.”
He drops it. I’m surprised when he doesn’t retort or reach over and make me take my boots off his precious seat, but he doesn’t. Maybe on some level, he’s been impacted too?
I wipe my face with the sleeve of my oversized sweater, glad I wore it, glad to have the protection of it. It’s when we’re pulling into the parking lot of the hospital that I turn to study his face in profile, mouth tight, forehead creased.
His hate has aged him. Made him ugly.
“Why did you make me do that?”
“It was his request.”
“You could have said no.”
He pulls into the circular drive and stops before the sliding glass front doors, then turns to face me.
“It needed to happen. If you weren’t a virgin, or even if De La Rosa claimed you weren’t after the wedding night, we’d have no recourse. The entire family would be punished.”
“Do you have any human emotion in there, Abel? Anything at all resembling empathy?”
“Empathy is for the weak, Ivy.” He checks his watch like I’m holding him up. “If you want to see Dad, you’d better head in.”
I narrow my eyes. “You’re not coming to guard me? Make sure I don’t run away?”
Shaking his head, he shifts his gaze to the street, absently watching traffic.
“What is it? Are you upset by what you did?”
“Don’t be stupid,” he says, looking at me again. Eyes dead again.
“No, you’re right. That was stupid. I’m going to warn you now, though, if you ever raise a hand to our sister or try anything like that with her, I will kill you. I will murder you with my own hands. Do you understand me, Abel?”
He laughs. Well, sort of. It’s more of a snort. “Once Dad dies, I’ll take over guardianship of her. And do you know what I will do with her? I’ll sell her to the highest bidder.”
“You ca—”
“Don’t worry, I’ll wait until she’s of age. And when I do, there won’t be a damn thing you can do about it. So, go visit Dad. Hurry. Maybe your words will bring him back.”
“I’m going to kill you.”
“Only if your husband doesn’t kill you first.”
His words take me by surprise, and I waver.
Someone knocks on the window, startling me. I turn to look and find a tall man in a dark long coat and blond hair standing outside. He nods to Abel.
“That’s James. He’ll take you home when you’re finished. You have one hour.”’
“One hour?”
“I would have given you all day, but you’re not being very nice, are you?”
I open my mouth, but he puts up a hand.
“Don’t, Ivy. Just don’t. Go before I change my mind altogether.”
Is he going to steal this from me too? “Please, Abel.” I feel my eyes fill up again.
“Please, Abel,” he mimics, making his voice higher than it is.
I give him the finger and push my door open. I have one foot out the door when he calls my name.
“Ivy.”
I turn.
“It’s tomorrow tonight.”
“What’s tomorrow tonight?”
“The big day.”
“What?”
“At midnight.”
“Tomorrow?” Cold washes over me.
He checks his watch. “Fifty-seven minutes.”
“I hate you,” I tell him and step out of the car, then pass James, who follows me through the sliding glass doors into the hospital.