Main Dishes

Julian’s voice didn’t sound sleepy. It sounded clear. Just like how he spoke to the neighbors after breaking something in the house. —“You’re going to slip up there,” he said. —“It’s raining.” I pressed the notebook against my chest. I scanned the area for another way out. The roof was a rectangle fenced by low…

The door slammed behind me with a dull thud, but in my head, it felt like an explosion. I didn’t look back. If I had, I might have hesitated… and I couldn’t afford that. Not today. The city air felt cold against my skin, but my hands were sweating. I gripped my phone tightly, as…

I held the sweater in my hands for a long time. “My little girl, Alma…” The words kept echoing in my head like a whisper that wouldn’t go quiet. Alma. That name awakened something in me that I couldn’t explain. A warmth, but also a fear. Like standing on the edge of a memory that…

But the content… My fingers started to tremble as I scrolled through the conversations. There were no ordinary medical messages. No ultrasound photos, no doctor’s advice. Instead… there were contracts. Sums of money. Instructions. “The transfer must be done quietly.” “The original mother must not make contact under any circumstances.” “The DNA report will be…

Mauro froze in front of the screen. For the first time since I’d known him, he didn’t look like a doctor, a husband, or a man in control of everything. He looked like a startled child with blood on his hands. —“Turn that off,” Mrs. Elena said. Her voice no longer sounded elegant. It sounded…

Mariana dropped her phone. She didn’t scream. She couldn’t. The image kept moving from the floor, the screen still lit, showing that other Mariana who didn’t breathe like her, didn’t look like her, and didn’t seem entirely alive. In the video, her grandmother raised her hands. Not to defend herself, but to calm her. —“Sweetie……

I sat in the car for a few minutes, my hands tightly gripping the steering wheel, my breath short and shallow. It doesn’t make sense. None of this makes sense. My brother was dead. We buried him. I heard the dirt falling on the casket. I heard my mother’s screams. I saw it all… or…

The cell phone almost slipped from my hands. The boy in the rusty crib had dark hair plastered to his forehead, chapped lips, and a fabric bracelet tied around his ankle. He wasn’t a baby. He was a boy, maybe five years old, skinny as a twig, wearing an oversized t-shirt and huge eyes that…

The question fell like a stone into still water. No one answered immediately. Valeria’s breath hitched in her chest. She didn’t lift her head, but she knew that question wasn’t just a courtesy. It wasn’t empty. It wasn’t the kind of question rich men ask to fill the time. It was a question that demanded…

The photo didn’t just fall—it tore my world apart. My hands began to tremble as I reached down to pick it up. Derek… but not the Derek I knew. Not the Derek who had held my hand and said we could run away. This Derek was standing next to another man—a man I unfortunately knew…