Mi hermana gemela recibía golpes diarios por su marido abu.sivo. Mi hermana y yo intercambiamos identidades e hicimos que su marido se arrepintiera de sus actos.

I lifted his sleeve before he could stop me. And I felt something old and dormant awaken inside me.

His arms were covered in marks. Some were yellow and old. Others were recent, purple, and deep. Fingerprints, belt lines, bruises that looked like maps of pain.

“Who did this to you?” I asked in a low voice.

Her eyes filled with tears.

-Can’t.

-Who?

She broke down completely. As if the word had been suffocating her for months.
“Damian,” she whispered. “He hits me. He’s been hitting me for years. And his mother… and his sister… they do too. They treat me like a servant. And… and he hit Sofi too.”

I remained motionless.

—To Sofia?

Lidia nodded, crying now without strength.

—She’s three years old, Nay. He came home drunk, lost money gambling… he slapped her. I tried to stop him and he locked me in the bathroom. I thought he was going to kill me.

The whirring of the spotlights disappeared. The whole hospital shrank. All I could see was my sister in front of me, broken, silently pleading, already a three-year-old learning far too soon that home can be a battlefield.

I stood up slowly.

—You didn’t come to visit me—I said.

Lidia raised her face, confused.

-That?

—You came here for help. And you’re going to get it. You’re going to stay here. I’m leaving.

She turned pale.

—You can’t. They’ll find out. You don’t know what the world is like outside. You’re not…

“I’m not the same person I used to be,” I interrupted. “You’re right. I’m worse for people like them.”

I approached her, grabbed her shoulders, and forced her to look at me.

—You still expect them to change. I don’t. You’re good. I know how to fight monsters. I always have.

The bell signaling the end of visiting hours rang in the hallway.

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