The Paper Swan(3)

“My father will pay you whatever you want,” I said. “No questions asked.” Pleading. Bargaining. It comes easy when you’re about to lose your life.

My declaration earned no response, except for a firm nudge, forcing my head down.

My killer had come prepared. I was kneeling in the center of a large tarp that covered most of the deck. The corners were chained to chunks of concrete. I could picture my dead body being rolled up in it and dumped somewhere in the middle of the ocean.

My mind rebelled against the image, but my heart . . . my heart knew.

“Dear Lord, bless my soul. And watch over Dad. And MaMaLu and Esteban.” It was a prayer from the past, one I hadn’t uttered in years, but the words formed automatically, falling from my mouth like little beads of comfort.

In that moment, I realized that in the end, all the hurts and grudges and excuses are nothing more than floaty apparitions that scatter like pale ghosts in the face of all the people you loved, and all the people who loved you. Because in the end, my life boiled down to three kisses and three faces: my father, my nanny and her son—two of whom I hadn’t seen since we took the dry, dusty road out of Casa Paloma.

Who are the last people you think of before you die?

I squeezed my eyes shut, anticipating the click, the cold, lead-weighted inevitability of death.

Those are the ones you loved the most.





IT WAS DARK. PITCH DARK. The kind of darkness that’s surreal—deep and still and vast. I was suspended in its emptiness, a speck of awareness with no hands or feet or hair or lips. It was almost peaceful, except for the dull throbbing that kept flowing in and out of me. It rolled over me in waves, louder, stronger, until it was crashing and pounding inside of me.

Pain.

I blinked and realized my eyes were already open, but there was nothing around me—nothing above me, nothing below—just the pain, hammering away in my head. I blinked again. Once. Twice. Three times. Nothing. Not a shape or a shadow or murky vagueness. Just absolute, engulfing darkness.

I bolted upright.

In my head.

In reality, nothing happened. It was as if my brain had been severed from the rest of me. I couldn’t feel my arms or legs, or my tongue or my toes. But I could hear. Sweet Jesus, I could hear, even if it was only the sound of my heart racing like it was about to burst right out of me. Each frantic beat amplified the pain in my head, as if all of my nerve endings ended there, in a thumping pool of blood.

You can hear.

You can breathe.

Maybe you’ve lost your sight, but you’re alive.

No.

No!!!!!

I’d rather be dead than at his mercy.

What the f*ck has he done to me?

Where the f*ck am I?



I had braced myself for his bullet, but there was a moment of silence after I’d said my prayer. He picked up a strand of my hair and stroked it gently, almost reverently. Then he whipped me with the butt of his gun, a sharp whack that felt like he had split my skull. The San Diego skyline tilted and started disappearing in big, black blotches.

“I didn’t give you permission to speak,” he said, as I keeled over from the blow. My face hit the deck, hard and fast, but it seemed like everything was happening in excruciatingly slow motion.

I caught a glimpse of his shoes before my eyes closed.

Soft, hand-tooled Italian leather.

I knew shoes, and there weren’t too many of those around.

Why didn’t he pull the trigger? I thought, as I blacked out.



I didn’t know how long I was unconscious, only that the question still sat with me, like a dragon at the mouth of a cave, refusing to budge, ready to unleash the fire of all the monstrous possibilities that were worse than death.

Why didn’t he pull the trigger?

Maybe he planned to keep me blind and drugged and tethered to his side.

Maybe he wanted to cut out parts of me and sell them.

Maybe he’d already scooped up my insides and it was just a matter of time before the anesthesia wore off.

Maybe he thought he’d killed me and had buried me alive.

With each passing thought, pain transformed into Terror, and let me tell you, Terror is a bigger bitch than Panic. Terror swallows you whole.

I felt myself sliding deep inside her belly.

I smelled Terror.

I breathed Terror.

Terror was eating me up raw.

I knew my captor had given me something, but I didn’t know if the paralysis was temporary or permanent.