Chapter 2: In the Middle It’s Warmer

By the fifth night, I could not hold my tongue anymore.

“Why do you always have to sleep in the middle?” I asked.

Lucía froze with her pillow in her hands. Her face tightened, and for a moment I thought she might cry.

“In the middle it’s warmer, sister,” she said softly. “In my village, when a woman first comes to live in her husband’s family home, she gets scared at night. Sleeping between family keeps the bad dreams away.”

It was a strange answer. Too soft. Too rehearsed. Too sad.

I wanted to be kind, but resentment had already started twisting inside me.

By the tenth night, even the neighbors were whispering that something felt wrong in our house.

Every evening, the sound of Lucía’s blanket brushing against the stair railing announced her trip upstairs like a ritual none of us had agreed to… Continue Reading ⬇️