Part 2: The Shadows Within

When it was my turn to speak, I didn’t look at the judge. I looked at the back of the room, where Lucia sat. She had become my shadow, my mentor, and my strength.

“Valeria,” the defense attorney said, standing up. He was a man with a silver tongue and a shark’s smile. “Isn’t it true that you were overwhelmed? That you told your aunt you didn’t want this baby?”

“No,” I said, my voice surprisingly steady. “I told her I was scared. There is a difference between being afraid and being a murderer.”

A gasp rippled through the gallery. Mrs. Rebeca flinched as if I’d struck her.

“I was fifteen,” I continued, looking directly at Mateo now. “I trusted the person who made my tea. I trusted the boy who said he loved me. I was a child. But the life inside me? It was never a ‘problem’ to be solved with poison and envelopes of cash. It was my future.”