─── ･ ｡♡ ･
❛ 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋, 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐔𝐏 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐌𝐘 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐃.
I don't even think that you care like I do.
I should stop; Heaven knows I've tried .❜
A half-god-would-be-god falls in love with a mortal.
It could...
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THE WOMAN IN APARTMENT 5B ATTEMPTED TO STIFLE HER SCREAMS IN THE SAME WAY YULISSA'S OLDEST DAUGHTER DID, AS IF WAILING COULD DROWN OUT THE SOUND OF MISERY FROM GETTING BEAT. When they crossed paths in the hallway, the women exchanged polite nods; Yulissa refrained from probing into the agony thinly veiled in Sally's swollen eyes, and Sally chose not to question why Yulissa's children always asked if it was Child Protective Services before opening the door.
It's not that Yulissa is abusive—well, possibly in the American way—but she isn't American, and it's hard. Life is hard with and without her husband. Her children were raised with an angry man in the house; convincing them that he had left proved to be impossible. And Yulissa is just a woman. At some point, she loved that angry man; she found herself imitating his actions like a pointless act of remembrance, even though she knew better.
So her children screamed occasionally, and Sally would wail like it would do anything against her husband. On the worst nights, when Sally's newborn son would shriek along with her, Yulissa's oldest son, Alvie, would place his headphones over Thiago's ears and play soothing music to drown out the chaos. "Can't we call the cops, mami?" Alvie always asked quietly, the most considerate nine-year-old she has ever known, his voice rasping from a lifetime of learning to hold back his tears.
Like always, Yulissa would shake her head and whisper, "No, papi. It's complicated."
She'd love to kneel to her son like a knight would a king and swear on her mother's grave that she will never allow another woman to endure the kind of abuse her husband inflicted—the same torment her mother and grandmother suffered, an endless cycle of pain and fear that she was unable to end—but Yulissa's stomach is still protruding from childbirth, and Wilmarie was born prematurely, prone to fevers and respiratory issues that left her youngest unable to sleep. Thiago was falling behind in kindergarten. Ilaria needed glasses far beyond their budget, and she could see the discomfort in Alvie's steps, even though he made an effort to conceal the fact that he had clearly outgrown his shoes.
Yulissa isn't a good mother, but she is trying; she is trying in the very same way Sally Jackson tries to be a good wife to a monster for the sake of her child.
In the late afternoon, she found Thiago and Ilaria on the sidewalk, stacking beer cans like a tower. Alvie walked down the apartment complex stairs with labored breath, his flushed cheeks betraying the exertion. In one hand, he held his empty duffle bag; upon his return, he continued to pick up the spilled groceries from the ground, conscientiously collecting each item and arranging them neatly in his bag.
