I washed the sheets seven times and still the strange smell of my husband wouldn’t go away… but when I tore the mattress with my own hands, the truth hidden inside froze my heart and destroyed our eight-year marriage in an instant.

But that wasn’t even the worst part.

“The news report says she disappeared,” I whispered. “The letter mentions a road. Blood. An ambulance.”

Her lips pressed together.

He took a step towards me.

—It was an accident.

I gave another one backwards.

-I don’t believe you.

“It was an accident!” he repeated, louder. “We argued in the truck. She wanted to get out. It had been raining. She slipped. She hit her head. There was blood everywhere. I… I panicked.”

I stared at him without being able to blink.

—And you let her die.

His silence answered first.

Then he spoke.

—He wasn’t breathing.

—Did you call anyone?

He didn’t answer.

—Did you call someone?!

—No.

The word fell like a stone.

No.

He didn’t call.

He didn’t ask for help.

He didn’t give any warning.

He only cleaned.

He hid.

He traveled.

He lied.

And she lay down beside me every night while I breathed in the scent of another dead woman.

Then the sound of a siren was heard in the distance.

Very weak.

But real.

Alejandro heard it too.

He turned his head for barely a second.

And at that moment I knew that everything was about to break down once and for all.

Because when he looked at me again, there was no explanation in his eyes.

There was a decision.

And he took another step towards me.