Page 31 of No Sweeter Poison

Karina shrieks. “What?”

“It’s a long story.” One I wouldn’t even know how to lie my way through. “Are you sure you don’t want to think on this for a few days? Maybe cool down?”

“No,” she tells me. “I can’t. I have to go home. I’ve been packing since I woke up.”

My heart drops. “Karina…”

“I know this was supposed to be our last summer together. A final prima vacation before everything changes but I can’t stay. Not with Brent thinking the worst of me. What will there be to go home to if last night ruins our relationship? If he cancels the wedding?”

There’s still time, I think. Tell her the truth. Tell her you’ve been kidnapped. Call the police, the embassy, the damned President of the United States if it’ll get me out of here faster.

I open my mouth to tell her everything that’s happened—we got run off the side of the road, Alejandro had a gun, I woke up in this strange place with no memory of how I got here—but the words stop halfway. They claw their way up my throat, sit on the tip of my tongue, and just before tumbling past my lips, dissolve like seafoam against a rocky shore. Even the lies I conjure up in place of the truth are only half formed and I realize I can’t tell her anything.

I love Karina more than I fear for myself. If I tell her the truth, she won’t stop until she finds me and that could put her in danger. If I call the police, Alejandro and his family could hide me somewhere farther, deeper, before help gets here. I still don’t know what they want with me and before I go bringing hell down on my own head, I need to find out.

“Of course, I understand.”

“I do not want to leave you in a foreign country by yourself.” She exhales a shaky breath. “But I also don’t want you to leave early because of me. You worked so hard to save money for this trip—”

I say, “Karina.”

She falls silent.

Every word out of my mouth feels like pins and needles on my tongue.

“Go home. I’ll be fine here, I promise.” I wipe a stray tear from my cheek. “Aren’t you always telling me how I need to be adventurous? Be young and stupid and crazy? Let me stay here. I can have a self-discovery journey worthy of any great romcom. And when I get back, we can talk all about it.”

The other line is quiet for a while. And then she says, “Dahlia?”

“Yes?”

“I love you,” she tells me. “I mean I really, really love you. And thank you.”

This feels like goodbye.

But isn’t it?

“There isn’t anything in the world that I wouldn’t do for you. If I can accept Brent as an in-law, I think I can accept a few months back-packing through Europe—even if it is by myself.”

She laughs through her tears. “Not entirely by yourself. Don’t forget your European lover.”

My heart clenches. “Yeah…him too.”

“Listen, I have to run. My flight is in less than two hours.”

“Right, right, of course….wait, Karina!”

“Yeah?”

I hold my breath.

If this is the last time I speak to her, what do I want to say?

“I’m so glad you’re leaving.” Escaping. “I promise, don’t feel guilty about it. I’m so glad.”

Glad that you get to go home, even if it’s without me.

“You’re the most important person in my life. Without you, I wouldn’t know who I am or where I belong. You’re all the family I have…all the family that matters. I love you, Karina. More than anything else in the entire world. I love you, Prima.”