Chapter 6: The Suitcase Under the Bed
I closed the bedroom door without letting the latch click. Sofía stood near the dresser, still wearing her purple party dress. One sleeve had slipped toward the red mark on her arm, but it did not cover it. The skirt, meant to flare when she spun, hung unevenly where she had crushed it in her fists.
The birthday party continued in fragments beyond the wall. A chair scraped across the living room floor. Someone moved plates near the cake. No one came to check on her.
I knelt and pulled the suitcase from under the bed.
Dust had gathered along its black fabric and around the wheels. I wiped the handle with my palm, set the case flat, and slowly opened the zipper. The sound seemed much louder than it was. Sofía watched the empty halves unfold.
I started with her clothes. Underwear, socks, two pairs of jeans, shirts, pajamas. I reached for more, then stopped. A full suitcase would take too long to pack and be harder to hide. I removed one sweater and folded the rest tightly into a single side.
Her purple dress stayed on her body. Every time I looked at it, I saw the balloons in the living room and the belt swinging from Teresa’s hand.
My own choices were faster. Jeans. Two blouses. A change of underwear. A pair of flat shoes. I left behind anything that needed careful folding, anything replaceable, anything that existed only because I had once expected to remain in this house.
Sofía sat on the edge of the bed. Her feet did not reach the floor. Her eyes followed my hands, then shifted toward the closed door whenever a sound passed in the hallway.
I took the leather belt from where I had hidden it behind my folded clothes. Its buckle felt cold. A dark red smear remained visible on the leather, and I held it only by the clean end. I wrapped it in a grocery bag, folded the plastic around it, and placed it inside the suitcase’s zippered lining.
The financial records went in next.
I had printed the transaction history before returning to the bedroom. The pages showed household money moving in amounts I had never approved, repeatedly directed toward Teresa while the balance I had counted on kept shrinking. I still did not know how far back it went. I knew only what I could prove.
I photographed each page with my phone. Then I slid the originals into a document envelope and put it beneath the suitcase lining with the belt. I closed the interior zipper and threaded a small luggage lock through both pulls. The key went into the coin pocket of my jeans.
If Diego or Teresa found the suitcase, they could still understand what it meant. They could not casually open it and take back the evidence.
I checked the room again for what mattered. Sofía’s hairbrush. Her toothbrush from the bathroom cabinet. The medicine we normally kept beside the bed. Her shoes. I left toys on the shelf because toys took space and because I could not carry our entire life past the living room without being noticed.
That was when I saw the empty place beside her pillow.
The doll should have been there. Sofía had slept with it before her birthday gathering, smoothing its hair and carefully arranging its dress. Now Mateo had it somewhere outside the bedroom. The birthday gift had become the only thing she clearly wanted that I could not pack.
Sofía looked at the empty place too. She touched the wrinkled skirt of her purple dress, then lowered her hand.
I closed the suitcase halfway, leaving room for anything we might need at the last moment. It was heavy enough to slow me, light enough to carry. I pushed it back beneath the bed, but kept the handle facing out.
Footsteps crossed the hallway and paused.
Neither of us moved.
The shadow beneath the door remained for several seconds, then continued toward the living room. I waited until the floorboards stopped shifting. Sofía’s shoulders loosened, though her gaze stayed fixed on the doorway.
I could take her and the suitcase as soon as I found a safe way out. Every extra minute increased the chance that someone would notice what I was doing. But leaving the doll with Mateo meant letting the lesson of that room stand: that Sofía’s belongings could be taken, and resistance could be punished.
I rested my hand on the suitcase handle.
May you like
The safest choice was to leave the doll behind.
I looked at Sofía in her purple dress and understood that I had not yet decided whether I could make it.
