Blinking through the haze, I turned my head slightly and froze. Hector was sitting beside me.
“You’re awake,” he murmured, his voice rougher than usual.
I swallowed, my throat dry. “Why are you here?”
His gaze flickered with something unreadable. “I needed to see if it worked.”
I wanted to scoff, but the pain was too much. I shut my eyes, exhaustion pulling me under again.
Days passed. The recovery was slow, and Hector and Hera were there through it all. It was strange, seeing Hector—cold, ruthless Hector—handling me as if I were fragile. He barely spoke, but his presence never wavered.
The day the bandages were removed, my heart pounded violently in my chest. I took a deep breath and faced the mirror.
I gasped.
Hera had done it. The face staring back at me wasn’t mine. It was hers. Francheska Falcon.
I reached up with trembling fingers, touching my new features. The same high cheekbones, the same delicate lips. The same woman Hector had once loved.
I turned to him, searching his face for a reaction. His eyes darkened, his hands curling into fists at his sides. He looked like he had seen a ghost.
“Hector—”
Before I could finish, he grabbed me and pulled me into a crushing embrace. His body trembled slightly against mine.
“Alicia,” he murmured, his breath warm against my hair. “We need to make this worth it. You and Francheska deserve justice.”
His words sent a shiver through me, but the intensity in his voice, the raw, restrained fury, made my breath hitch. There was something dark, something deeply personal in the way he said it, as if every syllable carried the weight of his torment.
“It was Sergio De Santis,” he whispered, his voice thick with something unspoken, something lethal. “He forced himself on her. Again and again. He broke her in ways no one could see, made her feel powerless, worthless.” His grip on my arms tightened, his fingers digging into my skin, as if grounding himself in the present, as if stopping himself from completely unraveling. “He didn’t just hurt her,” Hector continued, his tone laced with venom. “He destroyed her. He made her feel like nothing, like she was just another pawn in his twisted games. And when she had no way out… she ended it herself.”