She burst into tears. “I was so terrified of him,” she cried.
“Me too,” I said, and the truth of that statement left her speechless.
Martha reached into her purse and placed a USB memory stick on the table. “Here is everything that I could copy, including more names, more dates, and more concrete evidence,” she whispered.
“I didn’t do it sooner because I thought I could convince them to stop,” she said.
“And were you actually able to?” I asked.
She shook her head slowly. “Ernesto turned into a monster, and Brian had the opportunity to stop him for you, but he simply didn’t have the courage to do it.”
I laughed without any joy in my heart. “How lovely, they almost destroyed me, but it turns out he hesitated for a moment,” I said bitterly.
Martha lowered her head. “I am not asking you to forgive him, in fact, I am asking you the complete opposite,” she said.
“Don’t forgive him, because if you forgive him, maybe I will be convinced that all of this misery had some sort of meaning,” she continued.
I picked up the memory stick and stood up to leave. Before I walked away, she looked up at me with desperate eyes.
“Daniela, please forgive me as well,” she pleaded.
