My sister and I switched identities and made her husband repent for his actions.

So I was sent away.

Ten years inside San Gabriel Psychiatric Hospital on the outskirts of Toluca teaches you strange things. It teaches you the exact weight of silence. The rhythms of locked doors. The comfort of routines so rigid they leave no room for surprise. It also teaches you where to put your rage when you are never allowed to show it.

I put mine into discipline.

Push-ups. Sit-ups. Pull-ups. Running in tight circles in the yard until my lungs burned. I made my body strong because it was the only part of me they couldn’t truly own. I learned to speak less, observe more, and wait.

In a strange way, I was not unhappy there. The rules were clear. No one pretended to love me while planning to break me. No one smiled and then betrayed me in the same breath.

Then Lidia came to visit.