They Mocked Her as Worthless — Until Fate Delivered Her Into the Hands of an Apache Warrior, and a Love Story No One Expected Began

Will you treat her with respect or will you return to the military prison? His words hung in the air like a threat that both prisoners understood perfectly.

Imena found her voice for the first time since arriving.

I didn’t ask to be here either, she declared with a dignity that surprised everyone present, even herself.

But we’re both here, so we’ll have to find a way to make this work.

His words were direct, without self-pity.

And Tlacael looked at her with renewed attention.

After the captain left, raising a cloud of dust, Jimena and Tlacalel were left alone in front of the cabin, two strangers united by circumstances neither had chosen.

Silence stretched between them like the desert itself, vast, uncomfortable, but full of unexplored possibilities.

“I’m not going to pretend this is a real marriage,” Tlacael finally said, crossing his arms over his bare chest.

“You’re an imposition of the Mexican government, a way to humiliate me more than they already have.”

His words were harsh, but not cruel, as if he were laying down ground rules for their forced coexistence.

“I understand,” Jimena replied, surprised by her own calm.

I didn’t choose this either.

My family sent me here to get rid of me.

I suppose we are both prisoners in different ways.

It was the first time she verbalized the truth of her situation so clearly, and she felt a strange liberation in doing so.

The first few days were a careful dance of avoiding conflict.

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