"Who are you?"
Naiara's words hung in the cold air of the cave, heavy as stones.
The man felt them hit him, not in the chest, lower, somewhere he hadn't even known existed until she had woken it up.
Outside, the sea kept crashing against the rocks. Inside, silence.
He didn't answer. Not right away.
The flashlight on the ground cast uneven shadows across their faces.
Her eyes glimmered, not only from the trembling light, but with something far more dangerous, clarity.
She had seen. She had understood. Or at least, she knew something didn't fit.
Naiara took half a step back, her spine brushing against the damp stone wall.
"Don't make that face," she whispered, her voice trembling. "Don't try to… calm me down. Not this time."
He stood slowly, every movement careful, as if the air itself might shatter. His hands stayed open, visible.
"Nay… you're tired, you're in shock. You've been through… "
"Don't you dare tell me I'm imagining this," she cut him off, her eyes flashing. "Don't."
Silence.
He closed his mouth.
She pointed at his arm, her gaze fixed on the place where the scar should have been.
"You had it," she murmured, almost to herself. "I remember. I remember when you rolled up your sleeve that night, at the port. I saw the mark. I touched it."
She swallowed hard, then looked straight into his eyes.
"Where did it go, Leo?"
Hearing that name on her lips, at that moment, hurt him more than the wound on his neck.
"Naiara…"
"No. Answer me. Where is the scar?"
Instinctively, he glanced at his forearm, as if by some miracle it might appear now.
Smooth skin. No trace. Of course not.
He took a deep breath, eyes darkening as he exhaled.
"It's not what you think."
She laughed short, humorless.
"Oh really? Because it seems pretty damn simple to me. You're not Leo. And I'm a fool."
"You're not a fool," he growled under his breath. "Don't say that."
She stepped toward him, trembling hands, chin high.
"You kidnapped me," she said, enunciating every word. "You took me on that yacht, made me believe you were the only person I could trust. You kissed me, you touched me, you said my name like… like… "
Her voice cracked. She wiped her eyes angrily.
"And instead?" she whispered. "Who are you? A lookalike? A lunatic? What the hell are you?"
His chest tightened. He'd prepared himself for many things, to kill, to die but not for this.
"I saved you," he said quietly. "You know that."
"Saved me from who?" she shot back, voice sharp. "From them? Or from yourself?"
The question hit them both.
He lowered his gaze, jaw locked.
Silence stretched between them, taut as wire.
"Talk," she said, her voice low but fierce. "For once in your life, don't lie to me."
He looked up again. A vein pulsed at his neck, close to the cut.
"I'm not Leo," he finally said.
The words dropped between them like a stone.
Naiara froze, lips parted.
Her brain seemed to slow down, struggling to connect those three simple, devastating words.
"What… did you say?"
"I'm not Leo," he repeated, softer. "That man isn't me."
She took a step back, pressing her shoulder against the rock as if it burned.
"He's my brother."
Her heart stopped or at least, it felt like it.
For a moment, she couldn't breathe.
"Your…" her voice barely came out, "brother?"
He nodded once, slow.
"Twin."
The word echoed through the cave like a distorted soundwave.
She stared at him, unblinking. Her face drained of color, fists gripping the hem of her sweatshirt until her knuckles whitened.
"You're telling me…" she began, but stopped, afraid of her own words. "You're telling me that… since the moment you took me… I've been with a stranger?"
He opened his mouth, but she cut him off, her voice rising, raw.
"You made me believe you were him!" she screamed. "You let me call you Leo! You looked at me like I was yours, when you had no right to… "
"It wasn't like that," he snapped, teeth clenched. "It wasn't a plan. It wasn't calculated."
"Oh no?" Tears shone in her eyes. "You kidnapped me, inserted yourself into my life, warned me about my father, took every piece of my breath and that wasn't calculated?"
He flinched.
"I was only supposed to get you out," he said quietly, his tone hard. "To take you away from Miguel and from my boss. That's all. It was work. Just work."
He spat the word like it was poison.
"And then?" she hissed. "Then what did I become? A distraction? A weapon against your brother?"
He clenched his fist, knuckles cracking.
"Don't talk about what you don't understand."
"Then explain it!" she yelled. "I'm asking for the truth, all of it! Who were you working for? Did Leo know? Was he in on it?"
Each question struck like a blow. His throat burned.
"No," he said, each syllable deliberate. "Leo didn't know. And he doesn't. He… he would have done things differently."
"Meaning?"
"He'd have watched you from afar. Followed orders. Put the mission first, then you."
He dragged a hand down his face, frustrated.
"I couldn't."
Naiara looked at him as if seeing him for the first time.
The light from the torch carved hollows under his cheekbones, making him look older, broken.
"You weren't supposed to feel anything, were you?" she whispered. "You said that before."
He closed his eyes, cursing himself.
"And instead?" she pressed. "What happened instead? Did you enjoy it? Did you take what he hadn't yet… "
He stepped forward, eyes flaring dangerously.
"Don't finish that sentence."
She ignored him.
"You kissed me like I was yours," she went on, voice trembling but sharp. "You made me feel safe. You gave me something that…" she stopped, tears finally spilling, "that I thought came from him. But it was you. Only you. How am I supposed to know now… what I feel?"
He stared at her, breath ragged.
"What do you mean?" he asked hoarsely.
She laughed again, bitter, hollow.
"I mean I don't know if I love you… or him," she said, her voice breaking. "I don't even know who I love anymore! You are him and you're not. You have his eyes, his scent, his body… but you're not him. And whatever I feel when you touch me, when you look at me… I don't know who it belongs to."
He looked at her, unable to breathe.
"Naiara…"
"Don't call me that," she snapped, putting invisible distance between them. "You have no right to call me anything."
She took a breath that sounded like drowning.
"You stole Leo from me," she whispered. "And you stole me from myself."
He took a step toward her.
"No," he said with a calm that cost him everything. "No, I won't let you say that. I didn't steal anything. I kept you alive when everyone else would've left you to die."
"And you lied to me," she shot back.
He opened his hands, defeated.
"Yes."
He didn't even try to deny it.
"But every time I touched you," he added, voice low, "every single time… it was me. Not him. And what you felt wasn't for some perfect soldier or the ghost of your father's lies. It was for me, even if you didn't know it."
She stared at him as if he'd just torn the floor out from under her.
"And you think that makes it better?" she asked, voice trembling but sharp. "You think it helps to know I gave my body and heart to the wrong man?"
Silence. Only the sea.
"I… " he began.
"No," she cut him off. "Enough. I don't want to hear your voice."
She turned sharply toward the cave's entrance. He moved to stop her.
"Naiara, wait. It's dangerous out there. You don't know what… "
"I don't care!" she cried, spinning back toward him. Tears streaked her face, but her eyes burned. "I'd rather die than stay here, asking myself who the hell I am."
She hesitated, then whispered: "I don't know who you are anymore. And I don't know who I am. I can't stay here."
And she ran.
Out of the cave like lightning, her footsteps echoing against the rock. The night swallowed her, the forest closed behind her.
He stood frozen for a second, his brain lagging behind his heart. Then he ran after her.
"Naiara!" he shouted, bursting out into the night.
The cold air hit his face, the wound on his neck throbbing with every stride, but he didn't stop.
Through the trees, he saw only darkness, heard only the whisper of leaves and snapping branches.
"Naiara, stop! Please!"
No answer. Only the wind and the sea roaring their grief.
He stopped for a breath, hands on his knees, lungs burning. He stared into the black forest, as if sheer will could pierce it.
"I'll find you," he whispered, breathless. "Even if I have to die like him. I swear I'll find you."
Then he ran again, vanishing into the dark.