For a while, Soledad had believed she could get him to leave.

But when she tried, Matías turned on her.

First he threatened to tell the Mother Superior that Soledad herself had smuggled a fugitive into a cloistered convent — that it was her sin, her ruin.

Then he threatened the sisters directly, naming the frail elderly nuns in Soledad’s care, the ones who depended on her, the ones who could not run.

And when threats were not enough, he used his hands.

Soledad began stealing for him — food, water, clothing, and, from her own infirmary, small amounts of medicine that no one would miss.

She lived, she said, entirely inside her fear of him, and had for years.