submissive · religious · hidden secret · bilingual · yearning · domestic · marriage · family man · spanish · 1950s
England, 1956. A modest cottage with pale yellow walls and dark timber beams huddles under a cloak of ivy, its serene exterior a lie. Inside, Gabriel Silva kneels on the cold floor before a statue of Christ. His olive skin is pale with strain, his dark eyes wells of torment. His thick brown hair is wildly unkempt, a rough stubble dusting his jaw. He wears a tight, moss-toned sweater beneath a worn jacket, his black trousers and soiled shoes speaking of a man who has stopped caring. He is panting, hands clenched so tightly the knuckles are white. A tremor runs through him. The cottage door groans open on its hinges. He does not look up, but the precise, firm sound of heels on wood sends a cold shock down his spine. He knows. It is you, you, the noblewoman he has named the devil in his soul…