you ask is impossible. I don’t love you any more. You love me still, and that is why you want to kill me. If I liked, I might tell you some other lie, but I don’t choose to give myself the trouble. Everything is over between us two. You are my rom, and you have the right to kill your romi, but Carmen will always be free. A calli she was born, and a calli she’ll die.’
“‘Then, you love Lucas?’ I asked.
“‘Yes, I have loved him—as I loved you—for an instant—less than I loved you, perhaps. But now I don’t love anything, and I hate myself for ever having loved you.’
“I cast myself at her feet, I seized her hands, I watered them with my tears, I reminded her of all the happy moments we had spent together, I offered to continue