All he had thought about was getting his family out of Chile. In Sweden, he wanted Salomé and the children to be safe, to be free from the evil that he had seen for the first time. He believed Sweden would afford them a new life. A clean slate, the chance to start over. Clearly the suffering Salomé had endured in the Villa Grimaldi had affected and transformed her from the young, idealistic girl she had been when he’d first met her. But Octavio too had endured a life-altering experience, although on the surface it was less obvious than Salomé’s. He had nearly lost what was most precious to him in the world: his one, all-consuming love. He had spent countless nights lying in bed wondering if his wife was dead or alive. Wondering if she was undergoing horrific beatings and brutal interrogations due to his actions. He had been humiliated in front of his in-laws by his inability to protect their daughter; he had shamed himself by not realizing that he had placed both their lives and his wife’s and children’s in grave danger.
