After ten days confined to Casa Ordoño by Doña Valentina’s endless chores, Luzia finally insists on attending mass. Valentina relents only because it would look dangerous if Luzia stopped appearing publicly as a proper Christian, and Águeda refuses to serve as a chaperone. Valentina orders Luzia to return within the hour, dismissing the need for confession.

On the way to San Ginés, Luzia is approached by a well-dressed man who knows her name and offers her a new position on behalf of his mistress at Casa Olmeda, with better pay and conditions. The offer jolts Luzia with hope of escape from scullery work. Moments later, she sees a wagon being loaded with the belongings of the Inquisition’s alguacil, including a trunk of “books and papers,” and the sight reminds her how quickly lives can be overturned.

During mass, Luzia clings to the possibility of Casa Olmeda and fingers Valentina’s pearl, telling herself God may have opened a path. But the wagon of seized books pulls her into memories of her mother, Blanca Cotado, dying unclaimed in a pauper’s hospital and being buried under Christian rites; Luzia recalls her father whispering forbidden Jewish words and Luzia dragging him away in fear of inquisitorial attention. The shame and terror harden Luzia’s resolve not to end erased and powerless.

As Luzia leaves the church, her aunt Hualit grabs her and pulls her into a secluded chapel, furious that Luzia’s “milagritos” have made her the talk of Madrid’s elite. Hualit warns that if there is any hint of heresy, the Inquisition will seize Luzia, and that even as a conversa she will still be treated as a Jew; miracles belong to the Church, not servant girls, and public wonders invite charges of witchcraft or Judaizing.

Luzia argues that she cannot stay trapped in a life of grinding labor and claims she would rather risk a quick death than a slow one. To turn her brief fame into something tangible, Luzia asks Hualit to sell Valentina’s pearl earring; Hualit agrees, calling it a bribe, but demands an end to the milagritos. Luzia refuses to swear it, silently bargaining for “only a few” more chances, while Hualit sends her back out with the grim reminder that their family has never been lucky.