Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Jorge
“That was a lovely—and unexpected—meal you treated me to, especially since you loathe going to crowded restaurants where you know people.”
My mother glances at me nonchalantly as she slides into the town car. I grimace as I walk around to the other side. I make sure my expression is relaxed once again before I get in.
“What are the odds you and your broker should choose the same restaurant when it’s such an out-of-the-way place?”
“Her boyfriend may have picked it. I know you’ve always liked it. You reminded me about it before I came on this trip. It’s a lucky coincidence I’m back here in Frankfurt, and you had to be here for your own meeting.”
My mother is a corporate real estate shark.
Like a great white with fangs, not teeth.
She hadn’t planned to be here, but Tío Enrique asked her to visit an office complex that’s just been built.
It went way over budget, and the owner is about to lose the property.
Mamá is here to assess whether it would make a good headquarters once we acquire both companies I’m here for and add a second biotech lab to the holdings.
We’ll pay the overage the current owner can’t afford, which is still less than the amount he’s already paid.
We’ll get it at a relative steal since the guy can’t take another foreclosure after he’s already had two businesses fail in the past three years.
He claims Mamá is here to strong arm him.
She told him she’s offering a gift, and that he’d be rude to refuse it.
“It’s a lucky coincidence you picked the same restaurant.”
“I suppose so.”
She wants me to admit I knew Liesel—that just slipped out, but now it’s stuck—was going to be there.
Why admit something she already knows? That was my argument when I wouldn’t confess to things as a kid.
It didn’t get me out of shit back then, and it won’t get me out of the shit I’m in now.
I didn’t know they’d seat them next to us.
That’s what I fucking get for thinking I could kill two birds with one stone—enjoy dinner with Mamá and unnerve Liesel.
I got exactly what I deserved—heartburn.
I hate crowded restaurants. I hate crowded anything, anywhere.
I didn’t think my mother’s favorite place would be so busy during the middle of the week.
Mamá knew I was trying to listen to their conversation.
She frowned at me once, and I knew she understood exactly what I’d done.
Made me feel guilty as shit until she grinned at me.
I didn’t want her to think I used her memories with Papá to stalk some woman I barely know.
From her knowing expression, I’m as much like Papá as my family always tells me.
Except he didn’t want to crawl out of his skin when he had to make nice in public.
“Jorge, she’s intelligent, observant, tolerant of you—and taken.”
I meet her gaze and won’t look away until she laughs and shakes her head. She looks up at the ceiling of the car, but I know she’s looking beyond that.
“Estebear, see what you did? You’re still a bad influence.”
She’s talking to Papá. She does it aloud to tease my brothers and me, but I know she often speaks silently to him. She says he’s always with her. Her avenging angel. She was always Lucy to him, and he was Estebear to her instead of Esteban.
It reminds me again that I came up with Liesel for Anneliese. I don’t know why. I hadn’t heard the name Liesel since I was like fifteen. Mamá trapped Joaquin, Javier, and me into watching The Sound of Music with her—a movie that still plays an intermission in the middle!
“Don’t blame, Papá. You’re the one who insisted I introduce you.”
“I didn’t say a word about that.”
“You didn’t need to, Mamá. I knew.”
She giggles, and it makes me feel better.
She’s the baby among her siblings, and she’s the funniest of all of them.
But both of my tíos and my tía laugh a lot too.
There’s too much in our lives that brings sadness and pain.
When we can find joy—or at least a reprieve—we take it.
It’s why I invited Mamá to dinner once I knew we’d both be here.
Finding the restaurant Liesel planned to eat at was just the cherry on top.
“That wasn’t just some new guy, Jorge. They’ve been together a while.”
“I could tell.”
I don’t need reminding. I knew she was involved with someone from the background check Joaquin ran before I left New York.
When nothing came up on him, I didn’t ask for more information.
I knew I’d meet him tonight since I hacked her calendar.
It didn’t make it any less annoying having to smile and be polite to the cabrón. Asshole.
He’s probably the nicest guy in Germany, but he’s with her, so he’s a cabrón.
“She’s not a toy.”
“?Mamá!”
The woman exasperates me!
“You aren’t the type to break up a happy home, Jorge.”
Not my fault if I break up an unhappy one.
“I don’t plan to.”
“Even if she were available, you can’t let her get close to you unless it’s for good.”
“I know, Mamá. Even if you and our tías and tíos didn’t warn all of us, I would know that.
I’ve watched Tío Enrique, Javier, and Pablo all meet their soulmates.
I’ve seen all of them question whether they were selfish to fall in love and bring women into our world.
I would never bring anyone near our family if I weren’t sure I could trust them for the rest of my life. ”
She pats my knee. “Bueno. Do you have time for breakfast tomorrow? I have a meeting at nine.”
And just like that, she changes the subject. She won’t belabor the point. She doesn’t have to. She knows her voice is in my head where it will stay until I have the Atlantic between Liesel and me.
“Yes, I’ll hit the gym at six but only go for an hour and a half. I’ll be back upstairs and ready by eight. Should I come to your suite?”
“Sure. It’ll only take fifteen minutes to get to the idiota’s office. From the tremor in his voice on our call today, the meeting shouldn’t take long.”
“Then we can have lunch before I go to Schlossberg & Sons.” I enjoy my mom’s company.
“I’d like that. You’ve been busy lately.”
“It’s March and nearly tax season.” It’s my most creative time of year.
“I know. Doesn’t mean I don’t miss you.”
“I was at your house a week ago, and you complained I cleaned out your fridge.”
“I don’t blame you for that. That was you and Joaquin.”
“Humph.”
I cross my arms and pretend to pout. She slides her arm through mine and leans her head against my shoulder.
I know she misses my brothers and me now that we don’t live at home.
All of us stop by at least once a week just to annoy her.
We leave our shoes strewn in the middle of the foyer, our suit coats tossed on the sofa, and dishes stacked in the sink—for an hour.
Then we clean up after ourselves because we still fear her.
I know she’s not exactly lonely without Papá, but she is alone. Tío Enrique has Tía Elle. Tío Luis has Tía Margherita. Tía Catalina has Tío Matáis. Mamá’s a widow.
She’ll never remarry. Not even the slimmest chance exists.
She says Papá’s spirit is always with her, so she doesn’t get lonely.
But my brothers and I still don’t enjoy knowing she rattles around her house with no one else there most days and every night.
Even now that Javier’s married, the three of us go over there for dinner together at least once a week.
We go separately too. Now Javier brings Madeline when she doesn’t have a rotation as a midwife at a hospital.
“You shall trip over that lip, mijo.”
“You always say that, and I haven’t yet.”
As the youngest of three, I’ve perfected the pout. Doesn’t get me anywhere, but I’m good at it. She chuckles and lets go as we pull up to the hotel.
I’m on the side with the curb, so I get out first. My gaze sweeps our surroundings as I button my suit coat. When I’m certain it’s safe, I offer Mamá my hand. I wrap my arm around her shoulders because it’s chilly tonight and as a shield. We thank the driver as we hurry inside.
Alone, I don’t worry as much about myself or Mamá. But I never want her to be a target because she’s next to me. My brothers are the same. We can be a smidge overprotective. She calls it suffocating. We remind her the apples didn’t fall far from the tree. Not her tree or Papá’s.
She’s nearly a foot shorter than my brothers and me and slight boned, but she’s deadly.
Like as in she cut off a guy’s huevo and sent it to his wife with a bow on the box because he was part of the plot that killed my father.
She swung the first machete that made a head roll when my tíos caught the three brothers who murdered my father.
They did it in front of my brothers and me when I was eight, Javier was nine, and Joaquin was ten.
She ordered Diaz Cartel men to drop the men’s heads into Bogotá traffic to be pushed around and run over by cars like soccer balls.
She had their bodies strung upside down from the busiest bridge in the city.
“Que suenes con los angelitos, mijo.” Dream of little angels, my son.
She’s been telling Joaquin, Javier, and me that since we were born. I close my eyes for a moment as she stretches, and I lean over for her to kiss my cheek. I hug her tightly enough she thumps my back. Something I’ve been doing since I was twelve and outgrew her.
“Te quiero, Mamá.” I love you, Mama.
“Te quiero también.” I love you too.
I wait until the suite door closes, and I hear her bolt it and swing the bar. I nod to the men guarding her door as they shift into place after giving us our privacy. I head down the hallway to my suite, greeting the men outside my door.
I felt my phone vibrate in the elevator and checked the screen. Joaquin texted me. I pull out my phone and unlock the screen, reading as I take off my coat and tie. I stop with my pants halfway down as I read the last sentence.
Joaquin
They leaked the deal again.