34. Betrayal Runs Deep
34
BETRAYAL RUNS DEEP
Dahlia
The Past
I walk back to the lobby in a daze.
From down the hall, I can see Lettie asleep on one of the hospital chairs with her head resting on Alejandro’s shoulder. Her knees are tucked against her chest and the long, flowing layers of her emerald-green dress cover her legs like a blanket. Lyss speaks in hushed tones to Diego but I can’t find the one person I’m looking for. It isn’t until a pair of nurses and a doctor walk away from the vending machine do I see Brent. He hits the glowing buttons on the number pad and waits for the machine to dispense a water bottle.
He must feel me coming because he looks over. When our gazes meet, his voice trembles as he says, “Is she okay? What did the doctor?—?”
“Did you do it?”
They’re the first words out of my mouth. I can’t take them back.
The water bottle hits the bottom of the machine with a bang. Brent almost leaps out of his own skin.
“W-w-w—” He pauses. Swallows. “What?”
My heart is racing. He wouldn’t have.
He couldn’t.
“ Brent .”
He tries grabbing his water bottle but I slam it out of his hand. His eyes are wide as saucers when they meet mine.
“Did. You. Do. It.”
He’s panting now. Sweating, shaking, trembling. At what point does fury replace the fear and apprehension inside of me? Perhaps it’s the moment he finally opens his mouth and whispers, “It was an accident.”
“ Accident ?”
“I…she got out. But…but I didn’t know. I slammed the door—no, it slipped—it happened so?—”
I push him hard and he trips over his feet, landing against the vending machine behind him. The noise finally captures people’s attention and from where Diego is seated, he’s the only one who doesn’t have his back to us. He gets up and approaches in quick, long strides.
“What’s going on?”
“Say it again.” Brent tries to move away but I push him again—harder this time. The machine rattles behind him. “You sick son of a bitch…how could you?”
“It was an accident ,” he defends.
Diego goes very, very still.
“What is he talking about?”
My eyes well with tears. Anger like I’ve never known turns my vision red. I could kill him.
I could actually kill him.
Brent’s beady eyes narrow to slits as he takes in Diego with a scorching glare. “I’m beginning to find your interest where my wife is involved, a little concerning.”
“No more concerning than what will happen to you if you don’t answer my question.” Diego’s voice rumbles like a roar, coming from deep within his chest. “ What was an accident?”
In a haughty tone, Brent replies, “Why don’t you ask Karina yourself? Seeing as how the two of you are so close.”
“ Brent .”
He steps forward and gives Diego a push but I immediately stand between them, preventing Diego from attacking before I’ve gotten the answers I need.
“You think I haven’t noticed what goes on between you two? My wife leaves a room, you follow. My wife enters a room, you’re the first one to approach her. I used to think it was pathetic; a grown man trailing behind a woman he can’t have like a lovesick child. Maybe I was wrong,” he snarls. “Maybe I shouldn’t feel guilty that she got what she deserved. Infidelity probably runs in the family. She must’ve learned how to be a cheating slut from her deadbeat fath?—”
In an instant, the muscles and tendons of my right arm contract as my fist connects with the center of Brent’s face. Cartilage and bone break beneath my knuckles and a vicious crack fills the air, telling me his nose has broken. Pain radiates up and down my arm but I hardly feel it. The punch disorients Brent severely but he scrambles to restore his balance and fixes me with a near murderous look. I feel Diego behind me; he grabs my shoulder as if to send me behind him but when Brent steps forward as if to pounce on me I meet him there. I seize him by the lapels of his suit jacket and pin him against the vending machines.
“Did you slam the car door on purpose? Did you crush Karina’s foot on purpose?” I shove him hard enough for his head to whip back and hit the vending machine behind him. “ Did you ?”
Brent made a mistake in underestimating me. He never thought I was capable of biting back and in the event I ever mustered up the nerve, he knew I’d be doing it alone because Karina would never defend me. For years, it went on like this. The two of us arguing and being dismissed as having a “sibling-like” dynamic when in reality, I always sensed and feared he was capable of more. People’s underestimation and glorification of him protected him from real consequences and weakened whatever valid arguments I may have made. Not this time.
I have Diego with me. Someone who believes me.
Brent begins to hyperventilate.
“I—”
“Say it.”
The guilt-ridden confession tumbles past his lips. “I didn’t mean to.” And then with unexpected malice, he whispers, “But I’m glad.”
An insatiable desire for violence overwhelms me. Images of myself at Moises and Bertha’s with a knife in my hand flash before me. In and out, in and out, the blade sinks deep into warm, human flesh, spilling blood all over the blue and white tiles until I can no longer see the flowers.
I imagine doing it now. Taking whatever is closest to me—a needle, a pen, a scalpel—and plunging it into Brent over and over and over again until the only way to identify his corpse is through dental records. Images of horror flutter through my imagination faster than I can count them but none are so grotesque or fear inspiring than what I can unleash with a simple command to the man beside me. I release Brent and step back.
With a single breath, I say his name.
“ Diego .”
Before the last syllable has left my lips, Diego swings.
I watch it all happen in slow motion. Hear people’s voices as if under water.
Diego grabs Brent by the front of his shirt and throws him into the vending machine, over and over again until his face breaks through the glass display. Doctors and nurses and staff alike all try to intervene, but Diego sends Brent flying through the waiting room doors like a sack of flour and I follow after him. Alejandro is up in an instant and grabs the chair Diego is about to use to crush Brent’s skull. I think he says something, but I can’t hear a word. When Alejandro tries to intervene again, I push him out of the way. He’s so taken aback, he freezes and stares at me like a deer caught in headlights. Diego grabs Lettie’s chair and swings it against the side of Brent’s head.
Security rushes in and it takes four officers to pull Diego off Brent, who at one point lies flat on the ground and takes enough punches to the jaw to loosen every one of his teeth. And because that isn’t enough, once the officers have Diego detained, I land a few heavy kicks of my own, stomping and puncturing his sides with the sharp point of my heel. Alejandro eventually manages to pull me away.
I know he’s speaking to me, I just can’t hear a word. Is this what happens to a person when they shut down? Is this the numb, quiet place Alejandro goes to when I can’t reach him?
Because I can’t think of anything else.
I want Brent dead .
Alejandro
“ W hat’s going on?”
Karina arrives on a wheelchair with a doctor behind her—Dr. Brosnan, I think. Lyss’s aunt.
I can only imagine what this must look like to her. Brent, bloodied and crawling across the linoleum floor toward her, while Diego is being forced into a chair by four struggling security guards all the while Dahlia is practically unresponsive. I wish I could snap her out of this stupor but her eyes turn a shade of black I’ve never seen before. Deep down, I have to confess that seeing her like this is almost terrifying.
She speaks but I can’t hear her above the noise.
“What?”
“He did it on purpose,” Dahlia says. And then, louder. “He did it on purpose!”
Karina blinks several times. Unable to make sense of what’s going on, she grips the arms of her wheelchair and tries to pull away.
A pair of nurses help Brent into the nearest chair. His shirt is soaked with blood, eye swollen shut, and he must be bleeding from somewhere on his scalp because his hair is dark and damp. After a few strangled breaths he delves into a coughing fit.
Dahlia frees herself from my grasp and approaches Karina. “Come on, we’re going.”
“What do you mean we’re going?” Karina grabs onto the wheels and prevents the chair from being maneuvered. “What happened to Brent!”
Karina tries approaching her husband but Dahlia stops her. It’s then that Dr. Brosnan steps in. “Dahlia, stop?—”
“No! No.” She smacks the doctor’s hand away and then looks at Karina. “He did it on purpose.”
“What are you talking about!”
Karina once more tries moving her chair but this time Dahlia kneels in front of her, blocking her path.
“He told me. He…he slammed the car door. Kay,” she reaches out and places a gentle hand on her cousin’s cheek, “I’m so sorry. Diego was standing next to me when he confessed and?—”
“He didn’t.”
Her shoulders deflate. “Kay, I know this is really hard but I don’t think it’s safe for you to go home with him.”
“Dahlia.”
“He hurt you. And you can’t walk or defend yourself?—”
“He didn’t do this.”
“Kay—”
“I don’t believe you.”
The world around us falls quiet.
Lyss and Lettie exchange looks. Diego brushes off the security guard trying to hold him in place and leans closer to listen. As for me, I feel immobile.
It’s like watching a car crash in real time.
“Wh—” Dahlia clears her throat. “Karina…”
But the woman sitting in the wheelchair isn’t Karina. She lacks her warmth, her delight and exuberance. The woman in front of us is dead eyes in an empty shell.
“I said I don’t believe you. It isn’t true. Brent would never. It was a woman on a bicycle.”
Dahlia flinches. “You told me it was a man on a motorcycle.”
“No. I didn’t.” This time when Karina grabs the wheels, she’s able to move in a different direction. “I want you to leave.”
It takes Dahlia a few seconds to find her voice. “Have you lost your mind? I’m not leaving you here with him!”
“You mean my husband? The man your boyfriend’s savage brother nearly beat to death in a hospital emergency room?”
Her cold, sharp monotone makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
“Get out. I don’t want you here anymore.”
Each word hits Dahlia like a bullet. I catch her just before she falls.
Her breathing is short and rapid and she grabs onto my wrists where her nails dig into the sensitive flesh there. I think she’s trying to wake herself up from a nightmare but doesn’t realize who’s holding her.
“You can’t be serious.”
Karina whips around. “I am being serious. I think I’ve tolerated enough from you over the years.”
“ Tolerated …” she whispers.
“But you’ve gone too far this time.” Her eyes are blank as they gather with tears. “I know you’ve had issues with Brent in the past but this is low, even for you. To lie about something so serious?—”
“I’m not lying !” Dahlia cries out helplessly. “He told me! I was standing right. There. Diego was with me. He said it in front of us! Brent slammed the car door on purpose.”
“Are you really so desperate for love and attention that you’re willing to blow up my marriage over a lie? Just so you can have the satisfaction of saying you told me so? I hurt my foot. It was an accident. I may never dance again and you’re out here plotting to turn me against my husband.”
Dahlia’s breaths come in short, shaky pants as she struggles to defend herself. “Karina?—”
“I coddled you when you were little because your father abandoned you and your mother was dead but I won’t anymore. You’ve gone too far this time, Dahlia. You aren’t worth ruining my life,” she says. “Get out.”
“But—”
“Dahlia.” I grab her coat and put it over her shoulders. “Let’s go. I won’t allow you to stand here while she speaks to you that way.”
“I’m not leaving without her.” She grits her teeth. “I’m telling you, I know what I heard.” She points a threatening finger in Brent’s direction. “And if you don’t speak up, you pathetic fucking coward?—”
I grab her hand and pull her close to me, lowering my lips to her ear. “Ni una palabra más. Hay demasiada gente aquí.”
Her fist clenches.
“What are you waiting for? Leave .”
Dahlia’s back straightens. “In the morning?—”
“No. I won’t be seeing you in the morning or ever again.”
Dahlia is too stunned to speak. I try guiding her toward the exit but she frees herself from my grasp in a final attempt to talk some sense into her brain-dead cousin. “Please, Kay…come with us. I promise you’ll be okay. We’ll make sure you never have to see him again.”
“The only person I never want to see again is you . I want you gone from this hospital and gone from my life.” Karina’s blank stare burns holes into my skin. “People are watching. Don’t embarrass yourself any further by staying.”
Lettie springs into action then. She gathers up our things—my coat, Dahlia’s purse, Diego’s phone on the coffee table—and gently takes hold of Dahlia’s hand.
“Come on, Dee. We don’t have anything else to do here.”
Karina turns away and the emergency room slowly flickers back to life. The staff return to work, the receptionists pick up phones, and the doctors return to their patients. The nurses around Brent give him a quick once over to examine his injuries, and Dr. Brosnan pulls Lyss aside, likely to discuss what just transpired.
Lettie is able to guide Dahlia away from it all but only as far as several steps because at the last minute, Dahlia turns around and the room falls quiet again.
“The next time he hurts you, because there will be a next time,” she says. “I want you to remember this moment and know you deserve it for the way you’ve treated me.”
This time when Lettie wraps an arm around Dahlia’s shoulder, she follows. Diego trails after them, but I stay behind and wait for the nurses to take Brent into one of the examination rooms to be treated.
Lyss is still with her aunt but the moment we make eye contact, she rushes to my side.
“Stay with her, please”
She nods frantically. “Of course, I was never going to leave. I’ll call first thing in the morning.”
“Make sure her parents know. Dahlia lied and told them Karina went out with her dance company instead. If we aren’t going to be here, then her parents need to be.”
“I will. I’ll do that now.”
Lyss reaches into her pocket for her phone and places a call. Dr Brosnan returns to Karina’s side and takes the handles of her wheelchair, ready to take her away, but I kneel in front of her, blocking her path.
“Don’t listen to her. She didn’t mean?—”
Karina interrupts me. “Yes she did.”
Dr. Brosnan and I exchange knowing looks in silence.
“Kay, the only thing I care about is your safety.” I reach for one of the notepads on the side table, strewn across a pile of medical pamphlets and magazines. Dr. Brosnan notices and reaches into her whitecoat for a black pen she hands to me. “I’m going to give you my phone number. Keep it in a place your husband won’t find it. If something happens…or if you just want out, I want you to call me. Okay?”
I scribble my number across the notepad and fold the paper twice so it’s small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. She doesn’t move or make any acknowledgement of my presence but when Dr. Brosnan eventually turns the wheelchair and guides her away, I watch her fingers curl around the paper.