5. Chapter Four
Chapter Four
C rushed under the weight of his grief and the responsibility he had to his family, Rafael lingered just outside the entrance of the grand parlor. Dozens of relatives and friends quietly moved around the expansive rooms of his family’s estate, murmuring among themselves and participating in the traditional funeral reception. The delicate strumming of guitars played over the sound system, piping the familiar strains of an acoustic version of Paloma Negra across the air.
As much as he wanted to hide someplace private to exorcise his grief, he couldn’t. His mother depended on him. She had lost her son and hadn’t stopped crying in eight days, not from the first painful phone call when he had informed her that Jaime’s plane was missing. All those hours on her knees in church, praying and lighting candles, had come to nothing.
The mangled remains of Jaime’s plane had been found not far off the Florida panhandle. He and Maddie had been strapped into their seats, both dying from the impact of the aircraft into the water. The investigators didn’t have an exact cause of the crash yet, but all signs pointed to a microburst. As much as Rafael wanted to know why his brother had chosen to fly when a tropical storm was churning away in the Gulf of Mexico, there was no point in second-guessing those decisions now.
Jaime was gone. Maddie was gone.
And poor little Jasper was an orphan.
As Rafael entered the parlor, he immediately spotted Sky. Sitting between his mother and Father Obregon, the priest from the San Antonio parish who had come to speak at the funeral, Sky held Jasper as he slept peacefully, his head resting on her shoulder. She rubbed his back and smiled wanly at Sr. and Sra. Contreras as they offered their condolences. As his mother began to weep louder, Sky reached over to hug her. The sight of her gentle comfort proved yet again what a wonderfully kind person she was.
Hating to see his mother in so much pain, he crossed the parlor, stopping every few feet to speak with guests. He found his younger siblings, Lola and Beto, talking with the head of their diocese. The bishop had been a near-constant presence in the house since the news of Jaime and Maddie’s death reached Mexico. He was glad to have the support of Bishop Guerrero, especially for his mother who found such solace in her faith.
Dina stood near a window with Camila. His niece seemed so young and frail as she clung to her mother, and Rafael wished he could take everyone’s pain away. He wished he could go back in time. He wished he had shown up earlier, stopping Jaime and Maddie from leaving San Antonio on Jaime’s plane.
But wishes weren’t real—and this nightmare was.
The sound of Beverly's dramatic howling in a corner where she was surrounded by her cloying friends grated on his nerves. In all the years he had known Beverly, she had been a functioning alcoholic. Now, she seemed to be mixing pills in with the booze. She was a loud, demanding mess who made everything more difficult than it needed to be.
She had been causing trouble ever since he had called with the news of the missing plane. As soon as she left her spa retreat, she tried to wrest control of the situation from him. Instead of letting their PR people handle the news, Beverly had made a spectacle of herself by sharing videos on social media where she sobbed hysterically and accused an invisible enemy of sabotaging Jaime’s plane. Even after Dina scolded her, Beverly continued giving wildly inaccurate information and conspiracy theories that caused a dustup with the Coast Guard and their recovery mission.
Judging by the perturbed look on Dina’s face, she wanted to send Beverly back across the border with a swift kick to her backside. His sister glared across the room and widened her eyes as if to tell him to handle Beverly. He hadn’t ever asked why Dina disliked Beverly so much, but he figured it was for the same reasons everyone else did. Maddie's mother was just a hateful, mean, and dramatic person.
“Rafael!” Beverly snapped her fingers at him. “Come here!”
Stupefied by her audacity, he stood still as guests looked on in shock and distaste. Dina was about five seconds away from hauling Beverly by the collar of her red blouse. Wanting to avoid that outcome, he crossed the room to join Beverly. The last thing he wanted was for his mother to witness an ugly scene. “Yes?”
She handed her empty glass to the younger man he assumed was her boyfriend and waved him off like a servant. “When are we reading the will?”
“Excuse me?” It was the last thing he had expected her to ask, but maybe it shouldn’t have been. The woman was tacky as hell.
“The will,” Beverly repeated as if he were hard of hearing.
He was unsettled by the strange way her mouth barely moved and the stiffness in her cheeks and forehead. “I heard you. I’m asking why you think we would read the will after the funeral.”
“Well, I need to know what I’m entitled to once I take Jasper back home.”
Rafael went rigid. Was this woman out of her mind? Did she really think he was going to let her take Jasper? “You’re not taking my nephew anywhere.”
The words came out harsher than intended, and Beverly tensed. “I’m not asking your permission, Rafael. He’s my grandson, and he’s coming back to Los Angeles with me.”
“No, he’s not.” Rafael remained outwardly calm as anger boiled within him. “He stays here with his family.”
“I’m his family!”
“Since when? Huh? When was the last time you even saw him in person? The day after he was born?”
“I have a very busy schedule! I see him every day when I video chat Maddie!”
The way she could so boldly lie right to his face only proved what an outrageously shameless woman she was. “Really? So, if we go through Maddie’s phone records, we’ll see evidence of all these calls and chats?”
“Well, knowing how corrupt this whole place is,” she gestured wildly around the room, “I’m sure you’ve already had your people wipe her phone records.”
“You are out of your mind.” He stared at her with a mix of contempt and pity. She truly had fallen down a rabbit hole of fake news and conspiracies, probably fueled by her alcoholic benders. “Jasper is a Farias, and he stays here.”
“We’ll see about that!” Beverly shot to her feet and marched across the parlor to where Sky held Jasper. “Give me my grandson!”
Sky flinched and held a little tighter to Jasper. “He’s sleeping, Beverly.”
“And you’re the only one who can hold him while he sleeps?” She reached for Jasper, but his mother intervened and blocked her grasping hand.
“The baby is sleeping, Beverly. You can hold him when he wakes up.”
“When he wakes up, I’m taking him back to Los Angeles with me,” Beverly snarled.
His mother glanced at him with panic and worry. “Rafa?”
“No, she’s not.” He closed the distance with powerful strides. Dina was quick to mirror his movement, and Lola and Beto came from the other side of the room. “I’ve already been very clear that Jasper is staying here.”
“He is my grandson, and he’s an American citizen! If you think I’m going to leave him here with your cartel whore sister, you are crazy!”
There was a collective gasp, and the room fell silent. Dina’s late husband was never mentioned, especially not in Camila’s presence, and if he was mentioned, it was never in the same breath as the word cartel.
Outraged that Beverly would talk about Dina that way, he stepped so close he could feel her foul breath on his neck. With a threatening hiss, he warned, “If you say one more word about my family, you’re going to find out just how far I’ll go to keep them all safe.”
Fear flickered in her blue eyes. “We’ll see about that! I’m going to the embassy!”
“I’ll arrange a car for you,” Rafa said and glanced at his assistant Amado, who was watching from a distance. “A car for the lady, please.”
“ Por favor ,” Father Obregon interrupted gently. He stood up, moving between Sky and Beverly. “I think we’re all getting ahead of ourselves. Jaime and Maddie made provisions for Jasper’s future. We discussed it at length before and after his baptism.”
“See?” Beverly said triumphantly. “I know my daughter, and she would never leave her son in the care of your family, Rafael.”
“Well, ma’am, maybe you didn’t know her as well as you think,” Father Obregon countered, his tone conciliatory and pastoral. “I was with them in San Antonio at their attorney’s office when they made their wills and set up very specific plans for what they wanted for their son should anything happen to them. They left everything in a trust for Jasper and made Sky his sole guardian.”
Rafael glanced at Sky, who stared up at them in wide-eyed panic. Did she know? Had she been keeping this a secret the entire time?
“Over my dead body!” Beverly screeched. “No grandson of mine is going to be raised by this little tramp!”
Before Rafael could react, Dina had grasped Beverly by the arm. “That’s it. You’re done here.”
“Let go of me!” Beverly protested, but Dina yanked hard and kept a tight hold, dragging her from the parlor. Her screams echoed off the tile floors and vaulted ceilings, and the chaotic sounds startled Jasper awake. He began to wail, and Sky hurriedly stood up and practically ran from the room with him.
The sight of her running away brought back memories of the way she fled after their ill-advised tryst in the garden. Would she run away again? Take Jasper far away from his family? From his mother who adored her grandchild and grieved the son and daughter-in-law she had lost?
Refusing to let that happen, he chased after Sky, leaving Beto and Lola to handle the fallout in the parlor. Sky heard his footsteps in the hall, and she glanced back with fear and trepidation. She made a beeline for the nearest door and fled across the grand dining room where his family regularly hosted politicians, celebrities, and even occasionally royalty.
She was quick, even in those high heels, but he had longer legs and caught up with her just as she darted through another side door and into a servant’s hallway. He grabbed her hand and gave a little tug, forcing her to stop and face him. “Sky!”
“Rafael, please,” she pleaded, tears glistening in her green eyes. Jasper had stopped wailing but continued to fuss. She reached into the pocket of her elegant black trousers and produced a pacifier to quiet his cries. “I don’t have the mental or emotional bandwidth to fight with your whole family right now.”
“I’m not here to fight, Sky.” He hated that she assumed the worst of him. Of course, that made him a hypocrite, didn’t it? He had assumed the worst of her when she left the funeral reception. “Did you know?”
She winced at his accusatory tone but admitted, “Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell me? You didn’t think I needed to know?” He regretted the harshness in his voice as soon as she spoke. “I’m sorry, Sky. I shouldn’t—.”
“I just lost my sister, Rafa! The only family I’ve ever had! She was the only one who ever loved me unconditionally. Not my father. Not my mother. No one else but Maddie loved me,” Sky sobbed. “She was everything to me. She was my home, and now she’s gone.”
Feeling like the lowest scum in the world, he realized that he had been so worried about his mother and siblings that he hadn’t shown Sky even a tenth of the care and concern she needed. She had been suffering this whole time without anyone to listen to or help her. Instead of showing her compassion, he had chased her through the house like a lunatic and cornered her in a dark hallway.
He stepped back and instantly wondered if that was the right move. She seemed to deflate even more, her shoulders drooping and her gaze lowering. Did she want him close? Did she want him to embrace her? To hold her while she wept?
Jasper reached up with his chubby little hand and played with the tears on Sky’s cheek. It was a heartbreaking moment. He was gutted by the innocent curiosity of his nephew against the horrific anguish Sky felt.
“I didn’t say anything because Beverly was already being so difficult about the funeral.” Sky wiped her face with her fingertips. “She kept screeching at you about not letting Maddie be buried here in Mexico in the family cemetery with Jaime. I knew if I let it out that Jaime and Maddie had left me as Jasper’s guardian Beverly would dig in her heels and do something terrible like take you to court to stop the funeral. I didn’t want your mother to go through that indignity.”
“Thank you.” He didn’t know what else to say, and he was certain that wasn’t enough.
“I planned to tell you tonight after everyone had gone home. I wanted to speak with you privately to discuss what my guardianship of Jasper will look like. I wasn’t going to just run away with him.” He grimaced, and she scoffed. “I knew that’s what you were thinking!”
“Can you blame me? You did it before, so how was I to know you wouldn’t run again to avoid facing responsibility or rejection?”
“Rejection? Responsibility?” she repeated, her voice cold. “Is that what you think? You think I ran away after the wedding because I was embarrassed by the way you rejected me? Because I couldn’t handle the consequences of hooking up with you? You are unbelievable, Rafael!”
“Wait! Sky!” He called after her as she turned and strode down the hall, each step angrier than the last. “Where are you going? We’re not done talking!”
“I’m done talking with you!”
He trailed her down the hall and out to the foyer, where there was a smaller second staircase that the family used to reach the upper floors. “Sky! Where are you going?”
“To pack!” she hurled back with irritation.
“No!” He rushed up the stairs behind her and cut her off before she reached halfway. “You can’t go. You can’t take Jasper.”
“Yes, I can. I’m his guardian now. Jaime and Maddie left letters for everyone, and the one they left me made it very clear they want him raised in San Antonio in their home.”
“Letters? What letters?”
“Their lawyer has them.”
“Miguel?” he asked, remembering the older man who had been so helpful in handling all the legal headaches of retrieving Jaime and Maddie’s bodies from Coast Guard custody and obtaining the necessary paperwork and permits to fly them across the border for the funeral. “Is that what you two were discussing in the library when I found you with your heads together?”
“Yes. He explained all the instructions and arrangements Jaime and Maddie left for me. He said they were very thorough in their planning because Maddie was so paranoid about something happening to them and Jasper being left alone.”
He could believe that. Maddie had always been a bit high-strung, and she planned every single minute of her life out to the most minute detail. He had no trouble imagining her sitting down at her desk to write letters as a maybe-possibly-someday insurance policy. Jaime would have gone along with whatever she wanted because he loved her so much.
The knowledge that Jaime hadn’t trusted him or their siblings enough to leave Jasper in their care stung. Irritated by that uncomfortable fact, he said, “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
She frowned at him. “What does that mean?”
“You’ve played at being a mother part-time, but Jaime and Maddie were always there. What are you going to do now without that support? Just you and Jasper alone in San Antonio?” He shook his head. “It’s too much, Sky. You won’t be able to handle it.”
“You don’t know anything about me and what I can handle, Rafael.”
“Fine,” he acquiesced, “but what are you going to do when you’re tired and need help?”
“I’ll hire a sitter,” she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“With what money? You don’t even have a job! How are you going to support Jasper and yourself?”
“Jaime and Maddie left a trust. If it’s not enough, I’ll figure something out once things calm down. I’m not afraid of work.”
He hated that she had an answer for everything. Maybe she would be fine financially with whatever life insurance and trust Jaime and Maddie left behind. “Money isn’t enough, Sky.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means a child should be raised with their family!”
“I’m his family!”
“You’re one person, Sky! That's not a family!”
“Says who? You?” She rolled her eyes at his high-handedness. “Not all of us are lucky enough to have brothers and sisters and cousins, Rafael. Some of us have to make do with much less—but that doesn’t mean our families are any less worthy than yours!”
“Yes, but Jasper doesn’t have to make do,” he argued, wishing she would see reason. “He has a real family here. A grandmother, aunts, uncles, a cousin. He has a whole village to help raise him here where he belongs.”
As if on cue, Jasper took hold of the hand Rafael had been gesturing with and then shifted in Sky’s arms as if he wanted to be held. To her credit, Sky didn’t refuse to let go of their nephew. She handed him over willingly, even though it was clear as day that it hurt her to do it. It was as if Jasper had taken his side and spurned hers.
“I think I need to rest for a bit,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper. “Do you mind watching him while I nap?”
“Of course not, Sky. Please, get some rest. We’ll take care of him for you.” He realized belatedly how that sounded, but there was no taking it back. She nodded sadly and climbed the stairs, leaving him alone with Jasper.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Dina hissed angrily when he reached the bottom of the stairs. “Why would you say those horrible things to her?”
Feeling attacked, he scowled at his sister. “Were you eavesdropping?”
“It’s hard not to hear you two arguing. You know everything echoes in this house!” Dina crossed her arms and glared at him. “How could you, Rafa? You know what that girl has been through, and you pick today to bring up the fact that she has no family? That she’s all alone in the world now?”
“I didn’t mean it that way!”
“It doesn’t matter, Rafael! I saw her face! She was crushed!”
“I’ll apologize.”
“It won’t be enough.” Dina shook her head with disgust. “You men,” she sneered. “You feel so guilty about your infatuation with her that you take it out on her and make her feel small and unworthy when really, it’s you that’s unworthy of her. I don’t know what happened after the wedding, but whatever you did, you had better fix it, Rafael!”
“I didn’t do anything!”
“Spare me, Rafael. You forget that I’ve known you longer than anyone else. I can see it in the twitch of your eye that you’re lying.” She pointed out his tell with the tip of her manicured fingernail. “Twitch. Twitch. Twitch.”
Before he could tell her where to stick that finger, Jasper made a strange sound and spit up curdled formula. The foul-smelling liquid spilled onto his suit jacket, and he recoiled at the horror of it.
“ Ay, pobrecito .” Dina plucked Jasper from his arms. “You know what? Your uncle’s face makes me want to puke, too.”
“Hey!” Rafael scolded. “Don’t tell him things like that! He might think you’re serious about me being a bad person.”
“You’re the one who made his favorite aunt cry. He already knows you’re the bad guy.” She wrinkled her nose at the mess on his jacket. “You need to change. I’m taking Jasper back to Mama.”
Cuddling and cooing at their nephew, Dina walked away without another word. He was left standing there, painted with spit-up, wondering how to make things right with Sky. Would she even listen to his apology? Would she consider forgiving him for being a complete jackass?
As he climbed the stairs, he remained irked at Dina for seeing right through him. She had called him out, and rightfully so.
First, a change of clothing, he decided. Then, he would grovel at Sky’s feet.