22. Vinny
CHAPTER 22
Vinny
M arisol comes out of the room with a basket full of soiled towels. Her forehead is shiny with sweat.
“Not now, Vinny,” she mutters as she closes the door behind her. I run behind her like an anxious little boy. My shirt is soaked from sweat and I can barely stand still.
“Let me inside,” I beg. “I need to make sure Rosa is okay!” I insist. It’s been three hours since Rosa's water broke and I’m beside myself. The village insists on birthing the traditional way without men in the room, so I'm banned from going inside.
Marisol restocks her basket with clean towels. “The last thing I want is for your wife to go through any more stress.” She pauses, dabbing her face with a clean towel. “Twins the old-fashioned way is not easy.”
“I need you to promise me you’ll let me take her to the city to get help if things get bad,” I urge. I was strongly against a natural birth but Rosa insisted we do things the traditional way. Marisol eyes me with suspicion.
“You know you shouldn’t go into the city,” she warns with a small, wrinkled finger pointed at me. I lean against the wall, remembering what my grandfather saw last week. As Rosa prepped for her birth, he went to the city to chat to another doctor and saw one of my dad’s men. He came racing home to tell me that danger was on the horizon, and he called up all the security to prepare for a potential attack. As much as I want to forget about it, this is the worst time to have anxieties sitting on my shoulders.
“How did they know to come here of all states?” I ask.
Marisol sighs. “They’re like bloodhounds. It’s in their DNA to hunt their prey.” Marisol knows better than anyone what this business means. She lost both her sons to the violence.
“All I know is we have to get these babies delivered,” Marisol continues. “After that, you can worry about the bloodhounds.” I reluctantly accept Marisol’s requests to stay behind. But only for ten minutes. Soon, Rosa lets out a blood-curdling scream that sends me running into the room. I’m horrified to see blood-soaked sheets and Rosa’s face is white as snow.
“What the hell is going on?” I roar.
Marisol looks at me with horror. “One of the babes is breach!”
“Get the truck started. We’re taking her to the hospital,” I demand. I rush over and grab Rosa, wrapping her in the sheets. She feels frail in my arms as I run out to the truck and hold her in the back seat.
“Vinny…please save the babies,” Rosa whispers. Marisol jumps in the driver’s seat and immediately speeds down the dirt path.
“You’re gonna make it, babe! Stay with me,” I softly urge. I rock her and dab the sweat from her head, praying we make it in time. Thankfully, the city is only fifteen minutes away. I run into the lobby with Rosa bleeding in my arms.
“I need a doctor!” I scream. The nurses rush towards us and place Rosa on a stretcher. I run beside them, my heart racing so fast, I swear everyone can hear it. The staff works quickly to get her prepped for surgery. The last I see of her is when she is getting an IV placed in her arm.
“You’ll have to wait outside,” a nurse tells me before closing the door in my face. Marisol holds me back as I sit on the bench outside. Eventually, my grandfather shows up.
“ Hijo,” he whispers, patting me on the shoulder. “May God have mercy on them all.”
All I can think about is the last conversation I had with Rosa. The plans we made to be family and raise our kids differently. The passion I feel for her burns just as brightly. But the possibility of her not making it makes it hard to breathe.
How would I go through life without her? What if the babies don’t make it? The horror of it all makes a lump form in my throat. I can barely stand it.
“I won’t live without her,” I whisper as tears fall down my face. “There’s no point.”
“You still have babies,” Marisol reminds me. “You still have children to raise.”
The tears burn my eyes. “Not without her.”
My grandfather holds me tighter. “He’s in love, Marisol. A man can’t live properly without his wife. I would know.” Everything becomes silent around me. I can’t focus on anything until I know that Rosa is okay. After an excruciating two hours, the doctor resurfaces.
“Are you the husband?” he asks.
I jump to my feet, the dread weighing on me. “Is she dead?”
The doctor shakes his head. “No, no, no. She…survived. Lost a lot of blood but she and your two boys are fine.”
I nearly faint. “Two boys?”
The doctor reaches out and pats me on the side of the shoulder. “Your family is fine. She just needs lots of rest.”
“Can I see her?” I ask. The doctor nods and I run into the room. Rosa is still asleep and our two boys are swaddled in blue blankets next to the bed. I feel my legs buckle at the sight of them. My grandfather and Marisol are right behind me.
“Two healthy boys,” my grandfather whispers. “You are the luckiest man alive.”
I lean and kiss the top of their heads, then move to sit by Rosa. I hold her hand and brush her sweaty hair away from her forehead.
“I have my wife, too,” I add tearfully. “I can’t believe it.”
“We’ll leave you two to it,” Marisol says as she guides my dad out of the room.
I continue to brush Rosa’s hair back until her eyes slowly open. “Babe?”
“My love!” I say as I kiss her.
She smiles. “We’re parents, officially.”
“They’re perfect.”
Rosa chuckles. “They need names.”
I kiss her forehead. “We can worry about that once you’re better.” Rosa nods and closes her eyes again, a drop of tear slides down her face.
Rosa’s recovery is immediate. She has around-the-clock care for her healing, and the boys are under mine and Marisol’s supervision. Every night Marisol has Rosa soak in a special bath to help heal her C-section scar, and then we can feed the boys on schedule. After three days, we settle on naming the boys after my two great-grandfathers — Luis and Fernando. The names are fitting since we plan on keeping the boys in Mexico until further notice at least until trouble finds us.
The week began calmly — a gentle breeze every evening with full three-course meals from Marisol. But when my grandfather and I head to the market to get more tortillas, we spot a familiar face. Joseph Toretto. A hulking, bald guy with a memorable scar running from his eyebrow to his upper lip. We both freeze at the sight of him.
“That’s him,” my grandfather mutters. “He was at the market the last time.”
My heart is pounding. “Joseph Toretto?”
“One of your dad’s boys. I knew his uncle,” he adds.
Suddenly, the safety of Jalisco is snatched away. “Rosa! What about the boys?”
My grandfather tugs on my sleeve and we disappear behind a mango stand. “You aren’t safe. If he’s here that soon after I last saw him, it means they’re out searching. It’s only a matter of time before they find you.”
I start thinking of all the innocent lives that might be lost if they see me, granddad, Marisol and their people who choose to protect us over their own safety. My escape to Mexico now feels extremely selfish.
“What do I do?” I ask.
My grandfather is quiet for a few moments. “You will have to leave Mexico.”
“And go where? Back to the States — where everyone wants to kill us?” I snap.
“I’m talking about you, Vinny,” he continues. “This time it’s for Rosa and the boys’ sake.” It hits me. I may not survive my father after all.
“Who’s gonna take care of Rosa?” I press.
“She has support here. I have connections. But this mess relates back to you. You have to close it out once and for all,” he says. “We’ll make a better plan once we’re back in the village.”
However, the walk from the market to the village is short-lived. Huge, black escalades speed through the village and we hear gunshots. We drop everything and run for the house. It's empty.
“God! They took them!” I cry.
My grandfather runs towards the woods behind the house to a small water well. He unlatches a wooden door where steps lead underground.
“Go,” he orders me. I rush down the steps, and to my relief, I find Marisol, Rosa, the babies, and a heap of the village.
“We heard the trucks coming and I led them here,” Marisol says. Rosa is holding Luis, and Marisol has Fernando.
“What’s going on, Vinny?” Rosa asks in a shaky voice.
“My dad,” I answer. “He’s found us.”
Rosa has a horrified look in her eyes. “What do we do? What about the boys?”
My grandfather closes the trap door and climbs down. “Everyone will walk down the path here. It leads to two neighboring villages. They won’t need to go that far because they think Vinny was in the house they just burned.”
Marisol gasps. “They burned it? Those animals!”
My grandfather sighs. “You will all be safe.” He eyes me, letting me know I’m the one who isn’t.
I help Rosa up and we all continue down the path. It’s a long walk but once we reach safety, I feel more at ease. The rest of the village settles in, and I take Rosa to a small hut with Marisol and my grandfather.
“This is temporary,” I tell her. “My grandfather has connections in El Salvador. That’s where we plan on housing you and the boys until we get things sorted.”
Rosa shakes her head. “How are things going to get sorted out, Vinny? What if they kill you?”
It hurts to see the pain in Rosa’s eyes, but I can no longer shield her from the dark reality of the situation. “Rosa, our priority is raising these boys right. If it means you do it without me—”
“I don’t want to do it without you! We’re supposed to be a family, dammit!” Rosa cries.
I fold her into my arms, kissing her gently. “We are a family, which means I have to do whatever I need to do for you all to survive. If that means laying my life on the line, so be it.”
I draw in a shaky breath. “All my life, I keep searching for a reason to fight. I hate the violence and hustle. But I’m not living passively anymore. I have you. You’re my entire heart and lifeline. I hope you know how much you mean to me,” I finish.
Rosa wipes her eyes. I can’t let her see me cry. I need to be strong for my boys.
“Vinny,” my grandfather calls from outside. “It’s time.”
I kiss Rosa one last time, then give my boys a kiss on their heads. It’s like a dagger to my heart to walk away. But New York is calling me. It’s time to end this war.