Chapter One #2
Then something happened that made me want to live. It might have been one of the miracles my Alex believed in. One of the bright moments that human beings could experience from pure love. It had been a shock but it gave me hope.
I found out I was pregnant. I hadn’t felt well and my emotions were all over the place.
But I’d summed it up to the fact that the love of my life was recently murdered in front of my eyes by my father.
When I realized what this meant, I couldn’t help but feel some happiness.
I carried a piece of sweet Alex inside of me.
He wasn’t fully gone and if I were smart, I could make sure the baby survived so that he would never be gone.
Greed, darkness and evil hadn’t entirely won.
However, I was still trapped in my father’s house and I wondered how I could escape him.
I then thought of contacting my brother Carlos.
During my childhood, he had been a saving grace as he seemed to be the only one that cared about me.
He had always been different from my other siblings.
He always tried to take up for me and make me laugh against all odds.
He taught me about fun which had been a concept I never experienced often.
But suddenly all that changed when my father had sent Carlos away to run his business in America.
I’d cried for days when it happened as in reality, Carlos had been my only real family.
So, I tried to contact him for help, but I couldn’t get any messages out as the women who watched me feared the wrath of my father.
I then realized it was only me who could save me.
I had chosen to be with Alex and to run away. So, I would again make an escape.
Only this time, I would escape to save the life of my baby.
Before I could complete the plan I had set up, my father found out I was pregnant.
He called me all sorts of names and his rage was more than I’d ever seen in him before.
I actually feared for my very life. He promised that I would not like what he would do.
He never told me what that meant and that was further cruelty on his part as I was left to wonder.
Whatever he did with me would be for his own gain though.
Not what was best for me or what was best for my child.
The man wasn’t any kind of parent and never had been.
I’d known this since I was ten when it had been revealed that he had murdered my mother in a fit of rage.
Then one day, he came to me and told me with a cold smile on his face that he’d picked out a husband for me.
His name was Senor Mora and he had to make a very rich and promising deal for him to marry me and give me his name.
He then said that I would not be a Castillo anymore.
While that was a wonderful premise to me, I could only stare at him in shock.
There wasn’t anything that I could do and I honestly didn’t have the courage to try to fight back.
So, I complied with what he had said. I needed to do all that I could to protect Alex’s legacy.
All I could think was that I needed to protect my baby.
Only it turned out to be babies.
I gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, on a bright, sunny day and for a little while, I smiled and believed that everything would finally be okay.
I cradled them in my arms. I chose to name them Alexander and Esperanza which means Hope in English.
Looking at them with pure wonder, I marveled at how life could still be filled with love even after your heart had turned to stone.
This was what my love for Alex had brought to me, despite the evil and tragedy in my life.
Senor Mora stood to the side and watched me. Luckily, he wasn’t a cruel man like my father. He was an elderly man, but he had manners and he treated me with kindness. I respected him more than my father or anyone in his cartel.
But the darkness and evil wouldn’t step aside. It forced its way back into my life.
I only got to hold my babies briefly before my father came into the hospital room with his men and took them from me.
It didn’t matter how much I screamed and cried.
Not even Senor Mora could do anything to stop my father’s men from tearing my babies from my arms. My father probably paid off the hospital staff to turn a blind eye because no one came to my babies’ rescue.
I wept for the loss even as my milk came in and my body had readied itself to be a mother.
A role I would have cherished above all other priorities in life.
That wonderful but horrible day was the last time I ever saw my children…”
Finally, the room went silent as the woman’s sweet voice from the phone stopped speaking and faded into the air.
After a minute or two, Carlos looked up at me as his dark eyes glinted with unshed tears. He then asked me, “Why did you show me this?”
“You are this brother she mentions. Carlos Castillo. So, I have a question…only one. Do you know where her children are?”
His eyes went from tearful to hard as ice as he did not give me an answer.