Chapter 45
Boston
Weeks later
“What if you could find out everything about your family now, without even having to do any research, baby? If there was a report detailing your entire history?”
I’m dressing Valentina for the Halloween party.
She’s going to be a little bee with wings and everything, and she’s the cutest thing in the world, but I’ve just decided that the headband with the little antennas is definitely out.
She’s pulled it off three times already and bursts into laughter when she has the accessory in her hands, and I’ve realized that it’s turned into some sort of game, so I’m giving in to a bee without antennas.
“There will never be a prettier little bee, my love.”
“Aiiaiiiiaiii . . .” she sings with that beautiful smile that melts my heart every time.
Our trip to the mountains was a turning point.
I now know I’m in love not only with her father but with the baby as well.
I still need to get ready. I’m going as a ballerina and Guillermo as a rabbit. I told him his costume should be funny, and he took it literally. When I asked why he chose it, he said Nina loves a cartoon with rabbits and laughs all the time when she watches it.
We also agreed to pretend to knock on his parents’ door for trick-or-treating and thus introduce Nina to the tradition, although it will be many years before she can do it herself.
“Olívia.” Guillermo gets my attention again.
I heard him ask the first time, but I don’t want to think about my past—specifically being abandoned by my biological mother—when things seem to be going so well in my life.
I lift my head to look at him. Guillermo occasionally asks me random questions about the possibility of finding my family.
“Why now?”
“It’s a simple question. If you had the option to know everything about your past, would you want to?”
“Probably, yes. To know the story, I mean, but I don’t know about meeting my mother.
She didn’t want me, so seeking her out could be like forcing the situation, you know?
Besides, I don’t think I could see her as my mother.
I had a mother. A wonderful woman who did everything for me within her means. I never missed anything.”
“So you wouldn’t mind knowing about your origins, then?”
“I didn’t say that. Maybe out of curiosity, but blood isn’t everything. Valentina has my love, regardless of whether we work out or not, and she’s not my relative.”
He turns pale and seems like he’s about to say something, but Joaquín enters, interrupting, “Who’s this uncle’s beautiful little bee?”
Nina starts jumping on my lap and has now become a one-winged bee.
“Thank you,” I say to him with a stern face.
“Don’t be sour,” he retorts, which is so ironic coming from Joaquín that I start to laugh.
He walks over to where I am and kisses my forehead. “That’s much better. That angry expression doesn’t suit you.”
“I’ve been trying to dress her for almost half an hour.”
“She’ll be a unique bee. Nina doesn’t need to fly. Her uncle can carry her everywhere,” he says, spinning her around in the air as if she were flying, and our little girl laughs.
Since the incident with the false theft accusation, Joaquín occasionally sends messages to see how I’m doing. He’s still not Mr. Friendly, but I’ve kind of gotten used to his grumpiness.
“Is everyone ready?”
“I need to get dressed.” I give Guillermo a quick kiss and enter the suite’s bathroom.