Chapter 31 #2
Sebastian nodded and we fell into silence, my obvious lack of small talk turning into awkwardness. The last time I saw him was when my family saw me for a few hours after I graduated basic training. That was just over four years ago.
My mind wandered back to Shiloh and the newfound information about her ex—ex-husband. Or, fuck, I guessed they were still married seeing as how she went missing.
And he was still looking for her.
My stomach dipped and I felt guilty for wallowing in what was a blessing to have my family here but felt more like an inconvenience. Shiloh would have loved to be in my position. To have this family to love and support her.
We re-entered the airport, and I guided us towards the elevators. Ruthie stepped up on the other side of me after pressing the down button as instructed by her dad. I could feel her stare on my face. I glanced down with a wide smile, noticing just how much she looked like Eden.
“Hi, how was the airplane ride?” I asked her.
She looked past me at her dad and I swallowed. She didn’t know me and was obviously shy.
I eyed her Bluey t-shirt and leaned towards her, stage whispering, “That’s my favorite show.”
Her eyes went wide with astonishment before a smile broke out on her face. “Me too.”
I smiled back and straightened, warmth filling my chest as the elevator doors opened. I let them go first.
Ruthie and Benji stopped to stare at all the various artifacts and memorabilia displayed in the glass cases along the long hallway that led to the car rental counters.
When we finally made it to the counters, Sebastian left us to sit and wait. Eden placed Benji into one of the empty seats and he immediately stood up, holding onto the back of the chair to watch the people around us.
“Qué e’to?” he asked, pointing to a sign on the wall. “Bus!”
“Yeah,” I said with a smile, making him turn his head of curly brown hair to face me. “That’s a bus. It’s a shuttle bus.”
He stared at me, studying my face before shouting, “Bus!”
Eden shushed him, placing a hand on his back as he wobbled trying to turn his body around to face me.
“Utie, bus!”
I was beginning to wonder if maybe he didn’t speak any English. If maybe they were only speaking Spanish to him at home or maybe he went to a Spanish-only daycare. Shit, I didn’t even know if he went to daycare. Was my sister working?
Ruthie paid him no attention and instead tugged on Eden’s hand. “I’m hungry,” she whined.
“I’ve already told you, your options are a granola bar or a fruit pouch,” Eden said looking down at Ruthie.
Ruthie groaned, “I don’t want that. I want lunch.”
Eden sighed, clearly tired and trying to remain patient.
“We’ll have lunch as soon as we get to the house,” I said. “How’s a turkey sandwich sound?”
Ruthie seemed to be debating whether or not that sounded alright when Benji grabbed my arm, “Sammich?”
I nodded. Well, maybe he does know English. “Yeah. You like turkey sandwiches?”
“Sammich!” He said, bouncing on his toes, his grip on my arm tightening as he kept his balance. “Want sammich!”
Seb joined us holding up a set of keys. “All set.”
I nodded and pulled out my phone. “I’ll text you the address. It’s not too far. Only about a twentyish minute drive once you get out of the airport.”
Seb nodded and I helped Benji down to the floor. “Do you want help getting everything into the car?”
“No, we’re good,” Eden said, grasping Benji’s hand. “Go meet up with Mom and Dad. We’ll see you at the house.”
I nodded and gave a final wave before turning on my heel and towards the short-term parking garage where the rest of the family was waiting.
◆◆◆
My hands were fidgeting with the can of soda in front of me on the island. We’d just finished lunch, and I was alone with Sebastian at the island counter. The tension was palpable and I couldn’t stop myself from breaking the silence.
“Hey, I have kind of a random question.”
“Yeah, what’s up?” Sebastian asked with an interested gaze.
“Um, so, it’s about Shiloh and her brother.”
Sebastian swallowed, blinking in surprise. “Okay,” he said slowly. “What about them?”
I sighed, my stomach flipping with nervousness. “Did you know that he abused her?”
Sebastian looked like I had slapped him as he flinched at the question. “Wh-what? Where the hell did you get that idea?”
I licked my lips and cleared my throat. “Shiloh told me…before she died.”
Sebastian adjusted his position in his chair, brows furrowed in disbelief and confusion. “What exactly did she say?”
“It was more like what I saw. She had cigarette burns on her, and she tried explaining it to me, justifying her brother’s actions, but he was the one who did it to her. Said it was supposed to make her stronger and learn not to cry.”
Sebastian frowned, his eyes dropping to the counter as he stared in thought.
“I had no idea,” he said with a sigh. “I mean, he was intense. Acted more like her father than her brother, and I guess you could call it sparring or wrestling or whatever, he wanted to make sure she could defend herself when she was home alone. But…he burned her, on purpose?”
“Among other things,” I said with a solemn nod. “She said he used to give her lessons in how to not cry when she was in pain, that it started when she was eight, that she was the one to initially ask him to do it—to burn her, but it sounded like it escalated from there as she got older.”
“Jesus, eight? That would’ve made us twelve or thirteen.” He shook his head. “Yeah, man, I had no clue.”
“You never suspected that he was, I don’t know, a little off in the head maybe?”
“No,” Sebastian said adamantly. “He loved Shiloh. I mean, like, he practically raised her. Their dad,” he scoffed, “their dad was a real piece of shit.”
He winced glancing around the room to make sure none of the littles heard him, and I followed his gaze, both of us relaxing when we realized they were ingulfed in a particularly loud game of Jenga with Baba and Esty.
“Yeah, I gathered as much. I, um…sorry if this is intrusive, but I heard from Jae about your family’s involvement with this gang in the area. Los Siete?”
Sebastian’s face scrunched with regret.
“I’m sorry about that. My mom told me Jae had called and was asking questions about the gang. Is everything alright?”
“No, yeah. Everything’s fine. It was, well…I wasn’t around when the whole family moved. I wasn’t aware of why you all moved, at least not the real reason. And Jae told me about it. Told me about what your mom had shared, about your…”
I trailed off when I noticed Sebastian’s jaw tick.
“Theories,” he supplied. I winced and he shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. No one else believed me then either.”
I wished I could tell him the truth, relieve him of the guilt and endless wonder. Again, my mind drifted to Shiloh and how much I wanted to be with her right now. How I missed her already even though she’d only just left this morning.
“I know I would have believed you,” I muttered, fidgeting with the can.
“Thanks,” he said with a sad smile. “I wish a lot of things, but I wish I’d had known about it all sooner. Wish I hadn’t been so na?ve.”
“Me too,” I nodded in agreement.
“What do you mean? You believe me? You think she was in the gang?”
I sighed, mentally debating what exactly to share. “Let’s just say that if you were right, it would explain a hell of a lot.”
Sebastian nodded, chewing his bottom lip in thought.
“Can I ask…you don’t have any contact with any of those family members that were in the gang, do you?”
Sebastian looked a little offended but shook his head, nonetheless. “No. And I wouldn’t want to. I hope they’re all dead, if I’m being honest here. Especially my uncle.”
“Your uncle?”
Sebastian sighed, pausing a moment to take a sip of his iced tea. “Yeah,” he muttered softly, eyeing the living room. “Fucker deserves to die. Painfully.”
I grimaced.
“Sorry,” Sebastian winced. “Pedro, uh, wasn’t a good person. Tried to do you-know-what to me a handful of times when I was a kid. Thankfully my mom intervened, and he got bored when he realized that he couldn’t manipulate me.”
I shuddered, my lip curling with disgust. “I’m sorry. That’s awful.”
Sebastian waved his hand in dismissal.
“Do you know much about what happened when the mayor was arrested?”
“No. Honestly, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it in the first place, you know?
There wasn’t anything even in the news either.
When my mom told me about everything, I was completely shocked, didn’t really believe her at first. But looking back, it makes sense.
Explains how the charges against my dad were able to disappear.
I guess it’s really a testament to how much my mom was able to protect my innocence as a child that I didn’t realize what was happening under our own roof. ”
“Charges? He was arrested with the mayor?”
“No, no. This was when I was a kid, like nine. He was abusive to me and my mom. I finally got the courage to go to the police about it. I guess the gang swept it under the rug, because they never came to the house or arrested my dad. He gave me the beating of a lifetime when he found out, and I learned my lesson never to involve the police again. My mom managed to get us out six years later with the help of some fearless social workers in Dallas. They got us a restraining order against my dad, and I guess whoever he knew in the gang never bothered to help my dad get us back, so we got to move on with our lives. My mom, she had overheard my uncle and dad talking. Found out that my dad was taking a job with my uncle working on some farm or something. She knew that once we moved onto that property we’d never leave, so we left in the middle of the night and never looked back. ”
“Damn…so he was a member too?”
“Yeah. I think my dad had just been a socio up until that point, but my uncle had been a Ghost for as long as my mom knew him.”
“A socio?”
He rocked his head from side to side. “Yeah, just a term for someone who was involved but not a full member.”