Chapter 6
I unlocked the bathroom door and stepped out into the hall, feeling like a thirty-one-year-old teenager who’d been caught smoking weed in a school restroom stall.
Vero’s Aunt Gloria frowned at me. I was as shocked by the unmistakable family resemblance as I had been the first time I’d met her, three weeks ago.
Ramón was the spitting image of his mother, but there were plenty of Vero’s features in that piercing stare, too.
She had the same angular jaw as Vero and her son, the same thick dark curls and shrewd dark eyes, and the same deeply thoughtful arch to her brow.
Gloria looked as if she was dressed for work, in a floral silk blouse and a pair of dress slacks, her hair pulled back in a twist. Her feet were stuffed into a pair of house slippers, and a kitchen apron was tied around her waist, making it hard to tell exactly how long she’d been home.
She reeled back, clearly confused. “Finlay? What are you doing here?”
“I … just got here,” I stammered. “Long drive,” I said through a nervous laugh, gesturing to the bathroom behind me.
“Really had to go.” I cleared my throat as Gloria waited for me to get around to answering her question.
“Vero … left a few personal things at my house. I thought she might want them.”
Gloria’s face softened. “It was kind of you to bring them all this way. You should have called Ramón. He could have picked them up for you.”
“It’s no trouble. Vero wasn’t answering her phone, and I was worried. I figured I would just come myself and check in.”
Gloria’s smile faltered. “I suppose Vero already told you her mother took her phone. It’s for the best. You understand,” she said sheepishly.
“Since you’re here, you should stay and join us for dinner.
There’s plenty of food. And I’m sure Vero would like the company.
She hasn’t been herself these last few days.
Ask her to come set the table and help her mother with the groceries.
We can all have a glass of wine, and you two can catch up while I start dinner.
Norma gave up alcohol for Lent. Not me. I was the smart one.
I gave up men. It’s easy to do when you don’t have one,” she said with a wink.
“What did you give up for Lent? Not alcohol, I hope.”
I choked on a laugh. Telling her I gave up lying was probably not the best answer right now. “Actually, I did.”
She patted me on the shoulder. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
So was I. It was nearly impossible to hold my panicked grin in place. “I’ll go tell Vero you’re home, and we’ll meet you in the kitchen.”
I waited until Gloria retreated downstairs, then I scurried back to Vero’s room and texted Javi again.
Finlay: Gloria and Norma are home. They invited me to stay for dinner, and they want Vero to set the table and help unload the groceries.
My screen flashed with an incoming call from Javi’s phone.
“You left the room?!” Vero shouted as soon as I answered.
“Yes, I left the room! I had to pee, and I regret nothing!” I whispered. “Never mind that. What should I tell your aunt and your mother?”
Vero groaned in frustration. Or maybe that was Javi. “Tell her I’m coming.”
I kept the window cracked and pulled her bedroom door shut behind me. Then I headed downstairs to the kitchen, nearly jumping out of my skin as the front door flew open. Norma’s arms were weighed down with grocery bags. She did a double take when she spotted me. I must have looked just as startled.
I rushed to help her.
“Finlay? What are you doing here? We weren’t expecting you.” She looked over her shoulder as she hauled the groceries inside, using the heavy bags to nudge me back into the house, as if she were afraid one of her neighbors might see me.
She bolted the door behind us and set the security chain, taking one last peek through the curtain before leading the way to the kitchen, where Gloria was pouring herself a glass of Merlot.
“Finlay is staying for dinner,” she said firmly. I didn’t think I was imagining the edge in her voice as she went on. “She was worried because Vero wasn’t answering her calls, so she came all this way to check on her.”
Norma’s cheeks flushed pink, and she busied herself emptying the bags. “Where is Vero? She should be helping with dinner.”
They both turned to me.
“Right!” I said, stalling for time. “I … just talked to her upstairs. She was on the phone … my phone,” I corrected myself. “She promised she would only be a few minutes. I’m sure she’ll be down any second now.”
“Probably talking with Javier,” Norma muttered, dropping a bag of potatoes on the counter. She took one from the bag and shook it ruefully at her sister. “You see what happens? Talking to him will only get her into trouble.”
“He’s a good boy,” Gloria said, taking the potato from her and chopping it up. “You know that just as well as I do. He only made a few mistakes. And Vero could just as well be talking to her lawyer. I told her she should call him and tell him about those horrible notes she’s been getting.”
I bristled. “What notes?”
Gloria sighed. “In the mailbox. Taped to the front door. Stuck in the windshields of our cars…”
Norma hacked into an onion. “But they went too far when they spray-painted one of their horrible messages on the front of our house.”
“What do the messages say?”
“Always the same kinds of things,” Gloria said, adding the onions to the skillet. “You’re a thief. Return what you stole, or else.”
Norma wiped her hands on a towel. She opened a drawer, unfolded a slip of paper, and passed it to me. The handwriting matched the note I’d seen in the envelope on Vero’s desk.
How dare you keep what doesn’t belong to you.
“This one was left on my windshield two weeks ago, after Vero came home.”
“Do you have any idea who’s responsible?” I asked.
“Not yet.” Gloria slapped a lid on the skillet and shook a finger in the air.
“But we will. I had Ramón install some of those fancy security cameras. If someone goes near our house again, he’ll catch them on video, and we’ll take it right to the police.
” Gloria checked the time on the stove. “Speaking of Ramón, he should be here any minute. What’s taking Vero so long?
Do me a favor and set the table, Finlay. ” She pointed to a stack of plates.
I carried them to the table and snuck a glance at my phone, searching for a message from Javi or Vero. It was already getting dark outside. If she didn’t get back soon, we were both going to have a lot of explaining to do.
“This is ridiculous,” Norma finally said. “If Vero was on the phone with her lawyer, she’d be done by now. I’m going to see what’s taking her so long.” She wiped her hands on her dishrag and walked out of the kitchen.
I darted after her. “You don’t have to do that, Norma! I’ll handle it! That way you and Gloria can finish cooking!”
“No! This nonsense has gone on long enough,” she said, stomping up the stairs. “You came all this way to visit with her. There’s no excuse for my daughter’s rude behavior.” Norma crested the top step like a tiny tsunami. She stormed down the hall just as Vero’s door swung open.
Vero looked like she’d just rolled out of bed. Her clothes were rumpled, her ponytail had come loose, and her cheeks were flushed, probably from Javi’s stubble. Her eyes went wide at the sight of her mother.
Norma studied her daughter with a scowl. “Where have you been?”
Vero sputtered. “I … wasn’t feeling well?” she said, glancing at me uncertainly. I nodded, and Vero faked a cough.
“How could you be sick? You hardly leave the house.” Concerned, Norma touched her daughter’s forehead. “You’re freezing!” She stepped back to get a look at her. “Why is there dirt on your clothes? And what’s that on your neck?”
Vero clapped a hand over the start of a hickey.
A crash came from outside, like a trash can toppling over. We all tipped our heads toward the window as someone shouted down the street, “When I’m done with you, you’re gonna wish you never came back!”
“It’s Ramón!” Norma said, hurrying down the stairs.
“The cameras must have worked! He must have caught the vandal!” Vero and I ran down after her.
Gloria heard the commotion and burst out of the kitchen.
All four of us charged out of the house into the dark.
We could just make out Ramón grappling with someone down the street.
The two men were rolling around in the neighbor’s front yard.
Ramón held the other man down by the back of his head, smushing his face into the ground.
The man’s shouts of protest were muffled in the grass.
As we ran toward them, Ramón grabbed a fistful of the man’s jacket and rolled him over. Javi scowled up at him.
“What in god’s name is going on out here?” Norma snapped.
Vero slunk silently backward toward the house.
Her mother whirled and pointed a finger at her. “Not one more step, young lady! You’re not going anywhere until I get an explanation. And you two,” she said, rounding on Ramón and Javi. “I want answers, and I want them right now!”
Ramón hauled Javi to his feet. Javi wiped his bleeding mouth with the back of his hand.
“I thought I saw some asshole sneaking around in the dark,” Ramón said, giving Javi a shove.
One by one, the neighbors’ doors began to open. Lenore poked her head out of her house. Her bright yellow tracksuit practically glowed in the dark. “Norma? Is that you? Is everything all right?”
Across the street, Eugene stumbled out of his front door, pushing a walker. “I heard a commotion. Did someone fall?”
Joan wheezed as she shuffled toward the others in her pajamas and robe. “It sounded like a fight! Want me to call the cops?”
“No!” we all said in unison.
“Everything is fine,” Gloria said. “It was only Ramón and Javi.”
Lenore’s face broke into a wide grin. “Look, everyone! Javier is back!” Javi waved sheepishly at the neighbors as they all began buzzing with chatter.
Norma shooed them off. “This is a family matter. You can all go back home.”
Javi rubbed the back of his head and winced as they ambled slowly back to their homes.
“You have no business here,” Norma said to him in a low voice. “My daughter is in enough trouble as it is. She doesn’t need any more.”
“Javi came with me,” I confessed. “He didn’t think he would be welcome in the house, so I told him he could wait for me in the van. He was concerned about Vero. He wanted to see her.”
Norma scoffed. “For three years, he had no problem leaving her alone. Why should he care about her now?”
Javi looked stricken. Even Ramón and Gloria winced.
A car door shut. A woman’s voice carried from the street. “Javi? Is that you?”
Javi’s back stiffened a second before the woman stepped under the streetlight.
She crossed her rail-thin arms over her chest, hugging herself against the cool night air.
It blew a strand of long, dark hair over her eyes, and she raked it back the same way Javi always did.
“I didn’t know you were in town. You didn’t call. You look good, mijo.”
He winced as if the term of endearment chafed.
It struck me how little he looked like his mother.
Not that she wasn’t beautiful or that the resemblances between them weren’t striking.
More like there was nothing about the two of them that suggested they belonged together.
They had the same onyx eyes, but hers were lifeless and dull, and there was a hollowness to her smile.
They stared at each other like strangers.
“Hello, Regina,” Gloria said. “It’s good to see you.”
Javi’s mother spared Norma and Gloria a glance but didn’t acknowledge them.
She grinned at Javi. “When are you coming home? I can make up your old room.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“It’s no trouble—”
“I said don’t worry about it.”
“But I want to—”
“I have a place to sleep,” he said sharply. He gestured to my van, and her face hardened.
“I see.” Message delivered, loud and clear. Javi would rather sleep alone on the bench seat of my cold minivan than spend a night in his childhood home with her.
She turned for her car. The door of the rusted Pontiac creaked when she jerked it open. “You can come and see if I still have room for you when Ramón’s family gets tired of you and decides to give you back.”
Javi’s fists clenched at his sides as he watched her drive away. A door shut quietly at Lenore’s house. A curtain fell closed in Wendell’s kitchen. The soft squeak of Joan’s oxygen cart faded down the street.
A smoke alarm shattered the silence. It was coming from Norma’s house.
Gloria gasped as a faint whiff of charred sugar and bread caught the air. “The capirotada! I left it in the oven!” She ran home to turn it off, her apron flapping as she hurried through the grass.
A siren wailed in the distance. Lenore shouted from her window, “Nobody panic. I called nine-one-one. Help is on the way!”