Chapter Eleven #3
“Something is off. The Delgotto Cartel is very active in the area where Guadalupe was living prior to her marrying Benedict. They ran a very lucrative human trafficking ring in conjunction with five of the ranchers. Benedict was suspected of being one of those ranchers. That came out a couple of years after his death. It was never proved. But if he was, it was more than likely that Guadalupe had been trafficked by the cartel. She came across the border regularly and supposedly worked at the school. I don’t think it was a school.
I need a lot more time to follow all the threads, but I can see very clearly things weren’t right. ”
“How long was she married to Benedict?” Harlow asked.
“Eight years.”
“How terrible,” Harlow murmured. “Living that way for so long without a way to get out. I hope she didn’t have anything to do with his death. It sounds as if her life was difficult.”
“Eight years is a long time to live with an abusive husband,” Vienna pointed out. “It’s possible she snapped. She’d had enough.”
“On the night of her celebration of citizenship?” Stella countered. “That seems as if she may have managed to achieve what she needed from the relationship, and she was ready to move on. Just playing devil’s advocate.”
Harlow rubbed at her aching temples—usually her first warning of trouble.
“Let’s just say if she had anything to do with his death, she’s very capable of playing the long game.
And that’s concerning.” She shook her head.
“I consider her my friend. It would be horrible to think that from the first, she was plotting with someone to harm me.”
“Remember that Guadalupe moved here several years before you did, Harlow,” Raine reminded. “She didn’t come to Knightly with the express idea of harming you.”
“Why would she have a vendetta against you?” Zahra asked. “Have you thought about what the reason could be?”
Stella glared at her best friend. “Seriously, Zahra? No one can have a good enough reason to do what this woman has been doing. I’m sorry she’s had such a difficult life, but all of us have as well.
We know others who’ve had it even worse.
There’s no excuse to sneak around, pretending to be Harlow’s friend, while stuffing threats in her mailbox all the time. ”
Zahra took no offense, waving a casual hand in the air. “I agree completely. There is no excuse, but Guadalupe may think she has one. In fact, she must believe she has a reason or she wouldn’t be doing it.”
Harlow had to admit that made sense, even though she couldn’t imagine what she’d done to the woman who had sold her the home she loved so much. Unless…Her head went up, and her gaze met Raine’s.
“What is it?” Raine asked. “What are you thinking?”
“It’s so far-fetched I’m afraid to even say it out loud,” Harlow admitted.
“I told you about the young girl, she would have been fifteen or sixteen, who was pregnant and wouldn’t sell her baby to my parents.
They had her deported, just taken across the border and dumped.
If she had no family to go home to and the cartel got ahold of her, she would have been so vulnerable, with no one to help her.
She was carrying a boy. That was why the senator was so angry with her: because he wanted a son. ”
Even saying it aloud, telling her friends, it seemed even more impossible that Guadalupe could be the same woman. What kind of coincidence would it be that both of them sought out the peace of the Sierra?
“The age works, doesn’t it?” Vienna asked Raine. “Doesn’t the timeline fit?”
“Do you know where on the border they forced her back into Mexico?” Stella asked. “That would be very helpful.”
“Harlow wasn’t even born until ten years later.” Raine prevented Harlow from having to answer. “I can find out those things, but it will take a little time.”
“I looked for her,” Harlow said. “I wanted to find her and my brother. Half brother, I guess, but to me he is family. I desperately wanted to have a family. When I was a child, I would lie awake thinking about him and how, if he were alive, we would find a place together, and I wouldn’t have to be with the senator and my mother ever again.
It was childish, but it went on for years. ”
“It wasn’t childish,” Zahra said, staunchly supporting her. “Having an older brother sounds wonderful when you need a little protection. Not all families are like ours. Some people have close siblings, and parents actually want them around just because they love them.”
Zahra rarely referred to her family. Her parents had refused to see or speak to her for years.
They both had died without ever reaching out to their daughter.
Her older sister and brother occasionally spoke to her on social media, but it was only after several years of silence.
Both were in arranged marriages, and neither seemed happy.
Her older sister seemed to resent the fact that Zahra lived on her own and could go where she wanted without permission and speak to anyone she wanted to have a conversation with.
Her brother simply gave her lectures saying she needed a man and to come home so he could arrange it.
“Is this going to stir up the worst things in all our lives?” Harlow asked. “I don’t want that for anyone. I honestly don’t know if Guadalupe is the same woman, and chances are very slim that she is.”
“We’re stronger together,” Stella pointed out, her tone firm. “Whatever this is, we’ll figure it out.”
“Let’s really think about it,” Harlow persisted.
“Shabina’s been through hell. You have. Vienna has.
Even Raine.” She forced herself to meet Zahra’s eyes.
“If this involves the senator, I’m not the only one who is going to have to relive some very unpleasant memories.
I already have problems with nightmares, and I know you do too, Zahra. ”
She looked around at her circle of friends.
So loyal. So willing to do whatever it took to help her.
“Zahra had the unfortunate experience of meeting the senator at his worst. She’s been kind enough never to tell anyone just how ugly and depraved he is, but she knows.
She’s been such a good friend to me. It’s bad enough that I’m certain he’s going to show up here, despite me telling him I don’t want him anywhere near me, but the thought of her having to relive even one moment of that meeting makes me ill. ”