Chapter 20
Kairo~
When Triana had texted, asking me to meet her, I hadn’t expected this. After confessing that she’d had a meltdown the day that we’d had sex, I had expected that Triana might have some regrets, but nothing like what she’d just said.
Nevertheless, it was hard to fault her for losing her shit.
While I was struggling with how to navigate our relationship, her entire world was falling apart, and I couldn’t imagine what that might feel like.
With family being everything, I couldn’t imagine what it’d feel like to have my parents turn on me, not to mention wondering which side my brothers would take.
All in a matter of weeks, Triana had lost her sense of family, security, and falling in love with me had done nothing but complicate her life more.
So, yeah, I got it.
Anyone with even one ounce of compassion could see how Triana would be entitled to be losing it a bit, but her plan to flee to Mexico was crazy.
Even if she could make it all the way to the border, Mexico didn’t fuck around.
They were anti-anything American, and their border patrol was known for shooting illegals the second that both feet were on their land.
There was no chance for an explanation or anything like that; Mexico didn’t care.
Now, while Canada wasn’t as violent, there was no question of Triana being able to make it to Canada.
She’d have to make it through Flower Realms and Ivory Meadows undetected to even get close to the Canadian border, and that probability was extremely low.
Her Hispanic features were too prominent to pass for an Asian or Caucasian, so Mexico was still her best bet, even if the idea was crazy as hell.
The problem right now was that she was serious.
Triana was serious about taking her chances in Mexico, and I couldn’t let that happen.
I couldn’t allow her to put herself at risk like that, but I wasn’t sure what to say to talk her out of it.
I could point out how dangerous it was, but the woman wasn’t stupid, so there really wasn’t anything that I could point out that she hadn’t already thought about.
Right now, it was clear that she just didn’t care.
“Okay, just...let’s talk about...let’s discuss the details,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “Have you thought about your house? Your car?”
Triana let out a calming breath before she said, “I have enough money in my savings account to pay off my car, so I can...I can make a quick payment to...to take care of that.”
“And your house?”
She was quiet for a second before saying, “Since I don’t plan on ever coming back here, then the bank can foreclose on it. My plan is to empty my bank accounts after paying off my car, so...so it’s not like the mortgage company can take my money.”
“What about your cellphone?” I asked. “They can track-”
“I’ll buy a burner phone,” she quickly stated. “I’ll scrub and delete all of my social media accounts, my emails...everything that the police can look into. I’ll get rid of it all.”
“And what of Tomasco and Sonia?”
“I can’t tell Tomasco without him stopping me, so I’ll...I’ll let Sonia know, and then she can tell him the details after I’m gone,” she said, and though it seemed as if she’d thought this all through, even the best-laid plans had blind spots in them.
“Okay, but...have you even ever been near the border?” I asked, hoping that I wouldn’t set her off with my questions.
“No, but that’s what the internet is for,” she answered, her voice a little cooler. “I can do a satellite search of the area to see what I’m dealing with.”
“And once you get into Mexico? Do you even know where to go?”
“No, but...but I speak and understand Spanish fluently enough to figure it out,” she pointed out, but that wasn’t entirely accurate.
“Baby, you and I both know that American accents differ greatly from the Mexican ones,” I told her. “You might be fluent in Spanish, but your clear accentuation of the words will be noticed by almost everyone in that country.”
“So, you’re saying that I don’t belong anywhere?” she spat, and the hurt in her voice was killing me. “I’m too American to blend with the crowd in Mexico, but I’m also too open-minded to fit in with the people of Rancher Hills.”
“That’s not what I’m saying,” I quickly assured her. “I’m just saying that...that the devil is in the details, and I think that you should give this some more thought when you’re feeling less emotional.”
“It’s all that I’ve thought about for two days,” she said, her voice a bit steadier now.
“Okay, well...since you’ve given this so much thought, where do I fit in?” I asked, though there was no way that I’d ever leave with only some two-day half-ass plan in place.
“Well, since you’re too dark to pass for Hispanic, I was...I was thinking that maybe I could pass for being a light-skinned Black female,” she hedged, and I could appreciate how she was trying to word her idea without being offensive.
Now, while she had a better chance of passing as Black than I did of passing as Hispanic, Triana could never pass as being a Black woman.
Her hair was too straight, and her skin tone just wasn’t dark enough, no matter what she wanted to believe.
She’d have to wear a disguise, and while that might work, getting into Mexico was just too damn dangerous.
I also couldn’t do that to my family. Did I love Triana? Yes, I did. However, causing my family a scandal that they’d never recover from was not how I wanted to repay them for everything that they’d done for me. I loved my family, and they’d be left holding the bag if I left like this.
So, that left me with only one choice.
Rather than try to talk her out of it, I was going to show her how difficult her plan really was.
I was going to show her that running away wasn’t the answer.
Yes, doing it legally might take years, but it was the right thing to do, and given who my father was, it was the only avenue available to us.
“Okay...but...but not today,” I told her. “Not this week.”
“But-”
“Just hear me out,” I said, interrupting her. “While you’ve had time to think about this, I haven’t been given any time to figure anything out on my end. I...I’m just asking for some time, baby.”
“How long?” she asked, and the hope in her voice was enough to make me feel like shit, but the end would definitely justify the means in this case.
“Give me a week,” I told her. “Give me a week, and then we can plan to leave the following weekend. Since I work Monday through Friday, it’ll give us a two-day head start before my family begins to worry or look for me.”
“Okay, okay, okay...” she chanted quietly. “That...that’ll give me some time, too. I...I still need to figure some things out myself.”
I let out a sigh of relief, hoping that the time would also give her a chance to calm down and see that her plan really wasn’t feasible.
I could only hope that the time would help her see just how dangerous this was and that we really did have other options, though I wasn’t going to say any of that to her right now.
“Are you going to be okay?” I asked, seriously needing to know. I didn’t have Sonia’s phone number to ensure that someone checked on her, so I needed to make sure that she was okay.”
“I’m fine,” she semi-lied. “I’m...I’m okay.”
“Baby, I need to be sure,” I told her. “I’m worried about you.”
“No, I’m fine,” she insisted. “I promise.”
Given no choice but to believe her, I said, “Okay, but I want you to call me every night. I know that we already do that, but...but I need you to do this for me, okay?”
Triana nodded. “Okay...yeah, I can do that.”
After a few seconds, I asked, “Did you want to stay? Talk some more?”
She immediately shook her head. “No...I...no.”
“No?”
“Maybe we should...maybe we should stop meeting here,” she suggested, making my stomach sink. “We don’t want to...we don’t want to get caught now that we actually have a plan in place to finally be together.”
Yeah, I was an asshole, and the hope in her voice made it official.
“Call me when you get home, okay?” I ordered. “Please, baby.”
Triana nodded again. “Yes, of course.”
Per usual, I walked with her until I couldn’t go any further legally, but I didn’t immediately head back to my car.
Instead, I walked back to the oak tree, then stared across the creek at the cherry blossom tree, and for the first time in my life, I found myself wishing that our nation had never been segregated in the first place.
For the first time in my life, I was looking at life through the lens of someone who finally couldn’t have something that he’d wanted, and that was the very definition of an entitled asshole.
Truth be told, I didn’t deserve Triana Medina.