15. Karina And Diego Have A Secret
KARINA AND DIEGO HAVE A SECRET
Dahlia
I’ve suddenly lost all fluency in the English language.
“Wha—” I choke on my own tongue. “How—”
My cousin buries her face in her hands and stumbles onto the breakfast nook bench behind her.
“You…you can’t be.” I utter in disbelief. “Who the Hell is the father!”
Lyss pulls out a stool and sits down. “See, this is what I mean. Nicole Kidman at AMC.”
I walk over to her. “Did you and Brent have a moment?”
“No.” She groans into her hands.
“Karina, we’re past embarrassment. If you had a moment and slipped up—”
“Oh my God!”
“Look, all I’m saying is that clinics exist for a reason.” I say. “Go and get that taken care of.”
“Dahlia.” Alejandro admonishes.
I glare at him in warning. “Last time I checked, you don’t have a uterus and can’t bear children so shut up and mind your business. And while you’re at it,” I point at Diego. “Take your brother and go. This is woman talk.”
“Brent is not the father.” Her voice hardens. “And I am not getting an abortion. I want this baby.”
“Uh, I can’t imagine why.” I gesture wildly around us. “Do you see the situation you’re in right now? Why on God’s green earth would you want to bring a baby into this mess? Not to mention Brent is going to freak when he finds out.”
“I don’t care!” She exclaims.
“Well I do!” I argue back. “Karina, for Christ’s sake I am trying to help you. You haven’t even filed for divorce yet.”
She springs to her feet and stomps past me. “I don’t have to listen to this.”
“Uw!” Lyss hops off the stool. “The show is moving.”
I follow Karina through the kitchen. “Actually, you do. You won’t tell me who the father is but insist it isn’t Brent. You’re far enough along that an at-home pregnancy test came up positive but you’re still too early to show. Were you having an affair? Is there someone else?”
“I wasn’t having an affair. Brent and I are separated.”
“But not divorced. Which means that if your baby is born while you guys are still married, Brent will legally be the child’s father.”
“Wait,” It’s the first time Diego’s spoken. “What do you mean?”
Karina pauses at the threshold and I turn to face him. “Presumptive paternity. By law, a woman’s legal husband becomes her child’s father when the baby is born. Which means if Brent finds out, he’ll flip. He’s capable of dragging her to court, refusing a divorce, and then she’s fucked.”
“That won’t happen,” she says quickly. “I won’t let it happen.”
I want to rip the hair from my scalp. “I have no idea how someone as brilliant and well-educated as you could be so fucking stupid. Brent is never going to let you go especially not now that you’re pregnant.
If that baby is born while you’re still legally married to him, he becomes the father until you can prove otherwise in a court of law.
Which means he can demand things like visitation and custody.
All of which he will be legally entitled to! ”
“Dahlia,” her eyes widen dangerously. “Stop. Talking!”
“How long have you known?” I ask. “How long have you suspected?”
“This really isn’t any of your business…”
“Well it is my fucking business!” I explode. “Because you’re in my house and you had to be dragged out of yours after Brent practically busted your front door in. Why won’t you just tell me who the father is?”
“I can’t.” Her voice is strained with desperation and a secret that’s ripping her apart from the inside out. “For fuck’s sake, Dahlia, shut. Up.”
“Kay—”
I’m surprised to hear Diego’s voice but the sound is muffled by a grunt and a clatter.
When I turn around Alejandro is dragging his grown adult brother by the nape of his neck out the back door and into the backyard.
A gust of cold, late February wind whips through the house and a shiver moves through me.
“Wait, no, Alex,” Karina pleads. “Don’t!”
She runs across the room but he extends a hand, a silent but firm order.
“Karina, stay out of it.”
Then he slams the door shut.
What ensues after is chaos.
I’ve never heard Alejandro scream the way he is right now as he berates his brother.
He speaks at such a mind dizzying speed that he could be talking in Mandarin for all I know.
It doesn’t sound like English or Spanish, just rage in the form of language.
Diego attempts several times to get a word in but his argument is drowned out by his brother’s fury.
All three of us scurry to the kitchen window that overlooks the backyard.
Right now, the patio chairs, table, firepit, and grill are all covered but the back light is on.
Manhattan backyards aren’t very big and so when Alejandro starts pummeling his fist into his brother’s face, there aren’t many places for Diego to go.
He fights back but there’s little vigor behind it.
All he does is try to deflect his brother’s advances but Diego isn’t actually trying to get Alejandro to stop.
Either he’s accepted his fate, been bested in the fight, or might actually deserve it.
Not all of the snow has melted from last month’s storms so when Alejandro throws a hit and Diego deflects it, he loses his balance and the two of them tumble into a bed of weeks’ old snow and ice. Watching them spar sends the wheels turning in the back of my mind.
“Dee, do something,” Karina holds onto my arm. “He’s going to kill him.”
I look at her. “I’m not going to do a damn thing.”
She purses her lips and glances out the window.
Alejandro and Diego are arguing, throwing back expletives in Spanish so vile I don’t even know what half of them mean.
But I know they have to be ugly because Diego’s eyes widen into ocean blue saucers and his brown cheeks flush with sincere humiliation.
He pushes Alejandro back—appearing genuinely offended—but his brother punches him again and he falls against the tree.
Karina attempts to leave her spot by the window but I grab the back of her shirt. “You stay out of it.”
“They’re going to kill each other!”
“And if they do, I’m sure it’ll be your fault.”
Her fists clench at her sides but she says nothing.
“Maybe we should intervene,” Lyss suggests. “Look, Diego is already bleeding. I think that’s enough.”
Just as she says it, Alejandro manages to get out from under his brother and delivers a blow that busts Diego’s bottom lip open.
He pushes Diego off him and they roll around in the ice and snow for a second longer before getting back to their feet.
Despite making halfhearted attempts to deflect his brother’s blows and reach an amicable, verbal agreement, Diego takes a beating from Alejandro.
Screaming from outside makes Lyss gasp. She watches in horror as Alejandro throws Diego against the stone wall separating my outdoor space from my neighbors’.
Karina tries slipping away once more but this time, my grip on her arm is unyielding.
“You didn’t. Tell me you didn’t.”
Her eyes well with tears and she thrashes against me. “Let go!”
“What the Hell is going on?” Lyss demands.
“What’s going on is that my cousin has no idea just how royally fucked she is.” I release her arm and Karina glares holes into my skin. “Diego’s the baby’s father. Isn’t he?”
* * *
“I could kill him.”
Alejandro flinches as I press the ice pack against his left cheek.
“La próxima vez que lo vea, lo voy a matar.” He hisses and flexes his right hand. “No sé cómo puedo tener un hermano tan estúpido. Tan irresponsible…and selfish! Fucking reckless.”
He’s been on this tangent for the past hour.
“Just wait until Abuelo finds out about this.”
“Snitch,” I tell him.
He springs up in bed. “No. Wait until I tell our mother.”
Part of me wants to laugh. No matter how old siblings get, they always know there’s nothing like the threat of telling mom to put the fear of God in someone.
“And what exactly will that accomplish?”
He scoffs and waves a hand as he collapses back into the pillows. “Ah, ?qué sé yo?”
I haven’t been able to make sense of any of this.
In twenty-four hours, I’ve semi-reconciled with my cousin, found out she’s separated from her psycho husband, and then said psycho husband broke into her home because he was stalking the house surveillance footage and saw my boyfriend’s car in the driveway.
To be honest, I haven’t processed the whole ordeal with Brent yet and now there’s more to take in.
Like the fact that my cousin is pregnant and Diego is the father.
Since when did the two of them have a thing?
Since when have they been in contact? And most importantly, why doesn’t Alejandro seem as shocked as I am?
If not for the fact that he nearly killed his brother in my backyard this morning I may not have been able to put two and two together.
And even then—Karina’s horror was what ultimately confirmed the truth and I still can’t believe it.
Karina and Diego?
What the Hell have I missed?
“I told him, lo sabía—” he hisses through his teeth and squeezes the bridge of his nose. “I’m going to kill him. I think I may actually kill him.”
“Why does it sound like you know more than I do?”
Alejandro drops his hand and stares at my bedroom ceiling. “You can’t tell me you never noticed.”
“Never noticed what?”
“How flirtatious my brother has always been.”
I wave a hand dismissively. “Diego flirts with everyone. He flirts with me.”
He shakes his head. “Sometimes I forget how recently you entered our lives. This is the only version of my brother that you’ve ever known.”
“You make it sound like Diego is some sort of wayward, problem child. He isn’t. He’s a good brother.”
I don’t know why I suddenly feel so protective of Diego.
Maybe it’s because nearly three years ago when I woke up in the villa for the first time, he was my only true friend for a while.
It took time for Lettie to warm up to me and my feelings for Alejandro were tumultuous to say the least. Diego has always been the middle ground between his siblings and the glue that held them together.
I cannot imagine a version of Diego different from the one I know. Someone who is kind, loving, and loyal.
“Diego has been suspiciously well-behaved the last two and a half years.” Alejandro says. “But he’s always been difficult. He used to go on benders and disappear for weeks, sometimes months at a time. Maybe when we were younger I indulged him too much. I cared more about being his friend than his—”
“You’re not his father, Alex.” I say gently.
He sighs heavily.
“You’re more upset about this than I am.” I lie down beside him and rest my head on the pillow next to his. “Why?”
“I’m upset for the same reasons you are.
I’m worried about Karina and what this could mean for her divorce.
I’m afraid my brother won’t rise to the occasion and I’ll have to swoop in and save him like I always do.
Most of all, I’m paralyzed by the fact an innocent child is going to be born into this mess. ”
“You weren’t so upset when you thought I was pregnant. How can our situation be any different?”
He looks at me with an immediately softening expression. “Because we are completely different. We’re in love and they aren’t. We’re together and they aren’t.”
“Is that all you’re upset about?” I hedge. “Or is there something else?”
His gaze drops and he turns away.
“Maybe there’s a bit of envy on your part.” I place my hand on his chest. “You seemed…well…disappointed.”
I hadn’t commented on it before especially since everything unraveled so quickly.
Alejandro was visibly distraught when he realized the pregnancy test wasn’t mine.
In the span of seconds I watched him move through nearly all the stages of grief until he settled on anger and took it out on his brother.
Of course, I’m upset but I’m not upset at Karina.
I’m upset for her and the situation she’s now found herself in.
We all make mistakes but my frustration stems from my inability to help her during an already stressful and difficult time.
With Alejandro it’s like there’s this animosity or resentment toward his brother. Or perhaps it’s just envy.
“Alex?”
He snaps at me. “It’s fine, it would’ve been terrible timing anyway.”
I wait because I know there’s more to that statement. He sighs again and drags his hands down the length of his face.
“It’s so ridiculous.”
“What is?”
His jaw tightens. “I didn’t even realize how much I wanted it until I thought it was real. I know it’s bad timing, I know that. We have no business having a child right now. But when I found the test and thought it was yours I…I was beside myself with happiness.”
I move closer and rest my head on his shoulder.
“I never knew how much I wanted it until then. I was practically floating down the stairs on my way to see you. I couldn’t believe it.
” His voice quiets. “And now my brother gets to have that and he doesn’t even want it.
Of course I’m jealous. I’m angry too. He’s impregnated a girl he barely knows, doesn’t love, and who is currently married to someone else.
Obviously, I know it takes two and Karina clearly consented but I can’t help but feel my brother should’ve known better.
“When Karina stayed with us for your birthday that summer, I knew something was going on. I told Diego to leave Kay alone because she was married and he had no business flirting with her or trying to seduce her. I know my brother; he enjoys a conquest and the last thing I wanted was for your cousin to be one of his targets. And now she’s pregnant. ”
He takes another steadying breath. “I’m happy for her. I really am. Crazy as it sounds, I think she truly wants this. I just wish her child had a better father.”
I’m not sure what to say. Ultimately, the decision to keep this pregnancy is Karina’s and she seems to have already made up her mind.
At seventeen years old I made the decision to end mine and it was the best thing I ever did for myself.
The right to choose goes both ways and I have to respect Karina’s wishes even if I disagree with them.
My place isn’t to pass judgment or offer unsolicited opinions but rather to provide support.
As for the role Diego played. there are still so many unanswered questions.
How, when, why? I can’t wrap my head around any of it.
What’s going to happen now?