Chapter 41
The cloudy sky brightened by the time Esmie trudged up the walkway to her parents’ house.
She paused at the steps leading up to the door.
In the front window, her parents’ drapes were drawn, lights off.
Craning her head back, she stared up at the house.
Conflicting emotions swept through her. While it had been a safe space for a while, it was only an illusion eventually becoming a sort of prison cell holding her back.
Something to keep her true potential at bay.
Potential that was now out of control and possibly caused Samson’s death and Leo’s capture. Her world was imploding.
A cold wind whipped around her. Even the long walk hadn’t warmed her or dried her dress.
Her hair clung in tangled clumps around her face.
She dreaded being here. Feeling the tears prick her eyes, she yanked off the mask and shoved her fists into them, forcing the tears away.
Leo didn’t have time for her to feel sorry for herself or stand on this porch procrastinating the inevitable.
Esmie searched the terra cotta pots, by the front steps, filled with Flor de Maga.
One of them had a false bottom with a spare key inside.
Once she found it, she took a deep breath then entered the Morales residence as quietly as possible.
Shutting the storm door behind her, she tip-toed toward the back of the house.
When she arrived at the bottom of the stairs a shout stopped her.
“?Mija! ?Dónde estabas? ?Y porque estas sucia así?” Mamá ran out from the sala, at the back of the house next to the dining room, grabbing Esmie and pulling her into a fierce hug.
Esmie tried to keep her distance so she wouldn’t dirty Mamá’s favorite cotton pajama set.
The ones Papi got her for Mother’s Day with the cream and rose print, but Mamá only hugged her tighter.
Esmie glanced to the sala where a Bible and rosario sat on Mamá’s red armchair.
“Mamá, I need to talk to you.” Esmie didn’t want to break from the hug, but time was critical for Leo right now. Mamá released her but held onto her biceps, keeping an arm’s length between them. Tears glistened on her rosy cheeks as she looked up at Esmie.
“Are you okay? I’ve been worried sick ever since Leo asked me where you were and I told him you didn’t come home. ?Qué pasó?”
“Estoy bien. Well, not fine exactly, but I’m not hurt.
Siéntese, por favor. I need to talk to you, and I don’t have much time.
” Esmie gestured for her mother to sit at the dining table.
Instead of listening, Mamá went into the kitchen and set about cooking and making coffee.
Esmie didn’t have the energy to fight her.
She set down the mask then pulled her soaked phone from her pocket, setting it on the table next to the mask, not even sure it would work.
Pulling out one of the wooden dining chairs, she sat, placing her head in her hands.
“Dime,” Mamá commanded as she scurried about the kitchen, snatching up Esmie’s phone in the process and throwing it into a small bag with rice. This was her mother’s nervous tick. She wouldn’t sit and listen because she couldn’t.
Esmie huffed out a breath, then, without looking up from the table, recounted the whole story to Mamá from after she texted her and Chad showing up, to going to the ball and finding out about them coming after her and Papi.
Esmie left out several key private elements like her kiss with Samson, claiming he found her there while searching for her.
She explained picking up Leo to come here and the accident that happened afterward and ending with Chad abducting Leo.
“I never spoke to no Chad. You were supposed to meet my friend in the red car,” Mamá lamented as she placed a café con leche, Esmie’s favorite drink, on the table in front of her. “How did he even get your number?”
“While I was gone did anyone else stop by looking for me?”
“Sí. Tus amigas. Mindy y Tessa were asking for you at first. Oh, and a young man with messy black hair stopped by the day you went with Leo. Asked if you lived here and if he could talk to you. He seemed like trouble, so I sent him away.” Mamá snapped her head up and down as if that was the end of it.
Esmie ran a hand down her face. “That’s how he got my number. He must have hacked into your phone somehow. Especially if he was close enough.”
Mamá paused, “No entiendo nada de eso.”
“I know you don’t understand the tech stuff, but he texted me saying he has resources like the Law Enforcement Department.
Things that can infiltrate your computer, phone, so on.
” Esmie bit her lip. Mamá wouldn’t know Chad had gotten into her phone.
She wasn’t as familiar with technology and couldn’t see any telltale signs.
Between Andloor Capitol and Genetronetics, the advancements they had could give anyone the ability to find Esmie’s number easily.
While her phone was encrypted by Leo, Mamá’s wasn’t.
That’s probably also how he found out she was going to meet Mamá’s friend in the red car and got there first. He had been following her using her mother.
Esmie wished she could throat punch Chad now for all the trouble he caused her and using her family the way he did.
“Don’t worry about it, Mamá. You didn’t know.
I only came here to shower, get a fresh set of clothes, and grab a car to go back and save Leo.
” Esmie sat back as her mother approached, setting a plate of eggs with salchicha, bacon, and homemade pan sobado in front of her. Mamá wrung her hands and bit her lip.
“Come,” she demanded again. Esmie pulled her plate toward her and began to eat, the hot café warming her. She inhaled its earthy aroma, grateful for its bittersweet taste. Mamá sat on the other side of the rectangular, wooden dining table, still wringing her hands.
“Please don’t worry. I’m going to get Leo back and I can take care of myself.
Samson taught me how to use my powers, and how to defend myself.
Leo would never have been taken, if it weren’t for the car accident.
” Esmie paused from eating to reassure her mother, but she knew it sounded hollow. It sounded hollow even to her own ears.
“Mija, I have something to tell you. Let me get your father first.” Mamá jumped up from her seat and bustled off toward her bedroom. Esmie shook her head unsure of what was going on but she was too exhausted to figure it out. She finished her food then took her dishes to the sink to wash.
When she finished, she could hear Mamá speaking in fast Spanish to Papi. When Esmie walked back to the dining table, he appeared, wrapping her up in a hug. She buried her face into his white t-shirt, smelling of Old Spice, willing herself not to cry.
Papi pulled away and she felt like he had aged significantly since the last time she saw him.
His black, wavy hair showed streaks of gray at the temples, lines appeared under his eyes, and yet he still looked a lot like Leo, or Leo looked a lot like him.
While Leo had beaten him in height, they still held the same lanky features, with Leo having the more muscular frame from youth.
Papi’s graying mustache twitched under his nose as he sniffed back his own tears, then adjusted his glasses.
He gestured to the table where they all sat down again, her on one side and her parents on the other.
Her parents stared at each other than at Esmie, both seeming at a loss for words.
After several tense moments, when Esmie was about to shout for one of them to speak or she was going upstairs, Mamá splayed her hands on the table and pursed her lips toward Esmie, the universal sign to point at someone or something.
She wanted him to speak to Esmie. Papi ran a hand down his face, disrupting his glasses position which he adjusted before he spoke.
“I know your mother told you some things but it’s time you knew the whole truth.
Many years ago, when you and Leo were babies, your mother and I lived in downtown Andloor.
We worked as a liaison between companies like Genetronetics TMC and Andloor Capitol, helping barter contracts between them that mutually benefited both parties.
We did well but eventually noticed some of the deals didn’t align with our beliefs, or what Andloor Capitol purported was the morals they stood upon. ”
“Like glass?” Esmie’s eyebrows quirked.
“Sí, como glass,” Papi responded. “Pobrecito ni?o. They took advantage of him. They put a call out to all inventors, a contest of some kind, for the next greatest invention. He was a genius and entered.”
“Tyler Brackford, you mean.”
“Ese nene,” Papi confirmed. “From what I understand he loved superhero shows and wanted to create something to give people powers. His presentation was impressive, but he didn’t have the resources to do it.
He of course won, and Andloor Capitol took his idea and started making glass with his help at first, then kicked him out and took over citing some rule that he had forfeited his rights on the invention, giving control to them once he accepted the prize from the contest. It was nothing compared to what he deserved but he was a kid and didn’t know better. ”
“Mamá said that’s why he created Genetronetics TMC. So he could get back at Andloor Capitol. It could be why he won the contract with them and was hiding things from them including the solution to curing people from dying from it.”