CASSANDRA
“Emilio…” Cassandra moves toward him, but the look in his eyes stops her. Fear creeps through her, making her shiver.
“What did you just say?” His voice is hollow…cold. It scares her even more.
“Emiliano…1–
“Is what she just said true?” he asks Beth.
Cassandra looks at her.
After a pause. Beth says. “Yes, it’s true.”
“Carlos wasn’t my father.” His words sound far away, detached, but when he chuckles lowly, it sounds dangerous. “Who knows about this
“Emiliano. I think Beth starts.
“Who else knows?” he snaps, making Cassandra jump. His body is rigid, and for the first time ever, she’s scared of him- what he might do to her but because of what he might do when he’s alone.
-not because of
“The Rodriguez family doesn’t know,” Beth quickly answers.
Emilio whirls around and leaves, and Cassandra chases after him.
“Emilio!” she calls. “Emiliano, wait.” She catches him at the top of the stairs, and she touches his arm. “I’m sorry. I did, but it wasn’t my place to say anything.”
Cassandra looks into his eyes, but they are cold. He removes her hand from his arm and continues downstairs.
Her worst fear has just come true. She’s lost him without ever fully having him.
Beth comes and stands next to her.
“I’ve lost him, Beth. The look I saw in his eyes was deadly. Whatever we had is gone, and I won’t get it back.”
I wanted to tell you,
When she and Beth return to the party, Emilio is nowhere to be found. Even Emilia hasn’t seen him. Beth and Luis offer to stay back for the night, and as soon as the last guests leave, Cassandra tells Emilia everything.
It’s almost midnight when they hear the front door open and Emilio walks in. Cassandra stands.
His hair is completely messed up, clearly from running his hands through it. His jacket is gone, and the sleeves of his shirt are rolled up. As he gets closer to them, Cassandra can smell the stench of alcohol.
“Wow!” he mocks. “Are we having a family reunion? Why didn’t anyone tell me? I would’ve tried to come home early.”
Emilio walks over to the bar and pours himself a shot, but his mother rushes to his side and takes the vodka from him. “You’ve had enough.” she says.
“Don’t you think you’ve made enough decisions for me, dearest mother?” he asks.
“Emiliano,” Luis interjects. “That’s no way to talk to your mother.”
“I’m only speaking the truth,” he says. “All of you have made decisions about my life…a life that was built on deceit. Who am I? Cause I don’t know.”
Cassandra wants to reach out to him so badly but thinks better of it. He has every right to be hurt and angry.
“All of you lied to me my entire life…made me believe a stranger was my father when in fact I’m a bastard, an illegitimate child. I have no identity.”
“Don’t say that,” Emilia says. “Carlos was your father.”
“Was he really?” He raises an eyebrow.
“He loved you like his own son, Emiliano,” his mother reasons. “He would’ve done anything for you–you know that.”
“Yes, I do, but I also know it was fake. Lies and pretense.”
“That isn’t true.”
“Yes, it is!” he growls. “Or else you would have told me the truth. Instead, you chose to keep quiet… Why?
“It was for your own good. Emiliano. Please try to understand.”
“Understand what? That you chose to lie to me instead of telling me the truth? I’m sorry, mother, but I can’t.”
“Listen to your mother,” Luis says.
“Why? So that she can fill my head with more lies?”
“Give your mother a chance to talk, Emilio,” Cassandra adds.
His eyes
land on hers and then fit to his mother. “Fine, let’s hear it. Who am I?”
Emilia sits down on the couch, and Cassandra can see she’s going back in time.
“I met your father when I was out one night with some friends. He was a very handsome man, and women fell at his feet ready to do his bidding. Like them, I fell for him. It was instant chemistry; we were drawn to each other.”
Cassandra meets Emilio’s eyes, and she knows what he’s thinking: that it was the same between them.
“We had an affair for a few months before he confessed his love, telling me he had never felt that way about any other woman. I expressed my own feelings, and on the spot, he asked me to marry him. I said “yes.”
“As our relationship progressed, I fell deeper and deeper in love with him, but I never told anyone. Our relationship was a secret because your grandparents would never have accepted him.”
“Why?” Emilio asks.
“Because I was already two months pregnant with you. I was so happy and couldn’t wait to share the news with Victor, so I decided to surprise him by going over to his house. He was a wealthy man, and I never thought to question where he got his money, but that day, I learned the shocking truth about how he became so rich.”
“Victor… That was his name.” Emilio says. “What did he do?“”
“He made and distributed drugs all over the world. He was good at it too. I was scared because this drug dealer was not the man I thought I knew. He wasn’t the man I fell in love with. So, I panicked and left his house without a word.
“He tried to reach out, but I never answered. If he’d known I was carrying you, he would’ve insisted we get hitched. But I didn’t want that life for you. I didn’t want you to end up like him. So, I did what any mom would do I took my baby boy and left.”
“How did you and Dad…or, I mean, Carlos…end up married?”
“Our marriage was just for show. Carlos only married me because he felt he owed it to your real dad.”
“What do you mean?”
His mom spills the beans about Carlos and Victor being half–brothers.
“This just keeps getting better,” Emilio says, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “The man I thought was my dad was actually my uncle. He never loved me; he just felt guilty that his dad wasn’t there for my real dad. The man I thought was my father, the man I still love, only raised me to case his own conscience, not because he cared about me.”
“Carlos did love you, Emilio,” his mom cuts in. “He couldn’t have kids of his own, so he chose to love you.”
-So, all that stuff you told me about not wanting more kids was just a cover–up for the fact that Dad was sterile? Does his family know?”
“No, he never told anyone. That’s why no one questioned your birth.”
Emilio is quiet for a moment, then he says, “I’m the son of a drug dealer. It doesn’t get any better than this.” He laughs, but it’s a bitter sound. “Just imagine what the press will do when they get wind of this. My reputation will be shot.”
“Only the five of us know about this,” his mom says. “You can keep living your life the way you always have. Nothing’s changed; none of us will say a word…Carlos took this secret to his grave.”
“How can you be so sure, Mom? Secrets have a way of coming out.”
“Victor died when I was pregnant with you, a
after a deal went south. He never knew, and none of his associates knew either.”
“My father was a drug dealer.” Emilio says, still reeling from the shock. Cassandra can’t stand it anymore and rushes to his side, laying. her hand on his arm. He doesn’t seem to notice. “You took him away from me.”
“I did it for your own good. I didn’t want you to end up like him.”
“You stole my identity. Now I’ll never know who he was or what he was like. If he wanted me or not. You took everything from me. My whole life is a lie.” After a moment, he asks, “What was his name–his full name?”
“Victor Ortiz,” his mom says, her voice barely above a whisper.
“I’m an Ortiz. My nightmares…they’re all about him. I couldn’t make sense of them for the longest time, but now it’s all clear. He must have known about me and tried to find me, but he couldn’t because you hid me from him.
“You never gave us a chance to bond, to get to know each other. You should’ve told him about me. I wouldn’t have ended up like him. if that’s what you were worried about; I would’ve made my own choices. I’m your son you should know me. How could you think I would follow in his footsteps? I turned out okay, didn’t I?”
“I know that now, and I’m sorry.” Tears start to fall from his mom’s eyes. “Please forgive me.”
“It’s too late for apologies, Mom. He’s dead, and I’ll never get the chance to know him. All I have is his grave. Maybe, just maybe, if you’d told him the truth, he’d still be alive today.” His mom sinks down on the couch, sobbing. “I trusted you, Mom. I trusted all of you, and you shattered that trust.“”
“You even made my own wife lie to me.” Emilio pulls away from Cassandra and steps back. He reaches out as if to touch her cheek but then lets his hand drop, disappointment clear in his eyes. “I thought we didn’t have any secrets… What happened?”
“Emiliano, 1”
“Don’t blame Cassandra,” his mom says. “This isn’t her fault–I asked her to keep quiet. Blame me. She loves you…Don’t push her away.”
“We don’t hurt the people we love, and if this is how you all show love, then I’m better off without you.“”
Emilio heads for the door, and Cassandra follows. As he’s about to leave, she calls out his name. He stops but doesn’t turn around.
“I’m sorry for not telling you the truth. Please don’t go…don’t leave. You can’t drive like this, Emiliano, I’m begging you.”
His silence stretches on. For a moment, Cassandra thinks he might listen to her, but his next words prove her wrong.
“You’re not in a position to tell me what I can and can’t do. Nothing you say or do will stop me from walking out that door.“”
“Not even if I tell you I love you more than anything and that I can’t live without you?”
There’s no point in hiding it anymore. She’s already lost him, and all she can do is hope it’s not for good.
Emilio reaches for the doorknob, and then he’s gone. Cassandra is left alone, completely alone.
“Give him some time, Cassandra,” his mom says when she comes back into the living room. “He needs to process everything. For now, you should go to bed and rest.“”
Cassandra goes, but she knows she won’t be able to sleep without Emilio. Not when she doesn’t know where he is or who he’s with.
Next Chapter
