“Don’t you dare speak to me like that in mi casa, morena del Diablo! I took you in when you had nowhere else to go, puta,” she shot back, eyes narrowed to slits.
“Forgive me if I’m not grateful,” I growled back. “But you weren’t exactly Surrogate Mother of the Year. If it’s all the same to you, I’d have rather been raised by wolves. They’d have been cleaner and nicer than you ever were.”
She spat contemptuously at my feet. “You think that’s funny, eh? What else would you have done if not for me? Found your deadbeat father? He didn’t want you any more than your loca mama—”
I took a step forward, putting myself mere inches from her face. The anger boiled hot in my stomach and flowed down my arms like a scalding tidal wave.
“Don’t you call her that again in front of me or I will break you over my knee like a twig, old woman. Now do you have anything from my mother in this shithole you call a home or not?” I snarled.
She didn’t back down, just stared at me with scorn. “On top of the bookshelf there is a picture. You may have that,” Aunt Carmen said, pointing to her left. Against the wall was a short wooden shelf where pictures of her children and other ancient magazines had been stacked.
I walked over and knelt, seeing a picture frame that had been turned over. I lifted it and found an 8x10 inch photo of my mother when she was close to my age. Even this horrible place couldn’t lessen her beauty. Slowly, the rage subsided and I could think straight once more.
I picked it up and headed for the door. Aunt Carmen decided this was a good time to start in on me like she used to before I left.
“Go on, go! Leave the only family you have, selfish brat! We live like cucarachas in this place without enough food or clothes, but that doesn’t bother you, does it? You aren’t good for anything, ni?a. You never will be. You’re gonna end up like your pathetic mama someday and I won’t be there to even take enough time to spit on your grave.”
I yanked the door open and walked out, only to find myself face to face with Michael.
“I told you to wait downstairs,” I said, my voice quieter than I intended.
Michael’s face had a stoic quality to it that led me to believe he’d heard either most or all of our conversation. “Sorry.”
I shook my head and turned my back on my aunt, beckoning the archangel. “Let’s go.”
“Just a second.” To my surprise, he brushed past me and walked over to one rather surprised Aunt Carmen, offering his hand.
“Michael O’Brien. I just had to meet you.”
She spared him a suspicious look, shaking his hand once as she eyed him. “You got something to say to me?”
Michael flashed her a stunning smile, the kind that made women weak in the knees, and tucked his hands in the pockets of his jeans as he shook his head.
“Y’know, there were a lot of things I thought I’d say to you if we ever met, but I never thought that I’d say thank you.”
My eyes widened. Aunt Carmen’s did as well. “‘Scuse me?”
Michael continued on in a calm, polite voice, though the smile evaporated into nothing, leaving his handsome face serious as a heart attack. The air around him seemed to fill to the brim with static. I could feel the waves of anger flowing out of him in my lungs, in the back of my throat, in the pit of my stomach, as if our bodies had melded into one.
“I said thank you. If it weren’t for your cruelty, your cowardice, your selfishness, and your ignorance, then the woman standing behind me might not have come to be. It’s not your fault that your mother treasured your younger sister more than you and showered her with love and praise. I know how that must have made you feel. You became bitter and resented the both of them, so as soon as the opportunity presented itself, you leapt into action to betray your sister. When the hospital called to hand custody of Jordan over to you, it was like Christmas morning, wasn’t it? What better revenge on Catalina then to break her daughter beyond repair? But then something happened, something unexpected. That girl you worked so hard to destroy grew up and became the very person you hated the most. She is beautiful, kind, intelligent, and full of life. I’ve been around for a very long time, Mrs. Durante. Her kind of radiance is rare in this world. So I hope for your sake that you someday have enough sense to ask for her forgiveness because if you don’t…there is a place waiting for you where they won’t take as much pity on you as I have. You have a nice evening, ma’am.”
With that, he turned around and walked down the hallway. Before I followed, I noticed the utter shock on Aunt Carmen’s face mixed with a very human expression of fear, perhaps remorse. Served her right.
I caught up with Michael after a few paces, matching the stride of his long legs. We walked in silence towards the steps, serenaded by the crickets and car horns surrounding the dingy apartment complex.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“I know,” he replied, descending the stairs with me at his heels.