Just seeing his face opened up the floodgates of anger. Call it hormones, call it the heartbreak speaking, but I lost it.
I looked up at his face and, without realizing what I was doing, I slapped him. Hard. His head whipped to the side.
“Wrong? Wrong! Fuck you, Max!” Wrong was the word a person used when they incorrectly cited a historical date or purchased the incorrect flavor of ice cream. Oops, I wanted rocky road, not banana crunch. Wrong one! Or Fidel Castro became dictator of Cuba in 1979. Oh, sorry. That’s wrong. It was 1976. But “wrong” was the wrong word to describe telling the woman you supposedly love that it’s “unfortunate” she’s pregnant, followed by walking away from her.
“Lily!” my mother scolded.
Max placed his hand on his cheek. “I deserved that.”
“Like hell you did!” his mother said. “She has no right to treat you like that. She’s trash. Pure trash!”
I heard my mother gasp. I heard Patricio cuss in Italian. As for Bibiana, she said, “It is like I told you, Lily. They are monsters.”
“Monsters?” Max’s mother seethed. “That’s rich coming from a woman who pumps out illiterate rapists and thugs by the dozen.”
“You dare insult my mother?” Patricio yelled and stepped toward Maxine.
Max stepped between them. “Back the fuck off, Patricio. She may be a horrible bitch, but she’s still my mother.”
I suddenly forgot what I wanted to say as my mind reeled with that little gem.
Max quickly looked at me. “Lily, can we talk in private? I need to tell you—”
“No. I’m done with the games. So say what you have to say and then leave,” I replied.
“Fine.” He looked down at his polished black shoes for a moment. “My sister’s baby did not make it.”
Oh no. My heart felt heavier and the room fell silent.
“When I came back to Chicago that night, I’d come back to get my mother. Mabel was getting closer to dying and wouldn’t give the doctors permission to induce labor. She said she would be a horrible mother and, if anyone deserved to live, it was her child.”
I blinked waiting to hear the rest, but not really wanting to.
“I flew my mother down to talk some sense into Mabel and to say what was long overdue.”
My eyes teared. I could only imagine the sort of painful emotions Max had to go through to turn to his mother for help. He’d sacrificed a lot to extract her from his life.
“But I’m sorry, Lily. I truly am. I love you so much, and the only thing I could think when you said you were pregnant was that something might happen to you. I didn’t know how to deal with that and everything else.”
Somewhere in the middle of Max’s speech, I heard a loud gasp coming from my mother’s direction.
“You’re pregnant?” she asked.
I slowly looked at her, wincing. “I’m sorry. I was going to tell you.”
For the first time in a very long time, I saw my mother bubble with rage. Jesus. She’s going to tear me a new one.
I held up my finger. “Hold that thought, Mom.” I reached for Max’s hand. “I’m so, so sorry you went through that, but you should’ve told me. You should’ve said something.”
“Yes. I should’ve, but I hadn’t slept in days, and watching my sister slowly withering and—I wasn’t thinking straight. Nor did I have the luxury of time to argue with you over my choice to invite my mother back into my life…” His voice trailed off as he shook his head.
I could see how that might be difficult given she’d baited me into a fight and had me arrested.
“Maybe I wouldn’t have understood, Max, but you didn’t give me the chance and then you turned your back on me like that?” I whooshed out a breath.
“It is who they are,” said Bibiana. “The Coles do not care who they hurt.”
Maxine whipped off her glasses. “I should say the same for you. Your disgusting son took advantage of my daughter. She was only sixteen.”
I looked at Patricio. I knew he’d been eighteen or nineteen when he’d slept with Mabel. I couldn’t claim his actions to be horrific or evil—teenagers are, after all, not the brightest lights at the disco—but he had apparently broken the girl’s heart.
“Apologize,” I said to Patricio.
He gave me a shocked look as if he did not understand.
“You heard me. Apologize to them.” I indicated Max and Maxine.
Patricio’s eyes shifted around the room. “But I—”
“He will not apologize!” Bibiana seethed. “That girl was a slut.”
“What?” Maxine snapped.
“Okay. Now you have to apologize.” I pointed to Bibiana. “That was out of line. How would you like it if someone called one of your daughters that because she had sex. Unmarried.” I zeroed in on Bibiana with my eyes. She’d told me ten minutes earlier that she’d slept with some man and then married Patricio’s father.
Bibiana got my gist and snapped her mouth shut. She looked down at the ground. “I am sorry.”
“Now your turn,” I prodded Patricio. “Tell them you’re sorry for causing their family any pain.”