“You have a house?” I whispered incredulously. Angel was only twenty-one.
“I live here with my parents,” he clarified.
“Why am I here?” I asked warily.
“My mom wants to meet you.” I sucked in air and rooted my feet to the porch. There was no way I was going in there.
When he opened the door, he grabbed my hand as if he read my thoughts, and pulled me inside. My hands started to sweat, and I felt my heart beating faster. I told myself there was no reason to be nervous. I wasn’t his girlfriend. Because of our ages, we might as well have been worlds apart.
“Angeles?” A woman’s voice called out.
I dug my feet in.
He tugged me harder.
“It’s me,” he greeted. Soft footsteps drew closer.
I wanted to run for the door.
A woman around my height appeared. She was modestly dressed in a yellow and white sundress with her blonde hair hanging down her back, teasing her waistline. Her bright, blue eyes were curious as she took me in.
I simply stared back.
“When my son said he was bringing someone home, you were not what I was expecting.” I tensed even more and felt Angel squeeze my hand. She smiled and pulled me away from Angel and into a hug. Despite her kind gesture, I couldn’t relax. She stepped back to study me, but her expression was troubled. “How old are you?”
“Fourteen.”
She regarded her son with disapproval. “She’s a little young for you, isn’t she, Angeles?” Her welcoming tone was gone and replaced with a hard edge. While I felt sorry for Angel, he didn’t appear bothered.
“This is Mian,” he answered as if that explained everything.
Her eyes watered as her hand covered her mouth. “I should have recognized the resemblance. Oh, my… You look just like your mother.”
I sucked in air. I used to beam with pride whenever someone compared me to my mother, which was often. Now, it just hurt.
“You knew my mother?”
“Knew her? She was my best friend.”
My stomach twisted in knots.
I heard her ordering Angel to bring water. I felt her hand on my arm and the plush cushion beneath me as I sunk into it. Through it all, I couldn’t find my voice. So many questions fought for dominance.
“I didn’t mean to shock you. Are you okay?”
“She never mentioned you,” I blurted.
Regret was evident in her features when she sighed and took my hand. “I don’t doubt it. We fell out our senior year of high school, and I never saw her again.”
“Why?”
“Because we were in love with the same man.”
I snatched my hand from hers and moved away. “Excuse me?”
She didn’t seem surprised by my rejection. “Arturo was every girl’s dream come true. He was older, popular, and the apple of every girl’s eye.” Her gaze lost focus as she became caught up in the memories. “Your mother was the one who had more than a crush on him. She was in love.”
She fell silent, and I watched a tear stream down her cheek. “And you?”
“I couldn’t stand him,” she answered dryly and then laughed. “I thought he was arrogant and overrated.” Angel chose that moment to reappear, and it was like déjà vu as he set down a tall glass of ice water. I quickly picked it up and took a healthy sip.
“What changed?”
“For the life of me, I couldn’t see what she saw in him, but she was sure he was the one… So, one day , I cornered him. I thought if I talked her up to him, then maybe he’d notice her.”
“Except he noticed you.”
“I talked and talked and talked about your mother and he just listened. I had his undivided attention. I thought he was interested. I can still remember how much he unnerved me when he never looked away.” She looked down at her manicured fingers as her shoulders trembled. “I suppose I should have known. I didn’t want to see until he forced me to.”
“What did he do?”
“He kissed me.”
“So you fell in love from a single kiss and decided it was worth my mother’s heart?”
She whimpered. “I—I kissed him back. I lost myself in him for so long that she caught us. It was horrible. She wouldn’t talk to me for weeks. Art chased me the entire time. I tried to get Ceci to forgive me. Word spread around school that Art was pursuing me. I think it only made it worse. Some time after, it became clear she would never forgive me, so I gave in to him.” She looked over my shoulder at Angel whose presence I felt. “I became pregnant with Angel shortly after. I was too young, and many people assumed he was a mistake, but that wasn’t the case. Art eventually knew that if Ceci decided to forgive me, I would have chosen her.”
Suddenly, I began to see Art in an entirely different light.
“He trapped you?” When she nodded, I was tempted to look over my shoulder. “But you loved him.”
“I still do,” she said. “Art is manipulative and calculating, but he’s mine. I just wished it hadn’t cost so much to keep him.”
“So, if you never saw each other again, how did my dad and mom meet?”
Her gaze was steady as she looked me in the eye. “I have no idea.”