“She told you?” he asked, flabbergasted.
“No, but I found out. I’m not going to tell our mother either. I’ll let Isabella do that in her own time. Isabella and I don’t really get along but I don’t care about her being gay. I just want her to be happy.”
I can see from the look on his face that I’ve scored some points for that little statement. Actually, I can’t understand what thrill a woman gets from another woman. Isabella needs to spend some of that money on a good psychiatrist if you ask me.
“That’s good to know. I’ve told Isabella over and over that she should just tell your mother but she won’t. I don’t know how I let her talk me into pretending to be her boyfriend. Your sister is quite persuasive.”
Yeah, yeah, yada, yada. Let’s get off this conversation train going nowhere.
“So, now that I know you’re not dating my sister, are you interested in dating me, perhaps?” she asked flirtatiously.
“Y-you? See I’m kind of with someone…”
“You aren’t married are you?”
“Well, no.”
Not that I would let a little thing like marriage stop me.
“As soon as you came to the table that night, I was instantly drawn to you. But when I thought you and my sister were an item I figured there was no way I could get to know you in the way I wanted. But now that I know the real story…”
Lourdes leaned forward to place the drink on the table. She moved closer to Jeremy on the couch and slid an arm around his shoulders. With her other hand she took his drink from his hand and placed it on the table too. She caressed the side of his face.
“You are such a sexy man, you know that?”
Before he could reply she proceeded to give him a passionate kiss. She broke the kiss and stood up, leaving him panting.
“I’m surprised you didn’t ask me why I’m wearing a trench coat this time of year. Let me show you.”
Lourdes untied the belt and loosened the buttons. Slowly, she took off the coat and let it fall to her feet. She stood with her hands on her hips wearing only a thong. She then moved to straddle him. They began kissing wildly once more and Lourdes reached down and rubbed his now hardened penis through his slacks. The sound of their kissing and heavy breathing was broken by front door closing. Jeremy quickly moved his mouth from hers.
“It’s Kelly!” He pushed Lourdes to the side. “Hurry and put on your coat!” He whispered sharply.
Lourdes took her time in reaching for her coat. I think it’s time that Kelly meets the future woman of the house.
“Lourdes, please hurry! Please!”
She stood and stuck an arm in the coat when she looked up to see Kelly walk into the room. She was so disconcerted she almost dropped her coat. Kelly was not a woman but a 6-foot tall, muscular man with an Army-type buzz cut.
“What the hell is going on here?!” Kelly bellowed.
“Kelly, this isn’t what you think.”
“I’m standing here looking at an almost naked woman in our living room and you’re telling me it’s not what I think?!”
“Baby, she just came over unannounced. I didn’t know she would try and seduce me!”
Baby? Oh my God, what have I walked into? Jesus!
“Look, I was just leaving,” said Lourdes, finally rushing to finish putting on her coat. She stomped past Kelly who was glowering at her. As she walked to the door she could hear Kelly’s booming voice.
“I’m sick and tired of your cheating, Jeremy! Every time I turn around I find out about you with some man or woman!”
Lourdes slammed the door and went to the elevator.
Chapter 64
Lourdes climbed into the brand new midnight-black Jaguar Isabella leased for her. She and Isabella argued vehemently over the vehicle Lourdes truly wanted—an Audi Vanquish like the one she had back at her and her mother’s home in California. Unfortunately Isabella said it was far too much and made her settle on the Jaguar. When she gave in about which vehicle she would take her and Isabella then argued over Isabella’s insistence the car be leased. Lourdes wanted the car bought outright for her but again Isabella wouldn’t budge. She wanted Isabella to hold off on telling their mother about her being gay for as long as possible because once she did, that would be the end of the blackmail gifts.
She hoped Jeremy would remain quiet and not reveal what happened tonight to Isabella. Her mother was counting on her to land the big fish but so far it had eluded her. She had managed to receive cars, money, jewelry and clothes from men but they were from boyfriends and occasional lovers. She and her mother wanted to land super wealthy husbands who would keep them in a continuously fabulous lifestyle.
She was glad her mother didn’t give her hell for the Christophe fiasco that was waiting to happen. Perhaps her mind was focused on the upcoming birthday of the twins. Her mother had been really riding her about being more careful in choosing prospects, especially after she didn’t receive nearly what she thought she would after Günter’s death. It was so much pressure. All she wanted was to bring home the one and make her mother proud.
If I’d let her in on my intentions to snag Jeremy and tell her about tonight she would insist that I still pursue him and I’m so not interested in doing that at all. I don’t want to be bothered with any queers. When I do get the brass ring, it’s going to be on my terms and not hers. Never again will it be on her terms.
Chapter 65
As Isabella and Sofia drove in the rental car looking for the address of Inès and Alphonso Delgado, they both noticed the quality of the homes go from relatively nice and well-kept to poor condition and neglected. When they were in Atlanta, Sofia called the number listed in an online directory. A woman answered and Sofia asked if it was the Delgado residence. The woman said it was and before she could ask who was calling Sofia hung up the phone. Assured the information online was current; they took the first flight out the next morning. Isabella took another look at the map they printed from the computer. She leaned forward and squinted to see the street name ahead.
“Turn right at this next light.”
Sofia turned down the street and slowed her speed. There were numerous children playing about and some were haphazardly darting into the street with their bikes and scooters. A group of teen-aged boys who were all gathered on the porch and lawn of one of the houses stopped their horseplay and chatter to eye the unknown vehicle entering their territory.
“Go down a little more. It’s in the 6100 block.”
Sofia drove down the street a little further.
“Stop! This is it.”
Once parked, they stared at the dilapidated home. It was a small one-story bungalow with a wood exterior. The yellow paint and brown trim had almost completely faded away. The foot high grass and weeds looked to be in a fight for their place on the lawn. The shrubbery was just as unkempt with branches jutting out in various uneven directions.
Isabella turned to her sister. “I can’t even fathom our mother having lived there. Do you think the home is still occupied?”
“I told you someone answered the phone and the telephone number was listed with this address.” Sofia glanced about the neighborhood before unbuckling her seatbelt and exiting the car. Isabella reluctantly followed suit. Suddenly, every story she’d ever read or heard pertaining to car-jackings or robberies ran through her head. She would’ve jumped a mile from her skin if someone said so much as “hello” at that moment.
They walked up on the porch that was a cracked concrete slab with two old lawn chairs on it. Where there should’ve been a doorbell was loose wiring hanging out. Sofia rapped on the metal portion of the screen door. After a minute she repeated the knock.
Isabella continued to look about nervously. “I guess no one is here.” She turned to start back to the car. At that moment the door creaked open. A small woman with chin-length gray hair, wearing an ill-fitting blue jean dress peeked out warily through the small opening of the door.
“Yes? What do you w
ant?” she asked with a strong voice that belied her fragile appearance.
“Uh, we’re looking for Inès and Alphonso Delgado,” Sofia replied.
“What for? Who are you?”
Sofia glanced at her sister who she could tell was torn between staying and finding out more about their grandparents and fleeing the dangerous looking neighborhood to go back to the hotel.
“We’re their granddaughters.”
The way the woman stared at them they may as well have said they were Martians. The woman opened the door all the way.
“Are you Oliva’s children or David’s?”
“David?” asked Sofia. “No, we’re the children of Olivia, I mean Oliva,” Sofia answered, still not used to the slight variation that was her mother’s real name.
She unhooked the latch and let them inside. As soon as they walked in they were hit with a plethora of smells; rotten garbage, cigarette smoke and urine. They were guided to a nearby well-worn sofa.
“Are you Inès?” Sofia asked.
“Oh no, I’m an old friend of the family. My name is Maribel. What are your names?”
“I’m Sofia and this is Isabella.”
“We all wondered what happened to Oliva.” She took in how well dressed and groomed the girls were. If they were any indication, Oliva hadn’t done badly for herself.
“Are our grandparents here?” Isabella finally spoke.
“Your grandfather is in the back room. He’s bedridden and has been for a while. He’s getting some sleep now. I come here and check in on him whenever the nurse isn’t here. I’ve been doing that for different people in the neighborhood for years. I’m like Florence Nightingale around here.” She paused as if she were waiting for praise of some sort. When none was forthcoming, she continued. “As for your grandmother, she’s living in San Diego with her niece.”
“San Diego?” asked Sofia.
“She left about fifteen years ago after I found out she and my husband had had an affair.” Maribel responded tersely. She never hesitated to take her place in the victim spotlight—even if it meant sharing intimate details of her life with complete strangers.
“Like they say, the wife is always the last to know. His uncle needed him to help out with his cattle ranch out in Texas. I refused to leave here. The house I live in is the one I’ve lived in all my life. That’s when I found out what had been going on under me and Alphonso’s noses. I overheard Carlos asking her to go with him. I confronted them and that’s when it all came out.” Her face became hardened at the memory. “Alphonso kicked Inès out and she went to live with an aunt and later moved in with the niece.” She heaved a burdened sigh. “It was bad enough for me but your poor grandfather...He’s had to endure neither his wife nor daughter being around for him. After a year had passed following the confrontation, he got the number to where Inès was and asked her to come back but she refused. At least she calls once in a blue moon unlike that Oliva who left and never so much as glanced back. Do you know Oliva left the night he was rushed to the hospital with a heart attack?”
Both girls shook their heads.
“Oh yeah. Your grandmother went off in the ambulance that night and when we got back here that morning, a suitcase was gone and so was she.” Her hands flew up. “Just up and left without a bit of concern for her father! She was vindictive. I’m sorry. I know that’s your mother but I have to be honest. I can’t sugarcoat the bitter truth. No one heard from her again. Inès had to take care of him—with help from me of course. Your grandfather recovered but last year fell ill again.”
“When we first arrived you asked us if we were David’s children,” began Sofia. “Does our mother have a brother?”
“He’s her half-brother. I should’ve known you were Oliva’s children since you said you were the granddaughters of Inès as well as Alphonso. I doubt if Oliva even knew about him. What was his last name? I’ve gotten so bad at remembering names lately. Oh, it was Stevens. Your grandfather got a White woman pregnant over in San Benito a little after Oliva was born. A couple of years after Oliva left, the young man came around here looking for Alphonso. Seems he finally found out the man who’d raised him wasn’t his biological father. Anyway, he and Alphonso had a big blow up and he never came back around after that. It’s funny because Alphonso always whined about not having a son but then he ran that boy off in no time. I don’t know what Alphonso said but whatever it was I bet he wish he could take it back because I hear that David is doing very well for himself back East. Why he even bought his mother a huge fancy home.”
Sofia turned to her sister. “We have an uncle that even our mother doesn’t know about.”
“Do you have our grandmother’s number?” inquired Isabella.
With a crimp in her lip Maribel got up and left the room. She came back with a number written on a torn off piece of paper and handed to Sofia.
“Thank you.”
“Can you tell us more about our mother?” asked Isabella. “We’re curious as to how she was when she was younger.”
“Why don’t you know? Is Oliva still alive?”
“Yes, she is. But for some reason she’s kept her past from us and we want to know more about it.”
“That’s strange. I hate to say it but no one really liked Oliva. She was very cold and standoffish. She would walk into the house, see a living room full of people and not say a word. She never had any friends. Well, actually she did have one special friend.” She paused to think of whether or not she should tell the young women everything she knew. She quickly decided they had a right to know everything about their mother. Everything. “In the months before she left she became very, very close to a young woman who had recently moved here. I always wondered why Oliva never had any boyfriends and that, uh, relationship let me know why. They were practically inseparable. Oh, the way they carried on.” She paused for a moment. “It became the talk of the neighborhood,” she embellished.
Isabella and Sofia looked at one another as the realization of what Maribel was implying sank in. A self-satisfied smirk settled on Maribel’s face as she saw reaction of the women.
Isabella looked back at Maribel.
“Are you trying to say there was something more than friendship going on between our mother and this woman?”
“I know it’s shocking to hear but I saw it for myself.”
“Saw it how?”
“I was on my way home one night and I passed the woman’s house. What was her name? Penny? Peola? Pilar! That’s it. Her name was Pilar. Anyway, the curtains in the living room were wide open and I saw them embracing and kissing. It was disgusting, really, seeing them carry on like that. It’s just unnatural.”
“I’m a lesbian,” Isabella stated firmly. “Forgive me if I don’t agree with your ‘disgusting’ and ‘unnatural’ assessment.”
Both Sofia and Maribel were shocked. Sofia was surprised because Isabella was admitting to someone she’d just met what she’d yet to admit to her own mother.
“I-uh-didn’t mean,” stuttered Maribel.
“I know exactly what you meant,” Isabella replied. “But please go on. You’re sure our mother was involved with this woman?”
“Yes, I’m sure. I think your mother was just going through a phase because the next thing I knew Inès was telling me Oliva was pregnant by Pilar’s brother. Who knows what was going on? It was all very kinky if you ask me—bouncing between the sister and the brother. Supposedly he was some big shot in New York. Her parents figured she ran away to be with him.”
Isabella and Sofia again exchanged confused looks.
“Not too long after Oliva ran away, there was a big commotion at that Pilar’s house with police cars and an ambulance. Seems some man broke into her house and attacked her. Sliced her up something awful. She survived but within the next day there movers packed up her stuff and we never saw her again. It was probably the same sicko that attacked me when I was going into my own home. So, which one of you is the one Oliva was pregnant with at
that time?”
“Neither of us,” answered Sofia. “That’s our half-sister and she’s back home.”
It seemed like each answer they received opened the door to new questions. They’d been told that Lourdes’ father died in an accident before their mother even knew she was pregnant. And that he was from California—not New York and had no siblings or relatives. The story had always sounded strange but they never questioned it.
“I know you said our grandfather is resting, but is it possible that Isabella and I see him for a minute or two?”
“I guess it shouldn’t be any harm in that. Where are you girls from anyway? I hear a hint of a southern accent.”
“Georgia,” Isabella answered. “We were born here in California but moved to Georgia when we were kids.”
“Is that where Oliva lives too?”
“No, she just visits. She lives between LA and France,” responded Sofia.
France? Humph! I guess Oliva is doing quite well, thought Maribel. She walked ahead of them as they went toward the back of the house.
With every step, their nostrils were increasingly assaulted by the smell of urine. When they got to the bedroom Sofia and Isabella immediately spotted the source of the fetidness. Next to the bed was a portable commode chair. Either the waste bowl hadn’t been emptied recently or it needed a good washing out.
Sofia wished her allergies would make a sudden appearance. A stuffed nose would be a welcome respite from the putrid odor. Sunlight poured into the room through a naked window. The other window was covered with a sheet, used as a makeshift curtain. Sofia knew her allergy wish would soon be granted when she saw all the dust dancing in the sunrays. She and Isabella walked to the bed and got their first look at their grandfather. Through the sheet covering him, they could see his body was quite thin. His hair was mostly gray and wispy. Despite the ravages of ill health and time, his face still showed signs of a once good-looking man. Maribel went over to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
Blinding Mirror Page 24