“You look just like my sister,” he says, seeming as amazed as I feel.
“I think I look like you.”
“You do. She and I are twins. The pictures of her when she was your age… Well, you’ll see.”
“This is Nico and my son, Mateo. Mateo, honey, this is Jon, your grandfather. Can you say hello?”
“Hi,” Mateo says with a shy smile.
“Grandfather,” Jon says with a laugh as he shakes hands with Nico and Mateo. “That’s gonna take me a minute.” After Nico grabs our bags and Mateo’s booster seat, Jon leads us to a parking garage where he’s parked a black SUV. We get Mateo settled in the backseat and strapped into his booster.
“Take the front.” Nico uses his chin to point to Mateo. “I’ve got him.”
“Thank you.” I get in the front seat next to my father. My father! The biggest missing piece in my life has been located, and he seems great. That’s such a relief and a sorrow at the same time when I think about what my life might’ve been like if he’d been in it from the start.
But today is no time for revisiting a painful past. Today is for making new memories with the three “men” who are my future.
At least I hope so.
NICO
Watching Sofia with her new family is one of the most incredible experiences of my life. They’re super friendly and welcoming, even Jon’s wife, Kathy, who would’ve had good reason to be wary of this sudden appearance by a daughter and grandson. Sofia has two half sisters—Lily, who is thirteen, and Morgan, who is eighteen—and two half brothers—Tyler, fifteen, and Luke, eleven. They all seem like sweet kids. They’re fascinated with Sofia and Mateo, who has made them aunts and uncles.
Jon brings out pictures of himself and his twin sister, Jessica, from when they were younger. He’s right that the resemblance between Sofia and her aunt is uncanny. She gets her darker skin tone and coloring from her mother, but the rest is all Jon and Jessica.
“She lives in Wisconsin, so you won’t get to meet her this time,” Jon says, “but she’s looking forward to seeing you soon.”
“Do you have other siblings?”
“We had an older brother, Joe, who died in an accident when we were kids.”
“Oh no. That’s so sad.”
“It was rough.” Jon hands her a photo of his late brother. “We idolized him. Followed him around like little puppies.”
“I’m very sorry you lost him.”
“Thank you.”
Jon and Kathy work together to produce a roast beef dinner with baked potatoes, green beans and salad. The food is delicious, and the conversation is easy, considering we all just met today.
Their home is a split-level with bedrooms upstairs and down. They offer us separate rooms or one together.
“We can all stay together,” Sofia says. “Mateo might want me in the night if he wakes up.”
“Sounds good,” Kathy says. “Lily and Morgan, make up the bed and air mattress in Morgan’s room, please.”
“Thanks for letting us use your room,” Sofia says to Morgan, who has reddish-blonde hair and freckles across her nose.
“No problem. Come on, Lily.”
“Put some towels out, too,” Kathy calls after them. “I tell them this is the reason I had kids, so I can get them to do things for me. They become very useful as they get older.”
“That’s good to know,” Sofia says, seeming to soak up every detail of this visit like a sponge.
My phone chimes with a text. “It’s from Miguel.”
I hand the phone to Sofia so she can read it. The judge ripped Joaquín a new one in court today and put the fear of God in him about how much trouble he’s already in, and if he wants to make it worse, he’ll keep threatening people. He’ll have two weeks in solitary confinement to think about his behavior going forward.