Alejandro
I walkedinto my father’s hospital room. He was sitting up in bed and looked much better than when I’d seen him three days earlier. There was color in his cheeks now and he wasn’t attached to so many machines. The doctors had said he may be able to go home in a few days.
My mother sat beside him in the large wingback chair. She was holding onto his hand and smiling at him. I wished that the scene could bring me some comfort. A few days earlier, to see the two of them like this and my father almost back to full health, was what I had wanted most in the world. But, I could take no comfort in anything while Alana was still missing.
‘Alejandro?’ they both said in unison as they looked up and saw me.
‘Hola, Mama. Papa,’ I nodded.
‘What is wrong, hijo? Have you found Alana and the girl?’ my father asked, his face suddenly full of concern.
‘No. Not yet. But I’m close,’ I said as I stared at him.
My mom was well accustomed to the lives my father and I led, and she could read a room like nobody else I knew – expect maybe for Alana. The sudden thought of her made my heart constrict in my chest. As though someone had thrust their hand inside and was squeezing it with their fist.
‘I’ll leave you two alone for a while,’ she said as she stood. ‘I’ll fetch us all some fresh coffee.’
She walked towards me and wrapped her arms around my neck. ‘She will be home with you soon, hijo. I feel it,’ she said softly.
‘Gracias, Mama,’ I said as I gave her a soft kiss on the cheek.
I waited for her to leave and then I sat on the seat she had just vacated. It was still warm and I wondered how long she had been sitting there and felt a pang of guilt. ‘I’m sorry I haven’t visited much, Papa.’
He shook his head and frowned. ‘You have more pressing matters to attend to. I don’t expect you here visiting an old man when you should be out there finding your wife.’
I sucked in a deep lungful of air.
‘What is it, hijo?’ my father asked.
Fuck! What I was about to tell him was unthinkable. But, I had gone over and over the information in my head dozens of times, and it was the only explanation that made sense. Perhaps my desperation to find Alana and Lucia had clouded my judgement? But, I had nothing else.
‘I think I know who ordered the hit on you, Papa. And I think he is responsible for taking Alana and Lucia too.’
He frowned at me as he sat up straighter in his bed, shuffling his body and wincing at the effort and the obvious pain in his chest. I realized in that moment that he would never be the man he once was ever again.
‘Who?’ he demanded, snapping me from my thoughts.
Ten minutes later, I had told my father all I knew about Lucia, Chicago and all I had learned and pieced together in the last twenty-four hours since I had spoken with Hugo.
He stared at me, with tears in his eyes and a look of shock and horror on his face. But there was something else there too. He believed me.
I leaned forward, placing my hands on his bed and resting my forehead on them. I felt his rough hand on the back of my head as he stroked my hair.
‘I wish this wasn’t true, mi hijo. But, I fear that it is. You are a smart boy, Alejandro,’ he said with a sigh. ‘This is why I chose you to take over instead of one of your uncles. You know what must be done.’
I looked up at him and for the first time in my life I saw my father crying. ‘I do, Papa.’