I started to cry.
“Why didn’t you trust us with the truth, Delia?”
“I…was afraid you would get into trouble, too, Edward, both of you.”
“What do you think we’re in now?” He nodded at the policemen. “They think we knew and that we brought you specifically to meet him.”
I didn’t know what else to say. I just lowered my gaze to the floor and cried.
“You know what’s the worst thing about all this, Delia?” Edward said.
I looked up and shook my head. What was worse than any of this so far?
“The worst thing,” he said, “is we’re going to have to call on my mother to help us.”
It was as if a flag had been lowered to the ground, and there was truly nothing else left to do but surrender.
17
Surrender
The journey back resembled a funeral procession. Even when we sat in the airplane, there was a heavy cloak of morbid silence draped over the three of us. Before we boarded the plane, I tried once again to explain to Edward and Jesse why I had kept Ignacio’s existence a secret from them, but I could see they were still so hurt that my words were like bubbles bursting in their ears.
“Let’s just not talk about it, Delia,” Edward said, sounding totally emotionally exhausted. He sighed deeply. “Let’s just not talk at all.”
I closed my eyes, swallowed back my tears, and waited for the horrible journey to end.
I did learn some things from them. Tía Isabela had to get Señor Bovio to contact the Mexican ambassador to intercede on our behalf. I couldn’t imagine how Adan might be reacting to all the news. We had been told that the Mexican legal authorities were being cooperative and sending Ignacio back to be tried in the United States. Bradley Whitfield’s father still had a great deal of influence. The fact that Ignacio’s death was faked and the secret kept not only by his family but by friends in Mexico and the United States proved to be too great an embarrassment. No one could defend such a thing. We heard the local newspapers and television and radio stations, as well as some of the state and national newspapers, were reporting it all in great detail.
I felt like running away again and might have, but the police and government people were all around us, making sure we were quickly sent off. No one wanted me here, and certainly no one wanted me now in America, either. I hadn’t even had the chance to visit my parents’ and my grandmother’s graves. I wished I could disappear, form a shell around myself, and crawl into it. I had even disappointed the dead.
Despite the newspaper accounts and television stories directing the spotlights toward us, however, Tía Isabela and her influential friends were able to keep the cameras away when we arrived at the airport. Señor Garman greeted us and led us to a different automobile in order to keep us incognito. In minutes, Edward and I were on our way to the hacienda. Jesse’s parents had made separate arrangements for him. They scooped him up so quickly we didn’t even say good-bye.
If I had ever felt I was entering a courtroom to face an unmerciful, cruel judge, I felt it again when Edward and I, both entering the hacienda with our heads lowered like flags of surrender, confronted Tía Isabela. She sat in the heavy cushioned chair facing the entryway and waited for us to walk into the living room. Sophia was nowhere in sight, which I thought was a little blessing.
“Now, before you start, Mother,” Edward began, holding his hand up like a traffic cop, “I think you should know—”
“Just sit on the settee, Edward. I know all that I need to know,” she interrupted. She turned to me. “Sit,” she ordered, pointing down at the floor as if I were a dog.
Edward and I looked at each other and then sat across from each other. Tía Isabela pressed the tips of her fingers together and brought her thumbs to her chest as if she were going to begin a prayer.
“The damage you two have done to this family is irreparable. If it had been created and caused only by Delia, I could have faced the community and even been the object of sympathy. After all, I have tried to civilize this third-world wretch, given her the finest education, provided far more than her necessities of life, housed her in luxury, and introduced her to the highest levels of our society. I taught her etiquette and thought I had begun to turn her into a classy young lady.
“Instead,” she continued, her eyes now narrowing into hateful, angry slits, “you took everything I offered, and you crushed it, spit on it, destroyed it, and delivered a serious blow to my reputation, a reputation I’ve taken years to build. Whatever motivated me to bring you here and get you out of poverty and ignorance was surely my undoing. Yes, I blame myself, too, blame myself for believing I could turn a pig into a princess.”
“Stop it, Mother,” Edward said. “Enough.”
She turned so slowly to him I held my breath.
“You’re a bigger fool than your sister and even a bigger disappointment to me and to your father’s memory. Supposedly, you have brains, an honor student, and you go along with this deception?”
“He did not know, Tía Isabela. I swear,” I said.
“Then he’s a bigger fool for not knowing, for being sucked in by your sweet, false act. I guess you’re more of a man than I thought, Edward, just as blind when it comes to a female’s guile.”
“I’m not going to sit here and listen to much more of this, Mother. What’s done is done.”
“It’s only done because I’ve been able to put an end to it, you fool.”
She sat back and pulled up her shoulders, as if her spine had suddenly hardened into a steel rod.
“You’re right. You’re not going to sit here and listen to much more of this. You’re going to leave this house, get into your car, and go back to your campus. You are not to return until the end of the school year or unless I call for you to return. You are not to have anything more to do with your…” She turned to me and nodded. “Your cousin. I want the registration to the car you foolishly gave her, and I want that car sold immediately. I can’t imagine why you would ever do it now, but should I hear that you’ve bought or done anything for her, I’ll see to it that the authorities reconsider your actions in Mexico. That goes for you both and for Jesse, especially Jesse. Am I clear?”
Edward glanced at me and then looked down.
“Am I clear?” she repeated.
“You’re clear,” he muttered.
“I think your, what should I call him, friend? Your friend Jesse might not even return to college.”
Edward looked up quickly.
“His family might not be as capable of rebounding. His father and mother are both in a deep depression. We met to discuss you both, and we all agree that neither of you is good for the other.”
“None of you has a right—”
“We’ll see about rights,” she said confidently. “Pack whatever you want, and go. The sooner you are out of the house, the better it will be for all of us at the moment.”
“Gladly,” he said, rising.
“Where’s the registration to her car?”
“It’s in the car with the title and insurance cards.”
“You’ll bring me the keys,” she told me. “As soon as we’re finished here. Get your tail between your legs and go, Edward.”
He looked at me again and walked away.
“Do you have any real idea what your conspiring with this Mexican family has done to them and to their son? He will spend more time in prison than he would have had to spend, and unless there is some arrangement made, his parents could be tried for obstruction of justice. They could both go to prison, too.”
“Mi dios,” I said.
“Yes, you’re right to call to the Almighty for help. He’s the only one who might provide it.”
She pulled herself up again in the chair.
“I will keep you here until you’re old enough to be on your own, and then I’ll send you back into the world to fend for yourself. You’ll have what you need to survive but nothing more. I’m having you transferred back
to the public school. The other students at the private school would ostracize you, anyway. Their parents wouldn’t permit any of them to have anything to do with you, and by now, all of the teachers at the private school know about you and would certainly look at you differently. Every one of them would feel he or she had been duped to believe you were a sweet, innocent, bright star and would be embarrassed.
“And don’t expect Fani Cordova to help you in any way,” she quickly added. “Her parents are quite upset about her friendship with you as it is. So I’m doing you a big favor by taking you out of the private school.
“You’ll go on the bus and be with your own common stock, where you belong. I’m reestablishing your chores here at the house. You’ll earn your keep again. Mrs. Rosario has already been instructed to give you a list of your duties. You’ll begin immediately. I’ll permit you to remain in the room. I can keep a closer eye on you that way. The phone has been removed, however, and I’ve taken back some of the clothing, jewelry, and cosmetics I gave you. You won’t be needing any of it, since I forbid you to do anything off these grounds but attend school. The less you are seen in public, the better it will be for Sophia and me and even my idiot son.
“Do you have anything to say?” she asked. I felt like someone about to be executed asked to utter her final words.
I took a deep breath. I wanted to say much. I wanted to tell her again that Edward and Jesse were innocent. I wanted to explain why I had helped Ignacio, how he had been trapped, and how his family had suffered, but I could see no warmth in her eyes. The revenge she had sought and perhaps been prevented from achieving before was now hers, and she was basking in the pleasure. Surely, in her mind, she had reached beyond the grave and given my mother great pain.
I shook my head.
“Good. Go up to your room, get the car keys, and bring them to me immediately. Then stay out of my sight. You’re to take your meals with the help from now on, by the way. Comprende?”
I looked up sharply. From her lips, Spanish had become profanity.
“Sí,” I said.
“I hope you realize how lucky you are to be my niece. Any other girl who had done what you did would be looking at jail time. I think I deserve to hear a thank you. Well?”
“Thank you, Tía Isabela,” I said, without a speck of emotion.
“Go on and do what I told you to do,” she said, and turned away.
I rose and went quickly up the stairway. Edward was in his room, getting things together. I paused at his open doorway, and he looked out at me with an expression of helplessness that made me press my lips together to stop myself from bursting into tears.
Before I reached my room, Sophia stepped out of hers. The moment that I had so dreaded was here. She gloated and smiled and then threw her head back and laughed.
“I know you did this,” I said. “I know you stole the note that was in my purse.”
“Of course I did, you stupido. You thought you were so superior. You were in control of everyone, my brother, my mother, even me. Now you’re no better than you were the day you arrived. You’re just a poor slob of a Mexican. I really have to thank you for giving me the opportunity to show my mother who her real daughter is and who isn’t.”
“Oh, you’re your mother’s daughter,” I said. “I never doubted it.”
“You did this?” we both heard. I turned. Edward had come to his doorway and had listened to our conversation. “You caused all this trouble?” he asked, stepping toward Sophia.
“I saved us,” she claimed.
“Saved us? You’re lower than I ever imagined.”
“You’re still taking her side? Even after the way she used you?”
He looked at me. “That’s between us,” he told her. “What she did she did for someone else, to help others, but what you did was purely and simply selfish and cruel. You hurt me and Jesse as much as you hurt anyone. I don’t want to think of you as my sister any longer. I can’t imagine you married to anyone, but I pity him. I pity all your friends, but I don’t pity you, Sophia. You make me sick to my stomach,” he concluded, turned, and walked back to his room.
“Go to hell yourself!” she screamed at him. “I don’t care what you say or do, either.”
She glared at me, went into her room, and slammed the door shut.
I got the keys to my car and hurried downstairs with them. Tía Isabela was talking with Señora Rosario. She turned, took the keys from me, and turned her back to me. Before I reached the stairway, she called to me, however.
“Get changed,” she said. “Mrs. Rosario has work for you to do, bathrooms to clean and floors to wash.”
I did not look back. I went up the stairs quickly. Edward, carrying his bags, stepped out of his room.
“Please don’t hate me, Edward,” I said, and rushed past him.
During the remaining days of the spring vacation, I realized Sophia was right to make her hateful prediction. I had returned to the poor Mexican girl I was when I had first arrived. Once again, I worked beside Inez, cleaning toilets and sinks, washing floors, doing laundry, serving food, and polishing furniture. Whenever she could make more work for me, Sophia did it. She left things lying about, deliberately made things dirty, or messed up rooms. I avoided her as much as I could, but she found ways to hover around me or nearby, making her comments, laughing.
I was actually grateful when the vacation ended and I could go to school. I didn’t mind returning to the public school. The students and teachers there weren’t as into the news about me, Edward, and Jesse as I was sure the students and teachers at the private school were. Sophia would keep the topic alive, anyway. At least, Tía Isabela had been right about sending me back to the public school, I thought. The work was easier for me, but I had lost so much spirit I did little more than was required. I decided not to make any new friends, because I was so restricted that I wouldn’t be able to do much with them, anyway.
The news about Ignacio and his family trickled in slowly over the following weeks, but Sophia was happy to bring any of it to my attention. Ignacio had avoided a trial by plea-bargaining. He received the most severe sentence of all the boys involved, however: six years. It was devastating news, and I spent that night crying and choking back tears until I fell asleep. His parents were severely reprimanded but were not charged with any crimes. Fortunately, Señor Davila held on to most of his customers and did not go out of business.
Although Tía Isabela still saw Señor Bovio from time to time, they were not together in the public eye as much. I had yet to hear a single word from Adan. If he had tried to call me, I was never told, and he never came to the hacienda. I imagined he and his father had discussed me and had concluded that I would only bring negativity to the campaign. I was sure Adan felt betrayed by my secret rendezvous with a former boyfriend. After all, I had told him nothing as well, and I hadn’t told him that Tía Isabela had forbidden the trip.
Jesse did return to college and to Edward. He did whatever he had to do to win the concession from his parents. I felt certain one of the things was to promise never to have anything to do with me again.
These days seemed to take longer. Weeks were more like months. I drudged along, taking little care of my appearance. My hair looked straggly and dirty most of the time. I didn’t even wear lipstick. If any boy at school even glanced my way, I turned my back on him quickly. Vaguely, in the back of my mind, I looked forward to the day Tía Isabela described, the day I turned eighteen and she sent me packing. I had no idea whether I would return to Mexico or not, but just the idea of being on my own, being released from this new prison, was enough to keep me going.
Of course, I couldn’t stop thinking about Ignacio. It took awhile for me to learn what prison he had been sent to, but when I did, I wrote him a letter and prayed he would write back. He didn’t, but I wrote him again and again. I waited for a response in vain. Nothing I told him seemed to please him or get him to forgive me. I decided to stop writing to him. Even if I could show him t
hat none of this was my deliberate doing, I was sure that he saw me as the cause of all the pain and trouble his family was suffering.
I began to believe and accept this way of thinking, too, and therefore quietly accepted all of the abuse, the extra hard work, and the drudgery of my life as proper punishment. I almost welcomed whatever mean thing Sophia could say or do. I saw that this diminished her satisfaction. She was gradually getting bored with me, anyway, and returned to her own pleasures with her friends. She had something to hold over her mother now. She had been the one to expose it all and save her mother from even greater embarrassment. If Tía Isabela tried to discipline or restrict her in any way, she was quick to throw it back in her face, and her mother retreated. Sophia was as wild as ever, and reckless. I knew her schoolwork suffered, but the only thing that mattered was keeping herself from being bored or unhappy.
It had been so long since I had been happy myself that I actually began to envy her. I’d watch her parade by with her friends, laughing and talking excitedly, or see her being picked up to go places on weekends night and day. I was truly once again the Cinderella who had gone too far beyond her midnight curfew and had been returned to her lowly status.
And then, one day, without any warning or preparation, I was summoned by mi tía just as I began washing the kitchen floor.
“Leave it. Inez will finish that. Señora Dallas wants you right now,” Señora Rosario told me.
When I started out, she stopped me to fix my hair and straighten my clothes. Confused by her attention, I walked into the living room to find Adan Bovio sitting with mi tía Isabela. He stood up immediately, looking as handsome as ever in his tight, hip-hugging jeans and silk turquoise short-sleeve shirt. He looked tanned and rested and wore a beautiful thick gold chain around his neck.
“Hello, Delia,” he said. “Cómo estás?”
I looked at mi tía Isabela. She nodded slightly, as if to give me permission to speak.
“I am okay, Adan, and you?”
“As busy as ever. My father let me take a short holiday in Hawaii, however, and I’ve just recently returned.”