My mouth was gaping. My parents were my OTP, the type of couple people wrote about. Over thirty-five years together and they were still in each other’s pockets. I couldn’t imagine my mom doing that to him.
My dad just sat there, letting my mom tell the story, with that besotted expression he always had when he looked at her. “Right before we left, your abuela called and said that your grandpa was sick. I got so scared. Being in New York already felt so incredibly far and I thought, ‘If I go to California I’ll never see my dad again.’ I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to go with your dad, but we weren’t married even. I thought if I go with him, people will judge. Say nasty things about me.” She waved a hand in the air. “Santo Domingo, you know people talk. So I left. I thought my duty was to be there. As soon as I got there, your abuela and your abuelo made me promise I’d come back. They told me, ‘You did not leave this country to be tied down to the backward machismo thinking you were trying to get away from.’ So I called your dad and explained. I got to see my dad, who recovered, and then I came home to him.”
I looked straight ahead, trying to process why they were telling me all this.
My mother’s expression turned sad, and regretful. “I know I’m not perfect and I nagged you about things that were superficial and my own way of feeling justified for how I like to do things, but baby, we raised you to be your own woman. To own your dreams and chase them. He’s a good man, and just because Matt didn’t deserve you doesn’t mean Rocco will disappoint you.”
My father sat forward so that he could look at me. “Rocco seems to be someone who puts everyone before himself. Maybe you can teach each other to make yourselves more of a priority.”
I sat there in silence, digesting my parents’ advice and feeling a little out of sorts. I never thought they would be the ones encouraging me to go after a man and not my career.
They were right, I was still letting Matt make my decisions for me, and he was no longer part of the equation. I turned my head from side to side to look at my parents, who seemed sad and happy for me at the same time, then exhaled and took each of their hands in one of mine.
“I’ll think about it. There are just too many uncertainties right now. I’m not even sure if the funding for the foundation will be available after they go public. So, I may end up here regardless. There’s also the fact that I’m not sure Westchester is far enough for Rocco and his sister to really get some distance from their parents.” I sighed, exhausted and defeated. “I don’t want to put myself at the center of what he needs to do. We were never meant to be more than a temporary thing.” My mom rolled her eyes like now I was just being ridiculous.
“Mami, I’m serious though. We’ve never talked about trying things long term, and it feels so complicated right now.” I cringed when I realized I just told my parents I was someone’s booty call.
“Mija, have you thought maybe Rocco agreed to that because that’s all you were willing to give him?” My dad spoke in the low, sure voice that always managed to soothe my nerves no matter what the situation. If my dad said it, I believed it. “Maybe he’s afraid to ask for more too.”
I was about to protest when my mother shut it down.
“That man looks at you like you’re the answer to every question he’s ever had. Trust that you can be that to someone.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rocco
“Hey, muñeca,” I said, smiling into my phone while I walked into my office at 7:00 a.m. “I thought you were going to sleep in. Between the flight and me keeping you up after you got to my place...” My face heated, thinking about what we’d done when Julia came over straight from the airport last night.
I expected her to laugh, but when I only heard choppy breathing, I started to worry.
“What’s wrong?”
“Vicki finally went too far.” Her voice was shaky, and I sat down dreading what she would say. She’d been complaining about the clinical director for the program for weeks. I’d been low-key worried she’d end up doing something that would give Phil and Duke the excuse they needed to convince the board Julia’s programs were more trouble than they were worth.
“What do you mean?”
“I think she got one of the clients deported, Rocco!” The terror in her voice was real and she sounded close to tears. I dropped my ass into my desk chair, not sure what to say next.
“Deported? How?”
She exhaled loudly and I could picture her sitting on my bed, her mouth pursed, and shoulders tense. Unhappy. Scared.
“Apparently she had one of the kids and his mom over for Christmas dinner, against all of our fucking policies, and when she couldn’t find some old earrings of hers the next day, she assumed they took them and called the police.” Her voice broke. “Mom isn’t documented.”
I squeezed my eyes shut as dread settled in my stomach. If Phil and Duke found out about this, they would almost certainly use it as proof that funding these programs was going to hurt Sturm’s image.
“Fuck. How did you find out? When did it happen?”
Another sigh from Julia, her voice hard when she spoke again. “Seems like Vicki’s son called Gail to tell her. He felt bad because he had taken the earrings to give them to his girlfriend for Christmas. From the looks of it, he and Vicki don’t have the best relationship. She wasn’t planning on letting anyone know what she’d done.” She scoffed, her voice full of disgust. Phil and Duke would have a fucking field day with this. “It’s not like we wouldn’t notice when Antonio stopped coming to the program after school started. Melida, the mom, was one of our most supportive parents. Never missed a meeting.” She was openly crying now and I was in a full panic.
“I’m so sorry, baby. Are you going to the office, then?”
I heard rustling like she was moving around the room. “Yeah, I have to go home and get myself together, then I’m going to meet with Gail. She said she wants to talk about next steps with the immigration attorney we work with.” She stopped talking then, and the pause was heavy enough for me to know what she was about to say. “If you hear anything tell me, okay? This is not going to look good when they consider the funding for next year, or shutting us down for good.”
I was about to remind her I could not do that when she clicked her tongue. “Shit, that’s really inappropriate, isn’t it?” I closed my eyes once again. I’d known it from the moment I laid eyes on Julia that we’d end up here. I gripped the edge of the desk, just to stave off the panic already bubbling up in my chest.
“I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t promise anything.”
