"If Padre is going to dismiss everything I've built, I'm not listening without wine."
"Oh great, on top of everything, she's an alcoholic too," my father exclaimed.
A flicker of worry flashed in Mother's eyes as she looked from me to him, then back again. "No? Are you?"
"Yes," I lied, then walked to the kitchen to pour a glass.
Alone briefly, I rested my hands on the counter, took a slow breath through my nose, and let it out in a shaky exhale. "You can do this. It's only a day trip. They're leaving for his business meeting tomorrow. It's just one day. Not even a full twenty-four hours in my face if you count the time they'll spend sleeping after the party."
"Alexandra. If you can pry yourself away from the bottle, let's continue our chat."
I uncorked the bottle, lifted it to my mouth, and took a swig. Screw the glass. With Padre around, I'd need to be numb.
We sat for three hours.My father was silent at first while I presented my plan for life and my business. The last time I did this I was pitching investors for Amoré Nights. My mother's face showed she understood my business plan. Yet, her face wrinkled when I moved on to the personal stuff.
"I want to be single for a while. Get to know myself before I become someone's wife."
When that got confusing looks, I tried a bit of what Mei said. "I was even thinking of doing some therapy, get to the root of who Alexandra Ortega is."
That was when my father's silent streak ended. "This is what I paid good money to send you to school for."
Tilting my head, I stared ahead, waiting for an explanation.
"She has lived twenty-four years but does not know who she is. Before she left Spain, your daughter already knew her name. Since then, that's all she still has."
"Therapy?" my mother said. That seemed to be the part that troubled her most.
"Yes, in this country, many people go to therapy. To talk and better themselves."
"Get married. Have children. That will fix everything," Padre said as he pushed me right to my breaking point.
"Santiago and Danny let you dictate their lives. Look at what it got them. I'll be making my own decisions." It was as if my words lit a match in a room covered in gasoline. Padre narrowed his eyes so much they were nearly closed.
"Your brothers had a long rope, and that is how they ended up the way they are. You won't get the same chance to embarrass me."
"Therapy? Like tell your business to a stranger?" Mother mumbled.
She was getting on my nerves, and I snapped. "Yes. Believe it or not, normal people do not wake their daughters in the middle of the night to tell them their father is out with some girlfriend."
Silence.
"Do not push me to anger."
I shook my head at my father's warning. What did I have to be scared of? What power did he think he still had? The only thing he held over me was money.
"Maybe it was a mistake we came," Mother said, instead of telling him to settle down.
"It was a mistake to have her," he said and stood.
I froze. Everything started to feel far away, like I was underwater. A mistake. Me? I didn't do anything wrong but always got it the hardest from him. I was the one he wished wasn't born. In that moment, I knew where my problems with men originated. All my life I felt unwanted and ignored by him.
"The only reason anyone puts up with you is the money you hold over our heads. Not me. I'm freeing myself from your control."
"Alexandra, don't speak to your father like that."
I looked at her in disgust.
"You are the worst one of us all. You have let him treat you like trash for years. For what, the lifestyle he finances? Does that money outweigh your dignity, Mother? It is not worth mine."
