“Very well, then what do you want?”
“I have something to show you, first. Bien, it is for you to hear, not see. Then I will tell you what I want.”
He scoffed. “I am helpless right now, so I suppose I have no choice. Show me.”
I pulled up a chair and sat down next to his bed. Then I handed him my phone and said, “Press play.”
He looked from me to the cell phone in his hand. Then he did as I said, he tapped the play button.
I could not help it – my breath hitched a bit in my chest – when her voice came from the phone…
“I am Gabriela Mora Mancini and this is my story…
At sixteen, I fell deeply in love with a young man named Alex. He was just a mechanic in a local garage with an average life. He had been my brother’s best friend since they were small children. But he was very special, sweet and warm. Before him, I never saw how bright a day could be. I never cared about much as my unhappiness was a life I’d been born into.
I never believed that a person could change all of that. It had been Alex that breathed life into me. He showed me that a walk by a stream could be a whole adventure. He told me that butterflies had wings so they could be free and perhaps humans could be free as well. That sunshine was addictive to the soul and beauty could be found in a wildflower. He believed in the possibility of miracles and he showed me that money wasn’t the only thing in life. And that even simple things could bring joy.
Alex was my whole world and he meant everything to me.
You see, I come from a dark world. One full of fear and death. Where lives were traded for money and emotions were a waste of time. Yes, I grew up in total luxury and wealth. Yet it never made me feel happy. I believed that happiness was a myth. Just a story people made up to lull you into going through life while trying to attain it. I felt truly poor in so many ways as I was not happy at all even though I lived in a true mansion. It was a place where the servants cowered before a master. And this master was Santiago Castillo, the feared head of a ruthless cartel. My father. In fact, he ran the Castillo Cartel with an iron hand.
When he discovered my romance with Alex, he called me a foolish little girl, demanding that I break up with Alex because he had a proper suitor lined up for me. Sons would step into the business and daughters would further the business when traded as a deal. This was the rule of life in our family.
I told Alex that we must part as my father was a dangerous man. He showed no mercy for those who crossed him or even looked at him wrong. Alex implored me to run away with him. I felt very afraid to do this but how could I resist when I wanted to build a life with him? When he was the only light in my life. I didn’t wish to be the bride of some old man for a business deal. Not if I could escape the darkness and chaos of the cartel and create my own life outside of my father’s bloody legacy. I assured myself that I could be anyone I wanted to be. I could even be just an average person. I longed to be that. I was at an age where I thought I would live forever and love was all that mattered.
So, before my father could marry me off, Alex and I escaped to a small village on a beach up the coast. We were married by a priest in a small chapel as Alex said we shouldn’t live in sin as he and I had not been intimate like that since we got together. I couldn’t believe my dreams came true. We were married! We vowed to enjoy our lives to be free of the dark worldof my father. We lived in a small two-room place on the baja. We swam in the ocean with a wondrous abandon and caught fish for our dinners. Made love under the stars of heaven and slept with the wonderment of the very young in our dreams. We traded fish for vegetables and fruit from the village to add to our diet. It was the brightest, most magnificent dream I had ever lived.
But like all dreams—you are finally forced to wake up.
We were only happy and carefree for two weeks before my father and his cartel hunted us down. We came up to the beach from our daily ocean swim and became surrounded by gun-toting cartel soldiers.
My father had always been a harsh reality in my life but what he did next topped all the cruelty I had ever known. He forced me to be a witness as he made Alex kneel in the sand at my feet. Panicked and very afraid, I struggled uselessly to get released from the hold of his men.
My father Santiago was handed a weapon and with malice and aforethought, he shot my Alex in the head. He showed no emotion, no regret or human feeling in his eyes as Alex’s blood ran over the white sand.
I screamed and screamed as even threats from my father couldn’t silence me. All Alex was guilty of was loving me, not for my wealth or to be in the cartel. No, he simply loved me and it had cost him his life. I was inconsolable and mostly incoherent. My trauma even blocked out my father’s rage and shouts.
I was brought home on a blur of a hysterical-surreal ride then was locked up in my room, under guard. I laid around for I do not know how long, weeping and wishing to die. My father had several women on shifts watching me. He knew I was done listening to him and that I would escape this cold life somehow. Even if it was simply to spite him. I devised ways to do away with myself. He had bars put on the windows and thebathroom window. I still felt determined to foil his plans for me, whatever nightmarish idea he had to make me pay for defying him. I refused to be any kind of boon for his business. I even contemplated attempting to kill him. I just really did not know how I could do it though.
Yes, I had been trapped in a very dark place. A bitter-hateful brick of revenge had replaced my heart. I was barely sane, barely human in my grieving misery of a life.
Then something happened that made me want to live. It might have been one of the miracles my Alex believed in. One of the bright moments that human beings could experience from pure love. It had been a shock but it gave me hope.
I found out I was pregnant. I hadn’t felt well and my emotions were all over the place. But I’d summed it up to the fact that the love of my life was recently murdered in front of my eyes by my father. When I realized what this meant, I couldn’t help but feel some happiness. I carried a piece of sweet Alex inside of me. He wasn’t fully gone and if I were smart, I could make sure the baby survived so that he would never be gone.
Greed, darkness and evil hadn’t entirely won.
However, I was still trapped in my father’s house and I wondered how I could escape him. I then thought of contacting my brother Carlos. During my childhood, he had been a saving grace as he seemed to be the only one that cared about me. He had always been different from my other siblings. He always tried to take up for me and make me laugh against all odds. He taught me about fun which had been a concept I never experienced often.
But suddenly all that changed when my father had sent Carlos away to run his business in America. I’d cried for days when it happened as in reality, Carlos had been my only real family. So, I tried to contact him for help, but I couldn’t get anymessages out as the women who watched me feared the wrath of my father. I then realized it was only me who could save me. I had chosen to be with Alex and to run away. So, I would again make an escape.
Only this time, I would escape to save the life of my baby.
Before I could complete the plan I had set up, my father found out I was pregnant. He called me all sorts of names and his rage was more than I’d ever seen in him before. I actually feared for my very life. He promised that I would not like what he would do. He never told me what that meant and that was further cruelty on his part as I was left to wonder. Whatever he did with me would be for his own gain though. Not what was best for me or what was best for my child. The man wasn’t any kind of parent and never had been. I’d known this since I was ten when it had been revealed that he had murdered my mother in a fit of rage.
Then one day, he came to me and told me with a cold smile on his face that he’d picked out a husband for me. His name was Señor Mora and he had to make a very rich and promising deal for him to marry me and give me his name. He then said that I would not be a Castillo anymore. While that was a wonderful premise to me, I could only stare at him in shock. There wasn’t anything that I could do and I honestly didn’t have the courage to try to fight back. So, I complied with what he had said. I needed to do all that I could to protect Alex’s legacy. All I could think was that I needed to protect my baby.
Only it turned out to bebabies.
