He exhales a harsh breath. “You’re an eighteen-year-old high school senior,” he reminds me, and I can hear the thread of panic in his voice. He’s serious. Sofia can be taken from us all because our deadbeat father kicked the bucket. Will this man never stop ruining our lives? He even has to do it from the goddamn grave?
“You’re not. You have a job. You can be her legal guardian.” I still don’t understand what the problem is.
“I have a record, E.”
All the blood drains from my face. “That was three years ago. They can’t—”
“They can. It was assault with—”
“You were defending yourself!” I roar, slamming my fist against the locker. “You were defending us.” Antonio did what he had to do to keep us safe, but our asshole of a father pressed charges even though he was the one who swung first.
“I know. Doesn’t matter though. That’s not how they see it.”
“Fuck.” I start to pace. “What are we going to do? How do we fix this?” There has to be a way. Letting social services take Sofia is not an option, I’ll run with her if I have to. I know Antonio will too. My mind strays to Bibiana and Luis. Shit. I can’t take my sister and run. I have my own kid to think about too. Goddammit. What a mess.
Would Bibiana leave with us? I could convince her if I had to, right?
“Roberto is on his way. I called him before calling you. He put in for leave when I told him about Luis. It was approved.”
“But for how long? We can’t count on him to—”
“We’ll figure it out, okay? We have to.”
I grind my teeth together and nod, not that he can see it. I don’t have a lot of faith in our eldest brother, but if he can stick around long enough for us to figure this shit out, that’ll be enough. Then he can crawl back to whatever desert they have him stationed at and go back to pretending his family doesn’t exist.
“So, what do we do in the meantime?”
“You get your ass home. We need to show the case worker that we’re a stable, loving, family. That we can provide the type of environment Sofia needs to thrive in. They’ll be here tomorrow to interview us. I need—”
“I’ll be there.”
He lets out a relieved breath. “Thank you.”
I snort. “You don’t have to thank me. She’s my baby sister too.”
“I know.” He sighs. “But you’ve got your own kid now and—”
“And nothing. I’ll let Bibiana know I’ll be busy for a little while. She’s bringing Luis to school now, so I’ll still get to see him every day. We’ll figure it out.”
“You still need to bring him home sometime. I want to meet my nephew.”
“I know I will—”
“Only maybe after we get all of this figured out.”
Sounds good to me. I don’t want my kid anywhere near where social services is sniffing.
The sound of voices approaching lets me know the guys must have finished up with practice. “I gotta go, but I’ll be home in half an hour. An hour max. Okay?”
“Okay. See you soon.”
I hang up and shove my phone back into my bag before peeling off my pads. I need a quick shower before the rest of the team uses all the hot water, and then I need to haul ass home. I consider calling Bibiana to let her know what happened, but I never told her about Raul in the first place. Better to leave well enough alone. I’ll just tell her I can’t come by this week because of practice. She’ll understand. She knows we have the state championship this weekend, so it won’t be a big deal.
Right?
twenty-three
When Jae said he’d grab some of my things from my mom’s, I didn’t realize he’d meant all of my things. My room wasn’t very large to begin with back home, so I didn’t have a ton of stuff, but all of my clothes are hanging in the guest room closet and six large boxes lay against one wall filled with Luis’s clothes and toys. He even packed my books and knickknacks.
