Neither of us said a word as we drove back to my apartment. I typed in the key code, the gate opened, and the moment my car was through, the gate closed.
I hadn’t intended to have this conversation with Alba, but something had changed within her. Her questions were different. I didn’t know what had gone through her mind, but I was prepared to get to the bottom of it.
Climbing out of the car, Alba was doing the same, and I went to the trunk of the car and grabbed her bags of books. Werode the elevator together then stepped into the main part of the house, and I took the books into the sitting room. I removed my leather jacket and turned to look at Alba, who stared right back at me.
“You’re aware of your father’s connections to the human trafficking. Men, women, girls?” I asked.
Alba licked her lips. “I’m aware of the Serra Mafia’s connection to it, and once I knew that, I learned of the women that served us, as well as some of the men. How do you know?”
“You helped some of them escape,” I said.
She looked at me but didn’t say a word.
“You helped them when no one else would, and you took the blame so none of them would be punished.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You can pretend all you want. I’m the one who got them to safety.”
This made her laugh, but when I just stared at her, the laughter stopped.
“You’re not kidding, are you?” she asked.
I reeled off four names and watched the recognition in her. “You started this at sixteen when you realized what was happening—four years ago—and you have tried to help so many people.”
Alba stepped toward me. “Are they okay?” she asked, finally breaking the act. “I … I got them as far as I could, but I know they tried to hunt them down.”
“They never found them.”
Four women, all of which were around the age of eighteen, and Alba, when she was no more than a teenager herself, risked everything to save them. The four women came from loving families who were trying to find them. Only, the cops had been paid off.
She put her hands together and smiled. “I prayed every single day that they were fine and they got out.” She took a deep breath, and I watched as she closed her eyes. “And they did.”
That smile, this woman, was an anomaly. An angel amongst devils. The only one willing to act to save someone else.
“Why did you do it?” I asked.
“What?”
“You didn’t need to do it. Your sisters didn’t help. They made it difficult.”
Alba looked around the room, and she opened her mouth and closed it. “It wasn’t right,” Alba said. “Nothing I heard was right. Why would you protect them? Isn’t this life what you’re about as well?”
I accepted that.
“I’ve done a lot of things in my life, Alba. A lot of things I’m not proud of. A lot I am.”
I stared at my wife, and I made the decision. I had intended to keep this from her, but at every opportunity, Alba had shocked me. She had shown me loyalty, she had been honest and truthful.
“Twelve years ago, my sister was taken,” he said. “I was twenty-eight at the time. My sister was eighteen. She had gone to the doctor as she felt ill. My mother was the last to hear from her, and it was to say the doctor felt like she had flu. That was it. No other call. My sister did not come home that night. Nor the next. We never heard from her again. At this time, I was working for my dad in construction. We were not wealthy by any means, but we did good. He had a great reputation. I was good with my hands. I had a bit of a temper, and I had trained. My sister didn’t come home, nor did she call. The cops didn’t even try.”
I looked at my wife, as she folded her arms across her chest.
“You haven’t always been this person?” she asked.
I shook my head. “There was a time I was a regular joe on the street. I got up, went to work, paid my taxes. Had a beer with the guys, partied. Fucked and had fun. Then, I woke up, and I realized these streets were not for regular joes. My sister being taken, kidnapped, and the police losing the evidence, hiding it, being bought off, that was when I realized something shitty was going on. So, I started hunting for information. I used to be a fighter, and I didn’t mind a little pain. I delved in and went in hard, and I discovered that the Serra Mafia amongst many other things, was into human trafficking. Every year, they have a special list. A list for wealthy people, those that seem to get away with everything, because no one would dare rock the boat. My sister’s description matched that.”
I saw the shock and horror in Alba’s eyes.
