by Jesse Jordan
“Maria... Maria, don't,” I whisper, stepping in front of her. I hate putting my body between my sister and the man I realize now is her rapist, but she can't be allowed to do this. Again, there's no fear, just a feeling that I must do the right thing, I have to protect Maria from destroying her life, regardless of the risk to me. “Maria, hermanita, this isn't the way. Think of Angel, you don't want to do this in front of him.”
“Chad, what are you waiting for, shoot her before she kills me!” Darren demands, but Chad doesn't move, instead, looking around in a confused panic. It's all too much for him, his mind's overloading. “Shoot her!”
“Wha... what's going on?” Chad says, his face going white as a sheet. “This is wrong, man. Wrong...”
“You have no idea,” I whisper, reaching out and putting my hand over Maria's. If she twists the blade, if she shoves, she could bury it in my body, but she lets me turn her hand away, the blade falling to the entryway door. Angel comes up, hugging his mother's leg and sobbing, and Maria snaps out of her almost trancelike state to hug her son, picking him up and holding him tightly. Darren tries to turn, but the rebound from the kick and all the other ruckus has caused the front door of the house to close, and he hits the wood with his shoulder, too frightened to pull the handle. “Maria... take Angel, go call the police. There will be justice.”
Maria nods, saying nothing as she retreats to the living room, Mama going with her. Chad's still looking like he's in shock, and Andrea's face is written in fury, shame, and anger. I look into her eyes, seeing the green gaze that should have told me the truth the whole time. “How long did you know?”
“Until Maria just said something, I wasn't sure. I was having nightmares though... but to think... my father.... a troller?”
“I was just ordering in!” Darren says pathetically, turning to us and trying to pathetically defend his actions. “I was... they're nothing but poor ghetto trash!”
Chad blinks, the horror dawning on his face as he starts to realize, and he looks at Andrea, swallowing. “Andrea.... is your father....”
“Angel's my half-brother,” Andrea says, stepping past me to confront her father eye to eye. “My father is a predator, not even human. He sickens me, you're a pathetic excuse for life. How many, Darren? How many... Dad?”
“As many as I wanted!” Darren laughs crazily, running his right hand through his hair, his eyes going wild. “Don't you get it? I'm rich! I've got power! I'm the one who has control here, not you, not these lazy pathetic idiots! I'm the one in charge, not that slu...”
Darren's rant against my family and my sister is stopped cleanly as Andrea punches him right in the mouth before kicking him in the nuts. He drops, cradling his balls and screaming in pain, the sound making Chad react, pulling the pistol to point it at us for a moment, before turning to point it at Darren. “Go call the cops,” Chad says softly. “I may be a horrible man... but at least I'm a man. Andrea... I'm sorry.”
“They're already on the way,” Mama says behind me, handing me the phone. “It's 9-1-1, Joey.”
“This is Joey Rivera,” I say into Mama's phone, looking at Darren as he squirms and cradles his balls. “Darren Coates broke into my house and is still inside.”
“Yes, Mr. Rivera. We heard part of the conversation, officers will be there in a few minutes. Is everyone safe?”
I look, but Andrea's backed off, her arms around her body as the full impact of what just happened rolls through her and the adrenaline starts to crash and she sits down on the floor next to me, starting to sob. Chad though, he's still got the pistol on Darren, his eyes not moving from the wounded businessman. “Hurry, please. I'm passing the phone back to my mother. Thank you.”
“You won't get away with this!” Darren wheezes, his face turning red. “Don't you get it? I've got the best law you can have, the golden rule! I have the gold, I make the rules!”
Chad's hand quivers, and suddenly he lowers the gun, reversing it and holding it handle out to me. “Take it. I'm going to shoot him if I keep this thing.”
I take the gun, but don't raise it as Chad kneels, his face attaining some sort of composure. Darren grins, looking up at me as he rolls to a sitting position. “Stay down, Darren. I won't shoot you, but I will beat you down if I have to.”
“Go ahead, you'll be the one in jail, not me,” he laughs. “Don't you get it, there's no proof, you can't pin anything on me.”
“Yes they can,” Chad says, shaking his head. “The exact same thing that my father's trying to get squashed in my case... the DNA. That boy, he's got your DNA in him.”
“And my sister was only fifteen when she gave birth to Angel,” I add. “No matter what Darren... you're going down.”
I see lights flashing outside the house, red and blue flashes that light up the kitchen window in horrible, terrible parodies of a rave to me for some reason. I hear voices approaching, and then someone outside. “This is the police! Is everyone all right?”
I set the pistol down on the ground between my feet and raise my hands. Better safe than sorry. “There's a man on the ground right behind the front door. It's Darren Coates. Please come in.”
The sun's rising when the last of the news vans pull away from the house, and while I hate it, I understand their desire, and at the same time, a cynical, harsh part of me knows that they will serve a purpose for us. Now, regardless of what else Darren's lawyers try to do, the damage to his reputation will be deep and maybe even permanent. Coates Media might control a lot of stations and papers in the Los Angeles area, but they don't control them all, not by a long shot.
The last cop, a detective from the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, stands with me outside the house as the last van pulls away. “You know Mr. Rivera, we could leave a unit here the rest of the night, keep the tabloids away.”
I shake my head, glancing over my shoulder. The splintered door jamb's the only really noticeable sign of the craziness tonight, everything else is quiet. “No... my family deserves to get some sleep now. We've got a wedding to go to tomorrow, my best friend's getting married.”
The detective nods, shifting from side to side before yawning. He's had a long night as well, most of the patrol units that were here cleared away at midnight with the end of shift and most the reputable newsgroups leaving. Only a few of the vulture tabloid types hung around after that, the detective and his partner chasing one asshole out of my backyard before arresting him for trespassing. “You handled it well if I can offer my opinion. Smart move to put the pistol down before the cops came in, you don't have a permit for that thing.”
“I didn't bring it in the house,” I reply tiredly. “I told that to the other guys.”
“I know. Just saying, cops responding to a gun-involved domestic violence... you handled it better than some of the cops I know. I wouldn't worry, the stuff that I know already, he's got no leg to stand on. Hopefully, the LA County DA or maybe even the FBI leans on him, they've been trying to get a crack in the whole 'trolling' ring for years.”
I nod, exhausted and not really caring. My family is safe, and I need sleep. “Thank you, Detective. Listen, if you don't mind, I'm going to check on my family.”
The detective nods and offers his hand. “Of course. One last thing. I noticed, just by chance you know, the folded flag on your living room. Marine family, right? I don't know who it was, you father, your brother, whoever... but what you did, you handled yourself as bravely as any Marine, and I'm speaking from experience. So, if you need help, Mr. Rivera, give us a call. In the meantime, I'd advise you to try the screen lock and whatever else it is you've got until you can get a repairman out here. Good night.”
“Good morning you mean,” I laugh tiredly as the sun first breaks over the house in front of me. “Thank you again.”
The detective leaves, and I watch him go for a minute before retreating inside, seeing Mama sitting on the couch with Andrea, while Angel and Maria are curled up under blankets right in front of the sofa. “They were both hav
ing nightmares, this was the only way to help them stop,” Mama explains in a soft voice. “They're gone?”
I nod, coming around Maria to sit on the floor next to where Andrea's curled up, her eyes haunted. She's sipping coffee, watching Maria and Angel with pain and love in her eyes. “I feel like I owe you all an apology,” she says, struggling to find the words. “When I started having nightmares, I should have put it all together. I should have put it together years before when I saw....”
“You have done nothing wrong,” Mama says, her voice strict but full of love. “You never knew. To expect you as a high school student to recognize from a few comments your mother said a decade before along with a groped ass six years later.... no, Andrea. You did nothing wrong. And I won't let you blame yourself either.”
Andrea's hand quivers, and I take the coffee cup away from her as the first tears start falling, her calm exterior finally starting to crack. I get up, and Mama and I hold her on the couch as Andrea cries, never screaming or sobbing, just crying softly. “I'm sorry... I love you all so much.”
“And we love you,” Mama says quietly. “Now, Andrea... Angel's going to need to learn that he has a sister someday. Not today, not for years to come, but some day. Until then, we do not need to speak about his parentage, outside of any courtrooms. But you are part of this family, Andrea.”
Andrea nods, hugging Mama before turning to me. “Joey...”
I shake my head, pulling her into my lap. “I love you, that's all that counts. We'll figure out the rest later.”
Andrea hugs me back, relaxing into my embrace. I can feel her head grow heavy, and Mama gets up, letting me stretch out my legs and ease myself down into a half laying down position, Andrea stretching out with me. “Mama... you mind if we stay here for a while?”
Mama shakes her head, going to the back long enough to get a few pillows and bringing them out, helping me arrange one behind my head before she lays down on the carpet next to Angel and Maria. Andrea's already starting to breathe deeply, and I shift around a little bit more until I close my eyes and let the darkness give me some comfort.
I wake up hours later, my phone ringing on the table, Andrea still in my arms, but Mama's gotten up, I can hear the shower running in the back of the house, and Angel's shifted around, he's laying with his head on Maria's hip like he used to do sometimes as a baby. I reach out and grab my phone, and see the call's from Ian. Shit, I forgot to tell the guys or James, and they've had to have seen the news by now, it had to have been on both the primetime and the morning news shows since last night. “Ian?”
“You might want to get up, brother,” Ian says. “We'd knock, but we didn't want to startle anyone.”
“What are you talking about, we? Where are you?”
“I'm at your front door outside your screen,” Ian replies, hanging up. I shift around, but Andrea sits up, rubbing at her eyes.
“I heard. Ian?”
I nod, still confused. I check the clock on my phone, it's nearly ten in the morning, and my brain's still fuzzy from everything that's happened. Still, I get up and go to the front door, undoing the chain lock and pulling out the doorstop that I wedged in this morning, the door jamb's too cracked for the deadbolt to work. I open the door and unlock the screen, stepping out to see Ian waiting for me. “Ian, what're you doing here?”
“Checking on our brother,” Ian says, stepping up and swallowing me in an embrace. “You stupid shit, call next time! You had Rocky and me scared half to death!”
Ian picks me up, pounding me on the back as I realize just how much I mean to the giant man. He doesn't show it often, but the saying still waters run deep is totally true in his case, and I hug him back until he sets me down. “Ian, you didn't have to come here and...”
“You mean we didn't,” Cora says from the driveway, and I turn to see her, Rocky, and Bella all leaning against their car, watching with a smile on each of their faces. “Ian got here first, he got to call. James is on the way too, just to let you know. He said he was going to take care of the cancellations, first.”
“What cancellations?” I ask. Behind me, the screen door opens and Andrea comes out, Ian grabbing her in an equally powerful but slightly more tender hug before she can say anything. I cross the front lawn to Rocky, who hugs me slightly less powerfully than Ian, I think my ribs are all still in one piece. “What cancellations?”
“Cancellations are a bit rough... let's say postponement,” Rocky says after he lets go. Cora and Bella go over to hug Andrea, Ian coming over to me and Rocky. “When the news broke last night, Cora and I discussed it, and we're delaying our wedding until after this is calmed down and everything blows over.”
“Rocky, you can't!” I protest. “You've put out so much, there's going to be people, I can handle it all....”
Rocky shakes his head, putting his hand on my shoulder. “No. Joey, we're family. All of us. Can I ask... are the things the tabloids said about Andrea's father true? About... about Maria?”
“Did they release Maria or Angel's name?” I ask, and Rocky shakes his head. “Still... some people will put the two together.”
“Perhaps. But we'll be there for you then, too. She's our hermanita too, bro. And it's not a long delay, just a few days. Cora and I talked, and Ian's on board with it too, we can still get it done in time for his surgery. The wedding's being moved, and we can't do that until after we know a hundred percent that your house has been fixed and your family's ready to travel.”
“Where?” I ask, still fuzzy in the brain. The screen door opens again, and Mama comes out, her hair still wet but she's pulled on some jeans and a t-shirt. Cora and Andrea immediately start talking with her, and I turn back to Rocky and Ian, who are grinning. “What?”
“We were thinking... well, it's a little late in the season, a week before Thanksgiving and all, but what about an early December wedding in the Florida Keys? I'm pretty sure we can find some hotel or another down there that might be able to host a wedding quickly.”
“I think we'd like that very much. But first, how about you guys come inside, have some breakfast or brunch or lunch or whatever with everyone? I'll let you tell Maria herself when she wakes up, her and Angel both,” I say. I look around, feeling something inside me finally let go, a weight lifted off my shoulders for the first time in what feels like... it's been thirteen years. “Come on. Mi familia es su familia.”
“Su familia es nuestra familia,” Rocky says, “en todos.”
My family is our family. I like that.
Chapter 19
Andrea
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in the presence of God to celebrate...” the minister says, his voice both dynamic and comforting. I'm barely able to pay attention to what he's saying though, my eyes are fixed on Rocky and Cora as they stand side by side at the beachside altar. It took a lot of scrambling, but after what happened to Joey, once George T heard about it, he called in favors left and right, at no cost at all to Rocky or Cora. All George did was send a bouquet of flowers with a note of congratulations attached.
“They look beautiful,” Teresa whispers, for the first time I've known her not dressed in black but instead in a beautiful aqua bridesmaid dress. Somehow I've ended up the maid of honor while Teresa and Bella are the other members of the bridal party. Maria was invited, but she decided instead to sit with the other guests, watching and taking photos for us all. Across from us on the other side of the altar, Ian, Joey, and James are the groomsmen, with Ian and Joey being dual best men. Angel's adapted to his role as the ring bearer and is standing very proudly next to Joey, the rings on a pillow ready for him to play his part.
“They do, don't they?” I whisper back, glancing over at Joey who gives me a small smile. A week, just a delay of a week, but it's enough time that we're able to start getting back to normal.
“And now, the rings,” the minister says, waiting patiently while Joey has to urge the suddenly shy Angel up to the altar. Angel holds his pillow high above hi
s head, making the small group of twenty or so chuckle fondly while Rocky and Cora exchange rings. The minister blesses the rings, then a final prayer before the kiss... and Cora Clearwater's become Cora Blake.
For the next hour, it's a little dull as Cora and Rocky take care of paperwork, signing the marriage license and changing for the reception. Cora still wore the long heavy dress that she'd originally planned since her mother wanted her to have a 'princess moment,’ and needs to change.
Inside the ballroom, I see the reception band warming up, all five of them looking scared stiff seeing some of the people coming in. I go over to the bar, where Joey's sipping at a fruit juice with Ian, laughing. “Come on man, he did fine! Maria's taking him up to the room to change so he can enjoy the party a little before his bedtime.”
“Is Ian saying something bad about my Angel?” I mock growl, coming up and punching the giant in the shoulder. Ian flinches away while Joey laughs, putting an arm around my shoulders and giving me a hug. “It was a great ceremony.”
“It was,” Ian says quickly, shaking his head. “And I wasn't saying anything except that he's cute and captured a lot of attention, that's all I swear!”
“You better, big boy. Nobody picks on my little brother,” I mock growl, smiling as Joey gives me a juice.
“So, you're going to tell him?” Ian asks unsurely. “I mean, you guys told me, but Teresa said that Angel didn't have to be let in.”
“Four-year-olds hear more than we think sometimes,” Joey says with an ironic chuckle. “We kinda had to talk about it front of him when Angel grabbed Andrea in a big hug the next morning and said he was happy to have a big sister. Apparently, he overheard enough that night, he figured it out. He's actually happy about it, he thinks it's cool that Andrea's his half-sister. We didn't go into the details of how that all happened, that'll come when he's older, but for now, we're trying to handle it.”
