Chapter 4 - THE LAND MY GRANDMOTHER LEFT ME
Three weeks earlier, I had been working a double shift.
I remembered because Mateo had cut his first tooth that night and Luis had sent me a picture of him chewing on a cold washcloth.
I had smiled at my phone between patients.
At almost the exact same time, according to the date on the scorched page, someone had been pledging my grandmother's land as security for a loan.
My stomach rolled.
"Give me that."
Dad did not hand over the wet paper immediately.
He spread it carefully across the counter so it would not tear.
"Photograph it first."
I did.
Then I photographed the bowl.
The lighter in Rosa's hand.
The soaked fragments.
The expression on Luis's face.
He saw my camera and stepped backward.
"Camila, stop."
"Why?"
"Because you're making it look criminal."
I almost laughed.
"Your mother tried to burn it."
"She panicked."
"Why would she panic over something innocent?"
He had no answer.
Rosa found one for him.
"Because your father came in here threatening everyone."
Dad turned toward her.
"Quote one threat I made."
She opened her mouth.
Nothing came.
"Exactly."
He looked at me.
"We're leaving."
Rosa's eyes widened.
"With what?"
"With Camila's personal property and Mateo's things."
"Not the furniture."
"I didn't say furniture."
"Not the television."
"I didn't say television."
Her voice rose higher.
"Not the crib."
That stopped me.
"The crib is Mateo's."
"I paid for it."
"You gave it to us at the baby shower."
"Then I am taking it back."
My mouth fell open.
Dad put one hand on my shoulder.
"Leave the crib."
I turned toward him.
"Dad."
"We can replace a crib tonight."
His gaze moved to the burned documents.
"We cannot replace time."
He was right.
I hated that he was right.
I packed two suitcases while Rosa stood in the doorway making an inventory of every shirt and pair of shoes as though I were robbing her.
Luis leaned against the wall and kept asking me to be reasonable.
"Come on, Cami."
"We can talk after your dad leaves."
"Don't take Mateo away over one stupid form."
"It wasn't one form."
"Nothing even happened."
That phrase followed me from drawer to drawer.
Nothing even happened.
The car was still outside somewhere.
The loan had not yet deposited.
The land had not yet been seized.
My documents had eventually been returned.
Therefore, in Luis's mind, nothing had happened.
I folded Mateo's green blanket and placed it in the suitcase.
"Where is the land deed?"
Luis stiffened.
"I don't know."
"You knew enough about the land to put it on an application."
"My mom found the notice."
I turned toward Rosa.
"You opened that too?"
"It came here."
"That doesn't make it yours."
"You were living here."
"That still doesn't make it yours."
Her eyes narrowed.
"Watch your tone."
For the first time in months, that sentence did not shrink me.
"No."
She blinked.
I closed the suitcase.
"You watch yours."
Luis pushed away from the wall.
"Camila."
Dad stepped between us before he got closer.
"She said no."
Luis clenched his fists.
"Stop talking for my wife."
Dad's face stayed calm.
"Then listen when she talks for herself."
I lifted Mateo from the bed.
"I'm leaving tonight."
Luis stared at me.
"For how long?"
"I don't know."
"You don't get to just take my son."
My heart jumped.
Dad looked at me, not Luis.
"Camila, keep breathing."
I realized I had stopped.
Luis took another step.
"Mateo is my child too."
"I know."
"Then he stays here."
Rosa nodded.
"Exactly."
I tightened my arms around my baby.
"No."
Luis's face changed.
It was not quite rage.
It was entitlement stripped of politeness.
"You are not taking him out of my house."
Dad's tone sharpened for the first time.
"Do not block the doorway."
Luis did exactly that.
He planted himself between us and the hall.
"Call whoever you want."
He looked at me.
"Mateo stays."
My ankle throbbed.
Mateo began crying against my chest.
Rosa reached for him.
"Give him to me."
I jerked backward.
"Don't touch him."
Her hand remained in the air.
Dad pulled out his phone.
Luis laughed.
"You're calling the police because a father wants his son?"
Dad looked directly at him.
"I'm calling because you are physically preventing an injured adult from leaving a residence with an infant she has been caring for all day."
Luis stepped away from the doorway.
Not because he suddenly understood.
Because he did not want witnesses.
That realization was worse.
Dad lowered the phone but did not put it away.
"Thank you."
The courtesy sounded like a warning.
We carried the suitcases to the living room.
Ernesto stood near the balcony with both hands gripping the railing.
He looked ten years older than he had when we arrived.
"Arturo."
Dad stopped.
"What?"
Ernesto lowered his voice.
"Can I speak with you privately?"
"No."
"It's about the application."
"Then Camila should hear it."
Ernesto glanced at Rosa.
She glared at him.
He made a decision.
"Luis has debt."
Luis snapped, "Dad!"
Ernesto raised one hand.
"Enough."
Then he looked at me.
"More debt than you know."
My mouth went dry.
"How much?"
"I don't know the exact total."
"How much?"
He swallowed.
"Maybe six hundred thousand pesos."
The suitcase handle slipped from my fingers.
"What?"
Luis rushed forward.
"That includes business expenses."
"What business?"
"A project."
"You told me you were looking for work."
"I am."
"Then what project?"
He looked trapped.
Rosa answered for him again.
"He was trying to build something for your future."
"What?"
"A logistics company."
I stared at Luis.
He had never mentioned a logistics company.
Not once.
"With whose money?"
His silence answered.
Ernesto rubbed his forehead.
"He borrowed from friends."
"And?"
"Credit cards."
"And?"
"A private lender."
My chest tightened.
"And?"
Ernesto looked at the scorched paper.
"They wanted collateral."
I felt physically ill.
"So he gave them mine."
Luis finally exploded.
"I was going to pay it back before you ever knew!"
Mateo cried harder.
Dad's face turned stone cold.
"Lower your voice around the baby."
"This is my family!"
"Then start acting like it."
Luis stepped toward him.
Ernesto moved quickly between them.
"Luis, stop."
"Everyone acts like I'm some criminal because I tried to make money!"
I looked at the man I had married.
"You lied to me."
"Because you don't support anything risky."
"You used my land."
"Because we are married."
"That does not make my inheritance yours to pledge."
"Everything I do is for us."
"No."
My voice was quiet now.
"Everything you did was hidden from me."
That shut him up.
Dad picked up the suitcase.
"We're done."
We reached the front door before Rosa spoke again.
"If you walk out now, don't come crawling back."
I stopped.
The old Camila would have turned around.
The old Camila would have begged her not to be angry.
I looked at Dad.
He did not tell me what to do.
He simply waited.
I turned toward Rosa.
"I won't."
Her face went blank.
We left.
I thought that was the hardest part.
I was wrong.
Halfway down the stairs, Luis ran after us.
He was holding his phone.
"Camila!"
Dad turned.
Luis stopped two steps above us.
"You need to know something before you go to the police with that loan application."
My skin prickled.
"What?"
He held up the screen.
There was a photograph of me asleep in a hospital break room.
Beside it was a message thread under my name.
The messages looked like I had agreed to the loan.
Agreed to the land guarantee.
Agreed to put the money into Rosa's account.
My knees weakened.
"Those aren't mine."
Luis's expression was grim.
"Maybe not."
He swiped to the next image.
It showed a second phone on a table.
May you like
On the screen was my photograph, my name, and an active messaging account.
"But somebody made sure it would look like they were."
