“I know you do,” her voice had turned solemn. “Honestly, it wasn’t the lies and the hurt you caused that pushed me away. It was that you broke your promise… you left me.”
“I know.” A tear spilled down my cheek. “I will regret that for the rest of my life.”
“I miss you, Fai. I really do,” she said through what sounded like tears of her own. “Can we maybe talk, go for a hike or get coffee or something when you’re back? Really talk?”
“I would really love that, Jackie. I miss you too.”
The silence settled between us, like specks of dust onto a freshly cleaned table. Leaving their mark gently. The quiet between us—for the first time in years—wasn’t uncomfortable, but welcomed.
Jackie cleared her throat. “Now, the reason I actually called, because I do have a job I need to get back to that I don’t want you firing me from again… this brother of yours, what’s his name?”
“Gabriel Gomez. Why?” I asked, confused.
“It seems you’ve forgotten I managed to call you at your mysterious brother’s house, that I didn’t know about. I didn’t call without purpose. I’m actually just relaying a message for Will. He has lectures all day and asked me to call Sarah.”
“What’s up? Do I need a pen or paper or something to write it down?” I looked around for the very items.
“No, actually, that’s the message. Sarah asked Will to look into Gabriel Gomez, and he found nothing,” Jackie explained.
Of course Sarah asked Will to look into my brother. I looked at the two, still sitting and laughing with each other on the porch. “I told her that she doesn’t need to be suspicious of him. She’s just being protective, but I’m happy you found nothing. I actually think you would like Gabriel. He’s already talking about visiting soon—”
“No, Fai,” she interrupted, her voice empathetic. “We didn’t find anything on Gabriel Gomez, because he doesn’t exist.”
“No offense, Jackie, but I’m looking at him. He exists,” I teased.
“I’m not saying you don’t have a brother, Fai,” she explained calmly. “Will couldn’t find anyone under that name and age with his description in Montana. He's still looking, but so far there's no record of him."
I scrubbed a hand across my jaw, turning away from the window and lowering my voice, worried they might hear me outside. “What does that mean? Is he lying?”
“Maybe, maybe not. We just don’t know. It could be as simple as maybe he spells it differently than what Sarah told us, or his age is slightly off. We’ll keep looking, but Will wanted to give y’all a heads-up and see if you could get us any information to help us find him,” she explained.
I did my best not to let my thoughts go to the worst-case scenario. “Would our mom’s name work?”
“Oh my God, you know her name now?” Jackie asked, shocked. “If you do, yeah, that should help.”
“Mariana. Mariana Gomez. That’s my mom,” I muttered.
“She sounds beautiful,” Jackie voiced softly, “and that should help for sure. We’ll keep looking and call back if we find anything, or if we don’t.”
“Thanks, Jackie. I really appreciate you.”
“Always happy to help, and don’t jump to conclusions. This call wasn’t to freak you out. There’s no reason to be alarmed. We just needed more information, and you gave it.” She tried to reassure me.
I took a steadying breath, trying to take her words to heart. “Ask Goldie to help. She’s got a knack for this stuff, and she can get the letter he sent me. It’s in my office. There may be more details in there that can help.”
Jackie agreed to involve Goldie and hung up the phone, promising again to call when they learned more.
I stared at the phone, the dial tone ringing softly through the speaker. I had a chance to fix things with Jackie, and it was a chance I was going to take.
But all I could focus on was Gabriel.
I looked back through the window, where he and Sarah were still sitting and talking.
If he didn’t exist, who was he and what did he want from me?
