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‘Mr Montoya,’ the surgeon addressed me.
I stared at him, wondering whether he was about to blow our whole world apart.
‘Your father made it through the surgery and is stable,’ he said and I heard the collective sigh of relief reverberating around the small room. Then my mom was beside me, taking the surgeon’s hands in hers. ‘Thank you so much, Doctor,’ she sobbed and I put my arm around her shoulder.
‘He’s in recovery now. You can see him for a few moments, but he’s going to be out for at least the next twelve hours and he needs his rest.’
‘Thank you, Doc,’ I said to him.
‘Your father is a fighter,’ he said with a nod before turning and walking out of the room.
Twenty minutes later, I was standing at my father’s bedside. My mom and my uncles had come in to see him first, and then Alana and me. She had left me a few moments earlier to allow me some time alone. I looked at him lying there, helpless and hooked up to a dozen machines and felt the weight of guilt on my shoulders. If only I had been here. Could I have stopped this? The doctors said he was stable, but he would need weeks, maybe months to fully recover, and that was if he would ever return to the man he once was.
I knew that my time to step up and try to fill his shoes was here, and I wasn’t sure that I would ever measure up to this man lying in front of me. Our relationship hadn’t always been an easy one. He had kept me at a distance for a lot of my life. He had taught me well and he was always there when I truly needed him, but the day to day stuff was often lacking. He’d always told me that me and my mom were his biggest weaknesses and as a kid I’d always kind of resented that. But now I completely understood what he meant. Loving someone was like walking around with your heart outside of your body, with that most precious part of you exposed for the whole world to see. Now that I had Alana, I understood that so much better than I ever had. And it was that which I was sure had brought my father and me closer together in these past few months.
I sat beside him and took hold of his hand. It was warm to the touch, but it didn’t look quite as big as it once had and I wondered at the last time I had held my father’s hand. I must have been a small child, and he would have been big to me then. In fact, he had seemed like a giant. Not now though. Now he was just a man.
‘Lo siento, Papa,’ I said as I kissed his knuckles. ‘But I will find whoever did this to you and I will make them pay in ways they can’t even imagine.’ I felt the fire surging in my belly. This was what I needed. There was no more time for remorse or regret. The anger would be my fuel. It would be that which I’d need to get me through the next few weeks.
CHAPTER 22
ALANA
Alejandro had hardly said two words to me since we’d left the hospital. The doctors had told us all to go home and get some rest and go back the following morning to see Mateo. Despite Alejandro’s insistence that she stay with us, his mom had gone back to his Uncle Phillipe’s house. She and Phillipe’s wife, Rachel, were as close as sisters, and it was where Maria wanted to be. I got the sense she didn’t want to worry Alejandro any further, or have him feel like he needed to look after her too.
The tension between us was palpable. His Uncle Carlos had barely been able to hide his disdain every time he looked at me and I wondered if they knew that Alejandro and his father had fought about me. Or if they knew I had run away to New York. Worst of all, I worried that they blamed me somehow for Mateo being shot. Maybe they thought it wouldn’t have happened if Alejandro hadn’t been chasing me across the country?
Was Alejandro was regretting his last contact with his father too? The things he’d told me he had said can’t have been easy for him, and until Mateo was awake and Alejandro could speak to him, was he worried that the last words they had ever spoken had been in anger?
I looked at my husband, his face full of turmoil and my heart almost broke for him. I wanted to make it better for him, but I didn’t know how. I felt so guilty for running away to New York like a child. I hadn’t considered the possible consequences at all and now our whole world felt like it was tumbling in on us.
By the time we reached the house, I could feel Alejandro’s rage radiating from him like heat from a furnace. Jacob opened the car door for me and I stepped out. Lucia, Kelsey and Hugo were waiting on the doorstep for us. I’d almost forgotten about Kelsey. My poor best friend had come for a break and she was now stuck right in the middle of all this.
Lucia wrapped her arms around Alejandro’s waist as he reached the doorway. ‘I’m glad Mateo is okay,’ she said.
‘Thanks, kid,’ he replied as he gave her a soft kiss on the top of her head.
Then she stepped back from him and looked up at me, and the anger in her face almost took my breath away. The next thing I knew, she had turned on her heel and was storming back into the house.
I looked between Kelsey and Hugo. ‘What the hell?’
It was Alejandro who answered me. ‘What the fuck did you expect, Alana?’ he snapped. ‘She’s pissed at you, and she has every right to be. You are the closest thing to family that kid has. Every single person she has ever known has either let her down, used her or abandoned her, and the minute things got a bit tough for you, you fucked off out of here without a thought for anyone but yourself.’
Then he turned and walked into the house toward his office, leaving me standing there, blinking like an idiot as I realized he was right. Poor Lucia.
I felt tears running down my cheeks and the next thing I knew, Kelsey had her arm around my shoulders. ‘Come on, honey. Let’s get you inside,’ she said softly. ‘Leave that asshole to calm down.’
I smiled at her as I wiped the tears away. There was no point in crying, I had to fix this mess with Lucia and try and get through to Alejandro somehow. ‘Thanks, Kels, but I need to go and talk to Lucia.’
‘Okay. I’ll be in the grounds with Hugo then,’ she said as she linked her arm through his. He coughed awkwardly and I couldn’t help but smile as he looked at me like a deer trapped in the headlights. Kelsey would eat him alive if he wasn’t careful.
‘Actually, I’m sure the boss will need to speak with me,’ he said. ‘Sorry, Kelsey.’
She sighed dramatically. ‘Fine. I’ll be outside on my own then,’ she smiled and then walked off in the direction of the French doors.
‘Are you okay?’ Hugo asked as we walked down the hallway together.
‘Yes. Thanks. I’m worried about Alejandro though.’
