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He did? Smart, but not enough.
"It was only a church ceremony. I'm deeply catholic, and I insisted on being married in front of God. It's all I cared about. Six-seven months into our relationship, he hit me for the first time. Things were tough after that."
Tough? Ha! Things were broken and tainted like a scene painted in hell, but I was not about to cry for pity in front of them.
"Son of bitch, Wendy, you are right, we need to find that dude. So I can fucking castrate him." She turned to me, grabbed me by my shoulders and looked me dead in the eyes. There was no humor there, no sarcasm or hesitation. "I'm serious. I need eleven minutes with him to cut his balls clean and stitch him back up. Fuck!"
Her voice went up, and Chelsea moved in her sleep agitated, startled by the sounds, and I moved my hand on her belly to calm her down. A few seconds later, she was lost in her dreams again, sucking hard on the pacifier.
"I can't go back there. I really can't."
"Can't?" Wendy moved next to her wife, and they both watched me with a compelling intensity. "Who the fuck do you think would let you go back with that monster?"
Oh, wow, this was the first time I’d ever heard this woman curse, and I was sure I wouldn't be the only one surprised. Even Jessica was a little bewildered by the profanity.
"I don't wanna go back to Trujillo. I pray to God he never finds me, no matter where I end up."
"Oh, he can find you. You can call him here right now. I'd literally help Jessica dismember him with surgical precision. Rita, this is so horrible."
Don't I know it? I kept brushing Chelsea's soft body to try and keep myself calm, but it was hard to keep my tears under control, and I found myself overtaken by sobs again, but not from fear or sadness. For these two maniacs that...cared. I had someone in my corner, and the release I felt was overwhelming.
I was sick and tired of feeling everything so deeply. The last two days were enough, thank you.
"Can we move on from this. I don't want to think about Trujillo anymore. Not if I don't have to."
They both gave me a solemn nod.
"So, you're going to stay in Chicago," Wendy said, and she sounded very pleased with her conclusion.
"No. No, I'm not." This city didn’t hold a place for me. "I think I have no choice than go back to Havana, try and start over."
Start what over? Was there anything left to salvage?
"Wow, leave the country? That's a little extreme, isn't it?" she said and put a hand on Jessica's mouth to stop her from chiming in.
It was not extreme, it was desperate.
"What else can I do?"
Jessica frowned and pushed Wendy's hand away from her face, ready to unleash.
"You could stay here. Girl, like it or not, you have a life here, and now you want to drop everything and go?"
"It's not my life." I spat back, and she frowned even deeper.
"James doesn't adore the ground you touch with your feet? Chelsea doesn't cry out for you to hold her? London didn't want you at her wedding? Zach doesn't act like a jerk to you?" He did, and I came to learn that was his way of showing affection. What a weird man he was. "Hell, I invited you to a threesome with my beautiful wife. You didn't choose to have this life, and yes, this is messed up, I'll give you that, but it doesn't make it any less true."
Her words and the fortitude behind them made the Earth shift under me, and for a couple of seconds, I was free falling. There was no way to stay here, no possibility.
"I need to go somewhere I can call home. There is so much in me that needs to be rebuilt."
"There are almost three million people in Chicago, and I'm sure the city will find a place for you."
"Girls, I...what would I do? I don't work. I've never held a job. I don't have a house or an apartment. All I have is a green card that doesn't help me with much."
I didn’t want to leave, but what else could I do with the nothingness I had? Looking to my side to Chelsea, my heart broke at the thought of leaving her behind.
"Stay with us or let us help you get settled in a hotel or rent a place. Also, there is a third option."
