"Oh honey, you look terrible," Holly said as a truthful but harsh greeting as soon as Zara answered her FaceTime call.
Zara rolled her eyes. "Hello to you too," she huffed.
"How are you holding up?"
"Meh," she shrugged. "I'm living."
"Have you talked to him? Seen him?"
"He said he didn't want to see my face," Zara grumbled. "So he won't."
"Oh Zeebee, baby, I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Zara said bitterly. "I'm not."
Holly knew that wasn't true but she let Zara project strength in her moment of weakness. "Listen, your father and I think you should spend some time up here during the summer."
"I was thinking about making a move, actually."
"That's kind of extreme," Holly cautioned. "I thought you liked it down there?"
"Only reason I moved here was the job," she huffed. "I couldn't find any other full time teaching gigs. I love it here but come on, I wouldn't have moved here willingly."
"Do not let him dictate what you do with your life," Holly said firmly. "I didn't raise you like that."
"Mom, I'm pregnant," Zara blurted out. "I'm not raising this kid alone with no family around. Besides, you'd be here so much to visit it wouldn't make sense to keep living so far apart."
"Zara," she inhaled sharply. "I don't know what to say, sweetheart. How do you feel about it?"
"I don't know," Zara admitted. "I'm so gutted. I couldn't even tell him he was so angry I went by the yard."
"That baby will want for nothing," Holly said. "If you're happy, I'm happy."
"I don't know what I am."
"You're intelligent, beautiful, funny, you are loved," she reminded her daughter, "And you do not need Angel Reyes."
"Hey Nestor," Zara said with a sigh as she walked into the Galindo's home.
"Hey," he said as he took the suitcase from her hand, "She's in the kitchen."
"Thanks," she said with a nod. "Em?" Zara called out quietly.
"I'm here," she said, grabbing Zara for a hug. She was dressed and looked determined.
"You look great," Zara remarked.
"I can't sit here and cry all fucking day," she hissed. "I'm going to get my son back."
Zara smirked devilishly and nodded. "Get him home and let Miguel deal with the rest of it."
Emily nodded. "They'll pay. Let me take you upstairs. Did you bring anything?"
"Nestor took my bag," she said as she followed Emily upstairs. "I appreciate this. I had to get out of that house. The realtor is putting it up officially tonight."
"Good, you can do better than that house, in that neighborhood, with that man," she said firmly.
Zara nodded, "Yeah." She had yet to share the news of the baby with Emily and only have her the minimal details about Angel. Until the baby was home nothing else really mattered, it could wait and it would.
That evening, Angel found himself crawling out of a sewer grate on his way to meet with Adelita. He dusted himself off and looked back to see Coco clambering to his feet as well.
"You think this is gonna work?" He asked Angel as the two climbed up to the truck.
Angel sighed and shook his head. "It's gotta. I spent two fucking weeks obsessing over this shit, piecing shit together. I gotta know what's going on. I want the truth."
"If you gotta do this shit, brother, the truth ain't the problem," Coco said, being honest and open about his profound take on the situation. "The truth shoulda been something you got from Zara."
Giving a Coco a look, Angel scoffed and grumbled something to himself before replying. "I saw that shit with my own eyes."
Coco shrugged and pointed onward. "Let's get this shit over with."
They went the rest of the way in silence with Angel stewing and obsessing over Coco's comment. Neither man reached out, wanting the benefit of surprise, so when they came over the hill they were greeted with large automatic weapons.
"Angel," Adelita said with surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"We gotta talk," he huffed. "Is there anything I gotta know, anything you wanna tell me?"
"I don't understand," she said quickly.
Angel rolled his jaw and growled, turning away from her for a moment. "Someone is lying," he announced, looking out at the desert. "Someone's doing shit behind my back. I got pictures and proof but I-"
"You don't want to believe it," she finished his thought in a calm tone. "Because of the trust you've placed in Zara and in me."
"You working with Campbell?" He asked her point blank. "Z doesn't know when we meet, I don't tell her, and he couldn't follow me," Angel elaborated. "How was he here? How was he at your camp? Filming everything, filming that baby you ripped from his mother at fucking gunpoint."
"I did what I had to do," she said slightly defensively. "Sometimes what I have to do is unpleasant."
"What does that mean?!" He hollered. "You don't trust me, you never trusted me, I know that now. Just tell me the goddamn truth for once, Adelita."
"We approached Campbell," she said. "I wanted to see what he knew, what Galindo knew, what Zara knew."
"She doesn't know shit," Angel spat. "Your games are ruining people's lives. Isn't that what you're trying to stop?"
"I'm not slaughtering families," she snapped back.
"You're stealing babies and fucking with my life," he bellowed. "You're getting innocent people killed."
"Galindo killed them!"
"Because they trusted you," he sneered. "And I trusted you!"
At another time, Angel wouldn't have said those things and with a clearer head he may not have even believed them. It wasn't another time though and his head was far from clear. He was hurting, confused, and he finally realizing the mistake he made in letting his fear and insecurity make Campbell's lies so believable.
"I'm sorry, Angel," Adelita finally relented. "It was all necessary. You weren't doing what I needed, you were pushing back."
"Me and Zara aren't part your shit," he spat. "I let you ruin the best thing that ever happened to me. You ruined my fucking life."
"I didn't know," Adelita cracked, showing a rare bit of emotion.
"You didn't know? I told you how I felt," he snapped.
"I didn't know she's pregnant," Adelita said shamefully.
Angel's body went limp, his multitude of cascading emotions showing on his face. First shock, then confusion, then rage and sorrow.
"Fuck," he hissed.
"How do you know?" Coco finally spoke.
"We got her records from the ER," Adelita said. "I didn't know, Angel."
Angel tried to hold back his tears but failed, they streamed down his face as he yelled at Adelita through the darkness.
"Give that baby back tonight," he pointed at the tent behind her. "If Galindo's kid isn't home in 12 hours I'm ending all this shit."
"Angel," Adelita says warningly.
"What are you gonna do? Kill me?" He asked, moving closer to her with a scary look of fury on his face. "Go ahead. Kill my baby's father before it's even born. Do what Galindo does, make more orphans."
Angel and Adelita glared at each other until finally Coco pulled his friend away and back into the truck.
"Where you going?" Coco asked as he sped away from the camp.
"Where do you think? I gotta see Zara. I fucked up."
Angel went straight to Zara's from the tunnels but what he found only crushed him more. There was a for sale sign on the lawn, a lockbox on the door and a peek in the window revealed stacks of boxes.
"No, Z," he whimpered. Angel dropped his head on the door with a hard thud. "I'm sorry."