Chapter 26:

(Camilo POV)

I woke up early the next morning and I made my way downstairs. After Mirabel took over as candleholder things were a lot more relaxed around here. We still helped the community but, it was less obligatory and uniform as it was before. That usually explained why we didn't all leave the house at the same time anymore.

I made my way downstairs and saw Papa, "Oh Morning." He nodded his head, "Good Morning Camilo." I looked around, "Where is Mama?" He stopped for a second, "She went out into town early today." Why did he pause? I decided to shake it off though, "Ok. I'm going into town later too. See you guys there?" He nodded his head, "Yeah I will be joining your Mama soon."


(Olivia POV)

I stepped outside with Camilo's Mama, "What brings you here Señora Madrigal?" She looked flustered and I noticed that people from town were beginning to come out and I had a feeling this was a private conversation, "Do you want to walk and talk? I usually think better when I'm moving." She gave me a smile and nodded her head. We were walking silently around on the outskirts of town as we were making our way over to the fields.

I wasn't sure what she wanted to talk about but, I didn't want to rush her. Camilo told me that she was trying and I didn't want to sway her in a negative direction. I looked to the skies but all I saw were clear skies and rainbows. Finally she stopped in her tracks and turned to face me, "I don't know how to start this." I nodded my head, "Well you said you wanted to talk to me about something how about we just start there. I'm not great with the whole social thing and making small talk thing." She gave me a half smile, "I'm not either. Ok."

She leaned her head back and looked up to the sky, "I know that you are not your Papa. I know that in my head. I know that in my heart. But, something in me keeps seeing Hernando and I don't want to because you make my son happy and you seem very sweet and my family likes you..." I smiled up at her, "You are his Mama. Of course you are going to be protective of him. My Papa... was complicated." She looked over at me, "I know what he did a lot of bad things. I really wish I could hate him. Hating him would be so much easier, but I can't. He kept me dependent on him and made me think that everything was my fault, but he was also the person who took care of me when I was sick, put food on the table." I let out a nervous laugh, "I must sound insane. I did have a point."

I sighed, "Look I love your son and I understand why my Papa would cause you to have reservations about me, but I'm my Mama's daughter and I hope that we can get to know each other better." She had a strange look on her face, "Yeah I think Camilo would like that." I let out a breath, "Oh thank God I didn't blow it." I slapped my hand over my mouth, "I did not mean to say that out loud." She laughed a little, "It's ok. You don't have much of a filter." I nodded my head, "I spent 10 years not being able to talk to anyone besides my Papa, Padre Sanchez and later your son. It really stunted me socially. At least I am self-aware of it." She nodded her head and nodded her head back, "We better go back into town." I nodded my head and we started to walk back. We were both silent again but it was a lot more comfortable this time. I could feel a cool breeze passing my face


(Camilo POV)

I went into town when I saw Mama and Liv walking into town together from the fields. I made my way over, "Um hi." Liv smiled at me, "Morning." She looked between Mama and I, "I better head back to the Sanchez's. I didn't tell anyone I left this morning. It was nice talking with you Señora Madrigal." Mama nodded her head, "It was nice talking with you too Olivia." Liv came over and placed a small kiss on my cheek, "See you around." I nodded my head and watched as she went off in the direction of their house.

I turned to Mama, "So you and Liv were..." "Talking," she said, "we had some things that we needed to talk about." I nodded my head, "Should I be in anyway concerned about the future of my relationship?" Mama shook her head, "No. It was a nice talk. She seems to be very honest..." I nodded my head, "She was blind for a while and had to trust other people to be honest about the world around her. She's really big on trust."

Mama nodded her head, "You sound like you know that from experience." I nodded my head, "You remember what I told you about when I first started going to the church as Cameron. Let's just say it took her some time to forgive me." Mama smiled to herself, "She seems like she has that level of self-respect. How long exactly did it take her?" I thought it over in my head, "She didn't talk to me for 6 months, granted I only saw her once a month and when we finally started talking she was still really mad at me. Took a little bit to get us back to where we were before." Mama nodded her head and I saw a half-smirk on her face.

"So did Liv say anything important?" She seemed to be thinking something over in her head before saying, "You might want to talk to her about her Papa. It seems like there might be something going on there." I nodded my head, "Neither of us have wanted to talk about it since before the break-up. I guess we didn't want it to ruin anything." Mama looked in the direction that Liv had walked in and let out a breath, "I think that she might need it." I realized what Mama was trying to say and I really appreciated it. I also know it was time for a conversation that Liv and I were not particularly looking forward to, "Thanks Mama."

She wrapped me in a hug, "You know all I want is for my kids to be happy." I nodded my head, "I know Mama." She looked back, "I promise I'm going to try." I smiled, I know she made that promise last night but something about her making it this time felt different. She kept her arm wrapped around my shoulder, "Now come on. Let's find your brother. I think he went out in the jungle again." I smiled, "Shouldn't we get Dolores to help." She nodded her head, "Yeah, we'll swing by the Guzmáns and ask her for help." She then brought her hand to her heart, "2 of my children are in relationships. I suddenly feel very old." I smiled, "You still have Antonio. I mean unless he also has a secret girlfriend." I saw a cloud loom over her head as she turned to face me, "Dolores had a secret crush, you had a secret girlfriend, that only leaves Antonio. Yeah we need to find him in the jungle now." I couldn't help but laugh as we walked through town.


(Olivia POV)

I was in the kitchen helping clean up after breakfast, "Do you mind telling us where you were this morning?" Padre Sanchez asked. I looked over at him, "I went on a walk with Pepa Madrigal." "Oh, ok," He said not really sure how to react. "I just didn't want to wake up everyone else in the house." He nodded his head walking over to Mateo. I heard him whisper, "So it wasn't Camilo." I rolled my eyes as I continued to work.

I went out into town and made my way into the middle of everything. I just wanted to be able to see it all. I brought my knitting with me and I sat down and watched as people were moving through town. Turns out I wasn't terrible at knitting and now that I could see I had a feeling it was even better. I was working in silence as I watched everyone working. It didn't take long before I saw some Madrigals passing by.

Isabella, Luisa and Mirabel came over to me, "What are you doing here by yourself?" I smiled, "I just like to be able to see everyone in town." "Well where is that cousin of ours to keep you company?" Mirabel asked. I smiled shaking my head, "I think he is talking to your Tía at least that is where I left him this morning." They smiled at each other, "You saw him this morning." "For a minute. Your Tía actually was the one who wanted to talk to me." Luisa's eyes widened "Well there wasn't a hurricane or torrential downpour so I'm guessing it was alright." I laughed a little nodding my head, "I think it went better than dinner did. Steps in the right direction."

"Well what can you tell us about our dear cousin?" Mirabel asked. Isabella leaned in, "Yeah we told you some stories last night. Care to share?" I looked between the two of them and laughed, "I don't have any funny stories about him. He visited me at a public church." They frowned, "Come on you have to have one story." I thought it over in my mind, "Well I guess I could tell you about Cameron..." They exchanged a glance, "Does Camilo have another alternative personality besides Camila?" Isabella asked. I nodded my head, "Yeah. It is kind of a sweet story looking back but you see..." I began to tell them all about how Camilo came to the church as someone else and everything that happened with Cameron and how I found out he was Camilo.

Mirabel and Isabella were smiling as they listened to the story. "Oh he really is sweet," Isabella said and I nodded my head in agreement. I looked at both of them, "Ok, your turn to share." They started to laugh and they told me more stories about them all as kids. It was really nice to be able to listen to them talk and sit back in the conversation.


(Camilo POV)

I made my way back into town after we found Antonio, not with a secret girlfriend to Mama's delight, and I made my way into town. I then saw Olivia sitting with Mirabel, Luisa and Isabella talking and laughing. I smiled to myself as Dolores came over to me, "They are talking about you." I turned to face her, "Was that supposed to make me feel better?" She let out a laugh, "Well right now they are telling her about illegal hide and seek so its good things." I nodded my head. I knew that I had to talk to her but she looked like she was having a good time.

I was turning around to leave when a cactus bloomed in front of my feet. I looked over at Dolores, "Am I supposed to go over?" She nodded her head, "They are pretty much demanding it. If you don't go over there you will hear them yell for you." "You coming too?" I asked but she shook her head, "I have a date." I nodded my head, "I will see you later."

I made my way over and sat next to Liv, "Hey. What are you guys talking about?" Isabella smiled at me, "Not much at all Cameron." I looked over at Liv, "Did no one pay attention when I explained everything to everyone that first night?" She shrugged, "I'm not sure, but everyone says my reaction was justified." I nodded my head, "Yeah it was, but you understand why I did it right?" She nodded her head, "I do." My cousins all nodded and got up, "We will see you at home Camilo. We'll talk soon Olivia." I nodded my head, "See you guys later."

I looked over at Liv and she leaned her head down on my shoulder. I put my hand on top of hers, "My Mama told me that you two had a good talk today." She nodded her head. "She also mentioned that it might be time to have that talk about your Papa." She nodded her head again and I let out a breath, "Ok. Let's go to Limbo." She leaned up and we walked together to our hideaway from the rest of the world.


(Olivia POV)

I sat under the tree with Camilo and I wasn't sure how we were going to start this. He had an arm wrapped around my shoulder and let out a long breath, "Ok why don't we just start from the beginning and you can tell me everything. I won't say anything or ask any questions if that's what you want until you are done. However you want to do this I will follow your lead." I smiled at him and pulled him in for a kiss. He smiled against my lips, "I'm not going to complain, but what was that for?" I just bit my bottom lip, "For being you."

I took a long breath, "Ok. So my Papa and my Mama did not have a good relationship. I don't know if there was any time where my Mama was happy. I don't think that me entering the family made life any easier for her. She did love me. I know she did and she took great care of me, but she was a prisoner in our house. I was one too. When I turned 3 years old I was running around the house playing with her when I accidentally broke a vase. Apparently it was a gift from their wedding. That was the first time that Papa used his belt to hit me. It wasn't the last time. He used to hit my Mama, I could hear her screaming from my room. She told me when I was little that if he ever came into my room to pretend I was asleep because that was where he kept his belts. I-I tried to be good, and Mama said that I was being good and that Papa was just complicated. When she died everything got worse. Papa blamed everyone and everything for her death and when I went blind he told me that it was the universe punishing me for not listening to him. When I didn't do exactly what he wanted he would take out his belt. He used to throw me around, tie me to the bedpost, withhold dinner... I know that you saw the bruises sometimes and I remember you asking about the belts, but I couldn't tell you. A part of me thought that if you knew how bad of a person I was that you wouldn't want me to be around anymore."

"Liv, you know that isn't true. I never thought you were a bad person. You are one of the best people I know," He said as he wrapped his other arm in front of me hugging me from the side. I held onto his arm and kissed his hand, "Your Papa never should have treated your Mama or anyone that way."

I looked up at him, "I know that he did a lot of bad stuff. But Papa, he was the one who took care of me when I got sick. When I asked about going into town he made the arrangements with Padre Sanchez. He took care of me." I looked up at Camilo, "I know that he didn't treat me right and I know that he was a monster." Tears were rolling down my cheek, "But he was still my Papa."


(Camilo POV)

I squeezed my arm around Liv. "I miss him sometimes," she said. She looked up at me, "Is that wrong? Is it bad that I miss him sometimes?" I swallowed a lump in my throat. I wasn't sure what to do. I wanted to kill her Papa but, he was already dead. I wanted to make Olivia feel better but nothing I could say felt right. I shook my head, "I don't think that I can tell you what the right thing to feel is. I've never gone through anything like that. I'm sorry that you did." She held onto me and I held onto her. I had to focus on keeping my fist unclenched. She cried into my shoulder as I held onto her.

She spoke into my shoulder, "More stuff happened but, I really don't want to talk about it today. Can we just talk about it another time?" I kissed the top of her head, "Whenever you want." "Thank you," she whispered. We stayed like that for a while before I walked her back into town. She had calmed down a lot but was still upset. Frankly, so was I. She went to the Sanchez's and I went home. I walked through the front door and saw Mama there, "Camilo. How did it go?" I went to her and wrapped my arms around her, "Thank you." She rubbed my hair not saying anything.

Papa came downstairs soon after, "Camilo are you ok?" I nodded iy head and looked up at him, "Yeah. I just wanted to thank you both." He smiled at me, "For what?" I thought it over in my head, "Just thank you." He shrugged but joined in on the hug.