Show Me Chapter 32

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As Luisa put Socorro downs for a nap, a loud slam echoed through the hacienda. The atmosphere around the house had been very tense since Gloria went away to meet with the woman who was the supposed granddaughter of Araceli Torres. Gloria had been gone for nearly two days, having stopped over to visit a friend in San Antonino before heading out to visit Torres' granddaughter.

Everyone had been on edge about the meeting, leaving Gloria stuck in the middle and well aware that at the moment things were not ok. But luckily there was some good news too.

Rodriguez's family had succeeded in their lawsuit against the de la Cruz estate. Additionally, the people responsible for the break-in were arrested, ordered by the judge to pay restitution to both the Riveras and Rodriguez families. The restitution money would go into college funds for the children of the two families. The vandals were also ordered to pay Franco's medical bills and the cost to repair some of the equipment damaged.

There was even good news regarding locating Rodriguez's remains—the DNA results had come back, and it was a 99.9% match for Jorge Rodriguez. As his family lived in the United States and money was tight for them, they wanted to have a simple memorial in Texas and scatter Rodriguez's ashes in the Gulf. An offrenda would be created at a later date once things had settled down.

But even with all the good news, circumstances in the Rivera family were not so good. Rosa had been getting into fights at school and Abel reported that he had been followed from his dorm room at college. Miguel had been very quiet, not saying much, but his parents were observing that he had been so focused on helping his relatives in the Land of the Dead that he was inadvertently isolating himself from the family.

"He needs to spend time with living, breathing people!" Luisa said to her husband. "I'm worried that he's forgetting to enjoy his childhood!"

"To be fair, Luisa, he hasn't had what some would call a normal childhood," Enrique pointed out. "But I do agree with you. He needs to have some normal childhood experiences before he turns 18."

"Do you think the granddaughter will want to sue?" Luisa asked at dinner one night. "de la Cruz's estate? I heard she doesn't want to get too involved."

"Miguel did say that Mamá Imelda was feeling the same way," Enrique said. "Apparently, Torres' daughter wants to stay anonymous, but she is willing to meet her mother."

Enrique shook his head—two years ago, he would never be talking about the Land of the Dead and his ancestors as casually as this. It would have been deemed almost disrespectful, but Miguel had changed that.

"Let's wait and see what Gloria says at dinner," Luisa said. "We can ask her and find out what happened."

Elena had wanted to wait until after dinner was over, but she knew that this was important. Gloria was all fired up and desperate to tell what had happened at the meeting between her and Torres' granddaughter. With the exception of Rosa and Miguel (who were both in their rooms, grounded from a fight at school), everyone was listening in with rapt attention.

"We met over at one of the local coffee shops," Gloria said as she retold the story, her family hanging on to every word. "She's very sweet and incredibly kind, wants to do what's best for everyone involved but she does not want to go public with her story. She wants to protect her nieces and nephews at all costs."

"What about her mother's background?" Elena asked. "Qué dijo ella*?"

"Mamá, déjala terminar*," Berto said. "We need to listen to Gloria to get the whole story."

Grasping his daughter's hands, Franco said, "Esta bíen, Glorita. We're ready when you are."

Gloria took a deep breath, plunging into the story as her mind drifted back.

The coffee shop was a tiny place, tucked away in a little side street, where no one was likely to run into them. After three weeks of instant messaging via the shop's Facebook account, Gloria managed to arrange a meeting with Sofia Cortez, the granddaughter of Araceli Torres.

"I'm not too sure about doing this, but I want to help the Rodriguez family in any way I can as long as I can keep my children and family protected from harm," Sofia said in American-accent Spanish. "I'm still processing all of this."

Taking a sip of her latte, Gloria said softly, "How did your mamá know that she was adopted? When did she find out?"

"She knew for a long time," Sofia said. "Her adoptive grandparents told her when she was a teenager because people at school were beginning to comment on how much she looked like someone else. And she told me that she never considered de la Cruz to be her real father."

Secretly agreeing with her, Gloria nodded. She had promised a year ago not to reveal anything about Miguel's adventure to anyone or anything that came from the Land of the Dead. She didn't even tell Martinez, knowing that he would probably not believe Miguel.

"I'll write out a letter, Señorita, that you can release to the press as a statement," Sofia answered as she finished her latte. "But I do not want to speak to them directly. My family's privacy is very important to me and I don't want anyone to find out where we live. I saw what that did to my mamá's family. Promise me, you won't tell anyone where we live or who we are."

Gloria agreed almost immediately, having gone through exactly what Sofia described back when Lopez attacked her nephew. Knowing that there wasn't much else she could do, Gloria agreed to take a letter from Sofia and read it out loud for the family.

"So what happened to that letter Gloria?" Carmen asked as she sat down.

"I have a copy of it scanned on the computer and on my phone as well," Gloria said. "Jul thinks it might be best to release the statement on our YouTube channel and Facebook page but disable the comments and put fake initials instead of her full name. That way, we can protect Sofia's privacy as much as possible and we can do this on her terms by asking the press to leave her alone."

"It won't make everyone happy, but it's for the best." Enrique said. "We owe that to her."

Elena looked as if she wanted to protest, but a firm glare from Enrique ended that. This would be the end of the line of the Torres/Rodriguez investigation. If anyone wanted to pursue it further, they would have to get direct permission from Sofia herself. And with de la Cruz Productions paying millions in damages to the three families, a light was finally beginning to be seen at the end of the tunnel.

"It's time to get back to a normal life," Elena said. "We need to be able to move on from the past and help the Rodriguez familia with that as well. Puede que no sea fácil*, but we have to try."

Everyone knew fully well that it was time to try to get life back to normal. And that definition of normal would start with helping Miguel and Rosa with their school lives. Ever since the break-in, school had been absolute hell for the two teenagers. From relentless teasing to getting goaded into physical fights, things hadn't been easy. Rosa had wound up getting herself suspended for three days (and grounded for two) after getting into a fight with a classmate over the music ban. Miguel had jumped in to defend her and as a result, he got suspended as well.

"I know that nothing is more important than familia, Mamá," Berto said to Elena as they prepared for dinner one day. "But that doesn't excuse violence. If something like this happens again at school, Miguel and Rosa will need to work on controlling their tempers."

Elena had tried to argue that her nietos were simply protecting the family name, but even she had to agree that it had to be nipped in the bud.

"What if we met with the teacher and talked it over with him?" Elena said. "We can't keep pretending that these things didn't happen. Remember what happened last year when Lopez attacked Miguel?"

"It can't just be with the teacher, Mamá," Enrique said. "People in the town have been coming up to me since the break-in and even now, there are still questions. They deserve an honest answer."

"The incident with Lopez was different, Elena," Franco said. "But I agree, we need to meet with the teachers and ask them for ideas on what we can do. And get Rosa to stop reading those books."

At that Elena's eyebrow lifted. "Qué libros, Franco?"

Oops.

Translations

*What did she say?

*Let her finish

*It may not be easy