Chapter 12

Gabe walked out of the elevator towards the front doors of the hospital. It wasn't that late. He sighed. They all left before making sure Santana and Brittany ate dinner. He considered going back upstairs but decided against it; they looked beat and he wouldn't be surprised if they were both already sound asleep.

"Gabriel?" A soft voice called out to him.

Gabe turned toward the voice and frowned. "Mami? What are you doing here? If you've come to try to talk us out of pressing charges against Jorge it won't work."

"Gabriel, I don't know what you are talking about. I've been sitting here waiting to see if you would come down. I saw Quinn and that Mercedes girl leaving but I wasn't sure how they'd respond to me." Maribel sighed. "Can we talk? Maybe have dinner? I … I left your father last week. I'd really like my children back." She stood tall and proud but there was a quiver in her chin as she said that.

Gabriel looked at his mother and considered her request then slowly nodded. "Alright, Mami," he smiled slightly at her, "let's have dinner."

xoxoxoxoxo

As they sat at the table at the small diner, Gabriel studied his mother. She looked better than she had when he had seen her three weeks ago but still had shadows under her eyes and they carried within them a deep sadness.

"How are you, Mami? You look tired."

She smiled wanly at him. "I'm better now, Gabriel." She sighed. "There is so much to say; so much to tell you but first … you said something about pressing charges against your father?"

Gabe nodded as he took a sip of his iced tea. "Jorge tried to kidnap Santana during her physical therapy session this afternoon. The police got involved and he was arrested."

She shook her head. "I am sorry, Gabriel. He has become increasingly agitated since your visit. He had been getting worse since he told Santana to leave but after your visit," she shook her head again, "he was constantly ranting about Brittany and the Pierces 'stealing Santana'. Only, of course, he wouldn't call her Brittany." She looked at him. "So, your sister is awake? Does that mean she is better?"

"Is that why you left?" Gabriel ignored his mother's questions for the moment.

She shook her head sadly. "There is so much you children don't know." She looked at him directly. "There are things you need to know now. Things I couldn't tell you before. You or your sister."

Their meals arrived and, though he was curious, Gabe waited patiently as they dug into their meals. About partway through, she cleared her throat and took a drink of her iced tea.

"I don't think I ever told you that mine was an arranged marriage."

Gabe looked up in surprise. "No. Neither of you ever said anything. I don't understand. Why would you need an arranged marriage in this day and age?"

"It wasn't a matter of need. Your abuelo, my father, and your abuelito, your father's father, were childhood friends in Puerto Rico. Jorge and I were both born there. After I was born, our fathers thought it would be a good idea to pledge us to each other. You know, of course, that Jorge's family was well off and your abuelito didn't want some gold digger to snatch him up. My family wasn't as well off but well enough off that my father was concerned about some man taking advantage of me, as well. So they decided it was a good idea that they married us off to each other. There was never any discussion. I was raised being told that this is the boy I would marry; he was raised being told that I was the girl he would marry. That was that."

"I had no idea," Gabe felt a pang in his heart. "Did you at least care for each other? Love each other?"

Maribel shrugged. "We were, for the most part, indifferent to one another. I didn't really like him. He was, even as a boy and a young man, arrogant and cold. He, I don't think, cared one way or the other who he married. He truly wasn't interested in getting married at all so having a bride chosen for him didn't matter. Whether he actually liked me or not, I couldn't tell you." She pushed the food around on her plate and took another drink.

"The wedding was planned for after I finished nursing school. Your father was twenty-seven and had begun his residency training. We were married in a large, ostentatious display of wealth. Hundreds of people; many of whom I didn't know, had never met, and never saw again." She shrugged. "It was an 'event' not a wedding. I cried the night before, telling my mother that I didn't love him and didn't want to marry him. She was sympathetic but, ultimately, powerless to stop it. She told me I would 'learn to love him' or 'grow to love him'." She looked away from Gabe and toward a spot on the wall behind him.

When she looked back at him, there were tears in her eyes. "I never did. I grew to hate him." She sighed. "A year after the wedding, I had you." Her laugh is one of bitterness. "I spent my first anniversary in the hospital giving birth to you," she smiled softly at him, "the only good thing to come of that first year.

"Your father was not there. I should have known I would never love him when I didn't care that he wasn't. It was just you and me and I was very okay with that."

Gabriel listened to his mother's story. He had not known any of this; had never realized how truly unhappy his mother had been all these years. He wanted to ask her why she stayed. There were a million questions swirling in his brain but he could tell she had more to say.

"He was so proud that he had a son. That's all he could talk about to people. It didn't matter that he didn't see you for the first week of your life; that he didn't hold you until you were almost three months old. He had a son! He was truly a man!" She scoffed lightly. "He was so busy at the hospital that he was almost never home. He wasn't there for three a.m. feedings. He wasn't there for colic or fevers or diaper changes or teething. That was all my job. His job was to bring home money. To be important."

She sighed and pushed her plate away. "Before we married, there was a pre-nuptial agreement. If either of us cheated the marriage would be voided. I prayed for him to cheat. If I cheated, I was left with nothing but what I came into the marriage with. If he cheated, I got half of everything plus alimony for five years. I wished for him to cheat so I could leave with you. He didn't. Not that I ever caught him at. Honestly? I never got the impression that he cared all that much about sex, at least, not with me." She shrugged. "That didn't really bother me except for the fact that it meant he probably wouldn't cheat."

She paused as the waitress came to clear the dishes and refill their drinks. They both declined dessert but accepted her offer of coffee.

Maribel sighed. "When I became pregnant with your sister is when I truly began to hate him." She swallowed hard. "He did not want another child. Why it mattered to him I have never understood; it wasn't like he did anything to help raise you so I couldn't imagine it would change with a second child and it wasn't like we couldn't afford another child." She swallowed again and wiped away a tear that had slipped free and her voice dropped to a whisper. "He tried to insist on me getting an abortion. It was the first time I ever defied him. I would not give in to his demand. He grew angry; even more cold and distant. When I had your sister, I was so happy."

"Mami …"

She shook her head and looked back at Gabriel. "He hadn't wanted a second child but when that child was a girl? He was furious. He refused to acknowledge her for the first six months. You were three, almost four, and so smitten with her," Maribel smiled softly. "I truly believe you were loving her enough for you and your father. You were so young but you seemed to sense that Santana would need your protection. So you did. You watched over her and it made my heart swell to know I was raising a good, kind, caring boy who would be a good, kind, caring man; one who would not be like Jorge."

"I did all I could to make sure Santana was safe. I honestly didn't know if he would abuse her or not." She looked down at the table. "He had never hit you or me but he was so angry at Santana for simply existing. I am ashamed to admit, I had hoped he'd hit her; just once to give me the reason I needed to leave and take you both away from him. I hated myself for a long time for having that thought. Sometimes, though, I think it would have been better than the mental and emotional toll it took on her."

Gabriel looked at his mother with a new found respect. He had never known any of this.

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "I tried to leave when you were nine and Santana was five. He told me to go, he didn't care, but I would have to leave my children behind. He had all the power, money, influence, prestige, and a stellar reputation. He couldn't be bothered with either of you but he would keep you to spite me; I was trying to ruin his perfect husband and father image. His perfect family. I had nothing. No job and, as a nurse, he could block me from ever getting a job in that field. Any other job I got would not pay enough to take care of myself let alone the three of us. I couldn't leave you with him. I wouldn't leave you with him. So I started planning. I would stay until Santana turned eighteen. I had thirteen years to plan my escape."

She sighed and turned her coffee cup around in her hands. "There is so much he forbade me to do; to say. Constance is and has been my best friend since she came to work for us when Santana was two. I was not permitted friends he had not approved. The only ones he approved of were the wives of his colleagues and friends; women I could not talk freely with because I had no way of knowing if they would go back and tell their husbands what I said. I did what was expected. Charity work, mostly. Committees. Attending galas and dinner parties. Planning and attending fundraisers. All the 'society wife' things that too often took me away from home. I didn't tell him about my volunteer work at hospitals and nursing homes; things that also took me away from the two of you. Leaving you to be raised by Jorge's mother and, later, Constance. I kept my licenses and certifications up to date. I attended trainings." She shook her head. "I started stealing from him. Money left lying around the house went into a lock box. I would buy you a leather jacket that cost $500 but would get it on sale for $150 and would put the extra $350 in the lock box." She shook her head.

"I'm not proud of it but I had a plan. When Santana was three, your abuelo came to me. He had heard some things. There were whispers about how Jorge was treating his family; how he paraded them out in front of important people at important places but how they were otherwise unseen. Your abuelo asked me to tell him the truth so I did. I cried on his shoulder and he cried with me. He apologized; your abuelito was a good and kind man so your abuelo had no reason to believe Jorge would be any different. After that day, your abuelo and your abuelito got together and created trust funds for you and your sister. Your father was furious; he had absolutely no access to them or control over them. They were governed by impartial trustees. They were for you and you alone. You could access them when you turned eighteen if you showed you needed the money for school. If you didn't need it for schooling or you decided not to go to school it would become available when you were twenty-five."

"I didn't know about that. You never said …"

"He forbade me. He could not control the funds which meant he would lose control of you and Santana when you turned eighteen and didn't need his money to survive. So much I was not allowed to tell you." She shook her head. "I hated him. I also didn't trust him to not take you both away from me. So I waited and I planned." She waved off the waitress' offer of more coffee but asked for a glass of water instead.

"Constance was my friend, my companion, my confidante. When her husband died two years ago she came to me with another plan. She was going to sell her house and buy a condominium. She wanted me to live there with her once Santana left for school. I would pay half the mortgage but my name would not appear anywhere so it would not be considered a marital asset. I was stunned at the proposal but realized this was a good way to set my future. You were already in California and I was fairly certain you would not return to Lima. She had found a rather large condo with four bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms. With the money she got from the sale of her house, she use some as a down payment. I would pay her back half of the down payment and then pay half the mortgage. That was actually the easiest thing to do. Your father could not be bothered with such trivial things as household expenses. He left all the bill paying to me. Foolish of him, really. I could have robbed him blind but I was afraid he'd notice if large amounts went missing when he checked the bank statements so I kept my thefts small. However, I had absolute autonomy when it came to paying the household staff. So I paid Constance her salary with a twenty-five percent raise to pay back my half of the down payment. Then, once a month, I gave her a bonus equal to the amount of my half of the mortgage."

Gabriel grinned at his mother's resourcefulness. He'd have never thought to something like that.

She nodded at his smile. "Yes, I know. It was quite clever and it worked. I only had to wait three more years. Santana would be eighteen. Each of you would have a bedroom and a bathroom for when you came to visit or when Santana was on school breaks." She sighed. "Three years. I was almost there when your poor sister was forced out of the closet." She shook her head. "I was not surprised. Ten minutes in the same room with her and Brittany and it was obvious how much they cared for one another. I also didn't care. She is my daughter and I love her. Your father, as you now know, already hated her so this was the straw that broke the camel's back. It gave him the perfect excuse to cut her off and throw her out." She ran a hand down her face. "I tried to talk to him; to reason with him. I was so close to being ready to leave but I needed a job. Once I no longer had access to his money, the money I had managed to hide away would not last long. But he refused to listen. I wasn't really surprised. Then he started keeping a closer eye on the money I spent; making sure I wasn't secretly helping her. I was; he just didn't realize I was using Constance to do it."

"What do you mean? I thought you told Constance that Santana ran away."

"Your father told the lie. I corrected it the moment I had a chance. Constance didn't know how much you knew so she kept my secret safe. He had forbidden me to tell you anything. The verguenza of having a lesbian as a daughter! She no longer existed.

"Constance got another fifteen percent raise. Of the forty percent twenty percent went to the down payment I still owed; twenty percent she took to Whitney Pierce to help with Santana's needs. She needed a new cell phone since your father confiscated hers; the Pierces put her on their plan so I covered that. Food, clothes, shoes, whatever she might need. Whitney came to me the day after your father threw Santana out and we talked for several hours. I signed the guardian papers and the health proxy papers because I didn't trust your father to not cause problems for the Pierces." She shook her head. "He started monitoring my phone usage. Calls. Who they were from, how long they lasted."

"Why didn't you call me? Tell me?"

"Gabriel," she chided softly, "you're a young man just starting out in the world. What could you have done? I didn't want to put you in your father's cross-hairs. I wanted you free and safe. And you were. He also forbade me to say anything to you. If I had told you, you'd have come right home and what good would that have done? I just needed to get a job and move everything out of the house. Which is what I've spent the past four months doing. Everything you left at the house is in your room at the condominium." She laughed. "Oh, how I laughed when I went to pack Santana's room and saw that it had been turned upside down. There truly was not much left to pack away and move. Your sister and her friends are very resourceful."

Gabriel grinned at that. "It was actually just Quinn and Brittany. They went to the house to check on Santana when Britt hadn't heard from Santana all night. When they didn't find her there, saw her car in the garage, her keys and phone on the island they cleared out her room as best they could before they went out looking for her."

Maribel shook her head. "Your sister has good friends." She smiled softly. "Brittany is so good for her. She had been so happy since last June. Last year, well, last school year, your sister was angry and moody. Brittany wasn't around as much. I wanted to talk to her but," she sighed, "I was not there enough for her growing up so she shut down every attempt I made at talking with her. It's my own fault; in my planning, I left out enough time to be a proper mother to her."

"Mami, she loves you. From what I understand, she was struggling with her sexuality last year. Brittany was tired of being together in secret and Santana couldn't accept that she was a lesbian. I'm not sure anything you could have done would have made a difference. She didn't even confide in me. Quinn told me after I got here last month."

Maribel nodded. "It is in the past. All I can hope is that she'll give me a chance to make it up to her now. As I told you earlier, I left your father last week. It took me that long to quietly pack everything up and to find a job. I start my job next week."

"Does he know you left?"

"I honestly don't know if he's noticed. I consulted a lawyer this morning. I'm not asking for anything that I didn't bring into the marriage. I'm sure Santana will want to stay with the Pierces and that is fine with me. She's happy there with Brittany. I will, of course, offer her the room at the condo but it will be no pressure and no strings attached. I have all the information for the trust funds, as well. If he's tried to call me to bail him out? I left my cell phone on the table at home when I left last week." She rooted in her purse for a moment then slid a card across the table. "That's my new phone number and the address at the condo."

"I can't believe all of this. He really is a bastard."

"I wish I could say he wasn't always like that but he was; he just got worse as he got older."

They had been sitting in the diner for hours and Gabriel knew his mother must be exhausted. He cleared his throat. "She woke up three days ago. She is weak and tired but doing better. Brittany never left her side for six weeks. Santana finally persuaded her to go back to school yesterday but she's still staying with Santana at night."

Maribel nodded. "Thank you. I know it's asking a lot of you but … if you could tell her I love her, tell her I would like to see her, I would appreciate it."

"I will, Mami. I will tell her to hear you out." He shook his head. "After hearing this story, I can't believe how much you love us."

"You are my children. I know I made a lot of mistakes but they were always with a view to the future, to making sure you and your sister were safe and taken care of. I know I didn't go about it in the right ways; sometimes, it is difficult to see the way out when you're in the middle of the labyrinth.

Gabriel nodded his understanding and stood up, offering his mother his hand. "Come on. You look tired. Get some rest and I will talk to Santana tomorrow."

Maribel took his hand and smiled. "Thank you, Gabriel."

"De nada, Mami," he smiled back at her.

Maribel paid the bill and left a rather large tip for the waitress as they had taken up her table for the better part of the evening.

Gabriel walked his mother to her car and kissed her cheek. "I will call you tomorrow, Mami. Te amo."

"Te amo con todo mi corazón, mi niño querido," she pulled him into a hug.

He closed her door and watched as she drove off. He knew he had a lot to process; a lot to think about and a lot to tell his sister.