Let the Drama Continue.
Letty's POV
We follow Adrien out of the garage and into our cars and allow him to lead the way.
I watch Adrien's car pull into my old drive way down the street. Dom and I park in his and begin getting out of the car. We notice Mia walking out of the house staring straight at Adrien. He stares back before giving a small wave and heading inside the house. Mia shakes herself off and continues down the porch steps.
"Oh, hey guys." Mia's says walking over to her car in the driveway
"How ya living girl?"
"I just came by to drop off the chicken for tomorrow. It's marinating in the fridge. So don't touch it. Dom that means you."
"Ha-ha. Okay Mia." Dom says with his hands up in surrender.
"I meant it Dom." she says in a hard voice letting him know she's serious
"Alright, I get it .Don't touch the meat."
As much as I love chatting with Mia and watching her torture Dom, I'm really interested in what Adrien has to say. So I tug on Dom's arm trying, unsuccessfully, to get his attention. Reminding him of where we need to be without his sister seeing. But Mia being Mia notices somethings up right away.
Her eyes flicker back and forth between us and the house down the street. "Where are you guys headed?"
"You remember Letty's sister Natalia? We ran into her and we're just going over to check out the house while she's at the garage. I'll fill you in about tomorrow."
"Uhhh" I see Mia looking worried, and becoming flustered "Are you sure? It's been awhile, and it was pretty rough after you guys left. I didn't even know they were back in L.A."
"You knew she left?" How could she not tell me, she knew where my sister was?
"After you left I would stop by every once in a while. Just to check in. That's how I know Adrien. Nat's been through a lot but she's tough. God, she used to remind me so much of you Letty. The way she could look you right in the eye and tell you she was fine even when she wasn't. I remember when she left for New York. I tried to convince her to stay. But she's stubborn, like you Let. She always has been."
"It was pretty rough…Nat's been through a lot…" is all that keep playing over and over in my head. What happened while we were gone? Why didn't she tell me things were bad? I could've helped, somehow.
"What are you saying Mi?" I finally ask
She smiles but her eyes tell another story. "Nothing, uhh I'll just see you guys tomorrow. I have to go. I have an ultrasound in a hour." she yells over her shoulder while waving goodbye as she gets into her car.
Dom and I walk into my old house were we're greeted by Adrien. He's standing with his arms crossed next to a large, slightly out of place, picture hanging on the wall.
"You might want to sit down."
"I'd rather stand." Dom says while leaning against the wall. I reach over and grab his arm guiding him to sit with me on the couch.
Once were seated Adrien removes the hanging picture off the wall and behind it is a big hole.
"A hole?" I ask confused
"Once you understand the significance of this hole you will then be able to understand why Nat is who she is. This isn't an easy story to tell and I wish I didn't have to, but I know she never will. Even if she did it would never be the whole truth."
Dom answers for the both of us "Let's hear it then."
"Okay do you remember what happened a few nights before race wars?"
We both look at each other and shake our heads. Too much time had passed. There's no way I could remember that far back. I knew one thing for sure, I didn't recognize this hole.
"Well you remember your mom's boyfriend Ramone?"
Flashback TP POV
Natalia had just walked up to the Toretto's house just as Vince and Dom were heading out.
"Hey where you guys going?" she asks a little disappointed that they were leaving as soon as she was getting there.
"The café, Jesse needs help unloading some boxes. You want to come? I'm sure if you ask nicely Dom will let you have an ice cream." says Vince
"I don't know, it may take a while you sure you won't get bored"
"I promise." Nat says while making a cross over her heart.
"Okay then let's go"
"YES!" Vince and Nat say at the same time.
"Come on get on my back." says Vince while holding up his hand for a high five.
"You got it." Nat goes to raise her arm above her head but pulls it back down and tightly into her moaning in pain. Her other hand wraps around her middle holding her ribs on the opposite side.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Vince asked concerned.
"Yea, I'm fine. I just need to sit down for a sec." says the young girl struggling to catch her breath as her eyes are squeezed shut in pain.
Natalia sits down on the last step of the walkway trying to control her breathing.
"What's wrong with your side" Dom questions.
"Nothing. Really, I'm fine" she says trying to convince the boys that nothing's wrong.
"Natty, it's okay we're here for you." Vince explains as he kneels down beside her.
Nat sighs in defeat knowing that she can't continue to lie to them.
Dom kneels down beside Vince in front of Nat and points towards her side. He softly asks "May I?"
Looking away not wanting to see the looks on their faces, she gives a quick nod.
Dom then slowly starts to lift up the right side of her shirt. About half way up a black and blue bruise is revealed, with a few faint ones surrounding it.
Immediately feeling his blood begin to boil Dom calls out for Mia. Not expecting the loud outburst Nat flinches away.
"I'm sorry. No, no it's okay. Can you tell me who did this? And Natty look at me." she cautiously does so "Tell the truth you won't get in trouble okay?"
In an extremely aggressive tone and through clenched teeth Vince speaks up "We already know who it is Dom. Let's go your wasting time."
"We need to make sure. Natty was it Ramone?"
Not wanting to answer, but knowing they already figured it out she again nods her head. Vince starts pacing back and forth with heavy breathing, and face turning red as he opens and closes his fist. Eventually walking over and slamming his fist down on the hood of his car denting it.
"MIA NOW!" Dom yells again.
Nat is starting to get scared from all the commotion. Believing that she is in trouble she wishes it would all just go away.
"I'm sorry. I'm fine. You guys don't have to be mad. It's my own fault." she manages to get out trying to hold back the tears that are forming in her eyes.
Vince instantly regretting his actions not wanting to frighten the girl walks back over to her.
"No, no baby girl. You're okay. We're not mad at you. Everything's going to be fine. I promise"
Mia and Letty exit the house laughing.
"Finally! Get your asses over here."
"What do you want? I was in…Oh My god!" Mia covers her mouth in shock, finally seeing why the boys were calling her.
"What the hell what happened? Who did this? If you guys did this I swear…"
"Relax Let. It wasn't them. From the coloring it looks a couple days old" Mia explains. The boys thank God she's studying to be a nurse, subsequently being saved from Letty's wrath.
"Then who!?"
"I'll give you one guess." Vince says looking over towards Letty's house.
Letty turns and stalks off angrily towards her mom's house when Dom grabs her arm holding her back. "Wait a second. I'm going with you." He turns to face Mia. "Mi take Nat down to the café and you guys can help Jesse. We're just gonna take care of a couple things."
After 10 minutes Mia finally convinced Nat to go to the café, which wasn't too hard. It only took Mia bribing her with a chance to take a couple customers' orders before she caved, and was halfway dragging Mia down the street.
When the girls were far enough away Dom, Letty and Vince made their way to Letty's mothers' house.
Letty's father left a few days after Nat's 2nd birthday. His reason being that he couldn't handle her mother's behavior anymore. He passed away a few years ago.
Letty's mom had been a good woman and mother. That was until a couple years before Natalia was born. Then she began to stay out all night, claiming that raising Letty took away her youth. Letty's father threatened to leave if she didn't straighten up. Which she did. That's when she found out she was pregnant with Natalia. She was shocked, but she was happy. She was glad to get a second chance at motherhood and told herself she wouldn't make the same mistakes twice. But after her husband left, she began to slip again. she started to become more and more unstable. She was always going out or working just so she could support her drinking and gambling habit. She started to yell a lot and arguing with Letty about her not being a real woman. How women don't belong in a garage and that she didn't want her daughter hanging around with low life's like the Torretos.
When Letty couldn't take the drama anymore she moved out, and in with the Torretos. Mr. T's always felt like more of a home to her than her mother's ever did. This was right before Mr.T's passing and would prove to come in handy. Especially after Dom went to prison and someone had to keep everything together.
She never wanted to go back, but she wanted to keep an eye on her sister. Over the years Nat had grown on the Torreto family and was allowed at the garage, café, and house whenever she liked.
Recently her mom had begun to date Ramone a custodian worker with a drinking problem, but he didn't stay nights and he seemed harmless enough. No one gave him a second thought as long as Natty was safe. Which they had all believed that she was.
Reaching the house Letty didn't even bother knocking. She just opened the door and let themselves in. Letty began shouting for Ramone and searching the house. They found him and her mom in the backyard.
As quickly as he came into view Vince was already on top of him delivering blow after blow. Dom finally managed to wrestle him off after letting Vince lay into him for a few minutes.
"Vince you're done. I want to hear his pathetic excuse for putting his hands on a child."
Letty's mom was screaming in Spanish. Telling them to get away. They don't know what they're talking about. While Letty yelled back and told her mom she had seen the bruises.
"He didn't mean it. She gets an attitude sometimes, you know that." she says while helping him up. Vince is in the background trying to catch his breath and calm himself down.
Starting to spit up blood Ramone says "The little bitch needs to learn to respect her elders." Letty's fist makes contact. The crack of flesh on flesh stuns everyone. She went to swing again Vince grabbing her, holding her back.
Dom walked up slowly to Ramone, grabbing him by his collar and looking at his blood soaked face. "You're leaving. Right now. I don't want to hear another word about it. Oh and if I ever see you back here again, or I heard that you so much as came within a 10 mile radius of Natalia, I'll kill you myself. As for you Ms. Ortiz, if I hear that you let this man back into your home with your daughter in it, I will personally make sure that you spend the rest of your life behind bars. ¿Entiendes?"
Terrified she looks over to Letty. "¿Vas a dejarle hablar con tu madre de esta manera?"
Still fuming, using up the rest of her energy not to hit her as well, Letty simply reply's "Contestale."
"Fine. Yes. I understand." she yells back, running into the house slamming the back door behind her.
Ramone left which gave Letty's mom time to calm down and gain some sense about what she had allowed to happen. How it was wrong and she needed to do better. For herself and her daughter. They all left agreeing she needed some time to herself and would allow Nat to stay with them for the next few days leading up to Race Wars.
End flashback
Letty's POV
Recalling what had happened and running through it several times I respond to Adrien "Yea. I remember that now. But I don't remember anything having to do with the wall. Everything happened outback."
"That's because you weren't there for that. But about two weeks after you ran to Mexico she moved Ramone in permanently."
"What happened?" Dom asked looking straight at the floor and pain in his voice.
"For a while they were doing well. They had both stopped drinking. They went to AA meetings. Got new jobs. Nat was even doing well in school. But two years later Ramone got injured at work. He lost his job and started drinking again. Your mom tried her best to stay sober but with alcohol in the house she started drinking again were constantly fighting. They would get into heated arguments and Nat would stay at my house for as long as she could trying to avoid them. She was successful for about a year. But one night when she was 13 she decided to stay home. That night he started getting rough with your mom, and when Nat defended her he snapped. She doesn't know what happened exactly. She passed out. But when she woke up in the hospital she had 2 broken ribs, a deep laceration on her neck, and her left eye was swollen shut. She was covered in cuts and bruises. The doctors told her she had been in a car accident."
I don't understand why they would tell her she was in an accident. "Car accident? You just said Ramone…"
"When your mom realized her injuries were serious, she told Ramone they needed to go to the hospital. He protested. He said if they went to the hospital then he would go to jail. So they came up with the best excuse that they could, and played off of your juvie record. They came up with a plan that the police would believe. They took your moms old car and drove it down by the high school, knowing someone would see it. Then they loaded her in the front seat and put the car in drive prior to watching it smash into a light pole. Later when a passerby would call the police and they were questioned they would say "she must have been joy riding", and because many of her injuries where directed to the upper half of her body it would seem consistent with their story."
"Where is he?" Dom growls.
"It's too late Dom" Adrien tells him in a controlled voice. I know this isn't an easy story to tell and he's trying his best to keep it together.
"Where is he?" he asks again this time through gritted teeth, face turning a deep red.
"He died three years ago. Drug overdose."
I'm almost too terrified to ask, but I have to. "And my mom?"
"Last I heard, she moved in with your aunt. She tried to clean herself up, but if you ask her she'll tell you she has no children. She doesn't want anything to do with Nat. She blames her for Ramone."
"Why?"
"After everything that happened, and when Natalia was finally released from the hospital, Ramone promised he would change. You're mom believed him and said he could stay. It didn't take long for them to go back to their old ways. Nat needed an outlet. Something to get her out of the house and keep her mind off all of her problems. Hector finally gave her the greenlight when she was 14, after seeing how much she was struggling. Racing seemed to put that fire back in Nat and she was damn good at it. Ramone and your mom found out and would get into heated screaming matches with her, but luckily nothing ever transpired. Except the day cops had come by asking about Letty. After the cops told them what you had been up to in the DR, he lost his temper and he accused her of ending up just like you. Problem was this time, she was no longer a defenseless little girl. This time he ended up in the hospital, and she didn't try to hide it. She was charged with assault and spent three months in juvie. When she got out they had picked up and left and in order to pay the bills she had to start racing more. Eventually racing lead into pulling jobs. Your mom and Ramone ended up on the streets. Which introduced the couple to heroin. "
I can't believe what I'm hearing. I feel overwhelmed with guilt. I look at Dom and see the same haunted expression on his face. We should have been there. We should've checked on her. Speaking of checking on her, where the hell was Mia? Why hadn't she called me? Why hadn't Nat told me herself, when I was down here. Before I went undercover for Brian?
"Why didn't she tell me? I was home for a while back in 09."
"She wasn't here. After she was healed from the attack your mother had sent her down to the DR for the summer, to stay with your aunt. She said she needed a vacation. By vacation, she meant from me. She thought I was corrupting her. That I was the one that got her into racing and by the time she came back they were making your funeral arrangements."
"Wow." Is all I can get out. I'm still digesting everything he's just told us.
I don't completely understand why she wouldn't tell us now? I guess after thinking it over, I wouldn't want people to know either. We're more alike than I realized.
We stay talking for a bit longer getting to know Adrien. I can tell he really cares for my sister. I appreciate everything he's done for her. About 20 minutes in, we thank him for being honest with us and we get ready to head home.
-what do you think is running through Doms head?
So for some odd reason I seem to have it stuck in my brain that Letty's home life was rough. If you have a different opinion let me know in a review.
I think it's important to let Dom and Letty know what's gone on since they've been gone. I'm trying to show them, as well as the readers, that not all of their problems followed them. That life still went on for those left behind.
I hope you liked this chapter. Let me know what you'd like to read next. Write a review or shoot me a message:)