Page 50 of Easy Rumba

“What do you mean, Miss Sofia?” Elise questions.

She is shaking now, and I bring her closer to me. I’m torn between comforting her and my mamá, who’s in obvious distress as well.

“Mamá, can you tell us what you mean, please?”

She nods.

“Elise, your father and I had spent the day together. I thought my husband was away for the night. We were watching television after dinner, and we got into a discussion about the future and what we were going to do because carrying on the way we were was doing neither of us any good. We discussed ending it and staying as far away from each other as possible, but we knew it wouldn’t work with the families being such close friends. In the end, we decided we had to do the one thing that would break everyone’s hearts, leave our partners so we could be together. I’d never kissed him before, but we sealed our pact with a small peck on the lips.” My mamá pauses and takes a deep breath before she continue, “Unfortunately, Leo, su padre, walked in at that moment and saw our chaste kiss. He assumed the worst, despite me protesting nothing more had happened between us. The two men flew into a fight. Elise, your father was trying to protect himself more than anything. Eventually he was pushed over and hit his head on a table. He blacked out for a few seconds, and when he came to, he was ordered out of the house by my husband. I tried to stop him going, but he insisted everyone needed some time to calm down, and he had to speak to your mother, Elise. He left. I wish I’d told him I loved him that night because a few hours later your mother called and said he’d been killed in a car accident. He’d blacked out at the wheel, and a truck had run into his car. I knew it was because of the bang to his head even if it wasn’t in the medical reports.”

The room falls silent except for the sound of my mamá and Elise sobbing. I’m in shock, my own hands shaking as well now. Elise’s father died after a fight with mine. My parents were going to split, and my mamá was going to be with Elise’s father. It’s too much to take in and try to comprehend in one go. But equally it explains so much, the fact my mamá moved to Spain after Elise’s father died, and the mental health issues she’s had. She lost someone special to her. She must have dreamed of a new life with him, but it was cruelly ripped apart.

“Does my mama know?” Elise eventually breaks the silence.

“No, I decided it was best not to upset her further. She loved your father a great deal. I mourned in the shadows and let you and her believe he died a loving husband to her,” my mother responds with a sob.

“Thank you,” Elise manages to answer and looks up at me. I try to think of something to say, but I’ve got no words yet. “I feel sick,” she says quietly, and I stick my arm out and point in the direction of the bathroom. “I won’t be long.” Elise disappears down the corridor with a weak stagger.

“Leo?” my mamá questions. “Talk to me.”

“My father killed Elise’s?”

“No, it didn’t happen that way. It was because of the stubbornness of men. Elises’s father thought he was fine to drive. I should have insisted he went to the hospital. If anyone is at fault, it’s me. Your father walked out after the fight, Leo, and I haven’t spoken to him since. I don’t know why he’s dragging everything up now. It’s in the past, and too many people have been hurt as a result of the feelings Elise’s father and I had. I promise you we never touched each other apart from that one kiss. God had other plans for my life. I should have remained faithful and not even kissed him. I was wrong. It was all my fault. I lost him, Leo. I loved him so much. It hurts every day.” My mamá is becoming frantic now. The voices inside her head are taking over, the ones that only began after Elise’s father died. “I want to be with him. I can’t mourn him any longer. Let me go.”

“No.” I shout, and getting to my feet, I go over to her and pull her into my arms. “Mamá, I know it’s painful. It hurts so much to be separated from the person you love. I lost Elise for a long while and what’s happening now is tearing us apart again—I can feel it. But you have to live, Mamá. You have to believe he’s up there watching over you. He wouldn’t want you talking this way, and he wouldn’t want my father doing the same. The lies have to stop. Truths need to come out, no matter how much they hurt everyone. I love you, Mamá. I’m always here for you even if I remind you of the man you hate.”

“I don’t hate you, Leo. You’re my flesh and blood. My son. I’m just tired. I want to go sleep and never wake up. Why does it hurt so much? He died, Leo, and it’s my fault.”

“It’s not your fault.” Elises’s voice comes from behind me. She’s returned from the bathroom, looking broken, devastated. But she gracefully walks across the marble floor to wrap her arms around my mamá. The woman who would have been responsible for destroying her parents’ marriage. “My father made the decision to drive. He wouldn’t have known he’d blacked out earlier. He wouldn’t have realized the danger he was putting himself in. Fate had him in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s also fate that brought Leo and I back together. Maybe it’s righting its wrongs. You say the only thing you and my father did was kiss, and I believe you. It must have been hard on you both as well. I’m not stupid. I saw the cracks in my parents’ marriage. They were more friends than lovers at the end. You gave my father love before he died, and I’m grateful for that.” My mamá lowers her head to Elise’s chest and cries hard. “Leo is right, though. The lies have to stop. I’m glad you told us the truth. Thank you.”

Elise kisses the top of my mamá’s head as she completely breaks down. Years and years of keeping her secret and guilt have taken their toll on the woman I relied on for my strength, growing up. Eventually I call for a doctor to come and see her. He administers a sedative, and she’s taken into care again, for her own safety and security. Losing Elise’s father broke her but not in the same way Simon broke Elise. The two women closest to me are suffering, and I need to step up and be strong enough to support them both, no matter what. The past is just that, the past. Wrongs happened on all sides, and my father was central to them. He may believe the story of infidelity he’s been telling, but he’s wrong. I need to silence his lies now, and then we’ll stop Simon. His web of deceit is tangled and twisted—it’s time for him to face his fate.

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