Page 47 of There Are No Words

I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. It was obviously Mom’s. It was written in her handwriting. But the date was throwing me off. “Look,” I said and tapped the top corner.

Maria’s brows furrowed. “I wasn’t born that year.”

“I know!” I cried.

“What the heck?” she asked and ripped it from my hands finally, turning the pages.

Bianca shook her head. “I don’t get it.”

“Did our parents lie about your age, Maria?” Perla asked. “That would explain so much.”

Maria’s eyes narrowed, two thin slits, as she looked at Perla. “There’s no way.”

“Maybe Mom lost a baby. Do we know if she miscarried?” I asked, trying to make sense of this as Maria started reading some of the pages in the journal.

“No,” Bianca insisted, sounding as adamant as ever. “She would’ve told us because that’s important medical history we’d need to know. She never hid stuff like that from us.”

She wasn’t wrong. “So, what gives, Maria?” I asked, knowing she was scanning the pages furiously, her eyes roving over each one with unmatched focus.

But Maria was silent.

Not a single word.

Until she gasped.

Then. . . “I think Mom had another baby.”

Chapter Sixteen

Allegra

“I still don’tunderstand why we couldn’t just ask Dad when he got home last night,” I directed to my sisters who were still in shock over finding out Mom had another baby. Not that I wasn’t, too, but it was like I was more curious than anything.

Maria walked over from the rack behind me. “I’m not sure I was ready to hear his answer.” That would explain the dark circles under her eyes today. This had clearly hit her hard.

I shook my head. “We can’t just ignore it.” Not like I had ignored everything Brady said to me before our sleepover, but that wasn’t the point because I still was running away from that one.

“Can’t we?” Bianca asked, joining us and carrying a few dresses over her arm.

I wasn’t sure how they were finding anything good. I couldn’t seem to stay focused long enough to care. What was wrong with my sisters? Didn’t they want answers?

I turned to find Perla pushing her way through a rack of jeans. “Do you agree with them?” I asked Perla.

She shrugged. “Is it wrong if I don’t know if I care?”

This explained why all morning they’d been walking on eggshells, skirting around the topic. They were so indifferent about it. Meanwhile, curiosity was seriously getting the best of me. “It’s Saturday, so Dad won’t be in the office. He’ll be home. I say we go back and talk to him when we’re done here,” I said, making my position clear. “I’d like to know.”

Perla shook her head and countered, “But she obviously didn’t tell us for a reason. Shouldn’t we respect that?”

What?“No! Secrets are no good,” I insisted.

“This one’s been buried for over thirty years,” Bianca pointed out. “I say we let it go.”

I looked to Maria and hoped like hell she’d see reason, but when she didn’t jump to say anything or side with me, I took myself and all the clothes I’d accumulated to a dressing room. “I’ll be back.”

There was no reasonable explanation for why I felt so strongly about learning the truth about Mom and her mystery child. The only thing I could think of was that it was because I was currently pregnant. Then there was the fact that I wasn’t able to talk to Mom, which practically killed me.

Interrupting my thoughts, my phone made a noise indicating a text. It couldn’t have been my sisters since they were all here with me, so I pulled my phone out, wondering who it was.

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