The Imposter

Chapter Twelve

It was difficult to sleep that night. Tomorrow morning, I will be fooling the man who is supposed to be my father. This could hurt so many people, my family included. I tossed and turned all night, thinking of the different scenarios that were to happen if I did one wrong move.

 In the morning, Daisy came to see how I was. I couldn’t tell her that I was a nervous wreck, so I decided that I would lie to her. “I’m fine. Actually I’m excited for tonight!” I lied, I couldn’t let her know that I was really nervous. She was surprised by my answer.  Then something happened. I heard someone knocking at my door. Daisy got up to answer the door. She must have been in shock or something because she stood at the door for a long time. Then she began to say, “Elizabeth told us that you were coming, but you arrived earlier than expected.” All of a sudden I knew who she was speaking to. I stood there shocked at what was to come. 

The man at the door walked in, pushing his sister-in-law aside. He continued walking, it seemed as though he couldn’t believe what was in front of his eyes. “I can’t believe it’s you, mijo” I saw tears forming around his eye, I froze in that moment. What was I supposed to do? I didn’t know how to address my fake father. He finally reached me and hugged me. “When your mother told me she had found you, I couldn’t believe it. I had to come see it for myself.” He said as tears fell on my shoulder. Daisy, who had walked out of the room, returned with her sister. They were both surprised with what was happening. 

As Mr. Salazar let go of me, Mrs. Salazar walked up to her husband. “Can you believe that he is back with us?” She said as she grabbed both of our  hands. I couldn’t believe what was happening.  I had convinced this man that I was really his child. 

Mr. Salazar was impressed with how much I had grown, he kept repeating how he could barely recognize me. I still didn’t know what I was supposed to say. Good thing for me is that Mr. Salazar, unlike his wife, liked to talk a lot. He spoke about the time when I was young and we went horseback riding and I fell and broke my arm and how his wife was mad at us for doing something like that. Actually to phrase it as he did, my mom had been upset. Mom. I hadn't said that word in a while. Did Mrs Salazar even want me to call her mom?

After a while, we headed downstairs for breakfast on the patio. We ate breakfast quietly. When Mr. Salazar finished eating, he was the first one to bring up a conversation. “What if after breakfast, we go down and ride those horses like we used to? I didn’t realize that he was talking to me, until Daisy nugged me in the ribs. “Sorry, I’m a bit nervous for tonight. What did you say?” Mr. Salazar looked at me as if he doubted what I was saying. “Why are you nervous, Esteban? Don’t you remember how much you use to enjoy the parties we threw?” 

It was nerve wracking to be at the table. Why wasn’t anyone else distracting Mr. Salazar? “Honey,” Mrs. Salazar began. “Of course Esteban has to be nervous, it’s the first time in a while that he’ll be seen in public and there will be several hundred people at the party. Why don’t you stop with all the questions and go upstairs to unpack?” Mr. Salazar never argued with his wife, he agreed to everything that she said. “Maybe another day  we can go riding?” he asked. I nodded as he walked back inside the house. 

Once Mrs. Salazar saw that her husband was inside the house, she grabbed the napkin that she had on her lap and threw it on the table. “What were you thinking of? Why did you ignore what he was saying?” I could see that she was angry with what I had done. Daisy grabbed her arm, “now Elizabeth, you can’t blame him for what happened. How was he to know that Ernesto would bring up that story? We should have prepared him more for this.”

 I felt bad for not being what they wanted me to be. What if I wasn’t the right one for the job? I excused myself. As I left, I heard them begin to argue. I was glad to be leaving at that moment.