Flutter by, Butterfly

Chapter 33

A miracle had happened. The woman that we loved the most was alive and well. She let us inside. Alejandro's grandparents were also there. Everyone was speaking Spanish, but I was well versed enough to understand.

"Who is this man?" asked the grandfather.

"Papi, this is my son," said Maria, still wiping away her tears of joy.

Why did this man appear so indifferent about this news? Why wasn't he thrilled?

"Don't tell me you brought back that bastard son of yours!" said Maria's mother.

"Mama! I have not seen my son for years!"

Unmoved, the woman continued, "I want him out of my house, and out of our lives!"

"Mama!"

"But we just got here," I cut in. "Do you have any idea what we had to go through to get here?"

Both the grandparents looked at me with disdain.

"Another side-piece?" asked the grandfather.

"I am no side-piece," I said firmly. "I am his wife!"

And then, I actually witnessed this woman slap my husband across the face and say, "You already have a wife!"

He already had a wife? That couldn't be true, but even Maria was looking at me, full of trepidation.

"That woman has not been with me for many years now," said Al, to both his grandparents. I thought you were dead. I thought my mother was dead, and now that we are here, can't you treat my wife and I any better than this?"

"I have been dealing with your little gold-digging puta's for years, and now you show up at my door-step wanting our blessing?" asked the grandfather.

"It's because we didn't know about you," I said.

"Then how did they know about us, then?" asked the grandmother. "How did we get all these little bastards running around claiming to be Alejandro's?"

Alejandro said nothing.

"Well, what do you have to say?" asked the grandfather.

I took Maria by the hand. "Can we talk?"

We led her out of there, screaming parents and all. I gave them both a dirty look before I walked through that door. I knew right then that not a single one of us was coming back.

I managed to distract Maria as we walked away. She was absolutely ecstatic to find out she was a grandmother. Alejandro looked grateful that I managed to make everyone smile again. He took us to a fine dining restaurant, where we were able to talk privately at our own table, without any prying eyes or ears. We caught up on what happened in our lives.

The woman I thought to be my mother actually did try to kill Maria. She had already destroyed her papers, and everything that could possibly be in her public records thanks to her connections and paid computer hackers. Maria had barely managed to escape, only to end up getting deported.

Alejandro did not talk much about his double life, but I of course could not blame him for that. I didn't want to speak of such things as Lobo in front of Marie either. He mentioned his personality disorder, and how we were getting so close to making him whole. Maria understood. I could tell from her eyes that she knew more than what he was giving, and the haunted look made us both well aware that our secrets she would never tell. She knew the names of many of his past lovers. She was not surprised that Carlos left the possibility of having several children from unknown mothers, and Romeo was previously married to a woman who somebody had paid off to leave him. Our money was on Alejandro's blood father. Once again, Alejandro was worried that I would be angry with him.

"That was then, and this is now," I said. "You said that I am the love of your life, and I know that. No matter what happens from here, we will figure out how to handle each situation, as a family."

Maria looked as if she was ready to cry. "Oh mijo, I am so happy for you! She is perfect!"

Alejandro smiled at me with gleaming eyes. "Yes," he humbly said.

We began to plan what we were going to do. We all had the state of mind that we wanted to go straight to Miguel and M.J. So that's exactly what we did. We all looked forward to our sweet reunion and new life together.