Passing

Why?

THE NEXT DAY,
TUESDAY, 6:45am
16TH PRECINCT

Detective Fin Tutuola sat at his desk in the 1-6 squad room. He was one of the first to arrive that morning. He looked up just in time to see the same women from yesterday, walk in. Celia looked around and spotted him first. Fin stood up and walked toward her.

"Good morning, Mrs Pérez. My Captain...", he started, but was cut off.

"Buenos días, officer. I see she told you about me.", Celia says.

"Yes, she told me everything."

"I want to see her. Where is she?"

"She's not in yet. She'll be here in about 15 minutes.", Fin explained. "If you want, you can wait in her office."

"That'd be great.", said Celia.

"Please, follow me?", Fin guided Ms. Celia to Liv's office. Once inside, Fin told her to make herself comfortable on the couch. She didn't immediately sit down, but instead began looking around at the pictures on Liv's desk.

"Who is this little boy?", she asked, referring to the pictures of Noah.

"Uh, that's her son.", said Fin.

"I have another grandson?"

"I guess so, yeah."

"Is she married? I don't see any wedding photos."

"No, she's not. Never have been for as long as I know her.", explained Fin.

"So she went off and had another illegitimate baby? I raised her better than that, but she was always a bit on the wild side."

"Noah's adopted, ma'am."

"Oh, so she adopted a little boy, but couldn't even bother to make contact with her own son?! Her flesh and blood, for 28 years?!", Celia seethed.

"Maybe she has her reasons for it.", said Fin. They hadn't even realized that the 15 minutes was now over. And like clockwork, Liv strolled in to the squad room at seven on the dot. She greeted everyone and then walked straight to her office. She stopped short as she noticed her door was open and as she saw her mother through the open blinds.

"You got this, Liv.", she told herself, then walked inside. Both Fin and Celia looked as Liv walk through the door. "Morning", she said quietly, then went to sit behind her desk.

"Good morning, Captain.", Fin said, then excused himself, leaving Liv and her mother alone. Liv then turned to her mother.

"How may I help you, ma'am?", she asked.

"Ma'am?", asked Celia. "Why not 'mamá' today?"

"Because, as of yesterday, you disowned me. Told me not to bother you, and yet here you are, bothering me, messing the life, that I've created for myself, up.", Liv said with a cold expression.

"Oh, I'm the one messing up your life?!", Celia spat in an angry spanish accent. "tienes algo de nervio!"

"What do you want, ma'am?", Liv asked with the same expression.

"Quiero una explicación.", Celia said. "Why, Lupe? Why?"

"You wanna know why I left?! I left because I witnessed my boyfriend and his gang murder another man!", Liv said, getting agitated. "I followed Juan to some warehouse in the middle of the night, because I wanted to know where he went to at that time. They caught me there, because I accidentally knocked over some boxes! Then the big gun of them all asked Juan to 'take care of me for good', then left. He asked my own boyfriend to m-murder me!", uncontrollable tears were now streaming down both their faces.  Celia walk up behind Liv's desk and hugged her daughter.

"I'm so sorry, mija."

"I pleaded with Juan not to shoot me. Professed my love.", Liv continued. "I didn't think that he would actually shoot me, but he did. The bullet penetrated me just above my left breast.", she touched the spot above her breast through her shirt.

"How'd you get out?"

"They hadn't checked if I was dead or not. They just left me there. I called the police after they left. Next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital. There were agents there waiting to tell me that I was dead and that I had to go into witness protection.", Liv wiped at her tears. "I couldn't even say goodbye to you guys."

"Now I understand why they wouldn't let us see your body, because there was no body to see.", Celia said. "What I don't understand is why you had to go so far away."

"Alejandro, the mob boss, had his men spread out all over Cuba. Coming here was the safest option. And me being dead meant that my family was safe, so I had to go."

"I'm sorry you had to go through all that, sweetie.", Celia said, wiping Liv's tears. "Tell you what, why don't you come out to dinner with me tommorow. You and Noah. I want you to meet someone and I want to meet my other grandson also.", Celia smiled.

"That can be arranged. Where should we meet up?", Liv asked.

"Why don't you pick the place and text me the address.", Celia said, writing her number on a piece of paper and handing it to Liv.

"Whom am I meeting?"

"You'll just have to wait and see.", Celia said, then left Liv's office.