“Daddy, is there a soaking tub here?”
“Yes. More than one. Do you want to take a bath?”
“Only if you’ll let me wash your back.”
He considers my offer, and he takes so long, I wonder if he’s punishing me or really thinking about saying no. Instead, he steps around me and gathers my belongings again. I guess he trusts the entire house is secure if we’re headed upstairs without him checking everywhere else. The tour will come later if there is one. He still seems reserved compared to a few minutes ago. This is the Javi who doesn’t like to be around people and would prefer to be left alone. The untrusting one.
I follow him up to the second floor and along a hallway to the last room on the right. It must overlook the backyard with a view out on the water. As we walk in, I realize the angle of the house means bedrooms on both sides must have views. It’s a masculine room, painted in a deep gray with cobalt curtains. I can see into the bathroom to where the walls are cobalt too. The bedding is a more muted gray and blue. The furniture is surely mahogany—not mahogany-colored, but the actual wood. On every surface, there’s some type of assembled Lego set.
I look up at Javi, and I’m certain he’s blushing. Did he forget they were here? Does he think I’ll tease him? Mock him?
“You’re still into them, aren’t you? Do you and your brothers still line up for the special edition releases? Didn’t you used to camp out to be at the front of the line?”
He nods. He offers nothing else, and I fear I really fucked things up.
“That’s really cool that you, Jorge, and Joaquin still do that together. Laura and I are still super close, but it was impossible to do anything like that with me in Albany and then once she had the twins.”
“My brothers and I enjoy each other’s company, and they know how much I still enjoy them, even though I’m in my thirties.”
“Age has nothing to do with it. I always figured you’d become an engineer or something since you used to make the most complicated designs before you’d assemble them into the official design.”
“You remember that?”
“Of course. I overheard you talking to Juan about it once, and then I heard Margherita tell my mom. I know once your English was good enough, you were on your school’s Science Olympiad team. Why did you become a lawyer?”
“BecauseTíoEnrique andTíoLuis won’t live forever.”
I open my mouth, then snap it shut.
Duty.
Joaquin has the degree in computer science. Jorge’s the accountant. Pablo’s the scientist and Enrique’s heir. Alejandro’s got the MBA. They needed an attorney, so it fell to Javier. Does he not like what he does?
“Maddy, my J.D. is my second degree. My undergrad was in electrical and mechanical engineering. Now that I’m a lawyer, I don’t use it as much as I could, but it’s not like I forgot anything.”
That makes my chest tighten. Pablo’s concentration was chemistry and biology. I can guess what he uses that knowledge for. Now, I’m thinking about what Javi uses his for. Nothing that comes to mind is positive.
“I’ll run the bath. Strip,chica.” He waggles his eyebrows at me.
Maybe things are okay after all. Maybe he’ll give me some more space, but I know he won’t wait forever. Maybe?—
I hear my phone ringing in my purse. It’s one of my burners I stockpiled before I left Albany. Since it’s the one in my purse, I know it’s the one that has calls forwarded to it from my real number but has no kind of GPS or location services. It’s the one I answered when my mom called to tell me about the wedding. I can ditch it and tell Laura or my parents I lost it. I know I have more than a hundred voicemails from Drew. I stopped listening after the first ten because they were just profanity riddled threats. Not even the first couple worried about my wellbeing.
I pull it out and check the screen. Wonderful.
“Hi, Laura.”
“Where the fuck are you, you worthless cunt?”
My blood freezes in my veins.
“What did you do to my sister?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“I’m calling Maks.”
I hang up, but the phone rings again immediately. I have Maks’s number memorized since I have none stored in this phone. I smashed my actual phone and disposed of it before I left. I feel badly polluting, but it’s at the bottom of the Mohawk River, and the sim card went wherever the sewer goes. Even though the Hudson is closer to where I lived, I could just imagine, in some twist of fate, the phone floating into the city. Even though the Mohawk is a tributary to the Hudson, I threw it in ahead of the falls. The rocks and pressure should have obliterated the little pieces left after I took a hammer to it.
