“Daddy, please. No.”
Then he backhanded me and spun me around.
The rest was pure pain and terror. Terror that never stopped for over five years until Sofia saved me.
Now I will forever be in her debt.
When I was in college, I began searching for her and eventually found her living in New Jersey. I waited until I was ready, but looking back, I wasn’t. It was always going to be hard seeing her again.
I knocked on her door, and the minute she saw me, she recognized me. Despite the years.
“Terrance, my boy. My boy.” She cried, throwing herself into my arms. “Oh,dios,I’m so sorry.”
“It’s Travis now,” I told her.
We held each other so tightly I wasn’t sure if I was going to break her or she was going to put me back together again.
Tears leaked down my face despite fighting them. She dragged me inside and poured me a glass of goddamn milk. I drank it.
When she finally stopped patting my face, I took her hands. “Sofia, you saved my life.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I should have stopped him earlier. I didn’t know. I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t know, Sofia. But the moment you did, you threw away your job, income, security. For me.” I squeezed her hand.
Her eyes dart away. “Of course. Who wouldn’t?”
“Pretty much most people.” I grabbed her cheek and forced her eyes back to me. “Most people, Sofia. But you didn’t.”
Her eyes dropped as tears landed on her lap, getting lost in the past. “I wanted to do more. I drove past and couldn’t find you. There was nothing more I could do.”
I smiled. “He sent me away to school. Because of you. That saved my life.”
Her eyes flicked up to mine, surprise in them.
I smiled back at her.
“I loved you so much, Terrance...Travis. For years I’ve worried.”
No one had told me they loved me since my mother had died. I pulled her into my arms and never wanted to let go.
This woman had raised me.
Mom always kept me at arm’s length, and it may have been because of my controlling father.
I’ll never know.
But I knew one thing: I loved this elderly Spanish woman as if she were my mother, and I didn’t give a shit what anyone thought.
I pulled a key out of my pocket and placed it in her hand.
“What is this?”
“A house,” I said as she gasped. “In a better, safer neighborhood. With a garden and garage to park your car. With rooms for your grandkids to come and stay.”
I continued while her mouth fell open.
“A big kitchen so you can make all those dishes I love. And an enormous dining table so you can fill it with food and people and laughter.”
