Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 136743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
“What’s popping, Sol?” my older sister, Lola, asks, her eyes sharp on my face and her brows dipped into a frown. She jokes that her claim to fame is that she’s the most “undiluted” of us. Mami being African American and Puerto Rican and Bray being African American, Lola’s darker complexion is hued with rich red undertones. Her hair, usually puffed into a luxuriant textured mass around her head, is tamed today into straight backs with baby hairs teased out at the edges.
She’s gorgeous and she knows it.
“Hey, mijas!” Nayeli waves, holding a suckling infant to her breast with one arm and propping up her phone with the other. A long braid slinks over one shoulder, and she squints at us from behind her glasses, looking more like Mami than any of us. “I miss you.”
“Miss you guys too,” I say. It’s only as I see their dear faces that I realize how much.
“We can kiki later,” Lola laughs. “I love you. I miss you. Yada yada yada. The Boricua High Council is in session. What’s this about, Sol?”
“Yeah, well, um.” I take a deep breath and force it out. “It all started last night at dinner.”
I launch into an explanation of what happened, watching shock ripple over their faces. Hearing it all out loud makes me realize just how outrageous my situation has become.
“What does Edward say?” Lola demands.
“He says it’s a misunderstanding.” I scribble Lupe, Inez, and Lottie’s names in the corner of my notepad. “And that he’s being set up.”
“By who?” Nayeli asks supersoft because my niece in her arms is doing the slow blink of soon-to-be sleep. “Who does he say would do such a thing?”
“He says it’s CalPot’s director of accounting,” I tell them. “Judah Cross.”
“And why exactly does Edward believe the director of accounting would set him up to take the fall for six million dollars being embezzled?” Skepticism sharpens Lola’s words. “Better yet, why does he think we’d believe it?”
“Lola, don’t leap to judge,” Nayeli says. “Have you talked to him at all since he was arrested, Sol?”
“No. He hasn’t called. I don’t… I have no idea what’s going on. The lawyer says he’ll call today.” My voice cracks, but I clear my throat. “I know it sounds ridiculous, Lola. I get it, but I’m not ready to even consider that Edward actually did it. That he would put our family in a situation like this. That I’ve been living all these years with a man who’s capable of doing this. That I’ve had his children and—”
“Okay,” Lola cuts in firmly. “All aboard the hysterics train. I need you to get off at the next stop. I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m a cynic. You know that. Edward has never given you reason to believe he’d do this, so we’ll just wait and see how it plays out.”
“I wish I could get away,” Nayeli sighs, patting Angela’s little back. “I’d be on the next plane.”
“No, I’ll be fine,” I rush to assure them. “Yasmen and Hendrix were here last night. They’ll come back today.”
“The new semester just started for me here,” Lola says. “And you know middle schoolers are the worst. Just look at Inez.”
I smother a chuckle because Inez is truly entering that piece of work phase of adolescence. It looms ahead like an oncoming train.
“Don’t talk about your niece that way,” I chide unconvincingly. “She’s actually a lot like you at that age.”
“Then you truly are in for a ride,” Lola says ruefully. “Remember the shit I put Mami through?”
When Lola entered her teens, she and Mami clashed so much, she lived with our abuela on the island for a year, then spent that summer with Bray’s mother in South Carolina. We actually joined her there because we missed being together so badly. To this day I still call Bray’s mother Grammy.
“It all worked out,” Nayeli says. “You were only gone for a year, and Inez isn’t that bad, is she?”
“Not yet,” I sigh. “She’s such a daddy’s girl. I hope this doesn’t traumatize her too badly. She hasn’t come out of her room all day.”
“I’ll drive down soon,” Lola says.
“I wish I was closer,” Nayeli adds. “Don’t get me wrong. We love LA, but I hate being this far away. Plus I’ve been fruitful and multiplied so much, I may not get to leave the state until this one is four years old.”
We all laugh, and I’m glad I called them. I needed this. Even though they aren’t physically here, that safety net of love and acceptance we made for each other as girls, it still holds. It still catches me.
“I’m gonna go. We need food,” I tell them. “Let me finish my Instacart order. I’m not leaving this house today. All of Skyland is buzzing about Edward, and I don’t want the stares or the questions at the checkout line.”