I felt a buzz in my ears.
-No.
“Yes, Ephraim.
-No.
You are that son.
Everything inside me shattered.
I laughed, but not laughing: I laughed at horror.
“You’re sick.
“At first I didn’t recognize you,” he suddenly let go, as if trying to catch me unprepared before it exploded. When I met you at home, I only saw a good, smart, noble young man… and I walked up to him. Then I started to look at the dates, the stories, the gestures. I got someone to investigate. Eight months ago, I discovered the truth.
I looked at her like you look at someone who just set your life on fire.
“Eight months ago?” And you still married me?
Celia lowered her head.
I tried to keep you away.
It’s not enough!
“No,” he admitted, with a broken voice. It’s not enough.
I hated her for saying so sincerely, because she took away the comfort that produced me simply calling her a monster.
“What about bodyguards?”
They are for Octavio. He’s still alive. And if you find out who you are, he can use you.
That phrase hit me deeply.
Not only had I let myself fall in love, but also, without saying a word, I had gotten fully into a war that I had been waiting for twenty years.
“What about my mother?” I asked with my throat tied. The woman who raised me?
Celia took a deep breath.
She knew it.
That answer left me speechless.
-No.
“Yes. Her name is Rosaura. I entrusted your life to her one morning. He was the only decent person I had around at the time. He raised you to save you.
I couldn’t stand it anymore.
I grabbed my jacket, left the keys, the envelope, I left everything. I left the room as if the walls were pushing me back. I walked for hours until I ended up sitting at a gas station, still in my suit, watching the trucks pass and wondering how many times a man can steal in a single night.
I came home at dawn.
My mother was in the yard, feeding them corn to the chickens. When he saw me enter with his tie loose, his face disheveled and his eyes exorbitant, he dropped the can on his hands.
“Ephraim…
“Tell me the truth,” I suddenly let go.
My father came out of the kitchen and, seeing us, understood everything without words.
My mother paled. He took a hand to his chest. And with a voice that I did not recognize, he said,
“If Celia has already spoken… then get ready, because you don’t know the worst yet.
PART 3
My mother sat down because she couldn’t stand anymore.
