Delia's Gift (Delia 3)

However, I really had been there to meet with my boyfriend, Ignacio, with whom I had fled across the desert after he and his friends had gone after Bradley Whitfield. Sophia’s rich boyfriend had taken sexual advantage of me when I accepted a ride from him on my way back from where the bus stopped on my return from school. I was attending public school then. Bradley took me to see a house he and his father were restoring, and there he performed what other girls called a date rape.

Later, while crashing a party for Ignacio’s sister at his home, Sophia and her friends deliberately stirred up Ignacio and his friends. Sophia told them Bradley was in that same house with another girl he was seducing. They left the party and went looking for him, and when one of Ignacio’s friends threw Bradley through a window, he was cut badly and bled to death before any help arrived.

Ignacio had faked his own death in the desert to throw off the police pursuit, and I had kept the secret, dreaming of us being reunited, even when I was seeing Adan Bovio. I was sure this had angered Fani. She loved being a matchmaker, and I had never revealed my secret correspondence with Ignacio and his existence to her. I thought she was more annoyed about that than anything.

My cousin Sophia had found out about my planned rendezvous with Ignacio in Mexico and secretly had alerted the police, not even warning her own brother. Ignacio was arrested moments after we had met in the village. Despite my emphatic denials, he thought I had been the one to arrange his apprehension in return for some generous reward that would enable me to continue living the rich, high life in America. Afterward, he wouldn’t respond to any of the letters I had sent to him in prison.

All of us almost went to prison. Tía Isabela had to get political help from Señor Bovio and some of her own powerful friends to intercede for Edward, Jesse, and me so we could return and not be prosecuted for aiding and abetting a criminal. But in saving us, she had demanded that Edward have nothing more to do with me. She was always jealous of our relationship. Earlier, she had forced me to spy on Edward to confirm that he and Jesse were lovers. It had almost destroyed my relationship with Edward until he discovered what she had done.

Mi tía Isabela had continually threatened to have the authorities prosecute me and his companion, Jesse Butler, if Edward disobeyed. He and Jesse had been very upset with me for not having told them the truth, but Edward could never hold a grudge against me. He had simply wanted to protect me and Jesse, so he obeyed his mother. We hadn’t spoken since the day he left to return to college.

I had been returned immediately to a servant’s existence in mi tía Isabela’s hacienda and had been sent back to public school instead of the private school. Sophia had soaked up the pleasure of lording things over me again. I had plodded along, just counting the days until my eighteenth birthday, but Adan Bovio had come around to ask me on a date. Once Adan had learned about Ignacio and my involvement, I thought he would not want to see me anymore. His father was running for U.S. senator, and I imagined he was not happy about his son being involved with me.

Of course, I had been surprised and reluctant when he appeared. I had been embarrassed about not telling him the truth about my relationship with Ignacio. However, I couldn’t drive him away. Adan had been so sincere and loving, and my aunt had pressured me, telling me this was my final opportunity for a decent life. I knew all she wanted was to continue climbing the social ladder herself.

Adan had invited me on his boat again. That had led to a terrible disaster when we were caught in a windstorm and he was fatally injured. I had thought my life in America was surely over, even when I realized I was pregnant with Adan’s child.

Now, after all of this, here I was in Adan’s mother’s room, listening to his father’s plans to make my pregnancy easier.

“Sí, sí, I know all about that fiasco in Mexico,” Señor Bovio said. He shuffled the air between us as if the words still lingered. “We won’t discuss it. What’s done is done. I’ll see about Fani,” he added. “Is there anyone else with whom you are friendly or have been friendly, girls at the public school, perhaps?” He raised his eyebrows. “We should be very careful about whom we invite to this house.”

“No one at the moment, señor. However, I do want to finish my schooling and get my high school diploma,” I said. “Someday I hope to go to school to be a nurse.”

“Sí, that’s a good thought. You should pursue a career. I’ll get you into a very good nursing college. A friend of mine is the president of an excellent one on the East Coast.”

“East Coast?” I smiled. “With a baby to care for, it will be some time before I am able to attend a nursing school, señor, but there are surely ones not far from here.”

“Sí, you are right. Let’s not put the cart before the horse. As you have said, you still have to get your high school diploma. I told you at the clinic that I would look into home schooling or some tutoring. Don’t worry about it. Leave it all up to me. It’s nothing for me to arrange someone qualified to come here and get the job done.”

“But really, I could attend the public school and…”

“No,” he said sharply, and then took a breath to simmer down and smile again. “That would be unnecessary and foolish under these circumstances.”

“I have only a month of school remaining, and I’m not much more than two months’ pregnant, señor.”

He shook his head. “I don’t want you mixing with so many people, people from much poorer conditions, unsanitary conditions. You know yourself how some of those schoolmates of yours in the public school live. They bring in diseases, flu, and now, with your being pregnant…well, it’s not necessary to take any of those risks. I’ll look into it for you. I’ll get you all the books you need, everything. Don’t worry. I’m very friendly with the commissioner of education. I can make these things happen. Do not think of them again.”

I saw that these, too, were words inscribed in concrete. It was futile to argue about it. Maybe he thought I would find another boyfriend at school, even while I was pregnant, and run off to live far away with my baby.

“Whatever you think best, señor.”

“Sí, good. The doctor will be here this evening after his regular duties,” he said. “He’ll check you out, and we’ll go slowly from there. In the meantime, I’ll have them prepare something for you to eat for lunch. You can make yourself comfortable. You can wear anything you find that will fit you until we get you your own new clothes. You will see that much of what is here has barely been used. As Adan used to say, my wife was a clothes junkie, and you’re not far from her size. She was about your height, and you have a similar figure. There are pictures…” He waved at some of the framed photographs. “I have many more in my office downstairs, her films, her photo shoots. You can see them later.”

He smiled and just stared at me as if I were some window through which he could look back at a happier past.

“She wasn’t much older than you are when we first met,” he said, just above a whisper.

“Gracias, señor,” I replied, bringing him out of his musing.

His smile dimmed and faded like a light slowly going out. He shook himself as if he had just felt a chill. “Sí. Let me see about the lunch. Just rest,” he told me, and started out of the suite.

“One more thing, Señor Bovio.”

He paused.

“When you came for me back at the clinic this morning, you promised you would take me to my village in Mexico so I could visit my parents’ and my grandparents’ graves.” I smiled. “You even joked about flying me in a helicopter.”

He nodded. “Sí. I’ll look into it, but first, let’s be sure the doctor thinks it’s okay.”