Delia's Gift (Delia 3)

“Jealous of me? You wouldn’t trade places for even a second if you had to live my life,” I told her.

She shrugged. “Yesterday doesn’t matter. Only tomorrow. C’mon,” she said. “Let’s do what we used to do, sip wine and talk.”

She took my hand and led me out of the bedroom to the living room. She poured me a glass of wine and sat on the sofa. There was a plate of cheese and crackers on the table.

“Okay, now tell me all of it. Ray actually threw you out?”

“Sí.”

“I didn’t understand what you were babbling about.”

“Last night, when I went to Adan Jr.’s room, I found Señor Bovio crying very hard by the crib. Mrs. Newell was there just letting him cry and cry. I thought there was something wrong with my baby, but she wouldn’t let me see him.”

“Did you ask Ray to let you see him?”

“She shut the door in my face. I was so shocked that I couldn’t speak for a few moments. Then I cried for Señor Bovio and pounded on the door. She came out and told me I would be thrown out of the house. You should have seen how evil she looked, how happy.”

Fani shrugged and sipped her wine. “She won’t be there forever.”

“It was very strange, Fani. Señor Bovio was sitting by the crib crying so hard.”

“That’s not strange, Delia. You didn’t know him and Adan that long. They were more like brothers than father and son. Sometimes I thought Ray believed Adan was literally part of his body, especially after his wife was killed. At the funeral, they were never more than an inch apart, and they held each other so long at the gravesite that people were bawling openly. I thought my chest would explode. I’ve never seen grown men that devastated. You fell into the middle of all that and were barely there long enough to…to get pregnant!”

“I thought he was in there alone, but when I started to enter, she appeared in her nightgown. I think she was upset about my discovering her there while Señor Bovio was crying so hard. It’s not right,” I said, shaking my head. “Something is very, very wrong. She’s taking advantage of your cousin’s grief. Señor Bovio’s maid Teresa told me some stories about her. There was a couple who fired her because of the way she behaved. Do you know she acts as if she’s the one who’s pregnant, following the same diet?”

“You’re getting yourself all worked up, Delia.”

“How can I not? I’m no longer there to stand in her way,” I cried, the tears coming into my eyes.

“Great,” she said, grimacing angrily. “Dwell on it night and day. You’ll get yourself sick and be utterly worthless to your son and to everyone else, including me.”

“I’m worthless to him now,” I said.

She sipped her wine. She remained angry for a moment longer and then suddenly smiled, as if she could turn her emotions on and off like a faucet.

“Okay. First, we’ll get you settled in, get you into some sort of a life so you can get yourself mentally stronger. Until you start at your own school, I’ll make you part of mine. You will go to everything I go to here. Then, when you’re stronger, you and I will pay my father a visit and ask him to look into things for you, check up on Ray and the nurse and see about your baby.”

“Really? You would go to your father?”

“Why not? He’d do anything I ask him to do, especially now.”

“Gracias, Fani.”

“De nada,” she said. “It’s great being able to speak in Spanish, too. Most of the boys we’ll meet can barely speak English. Whenever we want to talk about them in front of them, we’ll speak Spanish.”

I had to laugh. It felt good to let myself go, even for a split second or two.

“That’s better,” she said.

The phone rang.

“That’s Jake telling me I have a visitor, I bet, and we know who that could be,” she added, winking.

My heart began to thump. She picked up the phone and nodded at me.

“He’s coming right up. I’ve decided to let you two talk in private. I have to run out to do an errand, anyway,” she said. I didn’t believe her, but I did want to be alone with Edward.

We heard the door buzzer.