Page 15 of Bound By A Promise
“Do you want to feel?” Cat asked, looking at me.
“I mean, if you don’t mind.”
Cat reached for my hand. “Don’t be afraid to push. I promise I won’t break.”
It took a few seconds, but then I too had a large smile. “Oh my God. There’s a baby in there.”
Catalina laughed. “I sure hope so.” Sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, creating an aura around her as she sat near the end of a sofa. “Tell me, are you both all right?”
Mama and I took seats, me in a nearby chair and Mama next to Catalina. Over the course of the next thirty or more minutes, we both recounted what we knew and remembered of the nighttime ambush.
“Dario hasn’t said much,” Cat said, “but I heard him talking on his phone to Dante. I’m so glad he was still in California to bring the two of you here.”
“Why was he still there?” I asked.
“Camila,” Mama chastised.
“It’s a simple question. He must have planned to stay longer than you and Dario. I mean, he had a plane waiting.”
Cat shrugged. “I don’t know.”
My nose scrunched. “I thought Dario talked to you.”
“He does,” Cat replied defensively. “Dante flew into San Diego after us. In all honesty, I was too concerned that traveling wouldn’t be good for the baby to have been thinking about anyone else.”
“You just entered your third trimester,” Mama said. “You’re a healthy young woman. You shouldn’t worry. Normal activities are safe.”
A pink hue filled my sister’s cheeks as she looked down and back up, inhaling. “I’m sure Papá would have supplied you with a plane. This just worked out easier.”
“Almost too easy,” I muttered under my breath.
Mama shot a look in my direction. “Andrés didn’t mean for me to overhear, but yesterday evening, Aléjandro and Mia’s new home was ransacked.”
“What?” Cat and I asked together.
“Was Mia hurt?” Cat asked with genuine concern.
Mama shook her head. “No one was home. The break-in was why the two of them went out on the Bella.”
Catalina’s green eyes opened wide. “Mia’s on the Bella. Oh, wait until I tell Dario.”
“I didn’t know about their house,” I said, “but the Bella would be a great honeymoon if it wasn’t with Aléjandro.”
Catalina laughed before asking, “Was Rei at your house during the attack?”
Mama shook her head. “What I overheard was that Jorge wanted both the boys on the Bella.”
Boys. Aléjandro and Rei were both older than me.
I stood. “See, this is suspicious. Ifel Patr?nknew there was danger and then we were attacked…”
Cat questioned, “Could the two invasions be connected?”
Mama inhaled. “There’s a common denominator.”
“The famiglia,” Cat said, covering her pregnant belly, her expression sobering. “You could have been hurt because of me.”
“No,” Mama protested. “You did what was expected of you, just as I’m sure Mia did. The alliance isn’t the problem. The problem is other people’s opinion about the alliance.”