Chapter 2 - The Lock on the Outside
Julian didn't look at his mother as she tried to sidestep him in the narrow doorway. He reached out, his hand wrapping around Doña Carmen’s wrist with a grip so firm that she winced.
"Let go of me, Julian! Have you lost your mind?" Doña Carmen hissed, trying to pull away. "I raised you! I wiped your nose! And now you put your hands on me for this... this stranger?"
"She is my wife," Julian said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "And you are not leaving this apartment until you explain what Mariana just said."
Mariana pulled herself up slightly against the headboard, wincing as a spasm of pain shot through her legs. She pointed a trembling finger toward the heavy wooden door of the bedroom.
"Look at the frame, Julian," Mariana whispered, tears streaming freely down her face now. "Look at the outside of the door."
Julian’s eyes darted past his mother to the hallway side of the bedroom door. For the first time, really looking at it with a clear, unblinded mind, he saw something that had been hidden in plain sight.
Two small, heavy-duty metal brackets had been screwed into the outside frame of the door, and a sliding metal latch hung loosely from one of them.
Julian’s breath caught in his throat. He let go of his mother’s wrist and stepped out into the hallway. He touched the metal brackets. They were brand new, screwed in with fresh screws. He looked down at the floor and remembered the heavy metal padlock he had found sitting on the kitchen counter two weeks ago—a padlock Doña Carmen had claimed she bought "for the basement storage cage."
"You locked her in," Julian said, the words tasting like ash in his mouth. He turned around, staring at his mother with eyes that felt hollowed out. "You locked my pregnant wife inside her own bedroom while I was at work."
"It was for her own good!" Doña Carmen shrieked, finally dropping the mask of absolute innocence as she realized the trap had closed around her. She threw her hands up in the air, glaring venomously at Mariana. "Look at her! Look at how stubborn she is! She wanted to leave! She kept threatening to pack her bags and take my grandchild away to live with her useless brother in Puebla! I couldn't let her destroy our family! If she stayed in bed, she couldn't run away!"
"She couldn't leave because her legs were paralyzed from a blood clot!" Julian roared, the anger finally breaking through his shock, shaking the walls of the small apartment. "She told you it hurt! She begged you to help her call a doctor!"
"Doctors are expensive!" Doña Carmen yelled back, her voice matching his in volume and venom. "And she was exaggerating! Every pregnant woman hurts! I gave her herbal teas every morning to calm her nerves and keep her compliant. It was traditional medicine! It’s what my mother gave me!"
"Herbal teas?" Mariana sobbed from the bed. "It wasn't tea, Julian... it was something bitter. Every time she came over while you were at work, she forced me to drink it. She told me that if I spat it out, or if I told you about the pain, she would make sure you threw me out on the street with nothing. She said you would believe your mother over an ungrateful immigrant any day."
Julian stared at his mother, feeling as though he was looking at a complete stranger—a monster wearing the face of the woman who had raised him.
"Get out," Julian whispered.
"Julian, son—"
"I said, GET OUT!" Julian bellowed, pointing a shaking finger toward the front door. "If you don't walk out of this apartment right now, I swear to God I will call the police and tell them everything you just admitted to."
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Doña Carmen glared at him, her eyes burning with pure hatred. She spat on the floor near his feet. "You’ll regret this, Julian. You’re choosing a nobody over your own blood. When she loses that baby—and she will—remember that you did this."
With a violent slam of the front door, Doña Carmen was gone.
