PROMISE ME (OSCAR DIAZ x OC)

Chapter Fifty-Six (both)

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

Oscar

"Where you going?" My wife is currently gathering her purse and keys as trying to scurry past me. "Hello? I'm talking to you?"

Breathlessly, she looks up at me. "Something's going on with my parents and I... Oscar, Abuelita is sick and dying and Mario only told me basically as a way to rub it in my face that he knew and I didn't. Apparently everyone in my family is walking on eggshells refusing to upset me because I'm pregnant."

My heart stops in my chest momentarily. Hearing that the woman that has loved and accepted me as part of the family since the first day is dying is a punch to the gut and stab to the heart. What makes it worse is that my beautiful wife... She was kept out of the loop simply because she's pregnant and they didn't want to upset her?

"Would they have preferred to just spring it on you that she died and feel your wrath in that moment?" I reach for her hand and feel her slip her fingers between mine. "I'm not going to stop you from unleashing on them."

This has been a long time coming. From how they treated Ruby to how they treated and still treat Vero. The only one who doesn't shut Vero out is Mario and obviously all of us here. Except Cesar. Cesar has his own reasons that he refuses to share with any of us. If I know him as well as I think I do, then it's because he is placing blame.

"You're not?" She questions with tears in her eyes.

I shake my head. "I'll stay home with Mia... You need to go handle that. Call me if you need me but I know you, mi amor. You won't need me. You got this."

She hugs onto me for the first time in a long time. We haven't been okay and I won't pretend that we are. Everything has been nothing short of a mess but I know it's because everyone has somehow shown their true colors to her in some way, shape, or form. For me to have done what I did to her was just a slap to her face and something she didn't expect.

For the first time in what feels like forever I brush her hair away from her face with my fingertips. Gently grazing against her soft skin as she peers up at me. "I love you, mi amor. You know that... Right? Promise me that you know that."

A smile tugs onto Alana's lips as her eyes are wet with tears. "I promise."

As she leaves the house, Cesar emerges from his room and shakes his head at me. He hasn't been happy with me either simply because Alana's upset with me and those two have their own thing, their own special bond and that's something I can't begin to even decode.

That's something special about Alana though. Is that every person she comes into contact with, she creates a bond with them. No two bonds are the same either. Although the once perfect bond she had with Mario has never been the same since he broke that promise to her years ago. Telling Amber about she and I's secret relationship and her blurting it out.. Alana never got over that and I fear that her relationship with her older brother will never return to the state it once was.

"What are you shaking your head at me for?" The fridge door is in my hand as I reach inside for a beer after a long day. I offer one to Cesar and he declines. "You shouldn't be picking sides, mano."

Cesar sits down at the kitchen island and clicks his tongue while anger is in his eyes. "I told you that you had everything to lose and Jose and I have nothing to lose. You kept your affiliation but there was no need to dive back and be all in."

"You're still mad about that?"

"Mr. Galindo helped you, Oscar. He got you out of this life-the life that took my best fucking friend in the entire world! How fucking dare you come back into this shit! Do you want to leave your kids behind? Your soon to be wife? ME?"

I pause for a moment to gather my thoughts as he hits me with such a hypocritical thing to say. "You say that you have nothing to lose, Cesar, and I think that's really fucked up. Because just like myself you have everything to lose. You have Ray, you have Mia who looks up to you so much and calls you her brother. Not her uncle. Her brother. You have Alana who would be in worse shape losing you than she was losing Ruby. You diving back into the gang shit? That's breaking the promise she made to protect you. And you know what... I can't lose you, mano. You've been my favorite person since the day you were born."

Cesar is rendered silent by that. Blinking at me as I raise the beer bottle to my lips and take a long sip. Draining nearly half the bottle in one swallow. Running the back of my hand over my lips and he hasn't moved at all. Hasn't done anything but blink at what I'd said.

"Don't tell me how my relationship should work, Cesar. You need to stay in your fucking lane."

"Understood." He goes toward the door with keys in hand.

"Where the hell are you going?"

"To Jasmine's." He slams the door on his way out and Mia comes in from the living room, her plush bunny wrapped in her arms as she looks up at me.

I pick her up and she rests her head against my shoulder. "It's me and you, mija. You want to watch a princess movie?"

She nods but keeps her head against me. I sit us down on the couch and put a movie on, wrapping a blanket over us and for the rest of the evening it's time for me to unwind with my little girl. Cesar is right... I have too much to lose. I want to do this all my life. Freeze time and all just to never miss a moment like this ever again.

-

Alana

Mami left the door unlocked, which is strange but when I got inside and found her packing up boxes I understood why. She's not only cleaning out her stuff but she's also cleaning out Papi's stuff.

"Hola, mija." Mami says to me while she's chucking framed photos into a box. I look closer to see it's two boxes actually. One says Ruben and the other says Geny. I guess she's deciding who gets what.

"Hi, Mami." I walk over and pick up a frame photo from the Ruben box. It's their wedding photo. "Papi is taking these I'm guessing?"

She blinks at me. "Or he can trash them. Up to him." She moves her box which is filled with photos of all of us... But only one of Ruby. "Put the box with your father's name on it on the front porch. He can pick the shit up when he wants."

"Are you two getting a divorce?" I ask plainly. There's no point in dancing around the subject.

She nods. "I can't do it anymore, Alana. I can't lie to him or even lie to myself. It's been a long time coming."

"But why? Is it because of what happened to Ruby? Or because Abuelita has cancer? Don't look at me like that. Mario told me because he wanted to make me feel horrible for not knowing."

"It goes deeper than all of that." She says softly. "Luisa wants to live with me. Luis wants to stay with your father. Your father and I both agreed to sell the house once the divorce is final."

"So that's it? Your splitting kids down the middle and selling the house and for what? Where are you going to go? What the hell caused all of this?"

Mami pointed for me to sit down at the table so I did. She sat across from me and handed me a stack of letters. I know that stamp and I know that address. For a moment I thought she found the letters that Oscar had written to me when he was locked up but turns out... They're from Ray. I know Ray has always been in love with my mother. His first time meeting me he wouldn't shut up about how amazing my mother is and how he always thought about her.

I look at the dates written at the top of each letter and realize he'd been writing to her during his entire lock up... It was never anything disrespectful. Always asking if she's okay, if the kids are doing well in school, and even how my father was. He would tell her about card games he played with other inmates and the different snacks he made with commissary foods.

It wasn't until a few years ago that one of the letters was him asking if she truly meant what she wrote in her previous letter. If she had always loved him the way he loves her. He wanted her to swear on it, to promise to him that it wasn't make believe. He said my Abuelo's famous words. "Promises are forever." And my heart clenched in my chest.