Chapter 65

GABRIELA

I had no idea what to do, honestly, Ana is crying next to me and I want to hug her so she wouldn't see this, it's not something a six-year-old girl should see, and on the other hand Jack is bleeding, so the first impulse that came to mind was to put my hands around the knife to prevent it from bleeding so much.

I had to call for help, but there was no one around, and I didn't want to send Ana to go get help, so I ended up forgetting the idea of calling the emergency services.

"Ana, listen to me, take the cell phone in the back pocket of my pants and dial the numbers 911." She's shaking, but she did what I asked. It didn't take them long to answer and when I explained what was happening, they told me what I had to do, and an ambulance would be here in a short time. I didn't pass much time until the paramedics arrived, but unfortunately, it was too late to save his life. He had died in my hands, in front of Ana.

I took Ana in my arms who's still crying, and right now I'm lost. I honestly don't understand anything that had just happened, everything happened too fast, but I focused on making Ana stop crying, it's the only thing that mattered to me now.

"Ma'am are you ok?" asked the paramedic and I nodded. "May I heal your arm?" He asked softly. "There's nothing wrong with my arm." I assured. The only thing I cared about is reassuring Ana. "You have a cut on it, let me heal it." He asked, "Well, do it."

"You must put the girl down." He responded, making Ana look up at mine. "I don't want to separate from you, mommy. "I don't want Monica to come back." She said and I denied "She won't, don't worry, and I'm not going to separate from you, don't worry."

"Ma'am, I need your arm to not be tense." He asked, "Well, I'm not going to leave Ana on the ground, so find another way." I responded, "Ok, sit on the couch and have your daughter sit on your lap." I went to the couch and did as he told me. It didn't take long for the apartment to fill up with police officers who couldn't stop asking questions, but I'm confused on what had just happened here. All I wanted is to go home and for Ana to rest for a while at least.

Luckily for us, the police officer was nice and let us go home to rest, so we could go testify in a couple of days. He himself offered to take us home, since I have no way of getting there right now, but before leaving I took the papers Jack had given me, since he told me I had to take care of them, not that it was important at this moment, but maybe they asked me for them later. On the way I called Carlos and Marcos to come to my house, I had to tell them before they found out on the news or something.

When I got home you can see Carlos's car and mine, so I assumed they were already home. Before entering the house, I said goodbye to the agent who told me to call him for whatever I needed, and we entered the house.

Everyone was smiling until they saw us, their faces changed to one of horror. "Gabriela, what happened to you? Where does so much blood come from? You're hurt?" They all asked, and it was at that moment I looked at my clothes. I was stained with blood everywhere, and much of it wasn't mine, but Jack's, I imagine that Ana is also stained with her father's blood, so before answering all their questions I headed upstairs to bathe Ana and then take a shower.

"Can you tell us what happened to you?" Mom asked and I denied, "I'll explain it to you later, first I'm going to bath Ana and take a shower." I responded "But…" she started, but I denied "But nothing, we'll talk later." I went up the stairs and into the room with Ana in my arms. I grabbed some clothes for me and her since the last time she came to my house she had gotten stains playing with the paint and I called Marcos to bring her some clothes so she could change, while the other one was washed.

Ana had not spoken since she saw her mother stab her father, and that wasn't normal for her, that she had not spoken for so long, although I'm more than sure she's traumatized by what she saw.

It took us about two hours to bath, well, it took me about half an hour, the rest of the time was with Ana since I tried to convince her to go downstairs with the others, but she didn't want to, she started crying so I ended up giving in to stayed in the bathroom.

When I finished dressing, I was going to go downstairs, but I saw Ana was falling asleep, so I went to the room to let her sleep for a while. We had been there for about an hour and a bit when I decided it's better to tell Marcos and Carlos about their father, and even though I had promised Jack I wouldn't tell anything about their mother, I would have to tell them. I sent a message for the brothers to come to the room, I didn't want to separate myself from Ana in case she needed something.

It didn't take them long to arrive and as soon as they entered the room they closed the door. They looked at me for a while with worried faces, sat down in the armchairs there and turned their attention to me.

I had no idea how to tell them everything what happened, if it's already complicated, seeing everything that happened is even more complicated because I didn't want to go into details so they wouldn't suffer so much.

"Gabriela, are you going to explain to us what happened that made you come home covered in blood all over your clothes?" Marcos asked. "It's complicated." I answered honestly, "I don't think it's that big of a deal. We're all worried. Where did it come from? And what were you doing with Ana if today you didn't have to pick her up until four o'clock?"

"Guys, what I'm going to tell you is complicated, but you have to know it." I said, "You're worrying me more and more Gabriela, and you are too pale. What's going on? What do you want to talk to us about?" Carlos asked this time "About your parents."

"I don't want to talk about them Gabriela, it's not worth it." Carlos protested, "Yes, it's worth it because they had their reasons for leaving you." I informed them "I'm sorry Gabriela, but I'm with Carlos, that has no explanation."

"Yes, it does, and apparently your mother had mental health problems and your father left because she stopped taking the medications that helped her be well. They left to protect you." I assured "That doesn't make sense, mom was always fine." Marcos murmured, confused. "That's what I thought, but that's what your father told me."

"Did you talk to our father?" They both asked, surprised. "Yes, he called me to meet him." I responded, "Ok, he called you, but that doesn't explain why you came home covered in blood." Carlos said, "It was your father's."

"What are you taking about?" Marcos asked, straightening up in the chair. "The blood we had was your father's. Your mother went crazy telling me she's not going to allow me to take away the love of her remaining daughter and she grabbed a knife to stab me, and your father stood in front of me to prevent her from stabbing me…"

Just at that moment Ana wakes up screaming and the first thing she does is hug me. I start to put my hand on her back to try to get her to relax a little, and as soon as I notice she relaxed at least a little, I look at her brothers' faces, who I imagine are trying to understand the situation.

"So Dad is… dead?" I didn't feel right saying he's dead, because I couldn't believe it, so I just nodded. Carlos hadn't said anything, he looked at us with a face of not understanding anything, and then he turned into one of horror.

"Did Ana see how it happened?" her older brother asked and I just nodded again, it's as if everything that happened was starting to fit together in my head and it's playing non-stop, maybe if I had left when Jack told me, everything would be fine and Ana wouldn't have seen what he must have seen. It's all my fault, at this moment I felt like a shitty person, the worst there could be in this world.

"Gabriela, are you Ok?" Carlos asked, "Shit Carlos, did I just tell you what happened and the only thing you care about is what happens to me?" I said annoyed, "You're getting paler if that's possible."

"What happens to me is the least of it, what you should worry about now is your family, not me," I assured. "You are part of our family, Gabriela. Are you never going to understand it?" Marcos responded annoyed, "Marcos relax, this is not easy for any of us."

"I DON'T CARE IF IT'S NOT EASY FOR ANY OF US. IT SEEMS THAT GABRIELA DOESN'T UNDERSTAND SHE'S PART OF OUR FAMILY." Marcos shouted and Carlos quickly got up to stand in front of him "Marcos, stop it." He insisted "I'M NOT PLANNING TO STOP."

"Go out and get some fresh air." his brother ordered, "IT'S NOT ME WHO HAS TO GET SOME FRESH AIR, BUT HER, TO SEE IF THIS GIVEN HER IDEAS WILL CLARIFY." He shouted again, "Marcos, go out for some air." This time he asked, "Of course I'll go out, but I can't understand how you're so calm after she told you Dad is dead. I JUST CAN'T UNDERSTAND IT."

With that, Marcos walked out, slamming the door and leaving Carlos, Ana and me alone. Ana had started crying again and didn't stop until she fell asleep again. This time I decided it's best to leave her on my lap since I didn't want her to wake up from moving her a little. We were silent for a long time until Carlos looked back at his sister and me.

"Excuse him, you know he was the closest to dad." Carlos said with sadness flooding his voice. "I know, you should go with him to see how he is." I asked "I'll go in a while; he has to relax. But you know, I can't believe what my mother has done, much less can I understand how they hadn't told us anything about what she had."

"I didn't understand it either when he told me." I said sincerely, "Can I ask you a question." He said and I nodded. "Why did he call you instead of me or Marcos?" He asked and I shrugged my shoulders because I had no idea why he had done it. "He told me he had to talk to me about something important and give me some papers you had to take care of."

"What papers are you talking about?" I started looking for the papers and couldn't find them until I remembered they were in the pocket of my jacket and left it in the bathroom. "Can you go get them? They're in my jacket pocket in the bathroom." I said.

Carlos got up and left and a few seconds later he came back reading the papers and with a frown, he sat down, and probably read them again. "Are you my sister's legal guardian?" He asks "That's what he told me, but I don't have the right to go over you and your brother, the guardian should be you or Marcos. I hope you don't mind, but I just got there, and he told me I'm your sister's legal guardian."

"It doesn't bother me, I can understand why he did it, Ana won't be better taken care of by either of us, with my work I'll have to travel, and I don't think Marcos is prepared to assume that responsibility." He said, "But I can't get over you Carlos."

"You don't, for her, you're her mother, what does it matter? If you don't mind having to take care of my sister and be her legal guardian, it won't matter to me and Marcos. If you don't want to be, you just have to say so and I will take care of it." He said sincerely, "It's not that I don't want to, just I don't know, it all happened suddenly."

"I know, but are you sure you don't mind being my sister's legal guardian?" Carlos asked and I denied "I have no problem, but shit Carlos, she shouldn't have seen that." I protested. "No, she shouldn't have, but neither should you."

"That's the least. The only thing that matters to me in this moment is that your sister is well." I assured, "You too…" he began, but I denied, I didn't want to continue talking about myself, at this moment it wasn't important how I felt, I had to hold on for Ana, Marcos and Carlos were the most important thing now and not how I feel.

"Go to Marcos, be with him and try to make him feel better if you can." I asked, "I'll try." But are you sure you're ok?" He asked, "Yes, stop worrying so much and go to Marcos." He looked at me one last time and left. For my part, I stayed sitting in bed and moving as little as possible to prevent Ana from waking up. I try not to think about what had happened a few hours ago, because I would go crazy trying to find a way to avoided that, the first would be by leaving the moment Jack told me. At that moment my grandmother came into the room, she was worried.

"Gabriela, is it true?" Grandma asked, "What?" I questioned even though I assumed what she asked, "I heard you talking to the boys, is it true about Jack?" She asked again, "Yes, grandma, unfortunately it is true." I said sighing "And did you see it?" I asked, "Grandma, that doesn't matter, but if it helps, yes, I saw it."

"How are you, my girl?" He asked, "Stop asking me how I am, I'm fine, I have to be fine." I said, annoyed they keep asking me. "You don't have to be, that's something you shouldn't keep inside."

"Yes, I must be well, for Ana and for the guys. Besides, I don't want to talk about it, ok?" I asked, "You have to support them, not be ok for them." She assured and I denied, "Of course I have to be fine, and really, I want to be alone and not talk about it anymore."

"Gabriela, you're paler than normal." Grandma pointed out, "I'm fine, stop worrying grandma." I said more abruptly than I intended, "It's impossible for me not to worry, I'm your grandmother and that's what we do." reported "Well in this case you shouldn't do it, I'm fine, really. I don't want to be rude, but I really want to be alone. You can tell others what happened, I don't want to tell it again."

"Ok, if you need anything, let us know, ok?" She asked, "I don't need anything, really, but I will do it if it makes you feel better." I assured even though I had no intention of doing so. "Do you want me to call Alex?"

"I don't want you to call Alex, he's busy." I said even though I'm completely sure he would stop whatever he's doing and come over. "Ok, but what I told you, if you need anything, don't hesitate to call us."

"Yes, grandma." With that, Ana and I were left alone again, which I'm grateful for, because it was true that I needed to be alone, I want to think calmly even though this would torment me for a long time, not to say it would do so all my life, but the only thing I had to worry about is Ana's well-being, that's the only thing I'm going to care about from now on, I would do whatever is necessary for Ana to be the same girl again.