“So what?” The anger I thought I had under control began to boil in my chest. “Now that you’re sick, you remember you have daughters?”
—Daughters. Yes, the three of you. I’ve been looking for you.
“Looking for us?” I laughed bitterly. “We’ve lived in the same city our whole lives. My mother never changed her address just in case you…” I stopped. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing how long we’d waited for him.
—Your mother never wanted me to meet them.
“Lies!” The word came out as a shout. “Mom waited for you for years. YEARS. She cried every Father’s Day wondering why you didn’t come to see us. I was seven years old when I stopped asking about you.”
The old man lowered his gaze. I could see the age spots on his forehead, the wrinkled skin of someone who had lived longer than he deserved.
ADVERTISEMENTI was lost, Carmen. I had a drinking problem, I didn’t have a stable job…
“Excuses.” I crossed my arms. “What do you want from me now?”
“I need help. The doctors say I only have a few months. I don’t have money for treatments, or for a decent place to live. I thought maybe you, my daughters…”
Disbelief hit me like a slap in the face.
—Seriously? You come here after thirty-five years to ask me for money?
—It’s child support. I have a right to it…
“RIGHT?” My voice cracked with fury and sadness. “Do you have a right? Where was your right when we needed shoes for school? When Mom was working double shifts to pay for our university? When Lucia got sick and we had to sell everything to pay for the hospital?”I didn’t know…
“You didn’t know because you didn’t want to know!” Tears began to stream down my cheeks. “Do you know what I did at my wedding? I asked my uncle to walk me down the aisle because my father, MY REAL FATHER, wasn’t there. Do you know how I felt when my daughter was born and she didn’t have a paternal grandfather to meet her?”
The man swayed slightly. For a moment I thought he was going to faint.
—Carmen, please…
“No.” I wiped my tears with the back of my hand. “Don’t call me that. You have no right to call me by my name. I’m a stranger to you, just like you are to me.”
—But I need…
