Easter's Lilly Page 25

Hector was right. As time went by, things got easier. Diego was not nearly as demanding as he used to be and I could feel Max’s baby growing inside of me. Hector wouldn’t allow me contact with Max and Diego became very comfortable with my relationship with Hector. One night Diego was working late and I snuck over to Hector’s room and knocked on the door. He opened the door and looked at me. “Is everything all right, Lilly?”

  “Would you hold me?” I asked.

  “Lilly,” he took my hands, “I can’t have that kind of relationship with you.” He was serious.

  “You idiot!” I shouted. “I just want to be here when Max calls.”

  “You’re becoming way too much like him,” he added. “I thought you were coming on to me.” He smiled. “I think I’m disappointed.”

  “Shut up and let me in,” I demanded.

  “Hell no!” he answered. “If I get caught with you in my bedroom, I am such a dead man!”

  “Diego’s still out. Let me stay, please…”

  He stepped outside the door and looked around. “Fine,” he agreed, “come in. Let me get a shirt on.”

  I went inside and said, “Please put a shirt on, I can’t control myself.”

  He laughed. “I wouldn’t want you to start feeling me up again.”

  “I’m going to hurt you,” I replied, still obviously amusing him.

  “Oh, so much like Max,” he said, and the phone rang.

  “Hey, what’s up?” he asked. My heart started pounding excessively. I could feel my face flush as I waited to speak with him.

  “Before you say anything,” he told him, “Lilly is here waiting to talk to you.” He laughed. “No man, that’s gross,” he blurted.

  “Would you stop calling me that!” I shouted.

  “She just came to my room to talk to you. I swear she’s not in my bed.” I grabbed the phone from him.

  “Daddy, I miss you,” I whispered. His voice was like honey dripping down the phone lines.

  “Baby girl,” he answered. “What are you doing in Hector’s room?”

  “Waiting for your phone call,” I replied. “Seriously Max, you’re not jealous?”

  “Should I be?” he asked.

  “I just needed to hear your voice.” I paused. “Do you still love me?”

  “Madly and completely,” he answered. I felt relief run through my body. “I love you so much.” I started to cry.

  “I’ll be back to get you on Easter.” I think he was trying to calm me. “I want there to be one good Easter in your life.” I got a bad feeling when he said that. Everything bad happens on Easter Sunday.

  “That’s two days from now,” I added. “You’ll be home in two days?”

  “Two days, baby girl.” He paused. “Hang on for me, okay?”

  “I can’t wait to see you,” I told him.

  “Me either. Stay strong for me querida, and get out of Hector’s room.” I smiled and handed the phone back to Hector.

  “Now that’s a smile I haven’t seen for a while,” he said to Max. Then a call on the radio came into Hector. “Diego’s home, get out of my bedroom before he finds you here.” Hector grabbed me and pushed me out the door. I kissed his cheek and ran back to my bedroom. I couldn’t believe I got to hear his voice. Two more days.

  When that day came, I woke up full of joy. I looked into the mirror and looked at my little tummy. I wasn’t showing much, but I could tell that my jeans were getting tight. I was four months pregnant now, but if Diego makes me get a test, I will have to tell him three. I came down the stairs to find Jorge, Hector, Elena and Diego all in the kitchen. I knew this wasn’t good. “What are you all doing here?” I asked.

  Diego handed me a pregnancy test. “Take it, Lilly.”

  “You invited your family here to watch me pee on a stick?” I asked.

  “Just take it. Even though we won’t know for sure who the father is.” He put his hands over his face for a minute. Elena hugged him from behind and shot me an angry glare. “I need to know for sure that you’re pregnant. Then it’s really over for the two of you.”

  He gave me the test and I looked at Hector for some kind of confirmation. He winked at me and gave me a reassuring nod. He and I both already knew I was pregnant. I went into the bathroom and took the test, came outside and handed it to Diego. He put it on top of a napkin on the counter and set a timer. Hector’s expression was grave. “Where’s Max?” I asked. No one said a word. I sat down on an empty chair next to Hector. He squeezed my hand under the table. The timer rang and Jorge went over to the test and smiled. “Congratulations, my brother!” He hugged Diego and Hector kissed me on the cheek. Then I got that bad feeling again.

  “We have to tell her,” Hector sighed.

  “Tell me what?” I asked. “Oh no, MAX!” I screamed.

  “He’s not dead!” Hector said quickly. “But it’s bad, Lilly.”

  “Is this some kind of joke?” I asked. “Easter Sunday and something happens to Max?”

  “He was shot in Mexico,” Diego started. “I’m having him flown out here for surgery.” He shot a look at Jorge that was not friendly.

  “Shot?” I screamed. “Who shot him? Where was he shot?” I started to feel off balance and Diego got up and grabbed me.

  “Three times,” Hector said. “I think it was a hit. He was shot in the stomach and once in the chest.”

  “Please Diego, please…” I was crying and begging. “Let me see him.”

  “You’re mine now, Lilly.” He was very sobering. “You are pregnant with my baby, so I will make a few allowances.” He picked up my chin as he often did when he was trying to make a point. “Even if Max is the biological father…” He looked at Jorge, who nodded at him. “This is my baby. Do you understand? And that is what you will tell Max.”

  “Yes sir.” I didn’t care. I just wanted to see Maxwell.

  “I will look the other way and you do whatever you have to do to get him to fight, do you understand? Whatever you have to do.”

  “Yes sir,” I answered again.

  “But when he lives through this,” he paused, “and damn it, he will live through this, you have to end it with him. Are we clear?”

  “Yes Diego. Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do.”

  “You are weak,” Jorge said. “You should have let him die.”

  “I keep my word, “he replied. “I made him a promise.”

  I remembered that day when the promise was made. Max saved Diego’s life and Diego said if anything ever happened to Max he would do the same. They had the strangest relationship. But I was simply grateful that he was going to save him. We got into the limo and headed for the hospital. “Where’s Olivia?” I asked.

  “She’s riding in the plane with Max,” Diego answered. “She didn’t want him to be alone. She was right there when he was shot.”

  “Strange how she walked away without a scratch,” Hector responded. “How did anyone get passed your guards, Jorge? Your house is like Fort Knox.”

  “I guess every now and then, someone slips by,” he answered. Hector and Diego shot each other looks of disbelief.

  By the time we got to the hospital, no one was speaking to Jorge at all. I think they blamed him for it somehow. We rushed inside and the nurse told us he should be here in another few minutes. “He’s still conscious,” she told us. “Apparently he still has his sense of humor and is asking for someone named Lilly. Is that you?” she asked me.

  “Yes,” I gasped. “He’s still making jokes?” I asked.

  “He’s in good spirits,” she continued.

  “He’s happy because he’s coming back here,” Diego explained. “Remember our deal.”

  “Yes sir,” I answered. “I will do as you ask. Thank you.”

  The paramedics came pushing him in on a gurney and Olivia came running in behind him. Diego and I got up and ran to him. “Max, it’s us, we’re here,” Diego told him. He reached his hand out and put in on my belly. Then he grabbed my hand. Diego did not like that. H
e had an oxygen mask on and looked pale and weak.

  “Lilly?” he said under his mask. I pulled the mask away for a minute and leaned over to kiss him when I remembered that Diego was standing next to me. Diego caught my eyes and turned his head away from us. I kissed Max on the lips and he kissed me back. I put the mask back on him. “I love you, daddy.”

  He lifted up his mask and said; “You know what that does to me, when you call me that.”

  “If you wanted to come back, all you had to do was say so,” I replied. He smiled at me and squeezed my hand. “Diego had you flown here from Mexico,” I added.

  “Gracias, mi hermano,” he said to Diego.

  “You’d do the same for me,” he answered.

  “I’ll be here when you wake up,” I told him. Then he said something to me in Spanish that I did not understand. “Are you his wife?” the nurse asked.

  “Yes,” I blurted. What was I thinking?

  “Sister-in-law,” Diego said to her. “It’s all right, they’re close.”

  “We have to take him now,” she said.

  I squeezed his hand and let it go. He kept talking in Spanish. He was obviously woozy from something they gave him. “What did he say?” I asked Diego, hoping he would tell me the truth.

  He sighed, took my hands and brought them to his face. “Lovely one, I live for you and you alone.” He looked very sad. “That’s what he said.”

  Chapter 16

  “I don’t know Lilly, would it have made a difference?”