BIG mistake

This was not how Romero planned on breaking the news to Isabel about Charles. He didn’t even have all the facts yet. It had started out of sheer curiosity. He’d come to realize through his line of work, that there were two types of people when it came to cheating spouses. The ones who demanded to know the truth and would end things accordingly when they got it, and those who chose to look the other way, living blissfully in ignorance as long as their perfect lives remained unscathed on the surface.

He figured she was so unlike Isabel, Pat most likely preferred blissful ignorance. In that case, there was no point in trying to enlighten her with the truth. She probably already knew or at the very least suspected. But things were beginning to take an unsettling turn.

At first, he’d done this for his own personal guilty pleasure. It’d be nice to have one up on stupid Pat, knowing her life wasn’t as perfect as she liked everyone to think. The very reason why he hadn’t planned on telling Isabel. But now he wouldn’t feel right keeping what he knew to himself. He just wished he could’ve waited until he knew everything before having to tell Isabel.

He got to the apartment before she did. He was just putting his wallet and keys on the counter when the door opened behind me.

“Okay, just tell me. Why were you at the mall? Why did you lie to me?”

Romero turned and walked to her, surprised that she looked ready to cry. “Babe, relax. I wasn’t there to see Cici. I know that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Then why were you there?”

He took her by the hand and led her to the sofa in the front room. “I was there to see a friend who works security at the mall.”

He backed up and told her about seeing Charles with another woman at the birthday party, then about the bank accounts. “My friend at the mall and I go way back to when we were both working bouncer gigs at clubs. He’s now head of security at the mall. But he does some stuff on the side.” He hesitated to tell her the next part because he knew her family must’ve fed plenty of shit to her about the kind of person he must be. “He used to hack into computers back in the day, and though he doesn’t do it so much anymore, I can still count on him to do things for me here and there.” Isabel stared at him, her eyes wide, but at least she didn’t look upset anymore—not at him anyway.

“If I’m right, Charles is having an affair, babe. It’s with a woman in Miami. And he’s been embezzling money from your dad’s campaign and transferring it to her account.”

Both of Isabel’s hands were over her mouth now. “You know this for sure?”

“I know for sure he’s been taking money from the campaign account and putting it into hers. And I know he stays with her whenever he’s in Miami. What I don’t know is what he’s planning on doing with all that money and if she’s actually someone he’s having an affair with or just an accomplice, but it looks bad. I don’t know if your sister knows about this either.”

“Of course she doesn’t.”

“Well.” Romero didn’t want to sound condescending but it was hard to believe she was completely clueless. Charles hadn’t exactly covered his tracks too well. “You never know, but his other girl knows about Pat. She’s been giving him a hard time lately, which is the reason why I think he may be considering making some kind of move. I’m just not sure what, but I think that’s what the money is for.”

“Because it’s still not clear-cut what this relationship with this girl is. It looks likes she might also be married, but there’s something weird about it. I’m still checking things out. Although that doesn’t mean anything. She could be having an affair herself. But he could still say she’s just be an assistant. He has several. And the whole transferring money to her account he could probably come up with something relating back to the campaign and just deny the whole damn thing.”

“But—”

He squeezed her hand gently. “What do you think your family is gonna say when you tell them I’m the one making these accusations? Without proof whose word do you think they’ll take?”

She stared at him, taking a deep breath.

“Just wait. I should know this coming week. My friend at the mall is gonna… look into his computer and see if he can get some personal stuff between Charles and this woman. And I’ve made a few other calls. I should be hearing from them soon, too.”

Romero lay back pulling her onto him. “No. I’m sorry I kept anything from you. I just wanted to have everything down before I told you.” He kissed her. “I told you, you have nothing to worry about. But I get why you might’ve jumped the gun this time. I probably would’ve myself.” He chuckled. “Only I wouldn’t have handled it quite as calmly as you did.”

“No, you handled hearing about me going to see Michael just fine. I was proud of you.”

Romero let his head hang back. “Don’t remind me.”

He filled her in on a few more of the minor details he’d uncovered, but he didn’t have a whole lot more to tell her. He only hoped this wasn’t something that looked and smelled bad, but was actually nothing. That happened a few times when he was following a potentially cheating spouse. Isabel’s family already didn’t like him and him flinging false accusations like this, certainly wasn’t going to buy him any points. As long as Isabel could keep this under wraps until he knew for sure, everything should be okay.

***

“No.” She took the seat across from Art. “After last week’s nightmare he’s been banned from coming around the family. They all say he’s dangerous for me, but we both know who’s the most adamant about it. They actually had an intervention for me on Friday.”

“Get the hell out of here.”

The waiter came by and filled their champagne glasses. Isabel took the pitcher of orange juice on the table and poured some in her champagne glass. She loved mimosas. “No, I’m not kidding. Whose idea do you think that was? They even brought Jacob along to put in his two cents.”

Art laughed. “Well, Pat’s in for one today. I don’t give a damn what she says anymore.”

Isabel downed most of her mimosa and nodded her head. “Good for you.” Maybe if Pat spent less time worrying about other people’s relationships, her own wouldn’t be such a mess. “Did you really tell Pat you agreed about Romero being dangerous?”

Isabel had to laugh, too. Of course, Pat would find a way to turn that around in her favor. She then eyed Sabrina, remembering how Pat had made it sound like Art purposely hadn’t brought her to please Pat. “And why weren’t you there the night of my dad’s dinner?”

Sabrina’s eyebrows lifted and she looked as if she felt guilty. “I’m sorry.” She glanced at Art. “I thought he’d told you. My mom had surgery that week.
She was in no condition to be left alone. So I stayed home to look after her.”

Isabel shook her head. “Oh, no worries. I was just curious.” God, she should’ve known better. Pat had always had a way of manipulating everything to her advantage.

After asking Sabrina a bit more about her mother’s health, the waiter came by and refilled Isabel’s champagne glass nearly to the top, leaving little room for the orange juice. Her parents arrived together with Pat and Charles. Art, Sabrina and Isabel all stood to greet them. Pat’s standoffish attitude toward Sabrina didn’t go unnoticed by Isabel.

Isabel reached out and gave Charles a quick handshake instead of her usual hug and kiss on the cheek. She could barely stand to look at him. Her parents sat next to her, leaving Pat no choice but to sit next to Art and Sabrina. The bad part about that was Isabel would now be facing Charles through entire brunch.

“Well, are you going to tell us why we’re here now?” Pat asked as she placed her napkin on her lap.

Art pulled out his phone and Isabel took another big gulp of her mimosa. She was nervous for him. Whatever it was, she’d be behind him all the way. She didn’t want Pat squashing their news. She was so good at that.

“Let me get Gina on the phone. I promised I’d put her on speaker so she could hear it at the same time as you guys did.”

Pat rolled her eyes, already disparaging whatever he was about to tell them. The waiter walked around the table, pouring more champagne all around, as Art placed the phone in the center face up on speaker.

“Hey. Art.” Gina answered, sounding excited.

“Hey, Gina. You’re on speaker. Say hi to everyone.”

She did and everyone greeted her back. Isabel’s insides were beginning to turn. She was sure Art would be announcing his wedding date and she was terrified that Pat was going to say something stupid.

Pat’s jaw dropped. Gina squealed on the phone, making Art reach for the phone and turn the volume down. Before Pat could say anything, Isabel stood up and rushed around the table. “Oh my God. I’m gonna be an aunt?”

Art smiled and nodded pleased that Isabel seemed so happy. Her parents followed, hugging them both, apparently happy about the news also. Even Charles stood to shake Art’s hand and hug Sabrina. Pat was the only one who remained seated. “Art, you two are not even married. Weren’t you guys using protection?”

Leave it to Pat to ask such a thing at a moment like this. Isabel wasn’t sure if it was the mimosas she’d drunk so fast or just the fact that Pat could be such a witch that made her speak up. “It doesn’t matter, Pat. They’re obviously very happy about this and so am I.” She turned and smiled at both Art and Sabrina.

“I’m just saying. A baby is going to make it that much harder to finish school. It’s already taken her this long. And honestly, having babies out of wedlock these days has become so acceptable.”

Isabel glared at her but took another drink of her champagne to keep from lashing out.

“Don’t listen to her, Art and Sabrina.” Gina’s voice was loud and clear. “I for one am very happy for you. You two can always get married later. Finally, a baby in the family. I was getting sick of waiting on Pat and Charles.”

Pat’s expression turned even more severe. Art and Sabrina exchanged another suspicious glance. “The baby wasn’t all we wanted to announce today,” Art said.

Pat turned to them, not even attempting to hide her distaste. Sabrina held out her hand showing off a simple wedding band then Art did the same. “We got married last week.”

There was more squealing out of the phone. Isabel jumped up again, this time stumbling a little and she giggled. “Oh wow, you guys! This is all so unexpected!” She hugged them again and again everyone else followed suit. The exception of course being Pat whose mouth now pulled tightly to the side. “I agree with Isabel. Wow,” was all she said as she reached for the menu.

Everyone ignored her. Gina congratulated them and asked if there were any more announcements. When Art said that was it, she congratulated them again before saying she had to go and hung up.

The second Art and Sabrina walked away to the buffet table, Pat wasted no time to start in about what a mistake he’d made. “I swear people act like a marriage is something you jump into. She got pregnant so half a thought later they’re married. Neither of them have any idea what it takes to make a marriage work.”

“Trust?” Isabel said, eyeing Charles.

“That’s just one of the elements needed to form a strong union. One that’ll withstand not just the ups but the many downs as well. It’s not so simple.”

What a joke.

“They’re both adults, Patricia,” her mother warned. “I don’t want you lecturing them. That’s not why they wanted us here today.”

The rest of the brunch was the same, with Pat throwing in jab after jab about how marriage shouldn’t be taken lightly. She’d already mentioned the importance of knowing someone well enough to see the signs of future issues. That one was aimed at Isabel, of course.

Isabel was feeling lightheaded and much braver. Her resolve and decision to just ignore her sister and keep changing the subject was beginning to wane. It was when Pat brought up trust again that Isabel couldn’t take it anymore. “Because you know without a doubt that you can trust Charles. Right?”

Pat’s brows pinched and Charles stared at her. “Of course. We’ve been married all these years and I’ve never had reason not to.”

Isabel stood up without responding, excusing herself to the ladies’ room. She noticed Charles kept his eyes on her. Not wanting to be overheard she texted Romero.

I don’t know how much longer I can keep quiet about Charles. Pat is so infuriating! She needs to be told how NOT perfect her marriage is.

It took a few seconds but Romero responded.

She’ll know soon enough. You don’t have to tell me what a pain she is. Just be cool for now.

When Isabel got back to her seat, her champagne glass had already been filled, as if she needed any more. Her parents and Pat were gone. She could see them over at the buffet table again. Art was busy smooching Sabrina and Charles sat back in his seat. Isabel couldn’t help glare at him.

“Really is he the one that can’t be trusted, Charles?”

Charles’ brows flew up. Isabel turned away from him when she noticed Art and Sabrina stood up. Art chuckled. “How many of those have you had, Bell?”

She looked down to where he was pointing at the champagne glass in her hand. Too many but she wouldn’t admit that out loud. “Are you leaving?”

Just then, Pat and her parents returned to the table, plates in hand. Art explained to them that they had a long drive and were still planning on meeting with Sabrina’s family to give them the news.

Once they were gone, Isabel knew Pat would now openly unleash her self-righteous opinions about them. Even though it was rude to text at the table, Charles had done it the entire time so she pulled her phone out and texted Romero again.

I can’t take this anymore. But I don’t think I’m okay to drive. I had to numb myself with champagne to get through this. You think you can pick me up?

She sipped her water, trying to ignore Pat who was already going off on a tangent when she noticed Charles staring at her. Her phone buzzed and she read the text.

On my way.

Isabel endured, listening to her sister go on and on about what a huge mistake Art had made. Her mother didn’t seem to think so, but was a little hurt that they’d gone off and gotten married without having at least the immediate family there. Her father didn’t say much as usual except that he agreed with Pat that it would be a lot harder for Sabrina to finish school now. Charles was surprisingly quiet throughout the conversation. He could be just as opinionated as Pat when he wanted to be.

From experience, Isabel knew there was no arguing with her sister so she didn’t bother. The waiter had already brought the bill and Pat insisted on paying since she’d picked the restaurant and as usual it was a pricey one on the marina. Of course, she had to throw in a few jabs about not expecting Isabel to pay on her teacher’s salary.

Romero’s text letting her know he was there hadn’t come fast enough. They were all getting ready to leave as well but Isabel didn’t wait to walk out with them. If she had to listen to Pat for even another minute, she was going to scream.

She made one last stop at the ladies’ room before heading out the front door. The cool ocean breeze felt good against her face. Romero leaned against the side of his car and she smiled at him.

“Isabel.”

She turned to see Charles walking toward her. “Is there something you wanna say to me?”

A sudden wave of anger washed over her. There was plenty she wanted to say to him, but she’d wait until Romero gave her the go ahead. “Nope.”

She didn’t like the way he walked up to her and stood menacingly close. “You made a couple of odd comments in there. I couldn’t help but feel they were directed towards me.”

Charles grabbed her arm before she could turn with an expression she’d never seen on him before. “What do you think you know?”

“Big mistake, asshole!”

Both Isabel and Charles turned to see Romero rushing toward them, that unmistakable rage in his eyes again.