The manager said, “You will need a personal guarantee immediately for six hundred thousand pesos if you want to continue on with both the event and hotel rooms.”
Turning to my father, my mother asked him, “Carlos, go ahead and pay it.”
He pulled out a black credit card and charged the event.
The manager declined the charge.
He tried again with another card.
It too, was declined.
Once again, Mauricio released Sofía.
“None of this has been paid for?” he asked incredulously.
Sofía was quick to grab him by the arm and pull him in close to her.
“Baby, don’t listen to Lucia,” Sofía pleaded. “She has always been jealous of me.”
I looked at Sofía with calmness and said, “I never cancelled my room. You cancelled it to humiliate me.”
My mother’s tone changed substantially. “Lucia, daughter, I beg of you, do not be cruel to us. We are your family.”
Family?
It was a painful word for me.
Family is the one who has cropped me out of pictures because I didn’t fit in with them.
Family will ask for money to help but will never allow me to speak my mind or have any input into what goes on.
Family calls me dramatic when I cry and ungrateful when I tell the truth.
The manager raised his hand, and security walked over quietly and stood behind him.
“You must provide payment for your room or vacate the room within five minutes,” he said. “Unless you are now ready to make full payment?”
Sofía began to cry again.
Mauricio looked down at his ring when he saw that Sofía was crying.
He then turned to my father and said, “Carlos, my father transferred money to all your suppliers because you told him that was the hotel’s normal procedure. Where is that money?”
Sofía stopped crying and looked up at Mauricio.
“Mau, please don’t do this here,” she begged.
Mauricio looked at Sofía for a moment then said, “Did you know?”
Sofía could not meet his gaze at this point.
My mother closed her eyes.
At that moment, for the first time in my life, there was no answer from my father.
Everything had crumbled completely.As his cousin complains that her VIP wristband doesn’t work anymore, an event organizer shows up to inform the group that due to lack of payment for their room, they will be asked to leave, creating a scene with guests standing around watching.
At this point, my dad tries to take control of the situation.
“Lucia is a jealous person who has always wanted what her sister had, and this is simply a family issue,” he states.
I begin to take my bag off my shoulder and take out a folder.
“Dad, this is not a family issue. This is an audit,” I responded.
My mother said,
“Please, Lucia, please…”
“At this point, don’t tell me to be quiet,” I responded.
I laid the folder out in front of the manager and Mauricio.
“Many personal expenses that were billed to the company; family trips listed as business meetings; Sofía’s credit cards were used to advertise and charged as expenses; Mom’s car was registered as an executive vehicle; and transfers to suppliers who do not exist.”
Mauricio’s jaw tightened.
“Does this include my family?” asked Mauricio.
“Yes,” I stated, “and there’s more.”
Sofía lunged at me.
“You’re destroying us!” she screamed.
“No, you were destroying yourselves,” I stated. “I just stopped protecting you.”
My father pointed a shaking finger at me.
“Your grandmother would never have wanted to see us humiliated.”
That hurt.
The only one who defended me was Grandma Elena. The only person who saved me a place at her table at Christmas. The only one who told me,
“Do not confuse love with tolerating pain.”
“Grandma died tired of you,” I told him.”I was tired of watching you use her accomplishments as your own way of living, which you didn’t earn. Tired of seeing me come to hospitals, dinners, and birthday parties, without you there, waiting for the day when you love me as much as I love you.”