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“I know,” I said, taking his hands in mine. “I forgive her, and I hope you can too. I’m sure she was just trying to protect you and thought she was doing the right thing. She’s just a mother who loves her son, after all.”
“Sami, I don’t deserve you,” he replied with a raspy voice. “Will you come to the hospital with me? I understand if you don’t want to though.”
I reached again for my purse. “I will go to the ends of the earth with you. Let me find my keys.”
Chapter Nine
CORD
“Thank God,” I said, passing a hand over my face in the stark room at Mercy General. We stood at Mami’s bedside, where she lay hooked up to an IV and blood pressure monitor. She held the rosary that she’d brought from El Salvador in her hands and was running the rose-colored beads back and forth through her fingers while worry lines crisscrossed her forehead. Dr. Morrison, the on-call physician, smiled and clapped me solidly on the shoulder.
“Glad to be the bearer of good news for a change,” he nodded. “Yep, anxiety attacks can mimic symptoms of a cardiac event. However, all Alma’s tests have come back normal. I feel comfortable at this point making the official diagnosis that this was simply a panic attack.”
“Wonderful news,” I heard Sami murmur, giving my left hand a squeeze.
“Now, Alma,” the doctor said, turning to Mami. “I’m not sure what it was that brought this on exactly, but I’m guessing stress of some sort. I recommend looking into therapy and meditation for help coping with stress.”
She smiled ruefully as a tear escaped out of the corner of her left eye. She looked at Sami and me and back again.
“Or I can just ‘fess up,” she said. “And repent. You’ve figured out the truth, haven’t you?”
“Why, Mami?” I burst out, anguish tightening around my heart like a fist. I wrapped my arm around Sami’s waist and pulled her to my side. “I loved Sami – I still love her. Why did you keep us apart? Keep me from the knowledge that I have a son – that I’m a father?”
Mami broke into tears. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, from the bottom of my heart. This secret has been eating me alive all these years. Cristiano and I came to this country to give you a better life, so you could have an education and never know the sting of poverty. When you got a scholarship to go to college, it was our dream come true. When I learned that Sami was pregnant with your baby, I couldn’t let it get in the way of your future.”
I dashed the back of my hand across my face to wipe away the tears that were falling faster than I could catch them.
I opened my mouth to speak, but Mami raised her hand to stop me, the shiny gold cross dangling from the rosary chain that was wrapped around her fingers.
“I see now that I was blinded to the truth. Blinded by my own pride. It says in 1 Timothy 6:10 that money is the root of all evil. What I did was wrong. I kept a family from being together, a son from knowing his father. Cristiano would be ashamed of me. I have confessed my sin at the feet of Our Heavenly Father and begged His forgiveness. But I suppose it is too much to ask to beg for both of yours?”
“I forgive you,” Sami said softly, leaning forward and taking Mami’s hand in hers. “You were trying to do what you thought was best for your son.”
Mami shook her head. “What I did was get in the way of love. Love is what matters most in this life. Love and family.”
Stepping forward, I bent down and planted a kiss on her soft brown cheek.
“If Sami can forgive you, then I can as well.”
“Everyone needs second chances,” Sami said, looking into my eyes.
I nodded and smiled. “Maybe it’s time for a new beginning for all of us.”
***
An hour later and the discharge paperwork finally completed, Sami and I were assisting Mami through the lobby of the hospital to the parking lot. If I hadn’t known that my mother had been admitted to the emergency room earlier, I’d consider her in the best shape she’d ever been in by looking at her now. Joy radiated from her face, and she couldn’t stop smiling even as the tears kept coming. It was true what she’d said, about money and about love. I vowed never to let anything get in the way of the love I shared with Sami again.
Just then, the sliding glass doors of Mercy General opened with a whoosh. Jake strode in, with Heather behind him holding the hands of our son and Jake’s daughter, Ashley.
“I heard the 911 call come in over the scanner,” Jake said. “How are you doing, Alma? I’m surprised to see you’ve been discharged already! False alarm?”
She bowed her head. “I am blessed indeed for I have received mercy.”
Jake met my gaze. “Cord, I owe you a huge apology. To be honest, I didn’t want to believe that you’d turned out to be nothing but a fraud and a deadbeat dad. I thought I knew you better than that, and as it turns out, I did. I should have trusted you, man. I should have taken the time to sit down with you after you arrived back in town and have a real conversation instead of making assumptions. Can you forgive me?”
I crossed the distance between us and offered him my hand. “Already forgiven, my friend.”
I turned then and knelt in front of my son, my heart leaping in my chest as he gazed at me curiously with wide brown eyes.
