“Mom, we all hold something back at first.”
“Not with me. I ask questions like it’s airport security.”
“I realized.”
Her smile softened.
"I know."
Six months later, Mateo told me that he had gotten engaged.
I cried in the laundry room so he wouldn't think they were tears of disappointment.
They weren't.
They were love and fear.
It was the strange sorrow of realizing that your child has built a life where you are no longer the center.
White chairs lined the lawn and garlands of lights hung from the trees.
Mateo was wearing a navy blue suit and was happier than I had ever seen him.
Lucas was dressed in gray. He kept touching the inside pocket of his jacket as if checking something.
“The votes?” I asked him when Mateo walked away to greet his friends.
He was startled.
“You keep picking at my pocket. I thought it was my votes.”
“Ah.” He smiled quickly. “Yes. The votes.”
But the smile didn't reach her eyes.
A few minutes before the ceremony I saw him near the hallway that led to the bathrooms, talking quietly on the phone.
His back was to me and his voice was low.
I only heard one word.
I stopped.
My ex's name wasn't common, but hearing it on my son's wedding day was like ice sliding down my spine.
At first I told myself it had to be a coincidence.
Then Lucas glanced over his shoulder, saw me nearby, and hung up too quickly.
“Is everything alright?” I asked.
He put the phone in his pocket.
“Who is Diego?” I asked him.
His expression changed for only a second.
“Nobody important,” he said quickly.
That was a lie.
I know the lies.
The ceremony began before I could press him any further.
Mateo walked down the hall arm in arm with his best friend. He looked at me and smiled, and for a moment I forced myself to forget everything else.
If he was happy, I was too.
That's what I kept telling myself.
The votes were beautiful.
Luke's voice trembled as he promised to love Matthew "without hiding, without fear, and without running away from the difficult parts."
That sentence should have calmed me down.
Instead, it made my stomach churn.
After the ceremony, as the guests moved toward the banquet hall, I went into the inn to touch up my makeup. Without realizing it, I went into the restroom and heard a voice coming from one of the stalls.
It was Lucas.
“I told you not to call me here,” she whispered.
I froze next to the sinks.
Then she said, “Diego, please. It’s your wedding day.”
My hands got cold.
Suddenly, her phone must have gone on speakerphone, because another male voice could be heard clearly and firmly.
It was him.
I clung to the edge of the sink.
Lucas said, “No. You're not going to decide that now.”
Diego's voice sounded quickly.
“You said I could see him after the votes.”
“And you will,” Lucas whispered. “But not like this.”
Then Lucas said the next five words, and my face went completely pale.
Have him sign the papers.
I couldn't breathe for a moment.
Diego replied, “The documents are ready. Once I sign, no one can undo it.”
I didn't wait to hear any more.
I left the bathroom with my hands shaking, took out my phone and dialed the police.
The operator asked what was happening.
“My son’s boyfriend is on the phone with my ex-husband,” I whispered. “My ex disappeared twenty years ago. They’re talking about papers and hiding something from my son. I think they’re planning something.”
“I don’t know,” I told him. “But my son could be in danger.”
By the time I returned to the banquet hall, my chest hurt.
Mateo was laughing by the cake table, and Lucas was nowhere to be seen.
Five minutes later, two officers arrived silently through the side entrance.
I found them in the hallway.
