Carmen María Montiel - Stolen Identity

I hung up.

He kept on calling and I told Alexandra not to answer. I asked her what she wanted to do.

“You cannot stay at this hospital. Do you want me to take you back to him?”

“No, Mami , please, please, don’t take me back to him. Take me home with you, Mami .”

He called again and asked her to put me on the phone. When I answered, he started to scream. I said: “You do not scream at me ever again!” and I hung up.

What a powerful feeling to hang up on him! I thought. He cannot control me ANY more.

We decided to pick up her car since every day they were adding more fees and I was left with so little money. She has what her father gave her to pay for the car up until today. While I was at the lot dealing with the car—trying to restart it because the battery was dead—Alejandro called again.

“ Mami , it is my papi . He said he won’t scream again.”

“Tell him I have nothing to talk with him about.”

I thought… I do not want to talk to him and I do not have to. What an empowering feeling! He cannot control me anymore. We get the car and go home. Long day. A friend of mine picked up Kamee and JD from school. They are so happy to see Alexandra. She is so filthy! I told her to take a shower, and she did.

Within minutes my house was full of kids. They came up to me and said they were glad Alexandra was back with me. Alejandro called the house and demanded to talk to Alexandra since she was not answering her cell. I handed the phone to her.

“ Papi , the doctor said I have to stay with Mommy.”

I could hear his scream on the phone.

“Fine, Papi , if this is how you are going to be. I love you!”

But he had already hung up on her.

The mother of one of her friends came over. This is where she stayed the most while she was with her father. Yes, she spent more time at this friend’s house than with her father. She brought Alexandra her favorite snack and started telling me how bad it had been. Alejandro would text Alexandra not to come to the hotel when he had company until later. She would hang out and wait and wait, sometimes until it was 2:00, 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. She slept in her car, many times parked on the streets or in the school parking lot. Then she had to wake up at 5:00 a.m. to get back to the hotel for her books and uniform to get to school by 7:45 a.m. Many times, when she arrived, the door to her father’s room was open and she could see him in bed with a woman. No wonder she wanted to escape.

She was so mad at Alejandro’s lack of responsibility with Alexandra that she offered to be a witness at the upcoming custody hearing.

Later a friend of Alexandra’s came to visit and wanted to talk to me.

“Please, Mom L, do not let her go back to her dad’s. That was bad. She does not want to go back; don’t allow her to. Alexandra does not want me to tell you the truth. Promise if I tell you, you will not let her know I told you.”

I hated to promise. What if it is something I really could not hide? But I was so in the dark during the time Alexandra was with her dad that I wanted to know, especially if it was something so important. I wanted to know what Alon needed to tell me, but was afraid of it.

I have known Alon since he was eight years old. He and Alexandra are like brother and sister. They care for each other.

Alon started to talk, “Alexandra was spending most of the time in the street when her father had company. But the worst part was when he brought prostitutes over and they stayed there for days. God knows what else happened there!”

By midnight everybody was gone. What a long day! I could have used a drink, but I did not drink alcohol anymore, not even a drop. I became afraid of it because Alejandro was drugging me to get rid of me. With time I was going to find out how often he did it.

Just as Alexandra did when she was a little girl and got sick, she slept in my bed with me that night. She needed Mommy. My children had slept with me every time they were sick or felt scared. I looked at her and saw my baby, not a 17-year-old girl. I still did not know the whole story of what she had gone through.

Next morning when I woke up she was still sleeping. It was Saturday so I did not mind. She slept most of the day. When she finally got up, she said she was not feeling well. It was October and the weather was changing, so I figured that must be it. She was catching a cold or the flu, I thought.

She had chills and fever. She was shaking and sweating a lot, to the point where the bed was wet. Chicken soup cures everything. I gave her lots of chicken soup and lots of love. Little did I know that I was nurturing my daughter through detox!

Saturday and Sunday, she stayed in bed. I fed her and continued taking care of her, changing the bed sheets because they were wet with sweat. On Saturday, her father kept calling her and arguing. She kept hanging up, until finally she blocked his number in her cell phone. She did not want to talk to him. I still did not know what this was all about.

I spent a lot of time with her in bed, keeping her company and talking to her. She needed to feel she had a mother who was always there for her. We watched movies together. Her siblings came and went. But I stayed there with her.

Finally, she said: “Why didn’t you fight for me? Why didn’t you fight for me in court?”

“Your father said you did not want to be with me.”

“That was not true. I wanted you to fight for me. You always fight for us.”

I started to cry. I saw then what she was expecting from me.

“ ¡Mi amor! I had so much on my plate at that moment and you were so rude when you left that I believed what your father said. I was weak, so weak, and I am so sorry.”

She looked at me with tears in her eyes; I had tears in my eyes. I just hugged her and we cried together.

Finally, on Sunday she said: “You know, Papi is afraid that I am going to talk.”

“Talk about what?” I asked.

She did not answer, and I did not want to push her. If she did not want to talk, that was fine. It would all come out in due time.

However, by Monday she started to talk. I had seen how on October 17, a school night, she was tweeting at 3:00 a.m.

“You are too old for this. I cannot believe this s…!”

We were in my bed. I was caressing her hair.

“ Papi brought three prostitutes to the apartment,” she suddenly said.

“What? When?”

I could not tell her I knew. I had promised her friend.

“Almost two weeks ago, Mami .”

“How did you know they were prostitutes?”

“They said it. They stayed for days. We talked a lot, Mami .”

She went on: “Dad left with tío José and they came back with three women. Tío told Dad something when he saw me there. He left after a while and said, ‘Your dad is crazy.’”

He did not leave because he had a moral attack because he would have taken my daughter and dropped her at my house. He left because he was worried Alexandra was going to tell his wife what he was doing, but the damage was already done. He was there with one of the prostitutes who was hurt when he left. That girl was in the bathroom when he left by Alexandra’s account.

“They pulled out cocaine and started using. My dad said she needed some white. Mom, he acted like a little boy with those women. Later, another woman came. So, now there were four. At the end, only three stayed overnight. Dad got sick. He was sweating and throwing up in his bathroom. I went and checked on him. He was white, Mami , so pale. So, I stayed with the women until I had to go to bed.”

“By Thursday afternoon, when I came back from school,” she added, “my dad was going to have breakfast with two of them and invited me. I did not go because I had homework. On Friday, when Kamee and Juan Diego arrived, only one of them was still there, and Dad told them she was a friend of mine.”