Chapter Sixty-One

Margo Angelhart

My grandparents are two of the most amazing people I know.

Abuela shared her advice and suggestions freely. So did Pops—he loved to talk about the law to anyone who wanted to listen. And we all loved spending time listening to them. They'd lived amazing lives and I felt grateful and sincerely blessed that I had been born to this family.

Both Pops and Abuela celebrated their 81st birthdays in February, but it was today, May 24th, that mattered more to both of them: sixty years of marriage. I wasn't surprised that Uncle Tom's restaurant was packed with friends and family—more than two hundred people showed up, and that didn't include kids under ten.

The only thing that would have made it perfect was if my dad were here. Three years in prison and the emptiness without him still physically hurt.

While I loved my family, so many crammed together laughing, talking, hugging—it became a bit overwhelming. I stepped out to the back patio and found Lu and Tess sharing a pitcher of Uncle Tom's killer margarita.

I walked over to the small table, sat down, and held out my empty glass. Lu grinned and filled me up.

"Cheers," I said and held my cup out. We clinked the plastic and all drank.

I hadn't felt so relaxed in a long, long time. I don't know if it was because Annie was finally safe—at least for the next five to ten years—or because I had reconnected with my siblings in a deeper way.

Talking with Lu and Tess was just like old times...and that they didn't hold a grudge that I had separated myself from many family events over the last three years made me feel like the decision to step back into the family fold was right.

I didn't feel guilty for anything. I was right—we should fight for the truth about what happened the day my dad allegedly killed Devin Klein. Why did he confess? There were so many unanswered questions that I didn't know if I could put it aside. But for the first time in three years, I realized how alone I'd been with my grief and anger.

I may not have faked my death like Virginia Bonetti, but I had shut out my family.

Gabriel Rubio came over, the too-handsome, too-perfect pediatric surgeon who would be marrying my sister whenever they set a date. He smiled warmly at all of us, kissed his fiancée, and said, "I'm so sorry I was late."

"Everyone knows you were working," Tess said with a smile.

Tess was the holdout. She had two failed relationships that had almost gotten to the altar, and she feared if she set a date, she'd lose Gabriel as well. She didn't talk of it, but both Lu and I knew this was the case. Maybe now that we were in a better place, I could push her. I was probably the only one who had the guts to withstand Tess's wrath when she was angry...or scared. I didn't sugarcoat the truth, or back down.

"Come with me to talk to your grandparents?" Gabriel said, taking her hand.

Tess rose, waved at Lu and me, then walked off.

Nico came over with his boyfriend. Quincy looked distinctly uncomfortable. I was trying to focus on what we had in common—Nico, our mutual love of guns, and... Hmm, I didn't think Quincy and I had anything else in common.

"I heard through the grapevine that you were shot by a cop," Nico said. "What happened?" He was looking me over carefully.

"Not shot. Grazed. Long story."

"Maybe you'll finally come over for dinner and tell us?" Nico said pointedly, putting me on the spot.

I looked at Quincy. He stared back, face rigid.

Dinner with me would annoy Quincy, so I agreed. "When and where?"

Nico smiled, leaned back. "Next Friday, Quincy's place. He's a great cook."

Not even neutral turf. Only for Nico, I thought.

"I'll be there."

Mom walked over, made chitchat with Nico and Quincy, who soon left to get more food, and then she said, "Luisa, would you round everyone up for the cake-cutting? I'll be right there to make the toast."

A not-so-subtle way to get rid of my sister and leave us alone.

Mom sat where Lu had been sitting.

"I wish you had told me about Annie Carillo from the beginning."

"I take a lot of cases I don't tell you about. I don't work for you."

"No, you don't. And I don't want you to work for me. I want you to work with me. And Jack and Tess. Jack has reminded me that Angelhart Investigations had originally been our idea, that we had created it to be a team. That we were strong together. And we are both stubborn."

I could have made a wry joke, but didn't. I was stubborn. "I get it from you," I said simply and she laughed.

"We butted heads a lot when you were growing up. Jack was always the leader, the mediator. He grew from a responsible boy to a wonderful man. And Tess, she is a people pleaser. Always wanting to make sure everyone is happy, that they have what they need. You—you are a contrarian. I don't think I have ever met anyone who could take any side of any issue and argue effectively. You would have made a great lawyer."

Now I laughed. "Hardly. Seven years of college?"

"Well, if you could have skipped all that."

My mom knew I detested classrooms and book-learning. I had to do things to learn things. I made it through high school because I had a good family who helped me when things got tough, and because I wasn't incapable of learning. I just had to want it bad enough. I managed to graduate with a 3.0 GPA and that was fine with me.

"Sometimes," my mom said, "I thought you argued with me just because you never wanted to agree with me. Then... I realized you were highlighting the flaws in my thinking, the holes in my ideas, making me dig down for the truth. It didn't matter what it was or even if you agreed with me, it actually helped. You helped me be a better lawyer, a better advocate for my clients because you are a contrarian."

"I live to serve," I said, half joking.

I remembered those arguments and friendly debates. It reminded me that family wasn't just the past, not simply memories of the good and the bad, but also the present, the future. Family meant something—it always had. Being here, in the middle of my big extended family celebrating the sixty-year union of two amazing people who connected each and every one of us, made me yearn for more. Crave what I had, that I had either given away...or ignored.

For too long, I'd felt as if they had turned their backs on me, but I was wrong. We had disagreed, my mother and I. And my brothers and sisters sided with her, not me. It hurt. I'd felt like the odd man out.

But in the end, ideas and issues and people came and went, but family stayed. Family had your back. Family was your lifeline.

With our family came unconditional love.

I had forgotten that. Mom and I may never agree on whether to prove dad's innocence, and I'd let that disagreement—no matter how fundamental—put a wedge in my family that had affected all of us, not just me and my mom. I'd put conditions on my mother's love that were unfair and unjust.

No longer.

I was home, even before my mom reminded me that Angelhart Investigations was our collective dream.

"You have sharp instincts and a deep compassion that is both tempered and enhanced by those instincts," my mom said. "You intuitively know what to do. I may not have helped Annie Carillo as you did."

"You would have."

"I don't know. I would have weighed the risks, likely opted for finding solutions within the system. And my need to work within the confines of the system may have gotten her killed. Or put her children at risk. But at the same time, the risks you take are dangerous. I would say I don't know where you get it, but I do. Your father has always taken risks. He's always stood up for what is right, even when he's suffered." She took a deep breath, let it out. "I want you to come with me tomorrow, to visit your father."

"I visit him all the time—did you think I didn't? That I turned my back on him?"

"Of course not. I know you see him nearly every week. But he's been depressed because he feels his decisions have divided us. I want to show him, not tell him, that we're united."

"I can't promise not to investigate Klein's murder. I won't promise."

"I know. And I'm not going to ask you to. But the answers may not be what you want or expect. And I am going to do what Cooper has asked me to do: stand down."

I didn't know how my mom could do that, could just not look for the truth, free her husband. But I did know how she could stand with my father and do what he asked of her. I had a feeling my father was going to try to convince me to stand down as well. Maybe he could...but I doubted it.

Maybe if I listened, I could read between the lines.

"Alright, I'll go."

I could actually feel the tension leave my mother's body. "I want to give him good news—that you will join me, Jack, and Tess at Angelhart Investigations."

I wanted it, but I didn't know how it would practically work.

"I'm used to working on my own, Mom. I'm used to taking cases that you might not take."

"I know. We're a partnership, not a dictatorship. And I might not agree with all your decisions, but I will always have your back. You take the cases you want, and you'll have the backup. Jack has been going through the motions the last few years. He misses being a cop, misses his family. Seeing his son every other weekend is slowly killing him. He needs you, needs us, more than he'll ever admit."

It hurt me when anyone in my family was in pain. And if I could help, even in a small way, I would.

"Okay," I said. "One day at time?"

My mom hugged me. I hugged her tightly back.

"I love you, Mom," I said.

"I love you, Margo." She leaned back and I saw tears in her eyes, but she was smiling. "Now, let's toast to the most successful marriage I know, and say a prayer that Tess finally sets a date for her wedding."

I followed my mom into the restaurant, listened to her speech and toast, talked to all my relatives, watched the kids play, and felt like I had truly come home.