Chapter 18: The Gate

The iron gate at River Oaks was shut, and the guard in the booth would not look at me.

Rodrigo had driven us there in his gray sedan with his foot flat on the floor.

Emiliano sat in the back seat.

The new lawyer had stayed at the clinic with a phone against her ear, calling a judge's clerk and a police captain.

I got out before the car stopped moving.

"Open it," I said.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. Mrs. Aldama said no one."

"Rodrigo lives here."

"Mr. Aldama's code was cancelled, ma'am."

Rodrigo tried it anyway.

He punched the keypad twice, and it beeped at him, red.

Up the long drive, between the live oaks, the front door of the house stood open.

Soledad was on the top step in her cream silk blouse.

She had Camila in her arms.

Camila was awake.

She had a pink knit hat on, a new one, and she was reaching one fist toward the pearls.

My legs nearly went out from under me.

"Soledad!" I shouted. "That is my daughter!"

She came down three steps and stopped, unhurried.

Along the street, I saw neighbors come out onto their lawns.

A man in a golf shirt.

A woman holding a dog.

Two teenagers on bicycles who had their phones up before they had stopped pedaling.

"Alma, dear," Soledad called across the grass. "You're making a scene."

"You took her from daycare with a fake court paper."

"I took my granddaughter home. It was a family emergency, and you were not answering your phone."

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