Chapter 84: Her guess

Nora Esguerra. My heart beats faster at the thought, some of yesterday’s irrational fear returning.

For nineteenand-a-half years, I have been Nora Leston. It’s a name that I’m used to, that I’m comfortable with. The idea of changing it makes me deeply uneasy, as though I’m losing another part of myself.

As though Julian is stripping me of everything that I used to be, transforming me into someone I barely recognize. “Of course,” Ana says, interrupting my anxious musings.

“We’re happy to call you anything you wish.” Rosa nods vigorously in agreement, beaming at me, and I take a few deep breaths to calm my racing heartbeat. “Thank you.” I manage to give them a smile. “I appreciate it.”

“Would you like to see the house before we go outside?” Rosa asks, smoothing her apron with her palms. “Or would you prefer to start outdoors?”

“We can start indoors, if that’s okay with you,” I tell her. Then I thank Ana for the breakfast, and we begin the tour. Rosa shows me the downstairs first.

There are over a dozen rooms, including a large library stocked with a variety of books, a home theater with a wall-sized TV, and a sizable gym filled with high-end exercise equipment.

I’m also pleased to discover that Julian remembered my painting hobby; one of the rooms is set up as an art studio, with blank canvasses lined up in front of a huge south-facing window.

“Señor Esguerra had all of this put in a couple of weeks before you came,” Rosa tells me, leading me from room to room. “So everything is brand-new.” I blink, surprised to hear that. I had assumed that the art studio was new, since Julian is not into painting, but I didn’t realize he’d redone the entire house.

“He didn’t have a pool put in too, did he?” I joke as we walk down the hall. “No, the pool was already there,” Rosa says in absolute seriousness.

“But he did have it renovated.” And leading me toward a screened back porch, she shows me an Olympicsized pool surrounded by tropical greenery.

In addition to the pool itself, there are lounge chairs that look amazingly comfortable, huge umbrellas that provide shade from the sun, and several outdoor tables with chairs.

“Nice,” I murmur, feeling the hot, humid air on my skin. I have a feeling the pool will come in quite handy in this weather. Going back indoors, we head upstairs.

Besides the master suite, there are a number of bedrooms, each one bigger than my entire apartment back home. “Why is the house so big?” I ask Rosa after we view all the lavishly decorated rooms. “There are only a few people living here, right?”

“Yes, that’s true,” Rosa confirms. “But this house was built by the older Señor Esguerra, and from what I understand, he entertained a lot here, frequently inviting his business associates to stay over.”

“How did you come to work here?” I give Rosa a curious look as we go down the curving staircase. “And learn to speak English so well?”

“Oh, I was born here, on the Esguerra estate,” she says breezily. “My father was one of the older Señor’s guards, and my mother and older brother also worked for him. Señor’s wife—she was American, you see—taught me English when I was a child.

I think she was maybe a bit bored here, so she gave lessons to the entire household staff and anyone else who wanted to learn the language. Then she insisted that we speak only English in the house, even among ourselves, so we could practice.”

“I see.” Rosa seems chattier than Ana, so I ask her the same question I posed to the housekeeper earlier. “If you grew up here, did you know Julian back then?” “No, not really.” She glances at me as we exit the house onto the front porch.

“I was very young, only four years old when your husband left the country, so I don’t remember much from when he was a boy. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I saw him here for only a short time after . . .”

She swallows, looking down at the ground. “After it all happened.”

“After his parents’ death?” I ask quietly. I remember Julian telling me that his parents were killed, but he never explained how it happened. He just said it was one of his father’s rivals.

“Yes,” Rosa says somberly, her bright smile nowhere in sight. “A few years after Julian left, one of the North Coast cartels tried to take over the Esguerra organization. They struck at many of its key operations and even came here, to the estate.

A lot of people died that day. My father and brother, too.” I stop in my tracks, staring at her. “Oh God, Rosa, I’m sorry . . .” I feel terrible that I brought up such a painful subject.

For some reason, it hadn’t occurred to me that people here might’ve been impacted by the same events that had shaped Julian. “I’m so sorry—”

“It’s okay,” she says, her expression still strained. “It happened almost twelve years ago.” “You must’ve been very young then,” I say softly.

“How old are you now?” “Twenty-one,” she replies as we begin walking down the porch steps.

Then she shoots me a curious look, some of her somberness fading. “What about you, Nora, if you don’t mind me asking? You seem young as well.” I grin at her. “Nineteen. Twenty in a few months.”

I’m glad she feels comfortable enough with me to ask personal questions. I don’t want to be ‘Señora’ here, don’t want to be treated like some lady of the manor. She grins back, her former zest for life apparently restored. “I thought so,” she says with evident satisfaction.

“Ana thought you were even younger when she saw you last night, but she’s almost fifty and everyone our age looks like a baby to her. My guess this morning was twenty, and I was right.”