Moreno's (Moreno Brothers Series) - Elizabeth Reyes Page 0,85
about actually having showered for once because he was dressed up and reeked of cologne, Cido told him he was meeting his girl in Little Italy for dinner—tu!”
“Okay, but that doesn’t mean—”
“Isa, I laughed at first when even Jose Luis assumed Cido’s pregnant girl is this Isa chick he’s heard him mention. Like laughed out loud.”
Magdalena made a show of laughing animatedly, making Isabella smirk despite the angst she’d begun to feel again.
Then her silly friend suddenly stopped. “But then it hit me. I have no doubt now. None. When Alejandro said Cido told him everything, it wasn’t that you’d moved out and quit. Why would he look so somber about knowing you and Cido had officially gone your separate ways? I didn’t say anything then because you were so upset, but his saying he was happy for you was anything but genuine. You’d think knowing you were out of Cido’s clutches now he really would be. More important, why would Cido volunteer that information? If anything, finding out that Alejandro is free to pursue you now, Cido likely made sure to thwart any ideas he might get. If Alejandro so much as asked about you, I wouldn’t put it past that idiota to warn him to stay away from his girlfriend—his pregnant girlfriend. Isa, you have to call him!”
“Magdalena,” Isabella said calmly because her friend sounded too worked up, and, despite this theory making sense and having her heart racing already, it was still just a theory. “Calling him would be disrespectful to his wife if in fact we’re wrong about her being dead.”
“Por el amor de Dios—”!
“Especially since he’s set the precedent this whole time and been respectful about staying away from me.”
“If you don’t call him, I will.”
“No, you will not.” Isabella was on her feet now as the panic seared through her.
“I already looked up the number to his restaurant and everything,” Magdalena whined. “All it takes is one phone call to ask what exactly Cido told him. You don’t even have to bring up his wife. I’ll start looking up microfiche at the library this week of old obituaries for any Morenos in the last ten months, if you can’t bring yourself to ask him, and he doesn’t mention it. But you have to at least find out what Cido told him.”
Inhaling deeply, Isabella decided to humor her friend before she made good with her threat of calling him herself. “What’s the number?”
She couldn’t even smile when she heard Magdalena squeal, she felt so unnerved. Isabella wrote the number down as Magdalena rattled it off gleefully. “Are you calling him now?”
“No, I don’t want to do it from here, but I’m almost off. I’ll do it from home.”
Promising to call her the moment she was off the phone with him, Isabella was finally off the unnerving call. Twenty minutes later she was on her way home, trying to come up with a good enough lie as to why she hadn’t been able to get a hold of him.
“He wasn’t there,” she rehearsed out loud. “It was a woman who answered, so I wasn’t about to leave a message or tell her to have him call me.”
She frowned, remembering everything Magdalena said with such conviction. Why would he look so somber about knowing you and Cido had officially gone your separate ways? Eres Tu! Isabella sat up straighter, remembering his panicked expression when she started to try and tell him about not living with Cido anymore.
His saying he was happy for you was anything but genuine. I wouldn’t put it past that idiota to warn him to stay away from his girlfriend—his pregnant girlfriend.
Feeling her eyes widen, Isabella clutched her steering wheel, as she remembered his eyes falling to her blouse when he’d looked so panicked. Then not even being able to keep the eye contact before rushing off.
Then another conversation from so long ago came to her like a ray of light. Let this be a lesson. From here on, whenever it comes to us, go with your gut, at least until I’ve had a chance to explain my side of things.
Glancing up at the freeway entrance, Isabella hopped on before she could change her mind. Her throat tightened as she prayed she wasn’t giving into false hope. If there was any truth to her good friend’s theories, and Isabella had to admit it felt very plausible now, she had to find out—in person. They’d been separated for too long.