This Life: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

think she is.”
    Blake settled into the
other bedside chair and took her mother’s hand with practiced gentleness. “How
was your day, Mami?”
    “Like any other day of
physical therapy, I suppose.” Jacinta shrugged her right shoulder, which was
further along in healing than the left. “Brutal. They make me beg for death and
then don’t give it to me. But then, good physical therapists do that.”
    They shared a little
laugh, and Blake decided her mother was beginning to sound like her old self
again. Looking like her old self was still somewhere in the future.
    “What about you, girl?
How did the divorce hearing go?” Jacinta opened her eyes wider than before and
fixed a don’t-hold-back stare on Blake.
    “There’s good news and
bad news.”
    “Let’s hear it, good
news first.”
    “I got a restraining
order against Lang. Only for one year.”
    “ Mierda! ” Jacinta
rolled her eyes. “You should be given a restraining order for life.”
    “A year is better than
nothing, Mami.” Blake patted her mother’s hand. “Ready for the bad news?”
    “Is anyone ever ready
for bad news?”
    “My mami the
philosopher,” Blake observed to the night nurse, and they exchanged smiles.
Jacinta’s spirits were undeniably improving as time went by.
    “Well, tell me.”
    “Lang got to keep
Bertrand as his last name.”
    Jacinta Bertrand
exhausted her supply of Spanish curses and had to supplement with a few choice
words of English, ending with “Scum-sucking son of an unwashed whore.” She
rested for a minute, while Blake fought to keep herself from laughing, then
Jacinta added, “I only pray your father doesn’t know.”
    “I hope he doesn’t
know, too.” Blake’s gaze wandered to the framed photograph of Theo Bertrand
next to the bedside lamp. He sat at a candlelit piano, a faraway dreamy
expression mellowing his deep-set eyes and angular features. That photograph
had been taken during his first public performance of “Nothing But You,” a
soulful jazz love song he’d composed for Jacinta when they’d still been
teenagers. She sighed, then said, “Mami, something else happened today.”
    Her mother gave Blake’s
face a searching look. “Something you’ve wanted, but the timing could be
better?”
    The night nurse winked
across Jacinta’s bed at Blake. Jacinta was notorious for making guesses that
seemed almost psychic in their inexplicable accuracy.
    “Don’t look so
surprised. You’re my only child. I’ve been reading your thoughts in your face
all your life.” Jacinta closed her eyes. “Out with it, mija . I’m worn
out and can’t stay awake much longer.”
    “I’ve been invited to
buy a building in New
York City that I’ve wanted for years and years. I’ll ask the owners to come here to sign
all the paperwork. But if they aren’t willing to do that, will you mind if I go
to New York for a few days?”
    Cracking one eye open,
Jacinta leveled an astonished gaze at Blake. “Sweetie, all day long I’m taking
physical therapy. By the end of the day I’m ready to fall asleep the second I
get into bed. I’m not able to talk to you for more than a few minutes a day,
anyway. You go on to New York and enjoy being free of that donkey’s ass you called a
husband. I’ll be fine.”
    “Are you sure, Mami?”
    “In fact…” Jacinta
opened both eyes wide again. “Why stay only a few days? You used to love New York , didn’t you? Just not
the modeling scene?”
    “Yes, Mami, but—”
    “But nothing! You’re
lucky enough to afford to travel, and stay weeks or even months anywhere you please.
Go enjoy New
York for
a while. Maybe by the time you come back to Miami , I’ll be ready to go out dancing with my
girlfriends.” Jacinta Bertrand smiled, and a serenity softened her face as she
closed her eyes again. “One thing is sure, when I’m recovered I’m going to
celebrate the fact I’m still alive. I lived to see my daughter get away from a
vicious, brutal bastard who never loved