Page 16 of When People Leave

Abby

Fifteen minutes later, they pulled up in front of a small house on a street where every structure looked alike.

The tract homes were painted ‘Builders Beige’ with brick-colored tile roofs and garages the color of dirt that matched the brown desert landscape.

In the driveway sat an older Honda Civic in pristine condition.

Morgan parked at the curb across the street. Abby opened the passenger door and got out, then saw Morgan wasn’t moving.

“What’s wrong?” Abby asked, sitting back down and closing the door to keep the cool air inside.

“I’m nervous,” Morgan said, tapping her hands on the steering wheel. “We’re going to grill some guy that Mom purposely kept a secret from us. What if there’s something about their relationship that she didn’t want us to know?”

“Maybe he was blackmailing her,” Abby said.

“That’s a little dramatic, don’t you think?” Charlie asked.

“It happens. You see it all the time on those police shows,” Abby said.

“We could be walking into a trap,” Morgan said.

“You’re coming up with this now?” Charlie asked.

“It just hit me,” Morgan said.

“We drove four and a half hours, you had lots of time for it to hit you,” Charlie said.

Morgan shrugged and nodded. “You’re right.” She turned off the engine and got out. “No matter how nervous we are, we have to know why Mom left some strange man money in her will.”

“I’ll take the lead here,” Charlie said. “It’s my job to get people to open up to me.” Morgan and Abby agreed.

When the sisters got to the front porch, Abby rang the bell.

A high-pitched bark reverberated through the door.

Abby recognized the man who came to the door as the same one in the picture with their mother.

He had black hair, scruff on his chin, and squinty eyes, although, to be fair, his eyes might’ve been squinting because of the blinding sun that was breaking through his dark entryway.

He wore baggy sweats, and his T-shirt was inside out, so either he’d just woken up or he had no sense of fashion.

“Can I help you?” he asked, his voice deeper than Abby had expected for his slight build and short stature. His white, fluffy dog ran in circles around them, yapping incessantly.

“Are you Mike Perez?” Morgan asked, cutting Charlie off as she opened her mouth to speak.

“Yes,” he stared at them.

Charlie stepped in front of Morgan and Abby. “We’re Carla Weiss’s daughters.”

“Oh, hi…” he said, his voice trailing off.

Abby could tell by the way Mike’s eyes began to dart back and forth between her and her sisters that his mind was racing.

“Our mom died…” Abby’s voice cracked, and she stopped mid-sentence.

“Oh, no, I’m so sorry. Please come in.” Mike picked up his dog and moved away from the door so they could enter. Deciding he didn’t seem like a serial killer, Abby nodded at her sisters, and they all walked inside.

Mike led them into a small but cozy living room. On a tufted rug sat a well-worn couch, two chairs, and a coffee table, probably from IKEA, as it had a drawer that stuck out and didn’t quite fit.

When the women sat down, the sofa made a subtle woosh as their bodies settled into the leather. The room was warmer than Abby expected, and the ceiling fan wasn’t helping as it pushed the warm air around her. Abby wiped away the sweat that was breaking out on her brow.

“This is Pillow,” Mike said, putting the dog on the ground. Mike sat in the La-Z-Boy chair across from them while Pillow jumped up next to Abby.

“I’m shocked about Carla. The last time I saw her, she was fine.”

“When was that?” Charlie asked.

“A little over a month ago when we finalized the divorce.”

“You were married to our mom?” Abby said, practically jumping out of her seat.

“She didn’t tell us she got married,” Morgan said.

“Or divorced,” Charlie exclaimed.

“It’s not what you think,” Mike said. “It wasn’t a real marriage. We worked together at the real estate agency and became good friends. When she found out my visa had run out and I would have to go back to Guatemala, she suggested we get married,” Mike said.

“Why would she do that? Were you holding something over her?” Abby asked.

“No, your mom was just a caring woman,” Mike said.

Abby choked up. “She was.”

An awkward silence hung in the room until it was broken by Pillow, who had fallen asleep on Abby with his head on her thigh and seemed to be having a bad dream.

He was whimpering and shaking his legs. Abby wiped her tears away with one hand while gently stroking the dog with her other hand until his nightmare passed.

Mike stood up, rubbing his chin. “Can I get any of you something to drink?”

The sisters shrugged; they were in too much shock to form words.

Mike returned from the kitchen with three bottles of water and placed them on the coffee table. No one reached for them.

“I can’t believe Carla’s gone,” Mike said, putting his hands up to his temples and rubbing them as if doing so would help him make sense of things. “What happened?”

The sisters exchanged a long look, and then Abby blurted out, “She took her own life.”

“Oh my God, why would she do that?” Mike asked. Although he turned his head away, Abby could see him wipe away a tear.

“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Morgan said.

“We were hoping you could help us,” Charlie said.

Abby began hurling questions at Mike like darts shooting balloons at a carnival. Before he could answer one question, she’d fire off another one.

“Did you take advantage of our mother’s kind heart?” Abby asked. “Did she take the divorce hard?” “Did she tell you she had three daughters?”

“Carla talked about all three of you a lot,” Mike said. “She was so proud of her daughters.” Now, it was Charlie’s turn to cry. “I didn’t mean to upset you,” he said.

He stood up as though to comfort Charlie, then quickly sat back down. He grabbed the box of tissues next to him and pushed them toward the women. When Abby stopped petting Pillow to grab a tissue, Pillow raised his head and licked her hand. She picked him up and held him to her chest.

“If she never told you about us, how did you find me?” Mike asked.

Morgan told Mike how they had found a picture of him with their mom. “Then we saw that she left you money in her will, so we googled you,” Morgan said.

“She left me money?” Mike said. “Why would she do that?”

Abby watched him to see if he was genuinely as surprised as he appeared. “Is it possible that our mom fell in love with you?” she asked.

“I highly doubt it. We never even dated; we were just friends. As soon as we’d been married long enough that I could safely stay in the United States, I moved here, and we filed for divorce.

When I returned to Los Angeles to sign the papers, she seemed happy and excited that she was on the partner track at the agency. ”

Realizing there was nothing else they would discover here, Abby moved off the couch. Pillow jumped onto the floor as Morgan stood up; then Charlie followed suit.

“When we get home, we’ll make sure you get the money our mom left you,” Morgan said.

“You all keep it. Carla did more than enough for me.”

“Thank you for talking to us. We’re sorry to have barged in on you like this,” Charlie said.

“I’m glad I finally got to meet all of you, but I wish it were under better circumstances.” Mike led them to the front door with Pillow skittering behind him. As they were about to cross the threshold, Mike stopped them. “Wait, I just remembered something your mother gave me. You should have it.”

A moment later, he came back holding a refrigerator magnet shaped like the state of New York with the words ‘The Only Pizza in Town’ written on top of a picture of a slice of pizza.

Abby glanced at her sisters quizzically.

“Your mother gave this to me when we signed the divorce papers. She thought I’d get a kick out of it because every Friday night after work, we’d order pizza, and I’d once mentioned that going to New York was on my bucket list,” he said.

“Why would Mom have a magnet from New York?” Abby asked.

Charlie shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know, she hated that place.”

“One year, I suggested we all visit New York City, and she said she never wanted to go there because the rats ran rampant, and everyone who lives there is a mugger,” Morgan said.

“I don’t know where she got the magnet,” Mike said, holding it out to them. “But I’m sure she would’ve wanted me to give it to you.”

Abby took it, bounced it from one hand to the other, then turned it over to study it.

“I’ll always be grateful to your mother for what she did for me,” Mike said.

The women thanked him and left.

“Well, that was a waste of time,” Charlie said as they got back in the car.

“No, it wasn’t. We now know that Mom had secrets,” Morgan said.

“And we did get a consolation prize,” Abby said, holding up the magnet.

“I wonder what else she was hiding from us,” Morgan said, hitting the gas and pulling away from the curb so quickly that Abby almost dropped the magnet.