XII
"So who is this?" Carmen's mother asked as she looked back and forth from James to her and then back to James. Carmen walked towards him as she forced a smile. He smiled back at her. She invited him inside and closed the door before turning to her mother and finally answering her question.
"Mom, this is James."
"Okay, I got that when you said his name. What I meant was, who is he to you that he's ringing the bell so late?"
She took in a deep breath before asking her mother and James to follow her to the living room. And once they were in the living room, her mother took a seat on the couch. Carmen held onto James' hand before smiling as she said,
"He's my fiance."
Her mother looked at her with an emotionless face. Carmen released her grip on James' hand and began to play with her ring as she waited for her mother to reply. But the moment of silence continued to drag as her mother simply looked at them.
"It's very nice to meet you, I've heard so many great things from Carmen," James said, finally breaking the silence.
"That's funny, considering I haven't heard anything about you from Carmen," her mother said. And although her tone was flat, Carmen could tell that she was unhappy. She watched as her mother suddenly stood up and began to walk away.
"Did I say something wrong?" James whispered. Carmen turned to him with a small smile and shook her head.
"No, I think she's just surprised. I'll go and talk to her," she whispered back to him. She placed a soft kiss on his cheek before going after her mother.
"Mom," she called out to her mother, causing her to stop walking and turn around. However, instead of saying something, her mother just looked at her.
"I know this is very surprising--"
"Well that's an understatement," her mother commented under her breath.
"But let me explain."
"Okay, go ahead; I'm listening."
Carmen took in a deep breath before saying,
"We've been engaged for two years."
"Two years?! And I'm only just hearing about it now?!"
"Mom, calm down--"
"Calm down? How can I when you're only just telling me about your engagement to some guy that I literally just met? Huh?"
"I know it's a lot but just let me explain," she pleaded with her mother. Her mother sighed before walking into the dining room and taking a seat at the dining table. Carmen sat across from her.
"I've actually known James since college. And we had been dating for a while before...I got pregnant," she whispered the last word.
"So does he know that you had a baby with someone else then?"
Silence.
Carmen opened her mouth to speak but found that no words came out. It was true that she had tried to talk to him about it before, when she had first found out that she was pregnant. But him leaving to go across the country had kept her from telling him what had actually happened. And now that they were engaged, he deserved to know the truth. But she couldn't bring herself to tell him, for fear of losing him.
"How do you expect to get married to him when you have a daughter somewhere? Did you think you could just forget that ever happened? What if you run into Taylor or your daughter one day? How are you going to explain that?"
Carmen kept her head down, her eyes focused on the ring as her vision began to blur with tears.
"Just forget about the fact that you're engaged for a second. If you were just dating, how do you think he would feel about finding out that you had a daughter with someone else and you didn't tell him the whole time?"
As her mother's words reached her ears, it felt as if each word was a knife that was stabbing her heart. She faintly felt her mother's touch as she wrapped her hands around hers.
"I'm not saying that I'm against your marriage--I barely know the guy. But until you get that sorted out, I don't think this marriage would be fair to him."
ns 18.68.41.141da2
