All The Broken Girls by Linda Hurtado Bond

Author:Linda Hurtado Bond
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: thriller;suspense;mystery;murder;Santeria;Evil Eye;stalker;reporter;Cuba;Tampa;newsroom;procedural;serial killer;danger;gang;gangbanger;kidnap;revenge;vigilante;justice;curse;TV news;police;detective;clue;crime;cold case;killing;fire;explosion;news anchor;who done it;domino;female lead;azabache;superstition;Babalawo;Orisha;fiction;death;crime junkie;Pulp Thrillers;Serial Killers;Murder;Vigilante Justice;Crime Thrillers;Police Procedurals;Psychological Fiction;Women's Detective Fiction;Thrillers;Mystery;Thriller & Suspense Literary Fiction;Psychological Thrillers;Noir Crime;Kidnapping Crime Fiction;Crime Fiction;Suspense;Genre Fiction;Entangled publishing;Amara;Mass Market paperback thriller;new thriller book;popular thriller book;single title thriller;stand alone thriller book;2022 Thriller book;2022 Mass Market Thriller;Linda Bond;Linda Hurtado Bond;All The Broken Girls;Fast paced fiction;fast paced thriller;fast paced suspense;Cuban Fiction;Miami fiction;Cuba;Florida;News reporter;Detective;True Crime;who done it fiction;Strong female lead character;News anchor
Published: 2022-05-03T03:11:30+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Your father,” Beatriz asks. “What does he do?”

The question stuns me.

We’re still at the family dining room table, despite me deciding it’s time to leave while I still have my pride. But García’s mother isn’t ready to let me go. “My father is dead.” My blunt, tell-it-like-it-is reporter comes out. It always does. I thought Beatriz might know that already, considering how our family’s past made the news.

Another awkward pause.

Lately, I seem to be the queen of instigating them. I hear the clock on the wall ticking. Wanna get away?

“I’m sorry, Marisol.” Color fills Beatriz’s cheeks. “I remember now.”

“Let me make coffee.” The oldest brother’s wife jumps up from her seat. “Any takers?” She’s probably thrilled to get away.

“Yes,” I say, even though I’m supposed to be getting out of here before I do more damage.

“I’ll get the rice pudding,” the other daughter-in-law says, pushing her chair back and making her escape.

Beatriz reaches out for my hand again. “Do not feel embarrassed.” This time my fingers are like ice. “Many young people do not understand how to handle grief. I asked you here tonight because I can feel yours.” With her other hand, she encases my fingers, rubbing them warm. “You have such heaviness about you.”

García is now pushing his grandfather out of the living room, heading toward a hallway. Antonio García the first is still moaning, an awful wail that makes me cringe. But the family doesn’t recoil like I do—this must be a sound they’ve grown accustomed to. Both brothers jump up and come to García’s aid. I guess they’ll all help get their grandad into bed.

“You remind me of Antonio.” Beatriz is also watching her sons. “He bears the weight of his grandfather’s stories on his shoulders.”

And the weight of his grandfather’s body and pain.

“Antonio thinks if he can solve our city’s problems, he can make up for the atrocities his grandfather and father suffered.”

He believes in justice. But by the book. The brothers disappear, back to their grandfather’s bedroom, I think.

“It’s better to concentrate on solving current problems,” his mom says, her focus back on me.

I swallow, lick my lips. “You want to solve mine?” It’s been so long since someone other than close family tried to break through my wall and get in. I usually don’t trust people. The reporter in me is a natural skeptic. But my heart is stretching, like fingers, reaching out to connect with this woman.

“The Babalawo says I can help you,” she says. “But he wasn’t able to tell me how.”

“Or how I’m in trouble?”

She shakes her head.

Then what’s the point? Do I speak the truth? Open my wounds for this woman I barely know? At least García is no longer listening.

It’s only Beatriz and me.

Tonight, I feel blessed to have someone willing to listen and hopefully not judge. So I decide to tell her the awful family secret I’ve held close for so long. “My mother was having an affair with a coworker. For years. I think my father knew.

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