Breaking Point
“Wait, Cármen, we need to tell Monica… Maybe now she will believe us about Angéla”, Gabbie breaks the silence of the shocking details they just discovered. “No, wait…”, Cármen replies while grabbing her phone from her pocket. “Let’s first figure out where to find Angéla”, she replies while unlocking her phone. They both look at the awful photo of Angéla once again. They look in full disgust at the way she is tied to the chair, her wrists and ankles look bloody from the ropes. Cármen starts zooming in on the photo, moving left to right before pulling away her phone and looking at the wall in front of her. “What’s wrong, Cármen?”, Gabbie asks. Cármen remains silent and keeps staring at the wall in front of her. The silence is abruptly broken by the loud sound of an alarm and flashing lights. They both jump up and look out the window, it’s Monica’s car.
They both run towards the front door and head to the car. “Where is Monica?”, Gabbie shouts confused. “I don’t know, Gabs, but how to turn this thing off? We will wake the whole neighborhood!”, Cármen replies. Right at that moment, the car alarm stops and Monica comes running up to the road, holding drinks in her hands. “I’m so sorry girls”, she tells them while trying to catch a breath. “I went to that deli on the main road to grab us some drinks, but it was so busy, I was like… This is going to be a quick in and out, they will not notice I’m gone, I am so sorry”, she quickly adds before handing both Gabbie and Cármen a seltzer. “Quick, let’s move away from the car, Juanita is awake I see“, Cármen quicky replies while pointing at the house on the corner where the lights just turned on. They walk away towards the main road. They sit down on a bench on the side of the road. They open their seltzers and enjoy the light breeze through their hair. “What’s that?”, Monica asks Gabbie all of a sudden, pointing at the box they took with them from the house. Gabbie looks over at Cármen, who quickly gives her a nod. “We found this box in Cármen’s house, it contains letters from Margret and Miguel, we think it’s some kind of confession, why they targeted my family in the first place, it’s all stilll new and vague, but…”, Gabbie stops talking. Monica looks confused, then tilts her head to the left slightly and opens her mouth, but makes no sound. Gabbie and Cármen look at Monica in disbelief. The woman who always has an answer for everything, is now too stunned to talk.
Gabbie looks at Cármen and they exchange looks for a couple of seconds before they start laughing. “Why are you laughing? What is funny about this all?“, Monica asks annoyed. Gabbie and Cármen start laughing even louder, their laughs turn into uncontrollable laughter, Gabbie even starts to tear up. Monica looks frustrated, gets up from the bench and stands there with her hands resting on her hips. “Girls, please, this all makes no sense. Or are you making this all up and it is all one big fucking act? Then tell me now, so I can hate you now, instead of when the truth finally reaches the light”. “I’m so sorry, but…“, Gabbie replies while wiping away the tears from her face, “…this is just the emotions, Monica. It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions the past couple of days, with this added, I just could not handle myself anymore“, she adds. Monica looks in disbelief but relaxes her hands and sits down again. She takes the box out of Gabbie’s lap and tries to open it but the box remains closed. She looks confused at the two girls. “So, here’s the thing… The box has a fingerprint lock, and it’s linked to Cármen’s finger, only her finger can open this box”, Gabbie replies. “Sure”, Monica replies. She pushes the box back into Gabbie’s hands, she gets up from the bench and walks away. The girls quickly get up from the bench, and follow Monica.
When Monica stops walking, they are back at her car. “Listen, Monica, we did not make this up, I don’t know how, but they have my fingerprints, you have to believe us”, Cármen almost yells at Monica. “No, Cármelita. I’ve had enough of your obsession with Angéla and her… so-called psycho brother. I came here for the photo you had, so please drop this nonsense story and show me this photo, or I’m outta here and you’re on your own”, Monica replies. “But it’s true, tell her”, Gabbie tries to speak, but Cármen stops her. She puts a finger to her lips and pulls out her phone. “Here“, she says, handing her phone to Monica. It’s quiet for a couple of seconds before Monica whispers “Oh my fucking god no” and looks over at the girls in complete shock. “What’s wrong, Mon?”, Cármen asks. “Get in the car… now!”, Monica replies while jumping into the car.