Free Betrayed (The New Yorker) by M. O. Kenyan Page A

nonexistent. “Sit up. I want to tell you
something.”
    “What is it?” Reno looked at her
with a worried frown.
    Lisette was about to share her past
with Reno. She thought that was the best way to establish trust. Maybe he would
confide in her after she told him her story. Once she had Reno’s full
attention, Lisette grew frightened and unsure.
    “You know you can trust me with
anything you tell me.”
    Lisette gave him a nod, before she
begun. “I wasn’t born in the U.S. My mother and I lived in Mexico before we
moved here. Actually we didn’t just move, we were running away—”

 
    Lisette
could remember her mother’s screams as they pierced the night air. The daily
pleadings and begging was something she always kept with her. Rosalinda was the
traditional catholic girl. She didn’t believe in divorce, she always hoped and
prayed that her marriage would get better. But then, it seemed each one of her
prayers hit the ceiling and came back down. There was no way of taming the evil
monster that her father, Ricardo, had turned into, back into the loving man she
had met. So Lisette decided to help her mother pray, but she didn’t pray for
her father to change. She prayed for her mother to grow a backbone and take
them out of there. She was five years old and yet she seemed to have grown wise
to the ways of the world.
    Lisette
turned away when faced with her mother’s purple swollen face, or her father’s
drunken demands of affection. Until this day the picture of alcohol and
violence had kept her sober. There was no way she was going to try that bottled
evil, she had vowed to herself. That was when she believed that alcohol was the
root of all evil.
    It had
taken her father’s untimed punch that had got Rosalinda back to her God given
senses. Her father had planned on hitting Rosalinda but instead caught Lisette
in the jaw. The ferocious weight of the pump was too much for her little body
to bear. All Lisette could remember was the pain that was followed by a cloud
of darkness engulfing her. When she woke up she was in her grandfather’s truck
and they were heading away from home.
    Lisette had
resented her mother for a while after that. She didn’t speak but respectfully
did as she was instructed. When they crossed the border into the United States,
she thought everything would be better. It didn’t matter where they went; the
evil of Ricardo followed them. Lisette remembered feeling safer when her mother
started working in Adrian Ross’s house. Rosalinda kept Lisette out of sight and
all she had were books that helped her learn English.
    She had
watched the motherless boy grow attached to Rosalinda all the while Lisette was
supposed to hide. But one day she was fed up with it. She went into the
gigantic kitchen and began making herself a meal. That was when Adrian Ross
walked in. Lisette was obviously scared, but she was too stubborn and hungry to
run from him. Adrian watched her for a second before sitting at the dining
table with her. They ate in silence, a silence that was quickly disrupted by
the sound of a plate breaking. Lisette turned to find Rosalinda behind her,
shattered ceramic at her feet and her hands trembling over her lips.
    “I’m so
sorry, sir. I will take her away,” Rosalinda said and Lisette snorted in reply.
Staring at her food she continued eating, and when her mother tried to pull her
away she locked her legs around the legs of the chair, and held onto the table
for dear life. She wasn’t moving, and no one was going to make her leave.
    “Maybe you
should let her finish her food.” Adrian came to her defense. Lisette glared at
him suspiciously, waiting for him to ask for something in return. But he
didn’t. Instead he put a piece of bacon on her plate. Lisette could feel a tear
prickle her eyes. She had vowed never to let anyone to see her weak. So instead
of saying thank you she pushed the plate away and left the dining room.
    She found
herself welcome in the house. The