I felt a sense of relief that it was not something else, that it wasn’t some fatal disease. “You’re all I’ve ever wanted.”
“But you do want children. I know you do, because you didn’t go through with the vasectomy. You want to be a father, Sam. I’ve known since that day that you wanted to be a father. I just didn’t have an answer—not until you came back and you spoke of Fernando. I wanted to wait to give you an answer until we knew for certain.”
“Fernando?”
“I knew that he was meant for you, for both of us.”
“I’m still hopeful—”
Mickie raised a hand. “I’ve been working on accelerating the process ever since you told me. Your mother helped.”
“My mother?”
Mickie nodded. “I was hoping she’d live long enough to see her grandson. She was so happy for you, Sam. Happy for us.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You said you wanted to adopt him but that it would help if we were married. Your mother and I filled out additional paperwork. You and I are married, Sam. It’s the only fib I ever heard your mother tell in her entire life.”
“My mother lied?” I said.
“White lie,” Mickie said. “Anyway, I got the call from the orphanage as soon as I landed in Mexico. I checked out and flew to Costa Rica. All our paperwork is being processed, Sam. All they need is to personally interview you, but it’s a formality. A woman at the orphanage said she already knew you, that she’d been in the room when you met Fernando.”
“I remember her.”
“She vouched for you, Sam.” Mickie stood and took my hand. “She wrote a beautiful letter of reference for you. So did your colleagues at Orbis. Fernando will be our son, Sam.”
“Our son?”
Mickie nodded and smiled. “We’ll be a family, Sam. If you’ll still have me.”
I was speechless. I felt numb, and for a moment I could not move. I thought of my mother. “Don’t move,” I said. Then I started up the stairs.
“Where are you going?”
“Not a step. Not a single step,” I said.
I ran into the bedroom and opened the dresser, grabbing the black box beside my mother’s rosary. I hurried back downstairs. Mickie was in the same spot. For once in her life, she’d stayed put.
I dropped to a knee, my heart beating fast. I wanted to get the words out before she could say another thing.
“Mickie Kennedy,” I said. “Will you marry me?”
I opened the black box and produced the diamond that had adorned my mother’s wedding finger for more than forty years. I’d had it reset and surrounded it with tiny red rubies.
EPILOGUE
The first Sunday after we brought Fernando home, we took him to Our Lady of Mercy church. We arrived early, and I instinctively turned to the pew that had become my mother and father’s pew during their years of devotion. Mickie had not rekindled her faith, but she wanted one for Fernando. When he was older, he could choose for himself. As Mickie sat in the pew, I took Fernando by the hand and walked him to the alcove to the right of the altar, where we knelt before the Blessed Mother.
“Este es la madre bendita,” I said. This is the Blessed Mother. “Ask her to help you, and she will. Prayers are like coins you put into a piggy bank. You store them for when you most need them.”
Fernando looked at me and shook his head. “？Qué es una alcancía?” he asked. What is a piggy bank?
I tussled his hair and started to laugh.