It was not the first time the doubt of this course of action popped up but this time it was too late for Darcy to turn and go back to before. To the before, the time before she found out she had a little sister. Before her thoughts got away from her again the door opened, and a young woman stood before her. At finding a stranger at the door, the young woman asked “Yes, how may I help you?”
“Hi, my name is Darcy Lewis. Is there possibly a woman called Leticia Ortiz residing in this house?” she asked.
The young woman’s shoulders stiffened minuscule as her answer came “May I ask what this is regarding?”.
With her curiosity growing about the reaction, Darcy answered the yet unnamed young woman. “I would like to share some personal information with Ms. Ortiz and as such would like to speak with her as soon as possible in private. Is she at home right now?”
After a few seconds Darcy finally received answers to her questions “Letty does live here but I am afraid that she isn’t at home right now.” After checking the time, she added that Letty would be home in a few minutes. “Would you like to wait for her inside the house?”
“I’m sorry, when you are speaking of Letty, I assume you are speaking of Leticia Ortiz?” As the young woman quickly apologized and confirmed that they were indeed speaking of the same person she stepped aside to let Darcy into the house.
While showing Darcy into the living room, she at the same time asked if she could offer something to drink. After receiving an affirmative answer, the young woman left through another door to the kitchen. While Darcy was waiting for her to return, she chose to look at some of the photos on the walls of the living room. One of the often-occurring women in the photos was the young woman who was getting refreshments for the both of them. The other woman, though, some of her features she recognized from every time she looked at the mirror.
Once the young woman returned with the offered drinks, Darcy finally got the opportunity to ask for her name. “I’m sorry, I should have introduced myself before, but I wasn’t expecting anyone at this time of the afternoon. My name is Mia Toretto”
Darcy waived the apology away as they sat down to wait for Letty she started asking “How did you and Letty come to live here together? It’s a quite large house for only two people, are you the only ones who live here?”
“Well, originally I and my brother grew up here with our parents but sadly they passed some time ago.” In response to this, Darcy quickly apologized. “No, no, it’s okay. My brother, Dominic, has been in a relationship with Letty since they were teenagers and a few years ago she moved in with him here. Since then some of our friends have moved in here as well because of different reasons.”
“So, you and Letty know each other pretty well by now?”
“Yeah, for as long as I can remember has Letty been one of my brother’s friends and as they got older, they got together, so I practically grew up with Letty. We have always been quite close and more so since she moved in here. It doesn’t exactly hurt either that we all work together”
As Darcy tried to quench her nervousness once again, she chose to focus on her conversation with Mia. “Sounds like you are quite a close family, what kind of work do you do?”
“Well, we have two different business in the family, one is a garage where everyone living here works and then there’s the supermarket. The guys and Letty work as mechanics in different capacities capacity while I do the administration for both places and step in on the floor at the supermarket when needed.”
As Mia started to say something else, the sound of the front door opening was suddenly heard and with-it multiple voices getting louder, and Darcy’s nervousness returned in full force. Both stood up in response to the new activity in the house.
As the newcomer’s entered the living room Darcy heard Mia give a sharp whistle which quite suddenly silenced everyone. “Guys, this is Darcy Lewis. She is here to speak with Letty on a private matter. Darcy, this is Leon, Vince and Jesse, they both live here and work in our garage.” Mia chose to introduce Letty to Darcy as the final person in the group, right after introducing Dominic, Mias’s brother and Letty’s boyfriend.
“Hello, everyone, as Mia just told you my name is Darcy Lewis and I am here to speak with Ms. Ortiz on a personal matter.” Turning to letter she continued with, “I think it may be best if we could talk privately?”
As a near silent conversation concluded among the inhabitants of the house, everyone but Mia, Dom and Letty left the house, who then turned towards her expectantly.
Darcy complied with their silent urging of her sharing her information. “Letty, would you mind telling me what you know of your father?
Letty’s answer came quickly and said that the man had left her and her mom when she was only a toddler. She also disclosed that she had never any contact with the man that she could remember.
Darcy, due to her own experiences with the man, wasn’t very surprised with Letty’s description of the man but it still hurt that she hadn’t been the only one who that experience with him.
“If you are not already aware of what I am about to say, I would like to apologize for bringing these matters to your attention. Three months ago, your father passed away and as such the state contacted me. I was notified of his death since he is not only your father but mine as well. You are my younger half-sister, Letty. Just like you I had not had any contact with him for as long as I can remember. As such I had no idea that I had any siblings, let alone a younger half-sister. It was as I was taking care of his estate that I discovered you. I should have been in contact with you earlier, but you were quite hard to find, and I did not want to tell you this over the phone. This week was my first opportunity for taking some vacation and coming out here to Los Angeles. I would like to give you some time to process this, but I would very much like to get to know you better in the future.” As Darcy was finishing her speech, she concealed her shaking hands by pulling her purse into her lap.
All three of the people sitting opposite Darcy on the couch was, understandably, quite thoroughly shocked.
While Darcy gave them some time to process this on their own, she pulled an envelope from her purse. “I brought this with me to Los Angeles in hope that you would be here, it contains some photos of our father and documents regarding his estate. There is information regarding your share of his assets and how to access it for when you feel ready”
As Darcy was standing up, she added. “You will also find my contact information in there for when or if you would like to get in touch with me. My fiancé and I will be in Los Angeles all week if you would like to meet sometime soon.”
When she got to the door, she turned to say, “Please, do not hesitate to call if you have any questions”, before she exited the house.