‘Yes and no. My mom, while more compliant to Rodrigo’s will than it seemed Dorina was, still stuck up for me and pushed back when she saw fit. So, it wasn’t the complete domination that Frank seemed to idolize.’ Cris shrugged. ‘But I know my dad was raised in a very different environment. The men dictated when and what the family ate, how the children were raised, and if punishment was doled out, it was always given by them, not the women. Once Dorina passed away, Frank and our dad developed an incredibly close relationship, like a club that I never quite became a part of. I overheard him say to Frank one time that a wife’s role should be as a servant to her husband, rather than a partner.’

‘Servant? That seems extreme,’ I replied, hanging onto his every word.

‘When I was growing up I didn’t think much about it, but now looking back in this day and age, I guess it was quite extreme.’

He paused, taking a sip of water from the glass in front of him before setting it back down, adjusting its position so that it was lined up perfectly with the glasses on either side. Now that I knew my uncle wasn’t the killer, his quirks seemed less ominous, although I couldn’t help but mentally relate it to Frank’s dark obsessive behaviors. I hoped that in time, I wouldn’t think of Frank when I looked at him.

Suddenly, the family photos I’d seen of my mother with Frank and Gloria popped into my mind. The studio portrait and Teresa’s communion. Through the new lens of who Frank really was, what I’d interpreted as a loving, fatherly gesture, resting his hand on her shoulder, now seemed menacing and controlling. Keeping her and Gloria close and obedient.

Cris continued, ‘To be honest, Frank always seemed angry when my mother served our father. At first, I thought it was jealousy, but now I don’t think so.’

‘Angry? Wouldn’t your mother serving your father fit into his ideology?’ Beck asked.

‘I think he was angry that his own mother hadn’t been subservient to our father, and my mother’s loving relationship with me and my dad probably just emphasized that difference to him.’ Cris looked over at me. ‘He hated Dorina for her punishments most of all. Not only because of how harsh they were but also because he didn’t believe she had any right to punish him in the first place. He even told me he believed the reason she’d died so young at age thirty-two was because God had punished her for being an unholy woman.’

I listened with wide eyes, shocked that I was actually related to such a man. ‘That’s insane.’ It was difficult hearing about this outdated ideology my grandfather clearly believed in.