Читать книгу Stolen Identity - Carmen María Montiel - Страница 15

As had become our tradition, we spent Christmas and New Year’s in Colorado at our apartment in Beaver Creek. The kids are now 15, 12 and 6 years of age. Juan Diego is still in ski school but the girls ski with us. All in the family are great skiers and we enjoy the sport. It was our first day of skiing and Alejandro, as usual, had a red face, as he does not use sunblock.

On Christmas Eve, we went to have drinks with friends before Christmas dinner with the children at the Hyatt Hotel. We sat in a space close to the bar and a bartender was taking care of us.

However, Alejandro went to the bar himself and got our drinks. I could not understand why. When he came back with the drinks, I said: “Why didn’t you ask the waiter for them?”

“Ah! He was taking too long,” he responded.

I thought he was being extra nice because we were not living together then. He should not have come on this trip.

After our friends left, we stayed a little longer and Alejandro went back to the bar for a second set of drinks. As usual, we started fighting. The therapist had recommended that we put distance between ourselves when fights started.

I left to get our car with the valet and noticed I could hardly walk. Why? What was happening to me?

When I got to the apartment, the children were walking out. Why? We had dinner reservations. Alejandro got there right behind me and started screaming: “Why did you leave me?”

“The therapist said to put distance between us when problems start, plus we have to get ready for dinner,” I said.

“What dinner? You ruined everything.”

“How? What did I ruin?”

I was dizzy. I could not understand what was he talking about. He came close and started hitting me. I already had bruises from a previous day. Once again, I decided to leave, to put distance between us.

I did not know where to go. It was Christmas Eve. Everybody was having family time. We had dinner reservations with the children; now we did not. I decided to get on I-70 toward Vail.

That was the night Alejandro called the police and told them I was driving drunk in a blue Hummer 3 with Texas license plates. This was his first success in getting me in trouble with the authorities. And that became his golden card. After this I was at his mercy.

I was scared and knew I was not well. I only remember having less than two glasses of wine. I did not finish the second glass, so why did I feel so bad and start to lose consciousness after the first drink? Alejandro even exaggerated this story knowing he had drugged me that day and purposely put me in that position, something he had been doing for a while I came to find out later.

When I went to court, I could not believe when I read the police report. Besides calling the police to report I was driving drunk and giving them the description of the car so they would get me, he told them I had hit him and used his “red” cheeks as evidence!

We just started to ski so, of course, his cheeks were red. He furthered his accusations by saying I had a history of mental problems, more of his lies.

What? I thought to myself. How could he come up with all these lies? And then act with me like he had done nothing? How could he ever imagine that I would never read this report? I realized then the power that doctors have. People take their word as if it was incorruptible, even if what he was saying sounded unreasonable. Who are you going to believe: the doctor or the beauty queen? Yes, he always told the authorities I was just a beauty queen and failed to mention that I was also a journalist who had graduated magna cum laude. Once he realized he had that power, he went on manipulating the authorities.

What was worse was to read the reaction I had. I could hardly remember what happened. But in the last months, I could not remember what happened on so many of occasions.

Alejandro arranged with the lawyer to get a deal for me. As a first offense, a lawyer could have fought the charge and had everything completely dropped. But that was not Alejandro’s intention.

I was trapped in this situation.

“Carmen, this will teach you a lesson,” he said. “You really need a lesson. After all, you were not properly raised.”

And who is he to know how a properly raised person behaves when he had no family and was raised in a mall?

“I did nothing, Alejandro. You called the police and said I was driving drunk, something I do not understand. I only remember having one drink and then I was totally drunk. How did that happen? Not only that, you accused me of hitting you, when I escaped from you; I escaped from your attack.”

“Carmen, do this. You have no other choice. Just follow the rules.”

Somehow, he had a look of happiness on his face.

After that, I could never tell him anything. Every time I said something that bothered him, he would answer, “Well, sweetie, do you want me to call the District Attorney in Colorado?” especially when we were in Colorado. One day, we were having a fight and he said that. We were in Colorado with my son, just the three of us. I found out he was texting with one of his girlfriends and told him about it.

He started to scream: “Definitely you do not learn. I am calling the police now and having you locked up.”

My son was only six years old. He came to hug and kiss me. “Mami, this is in case you go!” he said.

I started to cry and hug my baby. How did my family end up like this?

I called the police in Houston on three more occasions when he hit me and bit me or dragged me by my hair, like he did in a restaurant parking lot earlier that December. That day, a bystander, a US Air Force Colonel who later became a General, saw him in action. This investigation was what made him determined to stop it, and that is how Christmas Eve happened.

On those occasions I had evidence of his attacks. Once I had fresh teeth marks on my shoulder, hand and breast. Twice the Houston police were ready to arrest him, but he told them I had problems in Colorado.

That was it! They took us both in, and my hand got infected in jail. The doctor there could not understand why I was arrested when I had visible attack marks—just like that officer in Houston could not believe I was accused of a federal crime for what could be, if anything, a contempt of court charge. I was never able to prove he was attacking me until July 2013.

Alejandro always said: “The power that being a doctor gives you!” He knew it and used it.

I decided to start taking pictures of my bruises and scars as evidence, sending them to my best friend in Venezuela for safekeeping. I was worried that Alejandro would find out and destroy them. I lived in fear that something fatal would happen to me and told Gustavo to please keep the photos safe just in case.

Gustavo was desperate. My best friend since we were kids, he was helping me find a way to get out of this abusive relationship. But he knew that if I was in Venezuela the outcome could be worse.

It was not until the next fall that I realized Alejandro had been putting drugs in my drinks. And after we separated, I found out that all the medications he had given me for my asthma or colds were for mental problems. He had me on an emotional roller coaster.