Anniversary
Copyright© 2026 by Vonalt
Chapter 7: Ramos Antes Up the Stakes
The ranch session that started the afternoon after I had talked to Ginny began a little weirdly. The guests seemed distracted, and the staff seemed distracted. Even the horses seemed distracted. I just attributed it to being mid-season and everyone trying to get over the hump of summer. The temperatures in the high desert were definitely higher than usual. No one wanted to be out in the lot for long, and I couldn’t blame them. Flying in from somewhere where it might have been in the low 80s with high humidity and ending up where the temperatures could reach 100 degrees and the low humidity sucked the energy right out of you, was exhausting.
Most of the outdoor activities that we normally did during the week had been replaced with substitutes. There were plenty of calls for swimming in the stock tank and water fights around the barn. It was ‘anything goes’ to beat the heat as long as no one was in danger.
I made sure that both guests and employees stayed hydrated, with frequent rest breaks so that no one overdid it. The misting fans in the horse stable did double duty, keeping people as well as horses cool. Not to worry if your clothes got wet, as they’d be bone dry in a few minutes. That was how dry and hot it was during the day.
One of the stable hands claimed that the fans could cool the temperature by as much as twenty degrees. The horses appreciated the extra attention as guests repeatedly fed them carrots and apples, and curried them again and again. They’d never had it so good as they did that week. Anything to stay cool.
I was sitting at the table eating breakfast with Cletus and Edna Wednesday morning, not paying much attention to anything when I read the lead story in the paper Cletus was perusing. I started choking on the pancake that I had just put in my mouth. I couldn’t wash it down with coffee or I’d burn my throat and make things that much worse.
The paper read ‘Head of Drug Cartel’s Girlfriend Found Hanging in Jail Cell’. I was lightheaded and started hyperventilating. I couldn’t catch my breath and wanted to cry all at once. I could only say that I was a mess if I could use words to describe how I felt.
I tried to read further into the article, but Cletus put the paper down and looked at me with concern on his face. Edna was already up and moving behind me, pounding on my back between my shoulder blades.
“What’s wrong, David?” Cletus’s chair scraped hard against the floor as he stood. “You’re white as a sheet and drenched in sweat. Are you having a heart attack?” His voice had lost all trace of teasing. “Don’t you dare die on me. Stay with me, Son. Breathe.”
Edna kept pounding me between my shoulder blades, determined to dislodge whatever food that she imagined was stuck in my throat.
I stood up and moved away from Edna, then reached for the newspaper that Cletus had been reading. Picking it up and turning it over, I began to read the article to myself.
The article stated that Andrea had appeared before a federal grand jury and had been indicted for mail and wire fraud, as well as laundering drug money for Jorge Ramos, the head of one of the largest cartels in Central America. It also said that she would receive an automatic life sentence, with no chance of parole, if she was found guilty. It further stated that she could have received a greatly reduced sentence, possibly serving it in a minimum-security federal prison, if she had rolled over on Ramos.
The article speculated that Ramos’s long reach might have gotten to her inside the secure jail if she hadn’t committed suicide. It concluded by noting that she had been married to Dr. David Faeth, a noted regional mathematics professor. The same Dr. Faeth had disappeared several months earlier. It wasn’t known whether Dr. Faeth was dead or in hiding from the drug cartel.
I turned around to face Cletus and Edna, who looked at me with concern. Edna was in tears, clearly worried about me; she could tell that I was hurting. I don’t think that she fully understood the source of my distress, but she was willing to do her part to comfort me. Cletus, also not fully grasping what was wrong, looked worried and seemed about to say something.
I beat them to it. Standing there with tears in my eyes and my voice cracking, I said, “That was my wife, Andrea. Her boyfriend, Jorge Ramos, must have had her killed while she was in jail so that she couldn’t testify. She and he had an ongoing relationship the entire time Andrea and I were married. They had been lovers in college, and I met Andrea after they had broken up.”
We were married just after she graduated, and I thought that we had a happy marriage. Little did I know that she had gotten back with Ramos shortly after we were married. Andrea filed for divorce four or five months ago, I forget which. She even had me served on our anniversary at the college where I taught. I was a cuckold and didn’t even know it.
To add insult to injury, she and Ramos tried to make me the patsy for a money-laundering scheme until the attorney who I hired discovered it and contacted the authorities. She evidently got caught and was put in jail, both to protect her and to hold her accountable for her part in the scheme. The Feds wanted to put me in protective custody, and we all know how well that works, so I ran. That’s how I ended up here.”
“You’re a college boy?” Cletus asked, shocked, “And here I thought that you were a good ol’ boy on the run for something you did.” Poor Cletus genuinely sounded disappointed that I wasn’t a fugitive from justice.
“I suppose that you’ll want to go back to attend your wife’s funeral and let those Feds protect you now,” Cletus said, concerned. “You’d be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. I can’t tell you what to do, but I’d pay my respects at a later date if it were me. It would be a whole lot healthier for you.”
“You hush, Cletus. That’s the boy’s wife who died. He has to grieve somehow. you’d want to be at my funeral, grieving, if it were me who was killed. Don’t say that you wouldn’t, ‘cause I know better,” said a miffed Edna. “We each have our own way of grieving.”
“I don’t plan on going back for the funeral. Andrea stopped being my wife when I found out that she’d been cheating on me. She showed no respect for me, our wedding vows, or the commitments that we made to each other,” I sadly said. “I’m trying to come to terms with how I actually feel right now, and all I feel is nothing. I know that’s a terrible thing to say, but that’s how it is.”
I think that my confession shocked Edna. She stood there with her left hand over her mouth, staring at me. She must have thought that I was a monster for saying what I did. Cletus didn’t say anything either, but I could tell that he was surprised at my revelation.
“Let’s finish breakfast. We have guests arriving soon, and I want to be out there to greet them and make sure that things go smoothly. We can talk further after supper when things quiet down some,” I said, trying to smooth things over. “I promise that I won’t let you down and take off heading back east. We have a commitment, and I intend to hold up my part.”
The afternoon went off without a hitch. The guests arrived at the appropriate times; there were no late arrivals. I did my usual greet-and-meet, went over the ranch rules, and introduced the staff. Everyone was enthusiastic about their week at the ranch, and I wished them well before turning them loose for their first meal in the air-conditioned dining hall.
I dreaded walking toward the ranch house, as I knew that I would be sharing the evening meal with Cletus and Edna, as we normally did on Sunday evenings. I expected that they would cut me loose and tell me to have a nice life, but not to come back. I had come to consider the ranch my new home in the short time that I had been here. It was nice being outside instead of lecturing to a classroom of students who had to take the class to fulfill a course requirement. I did like being an educator, but ranch life was more satisfying. The outdoors and the physical labor just made me happier. I went into the house and washed up as I normally did, then went straight to the table and patiently waited for Edna to bring the food out as she always did. Cletus came to the table after performing the same ritual. He washed his hands, took his usual place, and waited for Edna to set the food on the table. Cletus said a prayer after Edna sat down, as he always did before we ate, thanking the Lord for the food that had been prepared and for the hands that prepared it. We served ourselves, as was customary, after the prayer.
No one spoke during the meal, and I found it disturbing not knowing where I stood with Cletus and Edna. I had come to consider them my adoptive parents, or at least a favored aunt and uncle, in a short period of time. I wanted to make them proud of me, no matter what.
Edna got up to clear the table, as she always did, after we finished eating, and brought back mugs of coffee for herself and Cletus, and an iced tea for me. I can’t stand coffee, so sue me. She sat back down, and then things got interesting.
Cletus started off by saying, “We want you to know that you’ve grown on us in the short time that we’ve known you. You are the third son that we always wished we had. Edna and I think that much of you. We would understand if you feel that you need to go back for your wife’s memorial service. Just know you’ll have your job waiting for you that if you come back.”
Edna reached out to pat my arm as Cletus spoke. His words affected me, and my eyes misted over. Cletus spoke from the heart, and I knew that I had people who would stand by me no matter what. It had been a long time since I had felt that. I don’t think that my mother had ever said anything like that to me while I was growing up or after I left home.
“You don’t know how comforting that is to me. No one in my life has ever spoken words of comfort and support like you just did. Part of me wants to go right now, but Andrea never really was a wife to me, like I said this morning. I was her cuckold so that she could continue her relationship with that bastard Ramos. I doubt that she ever truly loved me, and I was just a shield and backup in her ongoing relationship with her drug kingpin boyfriend.”
“That must be terrible to come to terms with, David,” Edna said, entering the conversation. “I don’t know how she could have been so callous all those years, pretending to be your loving wife. Don’t you worry, there’s a special place in the afterlife for people like her, and it won’t be a pleasant experience.”
“So what are you going to do, our adopted son?” Cletus asked, curious. “You going back, or are you staying here?”
“It depends on what answers I get when I call my attorney tomorrow. Chances are that there won’t be any changes, and we’ll keep going with what we’ve been doing. My biggest fear is that Ramos is still after me, and he’ll have a better chance of getting to me if I go back. I don’t put much confidence in the protection the Feds are offering. I stand a better chance staying here than going back.”
“Just know that we will support you whatever you decide,” Edna said.
I decided after we talked it over that I would leave early in the morning and drive ninety minutes to the Kaibab Indian Reservation in Arizona to purchase two prepaid phones with the cheapest plans the system offered. I would use one phone to call Rose and the other to call Ginny, my Apache girlfriend.