An American Family: Living on the Verge

Meanwhile, Francis fetches the two younger boys from day care, then drives to her cousin’s house a few miles away, where Estephanie and Julian meet her. En route, she calls Luis but gets no answer. She phones Sandra again. “The cops are raiding your house right now,” says Sandra.

“Do they have Luis?”

“I never saw him,” says Sandra.

For the next several hours, Francis is paralyzed by fear and a kind of manic indecision. “I don’t know what to do,” she says. “I don’t want to go home and expose my kids to all that. I don’t know what to do.” Throughout the night, she dials her husband’s cell phone over and over. But Luis never answers.

Chapter Two, “Coming to Terms,” will appear next month.