Hidden Heart (41 page)

He sat opposite her, looked
at her gobbling her food, still not saying a word.

“
Mmm, this is delicious,”
she said, minutes later. She looked around and, making a quick
circle in the air with a finger, she said, “Nice place. Modern.
Looks exactly like a bachelor pad.”

He began eating, eyeing her
above mouthfuls of food. “Thanks,” was the only word he
said.

She finished her meal,
stood and walked to the fridge. “Anything to drink?” but she
already had a bottle of ice tea in her hand.

She opened several
cupboards until she found glasses, placed one in front of him and
filled it up, first with ice, then ice tea from the same
bottle.

“
Do you always go through
people’s kitchen, opening cupboards and helping yourself to their
stuff?” he placed the bowl in the sink, not bothering to rinse
it.

“
No, not all people. Just
my brother’s.”

He sighed and clenched his
jaw, then turned on the faucet and rinsed his bowl. She handed him
hers, which he took and rinsed as well.

“
Okay, kitchen is clean,”
Tessa said after throwing the empty boxes into the trash. She
walked past him and, since he didn’t bother to show her around, she
inspected the rest of the apartment.

“
This place is bigger than
any normal apartment. How in the world do you have five bedrooms
and three baths?” she yelled from one of the bedrooms.

Cristian found her and
said, “I bought the other two apartments and broke some of the
partition walls. Mrs. Voinea is the only other person living on the
floor. I bought hers too and when she dies, I’ll expand even more.”
He turned around and walked into the living room.

Tessa finished examining
Cristian’s apartment and came and sat next to him on the sofa. He
watched a boxing match on TV, ignoring her or at least pretending
to ignore her. For the next twenty minutes neither of them spoke.
In the beginning Tessa watched the fight, but the kicking and the
blood didn’t sit well with her.

“
I guess we have something
else in common other than the same father,” she said when she
couldn’t take the silence any longer.

He looked briefly at her
then said, “What’s that?”

“
Stubbornness.” She pulled
her legs underneath her and rested an elbow on the back of the
sofa, staring at him. “As children, my sisters and I played this
game called mum and we’d mimic and grimace until whoever made the
slightest noise would be disqualified. You wanna try
it?”

He turned off the TV and
turned to face her, copying her body position. “You came all the
way here to play mum with me?”

“
I came because I was
worried about you. Besides, that’s what siblings do,
right?”

“
Tessa, you have to stop
this
sibling this, sibling that, brother
here, sister there
…I still have a huge
issue with this and I don’t want to talk about it.”

“
Why does it bother you so
much? Is it because it’s
me
or do you struggle with the notion of a
half-sister?” she asked.

He didn’t say anything;
instead he picked up the remote and held it as if he wanted to turn
the TV back on, but he didn’t.

“
It’s because…because of
you,” he said, not looking straight at her. He stood and walked
away, looking out the window. “I feel like such an idiot for
putting my heart out there and finding out afterwards that you’re
my sister. When I saw you at my father’s house it was like the rug
had been pulled from under my feet. I just can’t look at you
without feeling ashamed for wanting you. Can you imagine what it
would’ve been like if that night we would’ve had sex?” He shook his
head and turned to look at her, his eyes sparkling with
apprehension.

Tessa stood and came to
face him. Shrugging a shoulder, she said, “I’ve been asking myself
the same question, freaking out over it. But I can’t and won’t do
it anymore. We
haven’t
slept together and that’s what matters. I want you and Adrian
in my life and I’ll be damned if I can’t have you both. We belong
together. True, not in the way you wanted, but hopefully in time
you’ll forgive him. I want to grow old together, share holidays
together, have our children play together; you and I have a bond we
can’t deny, no matter how pissed off you are at Adrian right
now.”

Cristian shook his head and
walked away, returning to the sofa. The boxing match was back
on.

“
He is pretty worried about
you,” Tessa said.

“
And you are a pest, you
know that?”

“
Get used to it.” She came
next to him, ruffled his hair, then placed a kiss on top of his
head and walked away. “See you tomorrow night. Dinner’s at six. I
have Eva, a friend coming over, and she’s amazing. The fundraiser
is around the corner and I asked her to help us. And if you have
any leftover pie from your neighbor, please bring it. I love
cherry-pie.”

***

Now that finding her
biological father wasn’t an issue anymore, Tessa became a machine
over the next few weeks, working hard to organize the fundraising
event for Dina’s establishment. She visited the shelter as often as
she could, met with Cristian and Eva a few times and, as the
deadline approached, she felt really excited. She had a hunch that
the two of them liked each other, but when she asked them, they
both denied it. Eva’s flushed face, her giggle, her nervous hands
were sure signs of her liking Cristian. And Cristian’s teasing and
glances at Eva when he thought she didn’t see him lasted a bit too
long not to mean something.

Tessa met with several
influential people capable of making beneficial changes. Some
thought trying to help abused women was a good cause, but it was
hard to make the government take it as a serious problem. Some said
they’d be happy to make donations, but wanted to keep their names
and involvement anonymous. Some thought it was a lost cause and
refused to have anything to do with it.

Dina’s circle of friends
was quite large and most of them were people with money. Together
with the people on Tessa’s list, the fundraiser promised to be
successful.

Dina opened the evening
with a touching speech, followed by several women who told their
stories and how they got there. Others, the ones doing volunteer
work, talked about the gratitude they felt seeing there was hope
and help to make a change in the lives of fugitive mothers and
their children.

With Cristian’s help,
several reporters came, two of them from a major newspaper and one
of them from a very popular TV channel. The guy promised to do his
best to persuade his supervisors to show the material on TV at a
primetime hour when ratings were up.

Tessa’s speech was the last
one and she was a wreck, pacing the backstage behind the curtains.
She’d thought for days about what she’d say, but now the words
seemed to have evaporated from her mind. If only she had written
them down.

“
How do I look?” She
gripped Eva’s arm when she walked by.

Eva stopped, measured her
from head to toe, made her turn around and said, “Gorgeous. This
black dress molds to your body perfectly. Where did you get the
shoes? Your legs are so sexy with those shoes, and this shade of
pink gloss makes your lips even fuller, and your eyes are
electrifying, and your hair is shiny and this set of
pear—”

Tessa put both hands over
her ears. “Eva,
stop
. I asked you how I look and you go on this elaborate rant
about everything. A simple
good
or
bad
would’ve really been enough.”

Eva gave a thumbs up,
“You’re next in thirty-five seconds” then walked away, talking into
her headset.

Tessa heard the applause,
signaling the speech before hers was over. She closed her eyes and
breathed in and out, big gulps of air. She clenched her hands in
fists a few times, then walked out on the stage, approaching the
stand and looking around the room. Several seconds that felt like
minutes passed before she spoke, but when she finally did, her
voice sounded calm.

“
There are hundreds of
thousands of women among us who are physically, verbally, and
emotionally abused and I was one of them. A year ago to the day, I
almost died at the hands of the man I planned to spend my life
with. We’d been together since high school and I thought I knew him
inside and out. I was wrong. One day he came to my apartment, hit
me, and raped me. My body healed, in time, but my soul and heart
bled for months. I lost my identity. I wanted to die and stop the
pain, stop the nightmares, stop the voices in my head, the voices
that told me I deserved it, that I looked for it, because I’d
done
nothing
to
stop him.” Tessa took a few short breaths, forcing herself not to
cry. She saw shocked faces and heard the murmur around the room,
but she needed to say it out loud for everyone to hear.

She sniffled and, looking
at her audience, she continued, “For months I’ve been an empty
body, with nothing to give, nothing to hold onto. My life wasn’t
mine anymore. And then, one day, my dear friend Dina told me about
this shelter for women in need and I have this desperate desire to
do something for them. But I can’t do it alone. I need your help.
Thank you for coming, thank you for your generous donations. Let’s
make this a memorable event. Hopefully many more will
follow.”

From the corner of her
eyes, Tessa saw someone standing and applauding. It was her
favorite actor, who surprised her by accepting her invitation.
Others followed his example and the room exploded with applause.
Out of nowhere, Victor appeared next to her, handing her a bouquet
of white roses. He gave her a heartfelt hug, and helped her walk
down the few steps off the stage.

“
I can’t believe you never
told me,” Cristian whispered in her hair, holding her tight. “We
need to talk about it.”

Tessa laughed and cried at
the same time. “I have no idea how I got the courage to walk out
there and tell my story in front of those strangers, but my
therapist was right; it feels so good! And I don’t want to talk
about it anymore. It’s over,” she said, between sobs mixed with
laughter. “I have my life back, I have my life back,” she kept
saying against her brother’s shoulder. She felt safe in his arms,
an embrace she’d become accustomed to and looked forward to in the
years to come.

She felt a light tap on her
shoulder. Cristian let go of her and when she turned around, she
saw Adrian. He pinched the tip of his nose and shuffled on his
feet.

“
Father,” she exclaimed,
hugged him briefly and then realized what she just called him.
Embarrassed, she said, “Sorry, Adrian, my emotions are running wild
tonight.”

Adrian kissed her hand,
patted her cheek and said, “No need to apologize. I don’t hear it
enough.” He looked at Cristian, who scratched the back of his head,
then pulled at his hair, spiking it.

Tessa knew her brother
enough by now to recognize the signs of nervousness. She elbowed
him lightly and said, “This son of yours and brother of mine has
done an incredible job helping me put this event together. I’d like
to thank him by having dinner at my place and I’d like to invite
you as well.”

Adrian pretended not to see
Cristian’s frown and said, “Pepin would make a fuss over my eating
anything but his food, but I’d be more than happy to join
you.”

“
Great, I’ll call with
details. If you’ll excuse me, I have to say hi to someone.” She
kissed Adrian’s cheek, then Cristian’s and left them. She’d get
hell from her brother later, no doubt about it.

Tessa went to greet a few
people, including her favorite actor, the mayor and a few of her
former co-workers. She talked, smiled, laughed. The reporters
approached her asking for interviews and photos. She only wished
Alessandro would’ve come. She felt prepared to talk openly to him
again and even if they weren’t meant to be together, at least she
wanted to look him in the eyes and tell him what was in her
heart.

By the end of the evening,
Cristian caught up with her again. “You are in so much
caca
, you have no idea,”
he said and pulled her to him.

She giggled, and playfully
rocked side to side, while he twisted her arms, turning her around
with her back against his chest.

“
Stop being such a mule,”
she said over her shoulder. “Would you rather not have me as your
sister? Adrian has paid for his actions; it’s about time you begin
looking forward rather than backwards.”

“
Yeah? And when are you
going to remember, I’m the older brother, which means I don’t do
what you say, but vice versa.” He planted a kiss on top of her head
and continued to hold her.

Eva approached, holding an
opened box. “Look, these are all the donations, I can’t believe how
many people really donated!”

Cristian took the box and
both he and Tessa looked into it. It was filled to the brim with
fat envelopes.

“
Let’s count the money,”
Eva said.