Denouement (13 page)

“What do you want me to do?” Marietta knew that Chris
had to get it out of his system and Tobias only accepted the challenge so that
he could hide something from her. She didn’t think they would fight, not for
long anyway. She had decided to sit there and let the men handle their
difference, but the look on Mrs. Bennett’s face convinced her otherwise. The
old woman wasn’t one for
violence.She
was delicate
and sweet and reminded Marietta a lot of her own mother.

“Fine, I’ll try and break it off, but I’m only doing
it for you Ma’.” Marietta picked an apple from the fruit basket in front of
her. She headed to the kitchen first to wash it. Her delay tactic was going to
enable the men to let out some of the steam.

“Could you hurry up?” Jessie urged her.

“What’s your stake in this? You don’t have a dog in
this fight.” Marietta watched her assistant’s expression that was when she saw
it, “You like Chris don’t you.”

“You could say that.”

“Okay, let’s go get your boyfriend before my husband
breaks him.” Marietta teased.

“I think you are wrong. I bet Chris will break pretty
boy in half.” Jessie piped.

“Would you like to bet on that?”

“Let’s do this.”

Marietta felt terrible that fights and childish labors
were what it took to bring her out of her funk. She seemed unable to function
without her family. She and Jessie made their way outside. That was when
Marietta noticed all the muscle. Tobias’ body guards had done a good job of
being discreet, but why would he need them here in the middle of nowhere. That
was when it dawned on
her.She
finally knew the secret
Chris and Tobias were keeping. Panic wrapped around her as she wondered how
much her husband knew. But if Chris had told him everything, why was he still
here.

****

A loud bang followed by a grunt pulled Marietta out of
her thoughts. Tobias had managed to go MMA on Chris, and had slammed him
against the outside table. She looked around and saw the sprinkler system. She
searched for a few seconds before she found the tap and the switch. Turning the
tap on full, Marietta switched on the sprinklers and watched as the huge men
begun to retreat from the cold water. Marietta bit into her apple and when she
caught the gazes of the two men, she turned around and marched back into the
house.

Marietta sat on the couch as she waited for the two
brutes. Somehow she was going to find out what Chris told Tobias. She watched
as they walked into the room both of them equally banged up. Marietta moved
towards Chris and pushed his T-shirt to his chin and indicated he hold it
there. She moved to his back and examined the damage. He had taken a hard hit
but apart from a light bruising nothing seemed broken. She carried out the same
inspection on Tobias and frowned when she saw his black eye. She shot Chris an
angry look and stepped back.

“I win,” she said to Jessie.

Jessie groaned and pressed a hundred dollar bill in
Marietta’s hand.

“What’s going on?” Tobias asked.

“Apparently my boyfriend wasn’t built to fight,” Jessie
whined as she slapped Chris on the back of his head.

“Are you crazy?” Chris exclaimed.

“No, the crazy ones are the both of you.” Marietta
shook her head and chuckled, “Did you think that I wouldn’t find out?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about?” Chris lied.

“I’m going for a walk, alone,” she added when Tobias
started after her, “I’m sure one of the security men patrolling this compound
will be able to walk with me, or behind me.”

Marietta left before anyone of them could say
anything. She felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. She still didn’t
know how much Tobias knew, but one thing she was sure of, was that Chris should
have waited until she was ready. But when was that going to be. She had been
married to the man for three years and knew him for four and yet she hadn’t
spoken a word about her past. She knew he had knowledge of the basics, her
mother and her brother but no one knew about her father. Only five of them
knew, two were dead, one was in the house and the other seemed to be haunting
her in her dreams and her reality.

She didn’t get far. She was exhausted by the time she
had reached two hundred meters away from the house. Marietta turned around and
when she got back to the house, they were all waiting for her. She didn’t say a
word
,instead
she sat there
staring at the scenery. It was almost nightfall when Tobias finally joined her.

“I was wondering where you were?” She asked.

“I thought I could give you some space.”

“I’ve had two months of that.”

She saw how quickly Tobias became uncomfortable. She
didn’t want to focus on the infidelity not now anyway. “Who were you talking
to?”

“McKay called to ask how you are. Of course he
lectured me on ‘how to destroy a marriage’ first.” Tobias feigned a smile. “But
I told him you were growing bigger every day and more beautiful every second.”

Marietta led the compliment slip by her. She wondered
what the best approach would be, to ask him what he knew or to just come out
and say it. The latter would achieve faster results.

“What are you guys talking about?” Chris walked
towards them, Jessie tucked tightly in his side. This was the first time she
had actually seen the passion between them. She felt guilty for taking Chris
away from Jessie for all that time. But Jessie seemed to understand and that
made Marietta wonder if she also knew about her past.

“We are just talking about a script I was thinking
about writing.” She saw the confused look on Tobias’ face. “This is how it
starts,” she said when they had moved to the living room and settled down on
the sofas. “A little girl smiles as she watches her father toss her brother into
the air. The sound of David’s—her brother’s—laughter filling the air, is so
infectious that she can’t help but laugh too. Her mother walks into the room
and calls ‘bed time.’ She ushers the children into their own rooms and calls
bedtime. The little girl feels a little scared at first, she was only six and
this was her first time sleeping in her own room. Her father had insisted on
that.” Marietta saw Chris
stiffen.She
tore her gaze
away from him when she realized that he hadn’t told Tobias or Jessie the story.
But she had already started and wasn’t about to chicken out now.

“The little girl finally manages to fall asleep, but
is woken up later. She opens her eyes and realizes it’s still
nighttime
when all she can see is darkness around her. She
shivers and reaches out for the covers but she can’t find them. But she can
feel something else, someone’s hands are on her. At first she panics but when
she recognizes the warm smile, she falls back to sleep.”

“I’m not going to like this story, am I?” Jessie
whined as she pressed deeper into Chris’s side.

Marietta glanced toward Tobias and although she could
see a note of discomfort he seemed calm, so she went on. “Days pass and this
little girl starts having nightmares. It was the same thing, she would feel the
cold and the warm hands against her skin,
then
she
would see the friendly smile. So one day she decided not to sleep. She would
stay up and wait for this ghost that kept coming to her in the middle of the
night. When the door opened it was so dark that at first, she only saw his
frame. She lay still and waited and it was the same thing. But something else
happened that she had never been awake for. She reached for her bedside lamp
and there he was, Robert.”

“I don’t think I want to hear any more of this.” Chris
peeled away from Jessie and left the room.

It didn’t bother
Marietta.Her
gaze was fixed on Tobias and the rage that was building inside him. She could
see it through his eyes and wondered what kept him in his seat. Marietta
decided she was going to skip the part about the abuse. She didn’t think Tobias
could handle hearing how her father held her down and molested her. Or how hard
she fought, but she was powerless against him. “One night, three years later,
her brother is woken up by the cries coming out of the room next to him—”

“I’m done, no more.” Tobias rose to his feet and
walked toward the window.

“Could you leave us alone?” Marietta asked Jessie. Her
face was stained with tears and Marietta could see how her hand trembled as she
tried to wipe them away. Jessie left without saying a word, her eyes glued to
her feet.

“I didn’t want to tell you,” Marietta began, but
Tobias said nothing. “I thought that once you knew, you wouldn’t want me
anymore.”

“Was he arrested?” Tobias struggled to say.

“No, my mother kicked him out of the house. It was
awkward after that. David tried his best to make me forget and for a while I
did. But my mother always looked at me with such pity and the guilt in her eyes
was overwhelming. When David died, the nightmares came back, but Chris was
there.
And soon after my mother wasn’t.
She left me a
note saying that she couldn’t live with the guilt.”

“So you moved to L.A. and begun creating a whole new
character, that you later usurped,” Tobias said a hint of accusation in his
tone.

“I had
to
;if
I was to survive I had to leave that little girl in Minnesota.”

“So why did you come back here?”

“Because Chris was here,” she said. “You couldn’t
handle everything I was feeling at the time. He knew what happened to me, and
he had grown up with me. I knew he could be there for me without trying to get
into my head.”

“What about the therapist?”

“You knew about that?” For some reason she wasn’t
shocked. “I don’t do well with strangers.”

Marietta moved closer to him when she heard him gasp.
Immediately she regretted telling him. She knew no one could handle her
baggage. It was a load too heavy for anyone other than herself to carry. She
wanted to touch him, but she decided against it. Marietta hadn’t had much
experience with this sort of situation, before Tobias she never dated. She
didn’t get involved nor had a relationship with anyone. He was it for her, but
now she knew it was done. It was too much now, the cheating and now her past,
and this was just the beginning.

Tobias turned to face her and she could see the tears
in his eyes. He looked crushed and it was all her fault. She was glad she
didn’t get into the details. He wouldn’t have been able to handle it.

“Do you want something?” she asked.

“I just need to lie down. I’ll see you in the
morning.” And with that she watched as he walked past her and disappeared into
his room.

*
* * *

Tobias paced in his room. He couldn’t imagine that she
had been in all this pain and he didn’t know. For three years they had been
married and he didn’t have a clue what living every single day was like for
her. This was the world she had created, this illusion to protect her from the
reality. Did she love him, or was he part of the script. Was he just another
character and could she have easily found someone else to play the role of the
doting husband someone like Chris. Tobias snickered when he realized how he had
referred to himself. Cheating husband is more like it, he thought to himself.
He kicked at the bed and jabbed his toe on the wood. The pain that shot through
him had him reeling back, but it was nothing compared to what he felt in his
heart.

She had been hiding this shame and pain and sought refuge
in him to make it better. But he had only made it worst.
First
for leaving her back in Egypt, then the loss of the baby, then the stress of
the IVF treatment and lastly his infidelity.
He swore at himself when he
realized that he had left her alone when all she needed was someone to give her
comfort and strength. But he didn’t have that sort of strength. It tore at him
that someone she trusted had caused her all this
pain.He
wanted revenge more for
himself
than for her. He felt
like a failure and he had to prove himself to her.

He reached for the door and when he opened it he
almost bumped into Marietta. She stood there shivering, tears streaming down
her cheeks. He had never seen her like this, so vulnerable so broken. Not even
when they lost their child, sure she fell apart but almost immediately she
pulled herself together trying to make sure he and his
family
were
okay about the loss. He found it almost laughable that she had
turned to him for strength. Marietta was his
strength,
in her little body she contained more strength than ten men could ever bear.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to tell you,” he watched as
she stammered out. “Chris said that I should tell you. I told him you couldn’t
handle it. When I saw that look between the two of you, I thought he told you.
So I decided to tell you. If I knew you had no idea I wouldn’t have said a
word. This is my cross to bear and I will understand if you want to run in the
other direction, I would. Actually I wouldn’t, but we aren’t built the same.”

Tobias put his finger on her lips to silence her. He
couldn’t bear listening to her put all the blame on herself when it wasn’t her
fault. He pulled her into the room and closed the door. “It’s not your fault.
Robert is the one who abused you and I’m the one who cheated. We both deserve
to be condemned to hell for the pain we caused you.”

“I forgive you,” she said in a whisper.

“You shouldn’t,” he answered.

“You are my husband and the priest said ‘till death do
us part.’ I can’t walk away from you unless you are dead.” Marietta always
turned to humor when it came to
Tobias.Somehow
, inappropriate
jokes pulled him out of his funk. But it wasn’t working. “By the way, if you
went to hell I would have to follow you.”