He grasps my chin and stares deeply in my eyes. “Listen to me. You did not make this accident happen. It was the people in the other car’s fault for leaving the scene. Not yours. Do you understand me?”
At first I frown at his words. And then I nod because I no longer have the energy to speak.
“I’ll spend the rest of my life protecting you, Erin. I’ll make sure nothing like this ever happens to you again.”
This is the first time I’ve opened up to someone outside of my therapist back in the States and Petre or Sebastian or whoever that guy pretended to be. I’m thankful Alek doesn’t push me into telling him what happened between my mother and me next. I don’t think I could handle talking about any more of this without losing the control I’ve worked so hard to regain after all these years.
We don’t have sex that night. Instead, we lay wrapped in bed together, two wounded souls comforting each other. It doesn’t even matter that Alek somehow knew Dad’s accident was marked as a hit and run without me telling him.
Erin
Over the next couple of weeks, Alek pretty much attaches himself to my side. We do everything together. Even Katerina has taken on a new role, she actually stopped trying to figure out creative ways to send kinky ass women, as she so elegantly put it that night I came to her Bellagio home, into Alek’s life.
Before meeting Alek for dinner, I stop by Black Butterfly one last time to check up on our two interns. Carla and Luca are attending a show being held at my old design school in Florence. I have a sexy, but horny maestro waiting on me to finish up so we can spend some time together at the coast for a day or two. My world is on a stairway to a magical place I’ve never been able to reach, instead of descending into hell as it has always done before. I guess it’s safe to say things seem to be looking up.
Yeah, sure Petre, the yoga mob boss turned out to be a seriously crappy person; but his advice has stuck in my head. At least something good came out of that experience for Alek and me. Tonight, I’m even wearing the yellow outfit Alek fell so hard for on the night he gave me his contract, one of the two arrangements that forever changed my life. As soon as I step toward the exit, I almost collide with a woman wearing a red mini dress. Katerina.
And suddenly the storm clouds roll in from the west.
Strolling though the doorway as though she comes to visit on a regular basis, she beams a smile at me. I’ve never seen her dressed in this color before. I’m conflicted in how I feel about this moment. Two things I’ve learned in life: 1) the no white after Labor Day rule is the most ridiculous thing ever created, and 2) to beware of any woman in a red dress who decides to grace your doorstep with her unexpected presence.
“Congratulations, Erin. The Mystical line is wildly successful. It appears that you’ve saved the Martuccios’ shop. I hear major investors are even looking into establishing a proper house for you and your bosses,” she gushes, a manic smile plastered on her face.
“Thanks, I think,” I answer.
“Good thing I called off the real estate vipers as my son so lovingly put it. Alek made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. It seems he and Nadya will be getting back together soon. It’s a mother’s dream, to see her son marrying into such a wealthy family. It has been weeks since he agreed to do this. I’m surprised he hasn’t told you.”
Somebody just punched me in the stomach, and then they boxed my ears afterwards. Either that or I’m in a nightmare with the woman who inspired the person who wrote that Hell’s Angel song.
“That’s not true. Alek is with me. He’s waiting on me right now,” I whisper, my throat tightening up.
“Is that right? Perhaps you should check and see,” she suggests in a voice filed with mock concern.
I won’t give her the satisfaction of watching her lies ruin my night. She’s choosing to mess with my head for some reason, and I have to keep it together. I will check with Alek, but I don’t want her to know I intend to do so just yet. “You were the one who threatened to buy us out? I knew it.”
“I own everything, darling. Surely Aleksandr told you all of this?”
“I think you know that he didn’t tell me a thing.”
Scoffing and waving her hands in the air, she says, “He has always been so good at keeping secrets. Like that time when he and his father took a secret trip to Lafayette five years ago. Something about a music recital Alek was scheduled to attend. Being a music lover has its perks. He always thought visiting my relatives was so boring. It was a delight for him to have the position at the performing arts center to keep him entertained.”
The room spins now. And I can feel the color draining from my face. “Alek was in Lafayette five years ago?”
“I’m stunned he hasn’t told you. The two of you have become so very close, haven’t you? Wait a minute. Didn’t you have an older sister who was musically gifted as well?”
I don’t answer. I don’t respond to Luca who walks in on the end of our conversation. He’s all smiley and glowing and totally opposite of everything I am at the moment.
I’m only focused on getting to the one person who can make sense out of all this. Alek. Katerina has taken a stake and driven it through the coffin she has obviously been building for a long time. She wants to make sure I’m dead, no questions asked.
“You look pale, Erin. Are you alright?” she asks, her voice filled with poison. Moving around Katerina, I head toward the Fiat I recently bought, and I don’t stop moving until I reach La Scala’s entrance.
Many thoughts race through my head. Alek was in Lafayette five years ago. I think about the day he first saw me wearing Jada’s butterfly necklace. It was kind of like he was trying to place where he’d seen it before. I mistook his behavior for concern. On another night when he woke me up because of his nightmare, he told me it was about a girl he knew who died a long time ago.
My feet get tangled around the hem of my yellow dress, the one similar to the outfit Jada wore the day she died; and I trip over it as I get out of my car.
As if Katerina’s well-timed execution wasn’t enough to send me over the edge, I recall the night Alek came to visit me. That was the time I told him about my sister’s accident, the night he confirmed that he knew it was a hit and run, and I didn’t say a word that would’ve given him a clue. But he already knew.
You
’ve been a fool.
I warned you,
Righteous Me scolds.
Now I understand his sudden infatuation with me, the way he sometimes stares at me. The way he tells me he’ll never let anything bad happen to me ever again. I glide up the steps leading to the entrance, my eyes focused straight ahead.
I walk into the building and head straight for the rehearsal hall. I trudge toward Alek without breaking my stride, and stand beside the podium so he has a clear view of my face. He does a double take when he sees me, and I want so badly for this nightmare to just go away.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask, my voice rising over the arrangement the ensemble is playing. The music dies down until only a couple of instruments are still playing.
Alek waves his baton toward the players. Even Nikolai and his group settle down after stealing a glance in my direction. He steps down to where I stand on the floor and attempts to kiss my cheek the way he usually does. I take a step back and hug my shoulders. His brown-blue eyes storm with concern and maybe even a little fear.
“Erin, you’re early,” he says, studying my face. “Hold on. That’ll be all for the day. On Monday, we practice the interlude. You’re all dismissed.” He tells them and turns back to me.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you were in Lafayette five years ago?” I add on. His face goes pale. He waves off the players. One by one they file out of the pit. A few of them glance in our direction and quickly look away.
“Come with me,” he says and reaches for my hand.
“I know the way.” I move around him and trudge toward the stage’s exit. We walk in silence until we reach the changing rooms in back. I don’t go inside them, even though Alek opens one of the doors.
“You never told me that you were at the Arts Center,” I begin, a tingle scratching inside my windpipe. He frowns at my words. “In Lafayette, five years ago. Katerina told me you were there. Why were you in my hometown, Alek?”
“I was going to tell you. But you’ve been so upset over the past couple of weeks, dealing with Petre and all. I didn’t want to hurt you anymore. Hear me out, please.” Sighing, he places one hand on his hip and runs the other one through his hair. “Could we at least go inside the room?”
I don’t say a word. Instead, I walk through the doorway, stop over by the changing table where I got prepared to dance like a ballerina a month ago, and cross my arms. Alek eases the door shut and turns to face me.
“Explain,” I say.
“Five years ago, Adriana and I left the Russian school system to go back to the States with Mother. Her father who lived in Texas had become ill. He was dying, and her mother had no one to care
for her.
“
I joined an exchange program dedicated to students pursuing the arts at a high school in Austin. One of the program directors asked me to fill in for a pianist that had called in sick at the Lafayette Arts Center. He said they were auditioning singers for a scholarship program, and needed me to play the selected music. I agreed. What I didn’t know was that my father had arrived in Texas a few days earlier. And he was hot about us leaving without telling him. We didn’t have Hagar with us on a full time basis, and I didn’t have a license yet. So, Mother paid for the bus ride to Lafayette. I was happy to get away from the drama and sadness surrounding her family.
“When I arrived at the arts center, your sister, Jada, was already singing that song—”
“
The Rose
. She was singing it for me,” I remind him. Feeling dizzy, I walk over to the chair in front of the makeup station and sit down.
“Her voice was beautiful. Perfect like her sister’s.” He takes a moment to study my face. I lower my eyes, because I’m not sure what’ll happen if I stare at him right now.
“I thought she was beautiful. I won’t lie. I wanted to approach her, to find out her name, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. What would a girl like that want with an ex gang member, I kept telling myself. Shortly after the auditions were done, I called Mother who told me father was on the way. And he was pissed that I’d left Austin. Something was going down in his circle of illegal friends, and he didn’t want any of his children to get caught up in the crossfire. We headed home. Jada had left about twenty minutes ahead of us.”
“Her ride left her,” I add, recalling how angry Father was about the C.I.A. meeting he had to leave because of Jada’s dilemma. “So she had to stick around and wait on my dad.”
“Father and I headed back toward Austin. He took a strange route, a road that ran along the swamp lands. We were too busy arguing for me to have the chance to question him about why we took that road. Next thing I know, we almost collided with another car barreling toward us. Father swerved, lost control of the car, and skidded to a stop. Being pig-headed Russian men who believe the seat belt rule is for pansies, we wound up with nasty concussions. Father was knocked unconscious, or so I thought. I checked for his pulse. He was okay. That’s when I spotted the smoking car that was on the other side of the road. The front end had crashed into an oak, and I could see people sitting inside of it.”
“People? You mean Jada and my father?” I ask, feeling numb, as all the life inside me starts to fly out the window.
“I tumbled out of Father’s car and ran over to the other one. It was a man and a girl in a yellow dress, the singer from the program. Both were unconscious. The driver side’s door was caved in; but I managed to pull the girl, your sister, Jada, out. I carried her far away from the scene.” Alek stops, sits down in the chair across from me, and lowers his head a moment before he continues. I can hear the pain in his voice, as he tells me what happened, but I’m too numb to care at the moment.
His face takes on a faraway look. “I held her in my arms, rocking her. From somewhere behind me, I hear Father’s voice shouting. He’s telling me to get back in the car and let the authorities handle the crime scene. But I’m caught up in Jada’s dark eyes, the desperation swimming inside them. She knew her life was slipping away, and I was forced to watch it happen. When I glance into yours, I experience that day all over again. I never understood why until I saw that.”
He points at my neck before he continues. “The butterfly necklace, the same one you’re wearing, stuck out in my mind throughout the years. It was the last thing I saw before my father knocked me unconscious. I never forgave him for making me leave her there, Erin. Please believe me.”
“You’re saying the girl you sometimes cry out for in your sleep, the one you have the nightmares about, is my sister? How long have you known this?”
“I had no idea the girl who died in my arms was your sister. I swear. Not until I saw you wearing the butterfly necklace,” he answers, his expression crumpling.
“Alek, that was almost three weeks ago,” I point out.
“I was going to tell you. I swear. I just didn’t know how to bring it up.”
I believe him.
No, I don’t.