Ella would jump on it, and would not stop bugging her mother until she caved in and agreed. “If your mom would like to put them on your grandparents’ grave, we could head for the island tomorrow.”
Ella snapped her head toward him, her jaw dropped. “Mom, please, please, can we go? Oh, please.” She stretched the syllable for the dramatic effect.
“What do you think, babe?” Dario winked. “It doesn’t appear like your mom needs you to spend some time with her. I promised to take you to the place where the stargazing is the best.”
“I don’t think my mom’s going to turn around and crave my company. I’m disgusted at her, a wilting violet. She thrives when attention’s on her.” Irena heaved a sigh, closing the umbrella, her gaze at the group of friends and relatives expressing their deepest sympathy to the widow. “How many of them will offer their hand to me or Ella? I’d be surprised if anyone even steps up in our direction. Brace yourselves for some scowls and scorns, they are about to leave and have to pass by us on their way out of the cemetery.”
The first few people passed them by with only a nod; a couple flashed leery glances as if they wondered who the people standing aside were. A soft smile lingered on Irena’s lips, while she returned nods and thanked them by their names for attending her father’s funeral. Disgraceful Novak family, they knew full well who she was, but not one bothered to extend a hand to Irena.
A short man waddled over to Irena, preceded by his round belly, thrusting his meaty hand to her. “My deepest condolences. You lost a good father.”
Dario choked on a snort, but this time had trouble masking it with an awkward cough. The man must be mad, or the sins of the dead were quickly forgotten. One must not speak evil of the deceased, after all.
Irena’s hand disappeared inside the man’s large one. “Thank you, uncle Drago. “
The man she addressed as her uncle gave Dario and Ella a once over then addressed Irena again. “I better go warm up the car. Your mom and Aunt Davina are wet and cold.”
It wasn’t until he mentioned his wife that Dario’s light blinked. How could he forget uncle Drago, the only man who tried to talk some reason into Irena’s parents? Well, over the years uncle’s girth got bigger and his face rounder, but the concern in his eyes seemed increased. Perhaps he knew the truth about Fred and real danger Irena and Ella faced.
“Ella, my child, what’s your mother doing to you? Making you look like a boy.” Fred’s sneer jerked Dario from a moment of serenity.
Dario’s blood boiled. He stepped in front of Fred, tightening his fists. The bodyguards lunged forward. “Call your dogs off. This is neither the place nor time.”
Fred waved his hand and they took their posts on either side of him.
Ella stepped forward, her chin jutted out, her narrowed gaze full of defiance. “You can see the hem of my dress under my coat.”
“A dress?” Fred’s ridiculed tone echoed over the vast area of the city’s cemetery, causing people to stop in their tracks and turn to him. “A dress doesn’t make you a lady.”
“And a suit doesn’t make you a gentleman.” Ella’s witty comeback prompted some oohs from the passersby and pride filled Dario’s chest. No need to fear teenage boys knocking his door down to get to his daughter with such quick wits and her fighting skills she could handle any pushy boy. But teenagers weren’t the threat, grown middle-aged men lusting after prepubescent girls were.
Fred’s face reddened and he took a threatening step toward Ella. Dario pulled her back and assumed her place in front of the raging man. “Ella is my daughter. If she wants to shave her hair off, that’s her right.”
A sly smile stretched Fred’s thin lips. “You fathered her, but whose name is on her birth certificate?”
Dario snapped his glance at Irena. She stepped forward and placed her hand flat on his shoulder, calming him in an instant. “Dario’s.”
“What?” Fred gasped, his color draining.
“The nurse came back with the forms, said the father’s info was not filled. I told her you must’ve forgotten, you were in a hurry. So I filled it, with Dario’s name.” Irena gave a nonchalant shrug of one shoulder. “No one ever questioned it.”
Fred’s beady eyes settled on Dario, hatred showing in those pale-brown, lifeless pools. “In that case, teach her to behave. Soon, she’ll be at the disposal of a very powerful man and he wants his bitches obedient.” He signaled his men toward the cemetery’s exit, a narrow break in the waist-high wall, but he halted and turned to Dario. “You might’ve fathered her, but I raised her and the little cunt didn’t come cheap.” He pulled the box out of his jacket inner pocket and waved it in front of Ella. “I’ve got you a nice cell phone, but someone else won’t mind having it.”
Ella cocked her head, a mocking grin danced on her lips. Then she took out her phone and waved it in front of Fred’s face. “Shouldn’t have bothered, my dad already got me one.”
Dario reached for the wallet inside his suit pocket. “I’m not buying your B. S. about raising Ella, but whatever, I’ll pay you for your efforts right now. Just leave them, leave us the hell alone.”
Fred took a couple of slow steps toward him, his snotty chuckles shaking his thin shoulders. “So you think you can buy me out?” One corner of his mouth dipped. “Maybe you are not that destitute teenager anymore, but there’s no way in hell you can match my worth. And I told you already, Irena is sick, a compulsive liar. Could be that amulet made her tell so many lies she doesn’t know the truth anymore.”
“Ha!” Irena’s shout had Dario turning his head to her. “You’re still trying to push that theory? No one believed you months ago. What makes you think anyone would buy your crap now?”
“You’re the liar.” Ella lunged forward, but Irena pulled her back and gave her daughter one of those steely gazes. Ella nodded in some silent agreement and stuck her tongue out at Fred.
Fred hissed, left the cemetery. His bodyguards fell in behind him.
“Irena?” Her mother’s flabbergasted voice had Dario snapping his head at Mrs. Novak heavily leaning over the walker. “How did you raise your child? Is this the respect she shows to her father?”
“Fred’s not my father, Grandma.” Ella propped her
hands on her waist and leaned forward.
Mrs. Novak’s face drained of little remaining color. “Irena, is this the truth? Fred says you’re a liar and you were caught lying before, many times, but I thought Fred’s firm hand cured you of that.”
Irena scrutinized her mother through her narrowed eyes. “It’s the first time you’re meeting your granddaughter in person and this is all you have to say?” When Mrs. Novak fell silent, Irena raised her hand and shook her head. “Yes, I lied, out of necessity. You wouldn’t believe the truth anyway. It was easier to eat the bullshit I served you. Besides, who could keep up with lies you told, by omission or otherwise? I taught Ella there is never a need for lies. She always speaks the truth.”
Mrs. Novak’s face fell and she lowered onto the seat of her walker. “I should’ve known. After all, you’re not that much different from me.”
Irena’s brows drew closer. “What are you saying, Mother? And did you know that dad was sent to the hospital without his medical records? Does Fred have anything to do with it?”
“No, he doesn’t.” Aunt Davina placed her hand on Mrs. Novak’s shoulder. “Oh for heaven’s sake, Anna- Maria, we just buried Lorenzo. He can’t hurt you anymore. Irena can be told.”
Irena took a step closer to her mother. Her tensed face awaited an answer. “What can I be told?”
“They say God will never put you through more than you can take. Twenty-three years of Lorenzo’s tyranny was more than I could bear. It was me who never submitted his records to the nursing home.” Mrs. Novak patted her sister’s hand on her shoulder and nodded. “You take her. I’ll wait here.”
Dario emitted a low whistle. Thankfully, no one seemed to hear him. Well, Mrs. Novak, I didn’t think you had it in you to seize the opportunity. He couldn’t blame the woman, she had suffered enough.
Davina took Irena’s elbow and pointed down the row of graves. “Come with me. There’s something you should know.”
Irena jerked her arm out of her aunt’s hold and swallowed hard. “Whatever it is, Dario and Ella must come with me. They are my family and there are no secrets among us. Secrets only destroy trust.”
“Very well. Come along then.” Davina waved at Dario and Ella.
Crushed gravel crunched under their feet to the place Davina led them. She stopped in front of the dark granite grave with only one name in golden letters on the headstone.
“You must not be hard on your mother. She begged her husband to let her visit you when Ella was born, but he forbid her. Told her to forget you.”
“I still don’t understand why you brought us here.” Irena’s gaze froze on the name of the person lying in the grave. “I didn’t know professor Vlahos died.”
Dario shrugged. “Me neither.” He pointed at the year of death. “I would’ve been on the sea in two thousand and seven.” Man, he loved their math teacher, why hadn’t anyone bothered to tell him?
Irena puffed, gliding her hand over the smooth stone. “He was the only one who showed some compassion when everyone else turned away from me. For that, he suffered. The twisted minds of bored house moms said I seduced him, and that he lost his head.
Damn people, I know he fell ill during my senior year.” “He cared about you because…” Davina swallowed, saggy skin on her neck bounced. “Not because he had some crush on you, but because, he’s, well…” Her gaze wavered from Irena to her feet and back to Irena again. “Please understand, there was so much sadness in your mother’s life…and yours, I don’t doubt. She wanted the best for you.”
“Come on, Aunt, you know all she wanted was money and we all see how well that turned out. Now, who was professor Vlahos?”
“Your father.”
A rolling thunder swallowed her last words, but they echoed louder than the brewing storm. Irena stood rooted, her gaze fixated on the black and white photograph of the man resting eternally beneath the dark granite slab.
Davina continued to spit words out as if she was afraid Irena would run away. “He was married when your mother met him, but childless. She fell in love with him, got all giddy, thought he’d divorce his wife. When he broke her heart, our parents found Mr. Novak who was willing to marry her with a child out of wedlock. Then the professor’s wife died and he followed your mother here, but it was too late. She was already married. He got a job in the same school, he pursued her despite the warnings to back off, he—”
“This explains why Fred never loved me.” Irena’s voice came out deep and foreign to Dario.
Davina dabbed the tissue at the corner of her eye and stuffed the crumpled napkin back into her black purse. “Oh darling, he fooled us all. He got us all to believe he’d be a wonderful dad to you, then bruises
started appearing and Ana-Maria blamed them on your tripping feet and clumsiness. She would run to us in the middle of the night with you in her arms to get away from his wrath, but she’d always return to him after he begged and wooed her back with presents.”
Irena placed the bouquet on the professor’s grave, took a step back and squeezed Dario’s fingers. “Do you mind?”
“Not at all, babe. He deserved those flowers.” Dario took Ella’s hand and for a long moment, all four of them stood silent. Mr. Novak was buried today, but in the single day, Irena and Ella found and lost their real father and grandfather. If there was justice, Mr. Novak would not enter Heaven. The man had a temper on him yet Mrs. Novak would rather stay married than suffer the societal scrutiny reserved for the disgraceful divorced women.
Davina rummaged through her purse again. “I kept this for years.”
“What?” Irena asked, not glancing away from the professor’s grave.
“Ah, here.” Davina pulled a yellowed business card, its corners crumpled. “A man contacted me shortly after the professor died. I wanted to send this to you earlier, but was afraid Fred was opening your mail.” She handed the card to Irena. “He said to give this to you only. The Professor was a smart investor. You’re his beneficiary. His investment portfolio is worth millions of Euros and still gaining interest. They are expecting your call.”
Irena’s mouth stood agape. “Whoa, this is unbelievable. You’re smart. I didn’t get much of the mail, but yes, Fred opened every letter, even my credit card statements to berate me about my spending.”
“I hope he leaves you alone once and for all, never liked that man.” Davina pulled the collar of her coat tighter as if a shiver raced through her at the thought of Fred.
Irena’s eyes darkened. Her face hardened.
“What was in it for my dad, or I guess it’s Mr. Novak?” She kept her gaze on the business card in her hand.
Corners of Davina’s lips dipped. “What do you mean, child?”
“Come on, Aunt Davina. Don’t give me half the story.” Irena’s uncompromising tone cut deep inside Dario’s chest. “He would marry a disgraced woman with a child out of wedlock out of the goodness of his heart? No, he must’ve worked up some kind of a deal with your father.”
Davina drew in a long breath, then let it out slowly. She turned to stare at the grave in front of her. “Just be thankful your mother struck a deal with Fred’s parents and they insisted his wife be a virgin.”