Page 98 of Broken Bonds

The way she said it makes me smile. The two women in my life at war with each other, I know my mother has her heart in the right place, however, that’s no excuse for meddling in my private affairs.

“My mother is used to getting her way, sooner or later, she’s going to give in. And she’s crazy about having a grandkid. Ever since I graduated from college, she’s been insisting on that. So I warn you, if it’s a girl, I doubt we will be able to get her out of the house.”

Stella makes a gesture with her lips, in response I smile, feeling increasingly optimistic.

“It will have to be a boy then.”

That makes my smile wider, she’s making plans for our future, even without realizing it.

We finish eating while we continue talking. I get rid of the dishes and go back to my reading. A nurse comes to check on Stella before sleeping. I settle on the sofa as well as I can. When I’m about to close my eyes, I hear her whisper, “Tonight the Mississippi between us is wider than ever.”

But what she doesn’t realize we are both on the same side of the river.

Both physically and metaphorically.

???

Despite being in the hospital, the heavy burden on my chest has been lifted. I put my heart at her feet. N ow our future is in her hands.

I want Stella to be free. And with that same freedom she has to choose to love me. Live with me, fight with me, and grow old with me.

As the doctor gives her a final check before discharging her, my hands sweat.

Last night before bed, I asked Stella what she wanted to do—stay here in Baton Rouge with Sister June, go back to Los Angeles with me, or to Carrollton with her mother. She told me she would think about it. We are just a few minutes away and the words that I so long for—and fear—are about to come out of her mouth.

Sister June is here too, discreetly hovering down the hall, chatting with the nurses, surely trying to convince them to attend mass next Sunday at her church.

“Did you decide what you want to do?” I do my best to stop my voice from trembling. How I was able to avoid stuttering is a real miracle.

“Yes,” she says, her voice is firm, although she doesn’t look me in the eye. “I want to go to Carrollton, Lionel.”

And my stomach falls to my feet. That can’t be. She doesn’t want to be with me.

What the hell am I going to do now?

Then I see a small smile pulling up those sweet lips. “And I want you to come with me.”

Inside I’m doing a victory dance, but outside I’m erasing the space that separates us, taking her face in my hands and giving her a soft kiss on the lips.

“Your wish is my command, Hvezda.”

Chapter 30

“This is awesome,” and it really is. We’re flying high at thirty thousand feet back to Carrollton on Ethan Conrad’s private plane.

Stella is looking out the window, with my arms around her as she rests her head on my chest.

This feels awesome indeed.

Flying has never felt so good. It’s like I’ve never seen the sky before. Something inside me is also rising and it isn’t from this engineering marvel that must have cost Ethan a couple of million.

“What? Flying in a private plane?” I joke around with her a little. Stella looks so pretty when she’s like that, relaxed. “Don’t tell me you’re a snob.”

In response, she elbows me in the abdomen, right where I was shot. I make an exaggerated gesture of pain, the truth is that for some time the pain has been minimal. The doctor has officially discharged me and I only have to go back for a routine check-up in a couple of months.

Now I’m here, in the cloud nine, living the life that I never thought was possible for me. I have my wife in my arms and our first child is on the way. A family. To a man like me, straight out of an orphanage, those words sound strange. Not because I had to grow up and manage on my own. No. I was greatly blessed when the Krals adopted me, they changed my life. Not only did they open the door to a world that offered all kinds of wonderful opportunities, but they also loved me. They took the skinny, shy, and stuttering boy and raised him as their own. They never made me feel like I was worthless because I wasn’t their biological son. Much of what I am today I owe to them. Johanna and Anton taught me to believe in myself, to fight, and to never, never, give up.

Now I’m going to have someone who is not only mine because I chose to love him, but also because he comes from me. It will be blood of my blood. And it’s amazing.

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