Page 97 of Broken Bonds

“I had been looking for her since she left our house in Los Angeles. It’s difficult to trace someone who doesn’t use phones or credit cards. But as soon as she was admitted, we got the alert.”

She looks at me for a few seconds in silence, her gray eyes fixed on mine. Sister June would be a fantastic schoolteacher, even at thirty-four, she has me as nervous as a naughty child.

“What is your agenda now, Lionel Kral. What are you planning?”

Wow, I didn’t expect her to be so direct, so I do the same.

“Kneel in front of her and beg, after that, to go home with my wife. We have a baby on the way.”

Her eyes soften a little, although her expression is still severe. “Are you going to take good care of them both?”

I don’t think about it much. It comes straight from the bottom of my heart. “That’s my plan.”

This time I’m rewarded with a bright smile. “I’m starting to like you, just a little.”

“My first victory of the day.” Hope takes over my chest as my lips pull up.

As the hours go by, I do what I can without moving from my vantage point in the hallway. At noon, and after consulting with her doctor, I ordered food for both of us. I enter the room carrying a tray in my hands, earning myself a disapproving look, but I’ve seen that her lips have curled up a bit.

Speaking of small victories.

“I’m going to eat in the hallway. Bon appétit, Hvezda.”

At about four in the afternoon, I go back inside her room. This time ready to stay with her for a while, reading the book I got from the hospital gift shop when I went to buy the sunflowers I brought her.

“What are you doing?” she asks me when I sit on the couch casually and occupy myself with reading.

“Reading,” I reply without taking my eyes off the book.

Stella lets out an exasperated sigh, but I swear she’s smiled again.

I’m good because I have plans for tonight.

As I read, I look at her from the corner of my eye. She’s sitting on the bed, dressed in the hospital gown and her hair tied up in a braid that she likes so much. She looks beautiful, slimmer, but she’s still the most beautiful woman in the world in my eyes.

At around seven, the boy who was sent by the restaurant enters, bringing our dinner. Stella looks at me with wide eyes.

“What? We need to eat.”

“Lionel, I don’t feel like talking…”

“Very well, but first you will listen to me, then you can decide… while I will do my best to respect your wishes. But no matter what, I’ll always take care of you, Stella, of you and the baby.”

Her eyes fill with tears, mine too. I have a hard time not getting up from the sofa to hug her, beg her to give me another chance, and promise that I won’t waste it. That we’ll be fine.

Both of us. No, that’s not true. We will be three.

“Hvezda, the night of the party, when you disappeared, I was thinking of asking you to marry me, this time for real. I had arranged to go to Catalina Island the next morning. I wanted us to be in a quiet environment, away from home, when I told you the truth. I never had a chance to do it. You ran away without talking to me.”

She looks at me, and for a moment, I see the anger shine in those beautiful eyes, the color of the sky.

“Stella, problems don’t solve themselves. You can’t run away. You have to fight, or how are we going to move forward?”

I take a bite of the grilled chicken breast in front of me while she does the same. That gives us a little time to think.

“Stella, we have to face whatever comes our way as a united front…” I insist on the same thing. I know that she also believes it. She repeated it to me several times when I took her home for the first time.

“Your mother was very persuasive,” she finally says, after taking a sip of the apple juice. “And she hates me.”

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