Page 17 of Stolen Moments

Luka was feeling overwhelmed and lonely. Melia’s quick departure had cast a gloom over the Rossiter household that had been impossible to dispel. Susan had become too ill to get out of bed and was constantly on her pain medication. Whenever she drifted to sleep, he escaped to what had been Melia’s room to lie down for a while. Luka was losing the two women he loved—one to illness, and another who didn’t want anything to do with him. He sighed and sat up. He had kept the room exactly as it had been since Melia left, and it wasn’t healthy. He began to straighten up and when he got to the desk, he picked up the book Melia had been reading. He was about to read the title when he saw envelopes. In Melia’s clear, curly handwriting, he saw his and Susan’s names. He opened the one that had been addressed to him:

Dear Luka,

It is with a heavy heart that I write this letter to you. I know my leaving with such short notice will burden your family, and I’m sorry for that. I’m sorry for having come to your home, which you and Susan so graciously opened to me, and upsetting the loving balance that existed there. I want you to know that everything that I felt was real. I loved you and I loved Susan, and there was nothing for me to do here except wait for the day that I’d have to say goodbye to you both. That would have broken my heart, and I didn’t think I could handle it. You are a good man, a good husband, and I can see that you and Susan share a love that I could only hope to experience one day for myself. Don’t stray from that path because of me. Be there for her, love her, care for her — and I’m sorry that I couldn’t be there for the end. This is for the best.

I love you (I just wanted to say it one more time)

Melia

Luka’s eyes filled with tears. He mourned for her, for the pain she must be going through, at how difficult it was for her to stay away from Susan — and from him. He had tried calling, texting, and emailing but she had blocked his number, and all of his messages bounced back unread. She had answered the phone at the number of the apartment where she had been living with a handsome man she had shared a home before but the second she had heard Luka’s voice, she had hung up and no one picked up the phone calls afterwards.

He took Melia’s letter to Susan. Her eyes blinked open slowly and she struggled to understand what Luka was saying to her through the dense fog of her pain medication. She sat up slowly, a pale, miniature doll among her pillows.

“Read it to me, Luka. I can’t read that right now. My eyes hurt.”

My dearest Susan,

I’m so sorry for not being able to be there with you in your darkest moments. You have become more than a patient for me; you were a friend, a sister, a mother. I have enjoyed every last second of our time together. I hope that I was able to bring some comfort and joy to you in the time that I worked for you and your family. Enclosed is a check for the wages you and Luka paid me during the last few months. I don’t want the money. Consider the care I gave you a parting gift of friendship and not an agreement between an employer and their employee. I am so, so, so sorry that I couldn’t be there, but if I’m being honest (and you deserve that from me). I fell in love with your husband. Don’t be angry with him. It wasn’t his fault. He didn’t do anything, he tried to push me away and I was drawn to him like a moth to a flame. My love and respect for you kept me from doing what I have done so often in my life. I will not betray the love that exists between you and Luka nor the love that I hope still exists between you and me. Again, please don’t blame him, and I hope that you will find it in your heart to forgive me, although I would understand if you didn’t. I hope that God, the universe, whatever it is you’re praying to today, blesses you.

Love,

Melia.

A tear slid down Susan’s cheek. “Luka, she didn’t know?”

“I tried to tell her but I think she misunderstood — and then she left. She didn’t answer my messages or my phone calls.”

“That poor girl. I thought she hated me for meddling butshethinksIhate her for getting in between us. This can’t end like this. Grab me a notepad and a pen.”

“Susan, you’re tired. We can do this some other time.”

Susan looked at Luka with flashing eyes and spoke to him through gritted teeth. “When? When I’m dead? I said give me a piece of paper and a pen, Luka. Don’t make me ask you again. Melia is suffering because of us. I want her here. I don’t feel like I’m going to be here for a very long time, and I need her to come back.”

Luka rushed to the spare bedroom and grabbed a notepad and a pen. He got the pop up table he had been using to serve Susan her meals in bed and put it on Susan’s lap. Laboriously, painfully, Susan put her pen to paper and began to write a letter to Melia. Together, they paused, poured over the letter and made sure that it captured what they wanted to say concisely.

“Go,” said Susan. “Take the letter to Melia.”

Luka shook his head. “I can pay a messenger to deliver the letter.”

Susan coughed violently and shook her head. “I want you to take the letter. She should see that you brought it yourself.”

“She might not even be there.”

“That’s a chance I’m willing to take.”

“What about you?”

“I’m going to be fine, Luka. Just go. The longer you sit there talking about it, the more likely you’ll get stuck in traffic — and then you’ll really be away for a long time.”

Luka shook his head slowly. “You’re a master manipulator you know that?”

Susan coughed and smiled impishly, “And you thought you were the one with all the control.” She winked at him and gestured for him to go.

* * *

Adarker and handsome man opened the door of the apartment. Luka recognized him from the photos that had been on the walls when he went to pick Melia up. There was a hint of recognition in the man’s face as well, although Luka couldn’t tell if they had ever met before.

“Is…is Melia here?”

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