Page 21 of Final Installment
He accepted the shirt with a nod.Mariana stepped away and began to give orders to her nephews to clear the room.
“I think he can handle the rest.”Besian obviously wanted to get Marley as far away from this shit show as possible.
“What are you going to say to her?”Marley gazed up at him expectantly.
“To Elona?”he asked, wondering if she had somehow learned about the pig remark.
Marley frowned.“ToDafina.Your fiancée.”
“Oh.”He glanced at the mess she’d left behind and shrugged.“Aim somewhere else next time?”
Marley huffed.“She doesn’t strike me as the sort of person who enjoys a joke at a time like this.”
It was evident from Marley’s tone that she thought he should have known that about the woman he was about to marry.After all, he’d had years to get to know her.Maybe if he’d done that, he would have known that she tended to drink when she was nervous.
He left the dining room wondering how the hell to salvage this nightmare.Before he even reached the bathroom to tidy up, he heard Ana screaming at Dafina.She switched between English and Albanian, insulting and scolding and threatening her in the worst way.He walked back to the staircase, intending to insert himself and tell her off, but Elona beat him to it.
“She made a mistake!”Elona hissed.“She was nervous, and she drank too much.She’s under a lot of stress, and you screaming at her isn’t helping.”
“She’s under a lot of stress?”Ana snarled.“You two girls have no idea what real stress is!You have no idea how much I’ve sacrificed and suffered and—.”
“Can you please just shut up?”Dafina interrupted rudely.“I need a shower, and our guests need your attention.”
A door slammed.Angry clacking footsteps echoed off the ceiling as Ana stormed toward the staircase.She spotted him and instantly her scowl melted into the fakest, syrupy sweet smile he’d even seen.His skin crawled as she hurried down to meet him.There was something very wrong with this woman.
“Luka, I’m so sorry about all of this.The nerves, you know.”She touched her hair and slipped a few errant strands back into place.“And the dieting,” she addedsotto voce.“It’s not a good mix.”
“Dafina doesn’t need to diet.She’s beautiful just as she is.”
“Well, you know how we women get when we want to look perfect for our men.”The gleam in her eyes reminded him of the evil witch with the snake in her handbag at the beginning of that scary movie Rina loved so much.The one with the little boy who gets turned into a mouse while on holiday with his sick grandmother.
“If only Elona had a man she wanted to impress,” Ana said with faux sincerity.“The threat of losing the man she loves might finally teach her to push away from the table.”
Fuck me.The whole family apparently loved to shit on Elona.Artan calling her fat.Dafina with the not-funny story about the older boys calling her sister E Cup.Ana suggesting her daughter should starve herself for love.
And me, a guest in her home, cutting her down in front of a crowded room by calling her a pig.
“Maybe you can help me find a man for Elona,” Ana said.“Maybe someone like your friend Dusan who was so kind to us when we visited Tirana.”
Before he could tell her that Dusan was the very last man in the world he would suggest for Elona, Ana caught sight of Nikolai and Vivian.She excused herself and rushed to apologize for the turn of events.He took advantage of her absence and darted into the bathroom to strip out of his shirt and wash at the sink.
When he was done drying off with a hand towel, he tugged the blue T-shirt over his head.It was too big in the chest and arms, but the length was just right.He eyed the red mustang and the letters emblazoned above it—SMU Softball.
He used his phone to image search the logo.Southern Methodist University.It was a private school, very highly regarded, and a business and finance powerhouse.He added Elona’s name to the search and found multiple entries on her softball stats and awards.
Curious, he clicked on a video montage someone at her university had made of her hits during her senior year.Clip after clip of her powerfully cranking those balls into the outfield and even over the fence played.She had impressive stats, but it was the genuine excitement and joy on her face that startled him.
She loved the game.It was obvious to anyone who watched her play.She loved it, and she was good at it.Better than good.Excellent.
Yet not a single member of her family had said anything about her playing in college.They hadn’t said a single thing nice about her period.
He considered what he had seen of the house so far.There were photos of Dafina, her brother and her mother all over the place, even a giant gaudy one over the fireplace in the room where they’d enjoyed cocktails and canapes.He couldn’t remember seeing even one of Elona.
What the hell is wrong with this family?What could Elona have possibly done to be so mistreated?To be excluded in this way?
Whatever it was, he needed to find out soon.If there was some kind of horrible family secret they were hiding, he couldn’t have it blowing up in his face after he married Dafina.
He climbed the stairs with those thoughts in mind.What kind of marriage would he have?The drinking and getting sick was easy to explain away as a one-time occurrence but what if this wasn’t an isolated incident?What if Dafina struggled with drinking?With dieting?With anxiety or depression?
