A Love that Endures

by Forrest, Bella

  “Mom?” Joseph began, stepping into the room.

  The older woman turned away from the window to face her son and managed a weak smile. “Joseph. Cece,” she said happily, her voice slightly strained. She pushed herself up on the bed, obviously exerting herself, but her eyes lit up with joy as Joseph and Cerise walked to the bed and bent down to hug their mother.

  David hung back and watched his aunt interact with her children. She didn’t have any hair on her head, and her otherwise pallid skin was darkened with bruised splotches on her arms from injections and blood draws. Her face was gaunt and thin, like the rest of her, but her abdomen appeared distended, even under her thick robe. Nonetheless, she seemed positive and full of life.

  David liked her so much already.

  Mary’s eyes wandered to the doorway, and then between David and Katy.

  “Mom, we brought you a visitor,” Cerise said, looking over at David.

  David stepped forward awkwardly. Mary offered him a warm smile in greeting, but she looked puzzled.

  “My name is David,” he said. But then he stopped. How could he phrase the rest?

  “David found me on that ancestry database I told you about,” Joseph told his mother.

  Mary’s eyes widened, her smile turning into a small O of surprise. She held a hand out to beckon David closer, and David obliged, taking slow steps to her bedside.

  “David,” Mary repeated. Her eyes scanned his face with a sudden intensity. Mary stretched her hand out farther, reaching for David’s. When he touched her thin fingers, she suddenly gripped him tightly and pulled him even closer to her. David glanced over to see Joseph and Cerise standing beside them, completely still, watching the interaction unfold.

  “David,” Mary said again. She was looking deeply into David’s eyes now, searching for something within. It looked like she was coming to the conclusion all on her own. But Joseph spoke again and moved it along.

  “He’s Jeanine’s son,” he said.

  Mary gasped and clutched David’s hand even tighter. She pulled him down until he was eye-level with her, and then her free hand rose to the side of his face and she pulled him even closer. With their noses only inches apart, a huge smile flashed over Mary’s face, and she finally managed to say what she must’ve been thinking since she first laid eyes on him.

  “You look so much like your mother.”

  A sputter somewhere between a laugh and a sob escaped from David’s throat, and happy tears sprang to his eyes. Mary’s tears spilled over the rims of her eyes, her smile only growing, before she wrapped her bony arms around David and pulled him against her. There was joy and longing and sorrow in their embrace as they both clung tightly to the closest relative of the person whom they missed most.

  “David is looking for Jeanine too, Mom,” Cerise said. “We’re going to try to work together to find her.”

  Mary pulled away and looked at David again, obviously a bit confused.

  “I was adopted,” David clarified gently.

  “Ah,” Mary replied, her face pensive. “Then it seems like maybe we’ve both been missing Jeanine for some years.”

  Mary smiled again in her warm and motherly way. David paused for a while, content just to be near her and feel the joy of a long-needed family reunion; then he remembered the gift bag.

  “Oh,” he said, reaching behind him. Katy handed him the small pink bag with tufts of white tissue protruding from the top. David smiled at Katy in thanks and then turned back to his aunt. “My friend Katy and I picked this out for you for your birthday. I’m afraid it’s not much.”

  Mary received the gift with pleasure. She pulled the paper out, unwrapping a book.

  “Harvard’s History from 1636 to Today,” she said, her voice curious. “Well, you are certainly your mother’s son!”

  She released a cheerful peal of laughter that warmed David’s heart. Did Jeanine have this same laugh?

  “There are also some chocolates and a lotion in the bag,” David said. That had been Katy’s helpful suggestion, in case Mary wasn’t as interested in random histories as David was.

  “Thank you, David,” Mary replied. “I love all of those things. So thoughtful of you and your friend.”

  Mary nodded warmly at Katy, and she returned the gesture. Then Mary turned back to her nephew.

  “David, we have so much to talk about,” she said, and squeezed his hand again. But then she winced, her grip weakening, letting go of his hand.

  “Mom?” Cerise said, stepping forward. “Are you all right?”

  Mary closed her eyes and moved to lie back in her bed. David furrowed his brow in concern as he watched her take a deep, shuddering breath.

  “Yes, honey,” Mary replied, her voice strained again. “Just tired today. But please don’t mind that. I’m so enjoying the visit.”

  A white-coated doctor appeared in the doorway, stepping past Katy to walk into the room.

  “Mrs. Best, are you having a little too much fun in here?” he asked gently, looking around at her visitors in a knowing way. He turned back to Mary. “Your oxygen level was dropping, and your heart rate went up. Are you feeling all right?”

  Mary closed her eyes and took a few long, tired breaths. She looked like she wanted to say something but instead only nodded.

  “Your mother needs to rest now,” the doctor said, looking at Joseph. “The treatment took a toll on her. It’ll be a few weeks until her strength returns, but it’s important that she doesn’t get too excited until then.”

  “No, no, I’m fine,” Mary insisted. But she didn’t sit up in her bed, and her eyes fluttered closed again. David watched her nervously. He knew that the chemo had taken a toll on her, but she had seemed so bright and strong just moments ago. The sudden shift worried him.

  “Mom, you need to sleep,” Cerise said firmly. “I’m sure David can come again. And now you can talk on the phone, too.”

  The doctor nodded curtly at Cerise and then stepped back out of the room. David glanced over at Joseph and Cerise to see that they were preparing to leave. He wished he could stay and talk more with Mary—they’d only just gotten here—but he knew that her health came first. And she needed to rest for now.

  “David,” Mary said in a small voice.

  David looked back at his aunt. Mary reached over, grabbed his hand, and smiled again. It was a loving but weary smile that made David’s heart leap and ache all at once.

  “I just want you to know,” Mary said, slowly, “how glad I am to have met you. And please don’t be a stranger. There’s so much that we need to say to each other.”

  David gently squeezed Mary’s hand.

  “I’ll talk to you again soon, Aunt Mary. I promise.”

  25

  Katy

  In the cold sunlight outside of the cancer center, Katy watched David walk with great interest. His steps seemed somehow . . . bouncier, as if meeting his aunt and cousins had literally lightened him on his feet. It brought her joy to watch him: hands in his coat pockets, walking against the wind to the sidewalk, with the faintest smile upon his lips. He was happy.

  David must have registered that Katy had stopped, because he turned to look at her. When their eyes met, Katy felt the familiar electricity course through her. He was so handsome, standing still among the rush of New York City, his dark hair tousled by chilled wind, tall and tan and waiting for her.

  Waiting for his friend, she tried to remind herself. But as she bounded down the steps to join him, her heart thudded in a way that was anything but platonic. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Joseph hailing a cab; but her attention stayed fixed on David. When she reached him, she looked up into his eyes cheerfully.

  “I’d say that went well,” she said.

  “Very well,” David replied with a smile. “Thank you so much for being here, Katy. If I don’t have someone back in Cambridge who witnessed this, I might end up thinking it was all just a dream.”

  “I’ll be happy to pinch you anytime you
need it,” Katy joked.

  Before she even had time to second-guess her words, David snatched her up into a tight embrace, and she lost the ability to think about anything else. Her thoughts jumbled into a mess at the heat, the closeness, the feel of David’s broad chest, the piney smell of him, and the bristle of his stubble as his face pressed close to hers. Katy’s legs wobbled. If he hadn’t been holding her up, she might very well have melted into a puddle right there.

  “Ahem,” Cerise said from beside them. David and Katy pulled apart from each other, and Cerise looked back and forth between them with an eyebrow cocked. “All right, friends. The cab is here.”

  David seemed unphased, but Katy felt her face turn two shades redder and scurried toward the cab, David and Cerise behind her. She got in first, and Cerise squeezed into the middle seat. Joseph offered David the front and sat beside his sister in the back.

  “Lunch?” David asked from the front seat. “Or, where are we going?”

  “Broadway and Grand,” Joseph told the cabbie. Then, speaking to David, he said, “I’m sorry. I need to run home and then go into the office for a little while. But you guys should go get lunch. There are lots of places within walking distance of the house.”

  “Not a problem,” David replied. Katy didn’t think there was anything that could rain on his good mood at the moment.

  She spent the ride thinking about David’s situation. It had been a joyful family reunion, certainly, but underlying it all she felt a tension and confusion that was hard to explain. What if Mary took another turn for the worse? David was such a positive and grateful person; it bothered Katy to see him possibly facing another imminent loss. And what of Mary? Would she be reunited in time with the sister whom she loved so much?

  The family’s conversation over dinner the night before repeated itself in her thoughts. Mary and her husband had once hired a private investigator, who’d fled with their money, and now they didn’t have the money for another try. But Katy did. In fact, Katy even knew a private investigator.

  Mia Cantor was a Spanish PI who was almost as beautiful as she was cunning. She’d been a family friend for years, ever since Katy’s father had hired her to track down the staff member who was leaking private family details to the press when Katy was only a child. She worked quickly, almost magically—and, as such, her rates were astronomical. And therein lay the problem. If Katy could hire her and pay for the service, David would probably have some questions. After all, Katy was only the child of an independent filmmaker and a makeup artist, as far as David knew. She already knew that he wouldn’t want to accept such an expensive gift, so how could she impress upon him that the money wasn’t an obstacle, that she could easily afford it? She could make up another lie, maybe about a distant relative’s death and an impressive inheritance. Or . . .

  Maybe she could tell him the truth.

  The very thought sent a sizzling bolt through Katy’s heart. But, as her palms sweated in the back seat, she entertained the thought for just a moment, trying to really think it through.

  She trusted David. She couldn’t imagine that he would betray that trust and tell anyone her secret. But she had to consider the possibility. And if that information got out, and the paparazzi descended upon Harvard, she would probably have to drop out. That outcome was unacceptable to her.

  She definitely didn’t need the money from a degree. She was well-connected enough to have landed almost any job in the world, really, without having to worry about working hard to get there. But that hadn’t been the point of going to Harvard in the first place. It wasn’t about the prestige or the money that she could earn. It never had been. She’d gone to Harvard because she wanted to prove, to herself and to her parents, that she wasn’t just a pretty face born into privilege. That she could earn something, rather than just have it given to her because of her last name.

  Well, that, and to get away from Alexei and his lies.

  Only two people in the States knew who she was. Although none of her professors knew, which would ensure she was getting honest grades, the president of Harvard had had to know so that Katy could get registered under an assumed name. And of course Cassie knew. If Katy told David who she really was, she’d be increasing the number of people who knew her most guarded secret by a full half.

  But, if Katy didn’t pay for the PI, David and his cousins risked losing Mary before they could find Jeanine. And after witnessing the scene in the hospital, Katy knew that she couldn’t bear for that to happen. What if the only thing that kept Mary, Joseph, Cerise, and David from ever finding Jeanine was Katy’s superficial need for privacy? How could successfully hiding from paparazzi ever be worth that cost?

  “Broadway and Grand,” the cabbie suddenly announced, interrupting Katy’s thoughts. She was surprised to find that they had already made it back to Joseph’s townhome.

  David paid for the cab, over Joseph’s protests, and then the four of them were standing out on the street again, only this time without a certain destination.

  “I’d love to get lunch with you guys, but I really need the hours at work,” Joseph said, sounding truly contrite as he walked away. “But try Berman’s. It’s a deli two blocks south. And we’ll have dinner tonight!”

  Then he disappeared into the house, leaving Katy, David, and Cerise standing outside.

  “So, Berman’s then?” David asked Katy and Cerise.

  “Actually,” Cerise began, “I have some shopping to take care of before I go back to Ithaca. But I’ll leave the key under the mat, for whoever gets back first.”

  After Cerise had slipped her ancient-looking key under the mat and waved goodbye, Katy took a deep breath, happy and a little nervous to find herself alone with David again.

  “Does a deli work for you?” David asked her, his face glowing in the bright sunlight.

  “That sounds great,” Katy replied. But really, the thought of sitting anywhere with David appealed to her. The deli food was just incidental.

  They walked together in the opposite direction from the way Cerise had gone. The cold bit at Katy as they moved, and she crossed her arms over her chest to keep warm. The act proved fruitful—once David noticed that she was cold, he draped an arm over her and pulled her against his side to walk close to him, the heat of his body keeping her warm. Perhaps it was nothing more than a friendly gesture. Still, Katy leaned against him and tried not to smile too hard.

  I could get used to this.

  Soon enough, they made it to the deli and stepped inside, grateful for the warmth and delicious smells. They found an open booth toward the back and sat opposite each other.

  “This is one of my favorite things about New York City,” David said, removing his coat and setting it on the vinyl seat of the booth beside him. “Its worldliness. You can find any kind of food you could ever want here.”

  “What if I wanted Swiss chocolate, fugu sashimi, and borscht?” she asked with a grin.

  David chuckled. “Please. You could get all of that at a gas station here. Might give you food poisoning, but you’d find it.”

  Katy giggled.

  “But the Swiss don’t actually make the best chocolate,” David went on. “The best chocolate is Lorrellian.”

  Luckily, a waitress arrived with iced waters before David could notice the look of horror that crossed Katy’s face. She pulled out a pad of paper and a pen and looked wordlessly between David and Katy.

  “Latkes, please,” David said, then politely looked over at Katy to await her order.

  The waitress looked at Katy as well, much less politely.

  “Umm,” Katy sputtered, “what do you recommend?”

  “The tongue sandwich,” the waitress said, her voice totally flat.

  Katy’s face went white. “Maybe just some split pea soup,” she replied meekly. “And a lemonade.”

  The waitress turned and walked away without another word.

  “Very authentic dining experience,” David joked. “Have you ever tried tongue?�
��

  Katy shook her head with a shudder. “No, though my parents have always wanted me to,” she muttered.

  “Your parents eat a lot of tongue?” David asked, watching Katy with amusement. “I didn’t know it was big in France or California.”

  “Oh, it’s not,” Katy replied. It was very popular in Lorria, although there it was served as long ribbons in a thin stew that also contained root vegetables and mussels. Katy had never considered the dish a crown jewel of her country . . .

  “So, what do you think so far about the visit?” she went on, wanting to steer the conversation away from Europe altogether.

  Her diversion seemed to work. David took a long, deliberate drink of his water. When he replaced his glass on the table, he smiled gently, shaking his head. “It’s hard to explain, really. I can’t believe my luck, and I feel so blessed that they took me in so quickly and so fully.”

  Katy was happy to see David happy. She, too, was surprised by how Joseph and Cerise had welcomed their long-lost cousin so warmly, as if they had always known each other.

  “But,” David went on. Katy furrowed her brow. “There’s another part of me that feels a bit concerned about the whole situation.”

  “How so?” Katy asked, keeping her voice carefully neutral.

  David shook his head. “I just wish I could help more. The Bests have been so lovely about everything, but I know that they were looking for Jeanine first and foremost, not me. I wish I knew more about her, so I could help reunite my mother with Mary. Especially now that I know how much it would mean to all of them.”

  Katy nodded slowly, having sensed that that was what David was concerned about. It was a concern of hers too, really, even though she was much more removed from the situation than David.

  And, if only she could tell David the truth, she might be able to help him overcome this obstacle.

  The waitress arrived with their meals, and Katy dipped her spoon into her warm, thick soup, while David started digging into his plate.