by Willow Rose
I stepped a couple of steps in the big guy’s direction while I kept yelling at him. The worst I could do right now was to show fear. Peter could never know that I was afraid of him. He would use it against me. Manipulate me into coming back.
I opened the door and showed the men out.
“You go tell him that.”
Chapter Sixteen
“You have some explaining to do, young lady.”
My dad stood by the stove in the kitchen the next morning when I came down. Julie had been sleeping when I woke up, so I let her sleep a little longer. After all, it was Saturday and she didn’t have school.
I sat down at the table. I felt like I was thirteen years old again and my parents had caught me smoking.
“Can’t it wait?” I said looking at my watch. I had promised Sune to go to the newspaper and look at the pictures he had taken of Giovanni Marco and choose three of them for the article about him.
My dad looked at me with discontent.
”I need to know. What happened to you two? You and Peter were so happy?”
I sighed. My dad poured me a cup of coffee and put it in front of me.
“It is really a long story, Dad …”
He sat down with his own cup. ”I have nothing but time.”
I sighed again and took his hand. I smiled. How I loved my talks with him when I was younger. I used to be able to tell him everything. He was nothing like my mom and sister who would always be so judgmental.
“You know we met in Iraq, right?”
My dad nodded.
”He was a soldier?”
“Actually he was an officer. I went there as a reporter and lived on the base. That’s how we met. He took care of me, helped me get my stories for the paper, knew who I should talk to, and got me different interviews with the local people. I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere on my own. That was way too dangerous, with all the kidnapping of foreign journalists going on at that time. So he his soldiers arranged to escort me everywhere I needed to go.”
“And then you fell in love?”
“Yes. We grew fond of each other. He actually saved my life at one point.”
My dad looked seriously at me. “You never told me that!”
“I didn’t want to worry you.”
“Well it’s a little too late for that.”
“I know. I never meant for you to be concerned.”
“Then you shouldn’t have gone to Iraq in the first place,” he said with smile.
I smiled back and drank my coffee.
“Anyway, through my Iraqi interpreter I got promised an interview with one of the leaders of Al-Qaeda, a general high up in the hierarchy. It was a really big scoop for me. I had already become a big name from my previous articles about the war, but this one would put me over the top. My career would have been secured after that. But Peter wouldn’t let me go. He said it was too dangerous because I had to go there alone without any protection.”
“Well, of course, it was too dangerous. Are you kidding me? Did you really consider going?”
“I didn’t just consider. I went. Without Peter’s approval.”
“You always were a stubborn little girl.” Dad laughed, yet with obvious seriousness in his eyes.
“I know. No one could tell me what to do, right?”
“Right.”
“Anyway, I went and of course it was a setup. There was no general there. Instead I got a black hood over my head and thrown into the backseat of a car. I kicked and screamed, but in a town like Bagdad, no one would hear, and if they did, no one would react.”
“More coffee?” Dad stood up and poured us both a second cup. I could tell it was hard for him to hear this story.
“I felt the car moving and tried to listen to the sounds around me, trying to locate where we were going. I knew they would probably take me to the mountains and hide me in a house far away until my ransom was paid. That’s what they usually did. But I also knew the chances of anyone paying the ransom were very small, since all nations participating in the war had agreed not to cave in to the pressure of terrorists. And then the kidnappers would probably have to kill me.”
“Wow, I am glad I didn’t hear about this until now,” Dad said.
“Me too.”
“So what happened? How did you get away?”
“The car didn’t get far from the town when it crashed. I couldn’t see what it was, but it felt big. I heard my kidnappers yell a lot but didn’t understand a word, except the Arabic word for soldiers they kept yelling to each other. I sensed that hope wasn’t all lost. I started yelling that I was in the car on the passenger seat and I heard the door open and someone dragged me out and took the black hood off me. It was Peter. They followed me anyway to the meeting with the alleged general and saw me being dragged out in the car. Then they crashed a van into the car carrying me and scared off the kidnappers.”
My dad leaned back in the chair. “I always knew I liked the guy.”
I smiled. Dad got up, got the toast and put it in front of me. I buttered it and put cheese on it. The way I always liked it.
Dad looked like he enjoyed watching me eat. He had a fried egg and poured a lot of salt on it.
“Easy on the salt there,” I said. “I need you to stay alive for a little while.”
“You are beginning to sound like your mother.”
“That might be, but you had a stroke, remember? At the top of the stairs. The stroke didn’t finish you off but you could easily have killed yourself falling down instead.”
“That doesn’t mean I can’t eat salt. That just mean I should stay away from stairs,” he said with a big smile and took a bite of the egg.
I laughed and ate.
“But you still haven’t explained why things went wrong with you two,” he said after a little while.
“Well, I got pregnant while we were still at the base and that complicated things. I told the paper and they sent me home. Peter came back after two months and we got married.”
“That I remember. I am glad your mother got to see you in that white dress before she died. You looked so happy.”
” I was.”
”So what the hell happened to you?”
“I had the baby and everything was perfect until Peter had to go again.”
“To Iraq?”
”Yes, he was deployed for another six months. When he got back something horrible had happened to him. I couldn’t recognize him any longer. He screamed and cried at night. He got raging mad over small things and he couldn’t take being home in boring little Denmark. It was like he didn’t know how to live a normal life any longer.”
“PTSD?”
”Something like that. I’m not sure, but he wasn’t himself anymore. I couldn’t rely on him. And he wouldn’t talk to me about it. He cried when he thought I wasn’t listening, he could get so mad he would throw things around and he even hit me a few times. Not hard, just slapped me a couple of times.”
”He did not!”
”It’s okay, I wasn’t hurt, but I started speculating about Julie. Was this the kind of upbringing that I wanted for her?”
“So you came down here?”
“Not yet. First he went away again to Iraq. I pleaded and begged him to stay home but he said he had to go, that it was his duty. And I just gave up on him. I thought I at least would have six months of peace and a quiet normal life for me and Julie. And we did have almost a normal life for a couple of months until I found something. I hadn’t heard from him in a long time so I wondered what he was up to. I opened his e-mail account and read all of his latest e-mails. I thought I would see letters from a woman or discover he was having an affair or something.”
“But that wasn’t what you found?”
“What I found made me so scared and so mad at him. It appeared that he wasn’t in Iraq as a soldier in the Danish army. He had started his own private security company in Iraq with several of the soldiers from his battalion who had left the army with him.�
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“So, what was the problem?”
“Peter told me before about these so-called security companies. The name is just a cover up. They don’t secure anything or keep anyone safe. They are mercenaries. They kill people for money.”
My dad stopped eating and looked at me. “That can’t be true. Peter wouldn’t …?
“Apparently he would.”
“So what did you do?”
“I confronted him when he got back. And he didn’t take it well. He locked me and Julie in the basement for a week. That was his answer. He didn’t even defend himself.”
“Oh my God, sweetheart,” he said and held my hand.
“It’s okay, Dad, don’t worry. We’re fine now, remember?”
“How did you get out?”
“Eventually he opened the door and let us out. We had to promise never to bring it up again or he would have to lock us again in the basement. I was really afraid of him after that and realized I couldn’t live like this. He was a ticking bomb. So one day when I was supposed to be at work, I packed all I could and Julie and I came down here. The rest of the story you know.”
My dad had a tear in the corner of his eye. I got up and gave him a hug.
“I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you. I thought you were just having the usual problems couples go through when they have kids. I’m so glad you came to me.”
”Me too,” I said still hugging him.
“What are you doing?” Julie had sneaked up on us in the kitchen.
I wiped a tear from my eye and let go of my dad.
“Nothing sweetheart. Grandpa is just so glad we are here,” I said.
“So you started crying?”
“Well, yes. I missed him too, you know. Sometimes people get emotional.”
She made an annoyed face and sat down at the table.
“Grownups are weird.”
Chapter Seventeen
Lilly, the cat, sat on my bed while I was trying on dresses. I had spent a few hours at the newspaper with Sune, when Giovanni Marco called my cell phone and asked if I would have dinner with him at his house at the beach on Enoe. In my head I had a ton of excuses but finally I ended up accepting his invitation.
I suddenly envied the simplicity of the cat’s life. Eating, sleeping, eating, licking herself clean. She just liked to relax, and take it easy with no complications in her life. Unlike me. This dinner could end up complicating my life even more than it already was, and I didn’t exactly need that right now.
I finally headed downstairs wearing a purple dress that was a little tight but really showed off my figure. I was slim but not skinny. Ever since the pregnancy I still had yet to lose around five pounds that kept resisting my every effort to get rid of it. Not that it bothered me. I wasn’t one of those women who got their self-esteem from the way they looked. And I had no idea how to go on a diet anyway. So I just made peace with it. But every now and then, like now, I missed my old body from before the pregnancy, when everything sat in its proper place. But by the look of my daughter and dad I could tell that I wasn’t looking too bad.
“Wow, Mom! You look amazing. Very beautiful,” my daughter said.
My dad smiled. “You’d better be careful with that man. He’s a not a real man if he’s not gonna try something to a stunning-looking woman like that.”
“I will be very careful, don’t worry,” I said and kissed his cheek.
“Who is he? Tell me please who he is,” Julie begged me.
I kissed her on the cheek too.
“Later, sweetheart. It ‘ nothing but a dinner with a nice man I met through work. That’s all it is.”
“But why are you eating with him? What about Dad?”
The question I had dreaded. I was squatting in front of her looking her directly in the eyes.
“It is just a dinner. I promise you that.”
“Okay.”
I kissed her again and got up. “Do I look all right?”
“You are so beautiful, Mom.”
“Thanks.”
I knew I could trust her. Her eyes were like a mirror of truth. She would not hold back if she thought I looked horrible.
“Don’t wait up,” I said and left the house as they waved at me.
I drove there since I had no intention of drinking and losing control. As I pulled into the driveway of the beach house, I almost regretted my decision. I had just split up with my husband and I wasn’t emotionally ready for anything new yet. And neither was Julie. She didn’t need a new man in her life right now.
But then, I really liked the guy. Yes, he was a little too much into himself and his artistic work, but there was something incredibly sweet about him. And he had a way of being a real gentleman with me. He always held the door, a virtue a lot of Danish men had forgotten all about. He listened when I talked and he would actually remember what I said afterwards. I thought, Maybe I just need to have someone spoil me for once and went up to the door.
I got to be spoiled all right. Barely had I sat my foot in his beach house before he placed me on the floor in a pile of huge pillows with a glass of red wine. Italian of course, my favorite. Then he prepared dinner for us. Barefoot, of course. I drank some of the wine saving the rest for the dinner since I could only have one glass if I was to drive home. And that was still my intention.
Dinner was amazing. He had set the table with candles and fresh flowers. And then he served the food.
“Tomatoes with balsámico vinegar di Módena, and buffalo mozzarella,” he said in Italian and sat down in front of me. He wore a white shirt. The two top buttons were opened and I spotted a gold cross on a chain underneath. He was probably Catholic.
“Dig in.”
I lifted my glass in a toast. “To le chef.”
He smiled and we drank. As we started eating he looked at me.
“What?”
“Nothing I just really like to watch you eat my food. You are not one of those women who won’t eat.”
“I am not, no,” I said with my mouth full. “I love food. You won’t be seeing me not being able to finish my salad and water.”
He laughed.
“Well I’m glad. Because the next dish is Rigatoni al Tartufo. And that is not for people who are afraid of a little butter and fat.”
I smiled.
“What is it?”
“Rigatoni with tenderloin, truffles, and chanterelles.”
My mouth was watering just by the very thought. “Bring it on.”
Of course I couldn’t just have one glass of that wonderful red wine, so when he offered me a second, I decided I would take a taxi home. Then I could enjoy the evening without having to think about drinking and driving. So I had one more glass, and a few more after that. After dinner we sat on the pillows on the floor and he lit a fire in the fireplace. The beach and ocean were all black outside the big windows and it felt like looking right into nothingness.
“Do you want to feel the ocean breeze?” he asked.
“I would love to.”
He put on a sweater and I took my big winter jacket and then he opened the door to the porch and took my hand. The wind was freezing. It felt like it was biting my cheeks. I took in a breath of the fresh air.
“I just love this place,” he said and looked out over the ocean.
I did too, I had to admit.
“Come let’s go all the way down to the ocean,” he said all of a sudden while pulling my hand.
Like a schoolgirl I followed him. We ran to keep warm. When we got there he stopped. The half moon rose over the water. Without a warning Giovanni just grabbed me, pulled me near and kissed me.
Chapter Eighteen
I woke up with the worst hangover in history. At least for me, that is. Not only did I have too much of that great Italian wine the night before, but I also woke up in Giovanni’s bed. Something I had promised myself wouldn’t happen. So the regrets were hurting more than the actual headache.
What had I done? What the hell was I t
hinking? Who is this guy anyway? I didn’t know anything about him and now I had slept with him. And what about Julie? She might have had a nightmare and tried to find me in my bed, but I wasn’t there. Who would have comforted her?
I sat up in the bed. I was naked. My clothes were on the floor. Giovanni was still sleeping. It was only five thirty in the morning. I could hurry home and pretend like I had been home all night. It was not impossible.
I hurried and collected all my stuff and sneaked out. I felt like an idiot from some movie but this was how I wanted to deal with this for now. I had to get away.
Julie was still sleeping in her bed when I got back to the house half an hour later. Quietly I sneaked into my own bed and got under the comforter. I even fell asleep for half an hour more before she woke me up.
She stood beside my bed. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest. I sat up.
“Morning, sweetheart. Did you sleep well?”
”Where have you been?”
Oh, oh.
”Come sit,” I said and padded on the bed.
She sat down.
“I slept at that man’s house. It was too late for me to drive all the way home.”
“But you promised that it would only be dinner.”
“I know. But we were having a real nice time. He is really nice to talk to. And then I forgot about the time.”
“I sure wish you didn’t.”
“I know.”
“What about Dad, then? Who is going to eat with him now?”
I sighed. She was always so direct. “I don’t know. I really don’t know, sweetie.”
“Why are you still so mad at him? He said he was sorry for locking us in that basement.”
“But he also said he would do it again if we didn’t do as he told us to. I can’t live like that. You’ll understand when you get older. I’ll explain it then.”
She reached out and took my hand. “I understand it now, Mommy. I don’t wanna go back in that basement either.”
I smiled.
“Come here and kiss me, peaches,” I said and tried to grab her.
