Mended-Hearts

by Gordon, M. E.

  I gulped down the huge lump in my throat and prepared for a fight.

  “Stella, why are you letting a cheating, whoreing, woman into our house?”

  “Calm down, Lu.”

  “Calm down? This girl broke our brother’s heart, more than once, and shows up here with the other guy--” She pointed to Nick, who shifted next to me. “--I think it’s time for you to leave,” Lucy said, addressing me now.

  “I didn’t do anything to your brother. He left me.”

  “Right and we’re supposed to believe you, the girl he never let us meet because he was afraid of you breaking his heart. You’re pathetic.”

  “Listen, Lu--” I said, moving from beside Stella and Nick. I began advancing on the female version of Spencer Salvatore himself. She clearly had picked up on his attitude, and I knew how his attitude brought mine out. “--I get that you’re upset. I even get that you think I’m a whore. The media’s a twisted lying bitch like that. I came out here because I need your help.”

  “Why the hell would we help you?” Lucy asked, taking a final stand across from me. With her arms propped on her hips, she squared her shoulders to mine. She was just a hair shorter than me, but every bit intimidating as her brother.

  “Your brother is hiding something from me, something about his past. He thinks it’s for my own good, but it drove him away from me. Do you see how that doesn’t work for me?”

  “How do we know your friend back there isn’t going to go run and tell the world? He’s done it before. We know it was him who leaked what happened with Spence when he was in high school.”

  “He doesn’t work for Fame anymore,” I clarified.

  “I don’t give a shit. Stella, you better keep your mouth shut and kick these home wreckers out of our house.”

  “Lucy, listen to her. She’s not here to cause problems. She loves him,” Stella said, confronting her sister.

  “Don’t be a silly wide eyed teen right now. This isn’t one of your stupid books, Stella. They’re not going to live happily ever after,” Lucy yelled.

  “How do you know? You won’t even talk to her! God, you’re just like him!”

  “Maybe that’s a good thing! There are too many softies in this family. Someone needs to stand up and take charge.”

  “Who’s taking charge of what?” A mature, calm voice from the stairs made its way down to the kitchen.

  Everyone turned to see the last of the Salvatore sisters gliding down the stairs. Camilla Salvatore was regal and graceful beyond her years. She was stunning, tall, dark haired, and light eyed like her sisters.

  She moved toward her fighting siblings and, when she did, I glanced next to me at Nick who was staring at Camilla.

  “You might want to pick your jaw up from the floor before she comes over here,” I joked, hitting his shoulder.

  “You jealous?” he asked through a sly grin.

  “Maybe,” I nudged back.

  “Then I’ll leave my jaw on the floor.”

  What a smart ass.

  “Elizabeth Monroe.”

  I turned when I heard my name. Camilla watched me as I straightened up.

  “It’s nice to meet you.” She held her hand out. I reached out and took her hand in mine, shaking it lightly. “Why don’t we go and take a seat?” she said, pointing toward a sitting room off to the left.

  I nodded and followed behind her.

  “This is a bad idea, Cami. If Spencer finds out--”

  “What is he going to do? He’s our brother, Lu, not our father.”

  I could sense a little hostility in that statement. Seemed I was not the only one Spencer had been trying to “protect” for their own good.

  We all took a seat around the room. Nick and I sat in a love seat, Camilla in a chair, and Lucy and Stella sat on the couch across from Nick and me. The room was decorated in an affluent way. Everything was lush and rich. I almost didn’t want to sit.

  “Do you know where Spencer is?” Camilla asked.

  “No, not exactly. I know he was last in LA.”

  “Tell me what happened, from the beginning.”

  I sat there and told his sisters my story. I told them everything, from the first night we met to the night I told him about my parents, and finally what had happened only yesterday when I awoke to find another note from him. Every once in a while, I’d glance at Nick, who would urge me on through the hardest parts of my rollercoaster romance with Spencer. I was so glad he was with me.

  When I finished, the sisters sat back in their seats and exchanged looks. Their eyes flashed back and forth between the three of them.

  “Does the story sound at all familiar?” Camilla asked her sisters.

  I was confused and, quite frankly, a little lost until Camilla filled us in.

  “Spencer is a control freak. You know that firsthand, and so do we. There have been plenty of times he’s done things to keep us safe or protect our fragile hearts. But he has no right to do that. What do you need to know?” Camilla asked.

  I was speechless. I honestly didn’t think it would be this easy. That they would just tell me anything that I asked. I was expecting a little groveling, maybe some begging.

  The one thing I had going for me was the fact that they knew their brother well, and they also knew I deserved the truth and an opportunity to make my up own mind about him.

  “Thank you so much,” I said to all of them.

  “Elizabeth--” Camilla said, reaching over and placing a hand on my knee. “We know he loves you. When I’ve talked to him, he was always raving about you. I don’t know what could have made him leave you, but it must be bad. I want to help, but I also don’t want my brother to get hurt.”

  “I understand that. That’s the last thing I want too. The person who owns Fame is after him. I don’t know why, but I think she’s figured out his secret.”

  “Then we have to call him and warn him,” Lucy said.

  “I’ve tried calling every number I know. He’s not answering my calls, maybe he’ll answer yours,” I suggested.

  Lucy took her phone out of her pocket and dialed Spencer’s number. We waited on the edge of our seats to see if he would pick up.

  Lucy shook her head. “It went to voicemail,” she said, dropping her phone in her lap. Stella and Camilla tried next with no such luck.

  “He always answers when I call,” Stella said, slumping back in the couch.

  “How do we stop this bitch Natasha?” Lucy asked more to Nick then to me.

  “Nothing can stop her,” Nick confirmed.

  “If she knows what he’s done, it’s only a matter of time before she goes public with it. I need to find out now before that happens. That’s why I’m here. If I can figure this out and prove to Spencer that it’s not going to change what we are, then Natasha will have nothing. She thinks destroying him and tearing us apart is the ultimate win.”

  “We don’t know anything,” Camilla said, confirming my worst fear.

  “But Mom and Dad have to,” Stella suggested. “They did adopt him. Why don’t we ask them?”

  “That won’t work. They’re not going to tell us anything. If they did something to protect Spencer in the past, there’s no way they are going to reveal it,” Lucy said.

  “Dad’s office,” Camilla said, standing from the chair. “If there’s something, it’s going to be in there.”

  We all followed her into the office of Dr. James Salvatore. We looked through everything. For at least an hour, we searched that room and came up with nothing. It was as if Spencer magically appeared in this family with not one trace of evidence.

  We had nothing. We came all this way and weren’t even a step closer to solving the mystery of Spencer Salvatore. The only thing that I’d managed to do was put my problems on his sisters. Now they were pulled in. They were worried about Spencer as much as I was.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Stella pull her phone out of her pocket. Her face lit up. “It’s Spencer!” she shouted. She ran to the d
esk and put the phone down. Answering it, she put it on speaker so we could all hear.

  “Hello,” she said eagerly.

  “Stella, is everything all right?” Spencer’s voice came through the receiver, and I had to clutch onto the desk with relief, plus I had to stop myself from grabbing the phone so I could cuss him out for doing what he did to me.

  “Yes and no,” she said looking up at me.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” he asked.

  “Elizabeth’s here.”

  Silence came from the other end of the phone. I’d never heard such silence.

  “Tell her to leave,” Spencer finally said.

  “Why? You love her. You told me you did. I don’t--”

  “Stella!” he growled.

  Stella pulled back from the desk and looked like she was going to cry. I sure as hell wasn’t going to let that fly. I snatched the phone from the desk. “Don’t yell at your sister like that!” I couldn’t help myself. “She doesn’t deserve to be barked at.”

  “Why are you at my family’s house?”

  “Because--because you left me! You left me without any explanation. You left me thinking everything was fine when it wasn’t. Spencer, you think you’re trying to protect me but you’re not. Please just tell me what happened in your past, tell me why you keep pulling away from me.”

  “Don’t do this to yourself, Elizabeth. I gave you Nick. Please just go be with him. Go be happy and forget all about me.

  “No! I don’t want to forget you. I love you, and I know you love me.”

  There was silence again. It was silent because he knew I was right.

  “Spencer, stop being so ridiculous and just tell her,” Lucy demanded. “She’s still going to care about you. We all are.”

  “Jesus is everyone there?” he asked.

  “Yes, we’re all here,” Camilla answered.

  “Cami, you have to know I’m only doing this--”

  “To protect us,” she finished for him. “We don’t need you to protect us. We need you to tell us the truth.”

  “No one can know what I’ve done, and no one will,” he said, matter-of-factly.

  “Fame knows and, for some reason, she wants you to go down,” I told him.

  “She?” he asked.

  “Yes, I’ve talked to her.”

  “How did you talk to her? Did she hurt you, did she do something to you--”

  He was saying things in such a rush, I couldn’t answer fast enough.

  “Yes, no--Spencer, she’s out to get you. Let me help. If I know, then I can help you keep it hidden. Nick said she’s crazy and having talked to her--”

  “So you’re with Nick?”

  “Stop changing the subject, Spencer. You know I’m with him. I know you’re watching my every move--”

  “Is he there now? Is he in my house?”

  I turned to Nick

  “I’m here,” he answered.

  “Keep her away from my family. Keep her safe and stop digging for things you have no business digging for.” Silence. “I can’t love you anymore, please stop calling me, and leave my family alone.” Click.

  We all stared at the phone.

  When the dial tone came on, Stella picked it up and turned it off. “He’s lying,” she said through gritted teeth.

  “Why does he do this? He always pushes people away,” Lucy said, shaking her head.

  I didn’t believe him either. I didn’t believe that a few days ago he was in love with me and now he said he couldn’t love me anymore. Unless he was a freaking robot, he couldn’t turn it off like that.

  “He’s only said those things to push you away,” Camilla said. “When we were little, and I used to try to play with him, he’d tell me to stay away from him because he was a bad boy, and he didn’t want to hurt me. I remember trying to sit on his lap, and he had an ugly scar that ran down the center of his chest--wait a minute, there was a picture of him in a hospital bed just before I was born. Our mom and dad were at his bedside. I found it when I was little. I think it said Spencer age eight on the back. I don’t know if that helps, but it’s one of the earliest memories I have of him, and the only picture I’ve seen of him before I was born.”

  “You can’t give up,” Stella said from beside me.

  I wrapped my arm her shoulder. “I don’t plan on it.”

  Chapter 28

  Nick and I left the Salvatore home with only more questions. They hadn’t shown me home movies, but they did tell me about a photo of Spencer, a photo that could very well be the key to figuring everything out.

  I pictured Spencer, small and fragile in a hospital bed with a huge wound going down the middle of his chest. A helpless child hurt and needing his parents, but they were not there. Instead, an up and coming doctor and his wife sat by his bedside, trying to comfort a pain I had yet to figure out.

  We were staying in one of the many hotels on the Vegas strip--in the penthouse--for the night, The room was spectacular and the view was one for the books. I tossed my bags down next to the couch and coffee table full of complimentary fruits and chocolates.

  “I got to get out of my own head for a while. I’m going to go for a walk around the hotel. I’ll be back,” I said, reaching for my bag. I slung it around my body and fixed the hood on my sweat shirt.

  “Let me go to the bathroom, and I’ll go with you,” Nick said, dropping his bag as well.

  “No, no, no it’s fine. Stay here and relax. I kind of want to go alone.”

  “All right” he said, sticking his hands in his pants pockets. “Call me if you need anything. I don’t think anyone knows we’re here, but you never know when it comes to Natasha.”

  “I will. Thanks, Nick.”

  “Be careful,” Nick said before walking in the bedroom to find the bathroom.

  With the door closed behind me, I made my way through the winding hallways and to the elevator. I spent the next hour walking aimlessly through the hotel. I walked by the pool, the shops, the hundreds of restaurants, the casino. No one noticed me in my jeans and sweat shirt. They were all too busy, gambling and shopping, to see anything else. It was nice to be invisible again.

  I took the time, walking the hotel, to remember why I was putting myself through all this. Why I was fighting so hard to keep Spencer. I sat on a bench near an abandoned hall way.

  Traffic was rushing past this way and that only a few feet away but it was peaceful where I was.

  I lowered my head into my hands and tried to remember what it was like to have Spencer’s hands caress my face. It had only been two days, but to me it felt like a lifetime apart from him. I was spoiled. I’d woken up and gone to sleep with him next to me for months. Now, I fought to remember what it was like to see him walk into a room and lock eyes with me, and only me.

  When I looked back up, I caught a figure to my left lurking in the shadows. I waited a moment and, when it didn’t move, I did. I rushed toward it. The large figure tried to get away, but we were in a dead end hallway and, unless it was a ghost that could go through walls or had a secret passageway, there was nowhere for him to go. It was a him, by the way, a very large him.

  “Hey,” I yelled.

  The figure stopped when he realized he was trapped with nowhere to go but past me. He didn’t answer me. He put his head down and walked in my direction. Fight or flight took over and, as the adrenaline ran through my veins, I reached out and grabbed his arm when he tried to walk past me.

  I was tired of people walking over me, walking past me. His arms were thick with muscles and when I heard him grunt in protest I let go quickly. Are you trying to get murdered? This guy is huge and could easily take you down, tie you up and cut you into a million little pieces and no one would be the wiser.

  I pushed my own dark thoughts down “What are you doing lurking in the shadows?” I stuck my hand in my bag. “I got my hand on my phone ready to dial nine-one-one, so don’t even think about doing anything to me, or the cops will be here any minute.”
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  He shook his head. I heard him chuckle under his heavy breathing.

  “I am the cops,” he said, finally looking up at me.

  His voice. I know that voice. The man before me was tall, like Spencer. Built like him too. He even kind of resembled him, like he could have been a long lost relative.

  “You’re--I know you,” I said, still trying to put all the pieces together.

  “No, you don’t.”

  “Yes, yes, I do. Your voice, it’s--I’ve heard it. You’re T.” I took a step back and covered my mouth because I knew who it was. I’d heard his voice muffled on the other end of Spencer’s phone more times than I could count. “Why are you following me?” He didn’t confirm who he was, but he also didn’t deny it. “T,” I growled, “why are you following me?” Still he kept quiet. “Spencer sent you, didn’t he?” I demanded.

  The man I knew only as T nodded. “He wants to make sure you’re okay, that’s all.” T hung his head because he knew this was wrong. He knew Spencer was going off the deep end, trying to keep everyone in line and everyone safe from his secret.

  “He wants to know if I’m okay,” I repeated. This time I laughed. I laughed until tears came to my eyes. “Tell him I’m not okay. Tell him I’m miserable. Tell him I’m hurt. You tell him he’s a real ass hat for doing what he did.”

  T nodded in agreement. “What about his sisters? Were they good when you left? Was Cami okay?”

  Cami, why would he single her out--unless...I thought back to Camilla and how she said Spencer had also decided what was best for her.

  “They’re fine. Worried about their big brother, but I think they’ll survive.”

  He placed his hand over his chest and at first I thought it was a sign of relief but then he snuck it inside his jacket pocket. He pulled out his phone.

  “I’m guessing that’s him,” I said, wiping the few stray tears that managed to well up in my eyes.

  He nodded again. T hit a button and shoved his phone back into his jacket pocket.

  “What are you, his little puppet?” It was a nasty remark, but by that point, I didn’t care if I insulted him. He was a part of this whole cover up too.