Tess's Tale (The Chanel Series Book 3)

by Donna Joy Usher

  I watched the test window as the first pink line appeared. Why did they make them pink? Was it meant to make the experience all cute and fluffy? Cause if it was, there was a market for a test for those who didn’t want to be pregnant. The lines would be black and the little test would start playing the death march as the second line showed up… and speaking of second lines.

  Huh. So I was pregnant.

  I waited for the fizz of excitement to bubble up. Instead, I just felt exhausted.

  I was so busy staring at the test as I came out of the toilet that I didn’t notice Liss exiting the bathroom. I ran smack bang into her and dropped the stupid thing onto the floor. Her hand picked it up before mine.

  Maybe it was the shock of last night, maybe it was just utter, chaotic confusion, it was probably a combination of both, but as soon as Liss’s eyes met mine I started to cry.

  ‘Shhhhh,’ she said, pulling me into her arms. ‘How far along are you?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ I sniffled a couple of times and then started to cry harder. ‘How long ago did we get married?’

  ‘Twelve… no thirteen weeks.’

  I raised my eyebrows and shrugged.

  She looked down at me. ‘Nothing to see yet, but Rose hardly looked pregnant the day she gave birth to you.’ Dragging me into her bedroom, she sat me on the edge of her bed. ‘Does Harry know?’

  I shook my head while I hiccupped and sobbed. I didn’t seem to be able to get the tears to stop.

  ‘Hey what’s this really about?’ Nobody could ever accuse Liss of being stupid.

  ‘Giuseppe got Harry last night.’

  ‘Oh no. Oh Tess. I’m so sorry.’ She pulled me to her again in a tight embrace and rocked me back and forth.

  ‘He’s still alive,’ I managed to croak out.

  She stopped the rocking and leant back so she could push my hair out of my eyes. ‘Is he badly hurt?’

  ‘He’s fine.’ And then I told her the truth about what had happened.

  When I had finished her eyes were wide and her mouth hung open. ‘You could have been killed,’ she finally said.

  ‘But I wasn’t.’

  She shook herself and the look on her face changed from amazement to serious. ‘You can’t tell anyone else about this.’

  ‘I won’t.’

  She stared off to the side for a few moments. ‘That’s not good enough.’

  ‘Harry won’t tell anyone.’

  ‘What about Mickey and Riley? You’re telling me they won’t say anything to anybody. Cause they will. Maybe not now, but how could they not? What you did was amazing. And it will get back to Italy.’

  I hadn’t thought about that. But she was right. Cold terror gripped my heart and squeezed hard.

  She grasped my shoulders and stared into my eyes. ‘You have to leave.’

  I nodded. ‘We will. I mean we are. We spoke about it last night. We’re going to go to Australia.’

  ‘Harry’s willing to leave Billy and his Dad?’

  I pulled a face. The Billy part was difficult. We were hoping we could reconnect in a few years once this had all gone away. If it all went away.

  She let go of my shoulders and leaned back. ‘When?’

  ‘As soon as my passport turns up.’

  ‘You’ll have to change your names, and stay away from the capital cities. And Tess,’ she grabbed my arm again, ‘this is really important. You can’t sing.’

  ‘What? Why?’ Not sing? I may as well cut off a limb.

  ‘Honey a voice like yours will attract attention. They’ll be looking for things like that.’

  She was right again, damn it. I was going to have to change my appearance, what I did, who I was. I looked down at my stomach. I would do it for them. For my unborn child. That would make it worthwhile.

  ‘Come on.’ I grabbed her hand and stood up. ‘Thor will be wondering where we are.’

  As we ate breakfast I soaked up everything I could about Liss and Thor. Their voices, the taste of his omelette, the way he looked at her as if he had just found something amazing, the way she teased him continuously. Out of everything I had experienced in my short life, those were the things I would miss the most.

  ***

  I spent all afternoon preparing dinner. I set the table and lit the candles, something I hadn’t even done last night. Then I picked out my outfit and did my hair. After all, it’s not every night you get to tell your husband you’re pregnant.

  ‘Tess.’

  I heard Harry call out as I was putting the finishing touches to my hair.

  ‘Coming.’

  He was out the back with a beer when I got back downstairs. The bruises on his face had bloomed through the day and he looked exhausted, but his face lit up when he saw me and he let out a low whistle. ‘Come here.’ He held his hand out and when I took it, he pulled me onto his lap and wrapped himself around me.

  I sank into his kiss, blissfully aware that this was the first time we’d been alone at this hour of the day since Jim’s heart attack.

  ‘You managed to shake off Mickey and Riley,’ I said when I came up for air.

  He grinned. ‘They’re back with their rightful master.’

  I curled my fingers into his thick hair and pulled his mouth back to mine. I could spend all day kissing Harry. The thought occurred to me that now would be the perfect time to tell him, but I had planned to do it over dinner. So I waited.

  I broke away before things became too heated. It had taken a long time to get my hair looking this good. ‘How’s your Dad?’

  Harry picked up his beer and took a swig. ‘Much better now that he knows we’re safe.’

  ‘You told him?’ I pulled away so I was perched on his knees rather than curled into his chest.

  ‘I had to. I didn’t want him worrying.’

  ‘The retribution for last night is going to be worse.’

  ‘Not if they don’t know what happened to them.’

  ‘They’ll find out.’

  ‘How? Only the five of us know.’

  ‘You can’t tell me that they won’t talk. Maybe not now, but in a couple of years, or when they’ve had too much to drink, or to impress a woman.’ I could hear my voice starting to get hysterical.

  ‘Tess.’ Harry pulled me back to him. ‘It’s all right.’ But his face didn’t look as certain as his voice sounded.

  ‘They will come for us Harry. We have to leave.’

  ‘I know. We will.’ He kissed me on the forehead. ‘Did your passport come today?’

  As I shook my head a buzzer sounded from the kitchen. ‘Dinner’s nearly ready.’ I stood up and smoothed down my skirt. ‘Why don’t you go have a shower?’

  ‘Not working tonight?’ He smiled at me as he stood up.

  ‘I enjoyed last night so much I thought we could do it again.’

  His smile turned positively wolfish as he bent to nuzzle my neck. ‘Excellent, because it was all I could think about today.’

  I laughed and pushed him away. ‘Go shower while I save dinner.’

  ‘You could come and shower with me.’

  For a second I really thought about it. The thought of Harry’s hands, hot water, and soap nearly made me change my plans. Hell, I could tell him in the shower just as well as I could at the dining room table. But, no, I had put too much effort into making tonight perfect.

  ‘Maybe after dinner you can help shower me.’

  He patted me on the bottom as I walked past him towards the kitchen.

  When he came back ten minutes later his hair was still damp and he smelt of cologne. He pushed me up against the pantry and ran his hands up and down my body before settling them onto my breasts. ‘I thought about you the whole time I was in the shower,’ he whispered in my ear.

  I groaned and pushed my breasts into his hands as he massaged them. ‘I thought about what it felt like to be inside you.’ He took my hand and put it on the front of his pants. His erection strained hard into my palm. ‘And this was the result.�
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  One of his hands left my breasts and made its way down to my leg. It stroked the delicate skin on the inside of my thigh before making its way up. His mouth covered mine and his tongue darted into play as his fingers rubbed over my core. I shuddered and pushed into him and all self-restraint left me.

  He slid down my pants, then scooped me up and carried me to the sofa. All thoughts of well-made plans left my head and the only thing left in it was Harry; the smell of him, the taste of him, the feel of him on me and in me. It was all consuming.

  We didn’t come up for air till the wine was warm and the dinner was cold.

  ***

  ‘I’m sorry about dinner.’ I could tell by the cheeky smile on Harry’s face that he wasn’t really sorry. I didn’t mind because I wasn’t sorry either.

  I topped up his wine glass and pulled out my seat to sit down.

  ‘You’re not drinking?’ He nodded towards my empty glass.

  ‘Actually,’ I said, ‘there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.’

  The shrieking of the phone interrupted me. I rolled my eyes and mumbled, ‘Just bloody perfect.’

  I picked up the receiver and a female voice started babbling hysterical Italian into my ear.

  ‘Rosella. Is that you?’ The babbling continued without a break.

  ‘You had better take it.’ I held the receiver out toward Harry.

  He stood and hurried towards the phone, the look on his face making me realise what I had missed. There was only one reason Rosella would be ringing here. Something had happened to Jolly Jim.

  He spoke to her for a minute, his voice low and urgent. When he hung up, his face under the bruising, was grey.

  ‘Is he alive?’

  He nodded and some of the tension I had been holding released.

  ‘He’s on his way to the hospital.’

  ‘Are we picking up Rosella?’ I snagged the car keys from the hook and picked up my bag, casting a rueful glance at the table. It seemed dinner was doomed to never be eaten.

  ‘Yes.’ His previously animated face was wooden.

  ‘Hey,’ I reached out and squeezed his hand. ‘He’ll be okay. Just like last time.’ But I knew what he was thinking.

  How could we leave if his father was sick?

  I pushed that thought out of my mind and herded him towards the front door. It was all going to be okay, it was.

  Now if only I could get myself to believe that.

  7

  Big H

  It was not like last time. This time pipes and hoses were attached to Jim’s arms and mouth. A nurse bustled around him, checking bits of equipment.

  Rosella let out a shriek and launched herself at Jim’s side. Harry caught her in his arms and held her.

  ‘What’s that?’ I pointed to the machine that was connected to the tube running from his mouth.

  The nurse looked at what I was pointing at, her deft hands still continuing their duty. ‘A respirator. It makes him breathe.’

  Oh yes, it was definitely not like last time.

  ‘What happened?’ Harry’s voice was strained.

  ‘The Doctor will be back soon.’ She stepped back and eyed all the equipment and then turned towards us. ‘Why don’t you take a seat and wait for him.’ She pointed at a lone chair sitting against the far wall.

  ‘I’ll race you,’ I said to Harry. He didn’t even smile. He was too busy staring at his father.

  I took his hand and turned to see what he was seeing. It didn’t look good. The only dead men I’d ever seen had all had bullet holes in their heads. So if I set them up as a ten, and a healthy person as a one, Jim was an eight. With his grey skin and all those machines around him, he looked one step away from the grave.

  ‘Rosella, you have the seat.’

  I pulled the chair up so that it was close enough to the bed that you could see Jim, but far enough away that no-one would trip over you if an alarm sounded. I’d watched enough General Hospital to know what happened when one of them went off.

  Rosella shuffled the seat close enough to the bed that she could hold Jim’s hand. I was guessing they didn’t have Italian subtitles for General Hospital.

  I scooted out to the hall and looked up and down. Another seat sat farther down the hall towards the nurse’s station. I grabbed it and took it back to the room and set Harry up next to Rosella.

  ‘I’m going to get us all coffee.’ I had a feeling it was going to be a long night. Neither of them looked at me as I left.

  I was struggling with conflicting emotions. Dread and hope that Jim would die. Apart from Billy, he was the only thing holding Harry here, but my own selfish emotions were not enough to warrant someone dying. I was a mean, horrible person, but no matter how much I berated myself I couldn’t get that little voice out of my head.

  I found a coffee machine and carried two foam cups back to the room for Harry and Rosella. Harry started when I tapped him on the shoulder.

  ‘Sorry,’ I said, handing him the cup.

  I found a third chair and parked myself next to Harry, taking his hand in mine. We sat like that, none of us talking as we stared at Jim.

  It seemed like forever before a man with a white coat walked into the room. His name badge said Dr Roberts.

  ‘You are Jim Milano’s next of kin?’ the doctor asked.

  ‘I’m his son, Harry.’ Harry leapt to his feet. ‘This is my wife, Tess. This is Rosella.’ He didn’t bother mentioning that Rosella wasn’t related. Let the man assume she was Jim’s wife. ‘Was it another heart attack?’

  ‘No,’ Dr Roberts said. ‘This time it was a stroke.’

  ‘But why would he have a stroke?’ Harry asked.

  ‘Your father is not a well man.’

  Dr Roberts was obviously a rocket scientist. I mean anyone looking at Jim could tell he was not a well man.

  Rosella said something to Harry in Italian. ‘She wants to know if he will recover,’ Harry said. ‘I mean we all want to know if he will recover.’

  ‘If he makes it through the night, he has a chance of recovery. But I think you have to start to come to terms with the fact that your father will never be the man he was.’

  I was guessing by Rosella’s reaction to Harry’s translation that he wasn’t entirely truthful. The stress drained out of her face and she started patting Jim’s hand.

  We sat in silence watching Dr Roberts check Jim’s vitals. When he had finished, he turned back to Harry and said, ‘I wish I could give you better news. The scan we ran on your father’s brain showed significant damage has been caused by the bleed. It will affect the left side of his body. Even if he regains consciousness, he probably won’t walk again.’

  If I’d thought Harry’s face was grim before, it was nothing compared to what it was now. Rosella, however, kept patting. It was probably for the best that she didn’t know the real situation, this way she wouldn’t have to worry unless it became a reality.

  And the reality was not pretty. Jim was either going to die, or be disabled.

  It was when I came back from getting the third round of coffee that Harry said what I’d been thinking.

  ‘I hope he dies.’

  I breathed a sigh of relief. Now I didn’t have to feel so guilty.

  ‘He’d hate to be like that. Stuck in a wheelchair, unable to look after himself. It would be the end of him.’

  Shame flooded me. Here I was thinking about how Jim’s being alive would affect our lives, and Harry was only thinking of Jim.

  We made it through the night without any alarms going off. All of us were sore and stiff after a night of dozing in the uncomfortable hospital chairs, but I know we were all glad we had done it when Jim’s eyelids fluttered and then he opened his eyes.

  ‘Harry.’ The word was slurred to the point of almost being unrecognisable.

  ‘I’m here Dad.’ Harry moved to sit on the edge of the bed opposite where Rosella was. They each held one of Jim’s hands.

  ‘Tess.’

 
; ‘I’m here too.’ There were no hands left for me to hold so I stood by the foot of the bed.

  ‘Rosella is here as well, Dad.’

  ‘That’s good.’ The words came out sounding more like, ‘Thash goosh.’

  ‘Everything is going to be fine, Dad,’ Harry said.

  Jolly Jim shook his head. Well I’m guessing he tried to shake it. It wobbled a little to the right. Rosella started patting his hand faster than she had before.

  I thought perhaps the doctor should know that Jim had woken up. I rubbed Harry on the back and murmured in his ear where I was going. I told one of the nurses at the station that Jim was talking to us. If the look on her face was anything to go on, that news was unexpected.

  ‘He’s just doing his rounds,’ she said when she hung up the phone. ‘But he’ll come as fast as he can. ‘

  True to his word, Dr Roberts turned up within five minutes. ‘Mr Milano,’ he said, ‘it’s nice to meet you.’ He pulled the stethoscope from around his neck and started examining Jim.

  ‘I’m going to find a payphone,’ I said to Harry. ‘I want to let Liss know what’s happening.’

  He nodded his head but didn’t take his eyes off the doctor.

  I found a payphone down the end of the hall near the coffee machine. I put a quarter into it and dialled Liss’s phone number, praying that she would pick up.

  ‘Did you tell him?’ she said when she realised it was me.

  ‘I didn’t get a chance. Jim had a massive stroke last night.’ I sighed and rested my forehead against the phone. ‘I think he’s paralysed. Well at least one side of him anyway.’

  She was silent for a few moments before saying, ‘This is going to affect your plan, isn’t it?’

  ‘We can’t go anywhere at the moment. Besides, I haven’t got my passport yet.’

  ‘You can’t afford to leave it too long.’

  ‘Harry and Jim think that if the bodies aren’t identified there will be no repercussions.’ I looked nervously over my shoulder to see if anybody was within hearing distance.