Hidden Heart

by Camelia Miron Skiba

  “But I made her pay. Like I’ll make you pay.” He put the bottle and knife down. Walking slowly, stalking her, he cornered Tessa between the fridge and the sink. She leaned backwards, bowed her head and crossed her hands protectively over her belly. Daniel’s fingers curled around her neck. The pressure on her throat hurt and she fought to breathe. Her vision blurred and her knees buckled. With a sudden surge she placed her hands on top of his, digging her fingers between the soft skin of her neck and the hard force of his hand. She pulled them away and hissed, “Let go!”

  He backhanded her, only the counter behind her back keeping her from buckling to the floor, then stepped away. He leaned against the table.

  She coughed and spat blood, then held onto the countertop to steady herself.

  “The notary stole money from the farmers,” Tessa heard herself say. She needed to buy time. Alessandro should be home soon. Then she’d be safe.

  Daniel returned to stand in front of her trapping her once again. She spotted his fist out of the corner of her eyes and covered her face to avoid another strike. This time the punch landed behind her left ear. She fell to the floor.

  Daniel grabbed a handful of her hair and lifted her head. He bowed closer to her face. “You don’t give me any credit, do you? You think only you women are smart. Only you can make money and wrap men around your fingers… you’re so full of shit, Tessa!”

  He shoved her and kicked her in the ribs. He walked away, ran both hands through his hair and held onto the back of his neck.

  “I stole the money, not her. I had it all planned out, the call about the contracts damaged by water, I was the mastermind of the plan, not her. She was too stupid to see, like you were too stupid to see how disgusted I was being with you.” As if to emphasize his words, he came and spat on her.

  She jerked and covered her abdomen for fear he might hit her again and hurt the baby. Panic clouded her mind. She pushed herself onto one elbow and leaned against the stove. She could barely breath.

  His revelation shocked her. “You? You tried to get me fired and ruin my life? Why, Daniel? Why? If you were so unhappy, why did you stay with me?” Her tears mixed with blood and anger.

  She flinched when he came and sat next to her.

  “Why?” He snarled. He rested his head against the stove and said, “For money. I used to love you, you know, but then, the more money you made, the more insufferable you became. All you could talk about was work and money; how you buy this, how you buy that. I began resenting you. But I liked your money. I began pretending to love you just to get to your money. That’s why. I cheated on you with every single woman I could, just to laugh at you.”

  It all came back to her. It now made sense; his weekend disappearances, his partying, his extravagant expenses, his eagerness to help her find a good notary. The woman she’d caught Daniel with was…the notary. The revelation overcame her. She stood, unable to breathe. Between sobs she asked, “What did you do to her?”

  “I gave her a lesson, like I’m going to give you.”

  Daniel jumped to his feet and faced her. In one single motion he ripped her shirt upward and squeezed her breasts before she could stop him. It hurt her to tears. He placed a hand roughly at the nape of her neck and bit her lips, then lowered his mouth to her neck as she pushed ineffectively against him. He rubbed himself cruelly against her, his penis hard against her abdomen.

  Tessa closed her eyes and took a deep, ragged breath. She shoved him away with all her strength, knocking him off balance and ran into the hallway, reaching for the door to escape.

  Daniel regained his balance and lunged after her. He caught up to her in the same moment she wrenched the door open. He hit the door and pushed Tessa against the door slamming it closed. He placed a hand over her mouth to muffle her scream for help.

  “You, whore, where do you think you’re going?”

  Daniel’s blow to her eye exploded like a thousand stars in her mind’s eye. The next strike to her stomach left her winded. She collapsed, sliding down against the door. He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her away from the door. She curled in a ball, covering her belly and her face while he kept kicking her with his hard shoes.

  “Where is that jerk of yours to save you, huh?”

  His cruel fist crushed against her jaw like a hammer pounds against the anvil. His second shot caused a wicked pop that dislocated her jaw. Her vision dimmed and a deep, low note rang in her head. A tolling bell, she thought before losing consciousness.

  She blacked out briefly, and awoke abruptly laying on her back with Daniel straddling her, her chemise torn apart, her bra gone and her thighs bare. She sobbed and tried to cover her breasts. She saw Daniel opening his zipper, terror ripping through her mind at the sight. She begged, “Please don’t,” just as his fist connected squarely with her jaw. She tried to find the words to pray for the safety of her baby, but darkness filled her vision until only blackness was left.

  Romanian women, for generations, were taught that the man in the family had the right to abuse his spouse and Tessa wasn't an exception to this way of life. She took the slurs, spitting and punches as was expected of her position in the Romanian society. She took the blows and so ingrained was her conditioning that not even the slightest thought of fighting back entered her mind.

  Chapter 12

  On the other side of town, Alessandro grunted in frustration. He called Tessa’s house and cell phone, but to no avail. He left a dozen messages and he couldn’t get to her apartment fast enough. He’d even called the office, but Eva told him Tessa hadn’t come to work. His plane had landed thirty minutes later than planned and he could’ve crawled to Bucharest faster than the traffic moved.

  He felt restless. Where is she? Why isn’t she answering the phone? He pushed a hand through his hair and drummed his fingers on the door’s handle.

  Alessandro bolted from the cab before it halted in front of Tessa’s apartment building, tossing money carelessly at the driver. He didn’t see her car parked in its usual place, and the closer he got, the more he felt something was wrong. He reached to unlock the apartment door, but it was open. Now he was certain something horrible had happened.

  Alessandro walked inside and turned the lights on. He saw the trail of blood leading towards the kitchen. Dread filled his hammering heart as he hurried forward, unconsciously avoiding stepping in it. In the kitchen more blood on the floor and around the sink seemed dried already. Groceries sprawled across the table, spilling on the floor.

  No sign of Tessa.

  He walked swiftly down the hall into the living room. There Tessa lay, unconscious, blood running from above her eye, pooling around her lip. With horror he dropped to his knees, belatedly noticing her tattered, bloodied clothes. He covered her breasts with the torn t-shirt as he frantically fumbled for her wrist, searching for signs of life. Her pulse was barely perceptible, but her chest rose and fell with her breath. He took a deep breath; her face was shattered, swollen, bruised and bleeding; the woman lying on the floor looked nothing like his Tessa.

  He dialed 112, the phone number he learned early on after his move to Bucharest for the ambulance, but realized after hearing the dispatcher’s voice that he’d be unable to ask for help since he didn’t speak Romanian.

  He called Victor.

  “I need an ambulance.” His voice trembled as he tried to conceal the helplessness, the anger and fury feelings.

  “What? Why?” Victor asked, alarmed.

  “I’m at Tessa’s apartment. I just returned from Italy. The door was unlocked. I came in to find her unconscious; she’s bleeding heavily. She’s been beaten.” And probably raped, he wanted to say, but couldn’t get the words out.

  He tried to remain calm and not move her at all for fear he’d add to her injuries. He sat next to her, soothing her head, biting back his violent emotions. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he shouldn’t touch anything in the house, hoping fingerprints might help find the beast who had done this.


  Victor showed up just as the ambulance and two officers did. The paramedics hovered over Tessa, while the officers questioned a frantic Alessandro. Victor translated, but the officers said that they needed an official translator. They allowed Alessandro to follow the ambulance in Victor’s car.

  Once at the hospital, they met Dina in the waiting room. The police brought a translator. They took notes as Alessandro tried to tell them all he could remember; not an easy task when his mind was on Tessa, wondering what was going on with her. Finally they told Alessandro not to leave the country; he wasn’t a suspect, but they needed him to come to the police station for more questions.

  While Dina and Victor sat in the waiting room, Alessandro paced the place like a caged animal, then stopped each time a nurse or a doctor walked by, anxious they’d bring news about Tessa.

  He wanted to wallow in misery alone more than anything else.

  “Go home, Victor, it’s really late,” Alessandro said, then sat next to him.

  “I’ll stay to see what the doctors have to say.”

  “I promise I’ll call you the minute I find out. Look at Dina, she’s half asleep, please take her and go home. You’ve done so much already.”

  Victor looked at his wife who dozed next to him, her head resting against his shoulder. He woke her up gently, then stood helping her, too. Dina gave Alessandro a motherly hug, caressed his cheek and walked out of the waiting room.

  Alessandro walked to the window and stared into the darkness. Unable to comprehend why such a horrible thing had happened, he tormented himself for not being there to protect her, to rescue her. A bastard had killed Rafaela; another one almost killed Tessa. And each time he couldn’t help or couldn’t save them. He blamed himself for not convincing her to move in with him. This whole episode could have been avoided.

  It took the doctors close to four hours to get him news about Tessa’s condition.

  “Sinteti rude?” asked a nurse coming in.

  “Sorry, I don’t speak Romanian,” Alessandro said.

  She left and another nurse came. She spoke English. “I’m sorry, my colleague asked if you are family?”

  “I am,” Alessandro said.

  “Her husband?”

  “No, not yet. I’m her fiancé,” he said, trying to sound as convincing as he could.

  She asked him to follow her to Tessa’s room, where for now, the nurse told him, she was sedated for her own comfort. A doctor would soon come to talk to him.

  The monitors around Tessa’s bed kept the room dim. IV’s snaked to her arm, she breathed through a tube, and her face was swollen and covered with bandages. When he saw her, his heart seemed to stop; he made an effort not to cry. He slowly walked next to her bed, gently lifting her hand; he caressed it and the small part of her cheek that wasn’t bandaged.

  “I am so sorry I wasn’t there, cara mia! So sorry!” He felt a weak squeeze and then nothing. He froze; did she hear him or had he just imagined it?

  “Buna seara. Sint doctorul Ivan,” the doctor entered Tessa’s room.

  “I am Alessandro Santinelli and I don’t speak Romanian,” Alessandro said in English, shaking the doctor’s hand.

  “Okay, then let’s speak English,” Dr. Ivan replied with a strong accent. He pulled a small flashlight out of his pocket and lifted Tessa’s eyelids, one by one. He placed it back in his pocket, looked at the machines and noted something on the chart hanging on the bed’s metal frame. “I am very sorry for what happened to your fiancée, it’s amazing how many bastards are out there. We see far more of these cases than we should.”

  “Please, doctor, how she’s doing?”

  “I won’t lie, the assault was bad...we have her sedated and gave her something to ease the pain; she’ll be asleep for some time. Her upper lip and right eyebrow needed stitches... her jaw is fractured, but we were able to reset it. Her shoulder was dislocated. She received bruises to her right temple, one behind her left ear. Four broken ribs, several others bruised. Her right lung is punctured; she’s stable now, but the first twenty-four hours are critical; I can’t give you a prognosis until after further observation.”

  He paused and cleared his throat, “Recovery will take a long time, months even. Unfortunately, the rape has caused serious internal damage and we couldn’t save the baby, we couldn’t stop the blee—”

  “The baby? What baby?” Alessandro interrupted, his despair over her injuries overrun by this astonishing announcement.

  “You didn’t know,” the doctor murmured. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this. The pregnancy was at an early stage, but we couldn’t do anything to save it. I’m sorry for your loss.” The doctor patted him on the shoulder and told him he may as well go home; Tessa wouldn’t wake up anytime soon.

  Alessandro refused. He’d sit in a chair next to her bed, just in case she woke up; he didn’t want her to be alone. He’d had no idea about the pregnancy. He wondered if there were signs he’d missed. More anger washed over him; he always wanted a family, children he’d be able to raise, protect and love. But the bastard that assaulted Tessa took that away from him, no matter how unplanned and surprising the pregnancy was.

  He listened to her last message on his cell; he realized she sounded anxious. Maybe this was the news she wanted to tell him. He listened to the message a couple of times; it felt good to hear her voice.

  Alessandro didn’t go home until sometime after the doctor’s visit the next afternoon, when he was told once again she’d be unconscious for days, if not weeks. He felt numb with pain, a feeling of loss he’d felt before; at least Tessa was alive and one day she’d come back to him. Soon she’d be his forever and they would have more babies and no one and nothing would ever hurt them again. He’d be there to protect and watch over her.

  He didn’t allow himself to fall prey to the despair that lurked in his soul after he found Tessa. He didn’t allow himself to mourn the baby she’d lost. He didn’t allow himself to feel much for fear he’d crumble under the immense pain.

  He went to see Victor.

  “I know I owe you some explanations, but I can’t talk about this now."

  "I had no idea you two were a couple."

  "One day I’ll feel better and will talk… I think we should keep this just between the two of us. The doctors don’t think she’ll wake up anytime soon and even when she does, it will be long before she’s fully recovered from her injuries, so you’ll need to figure out something for the people in the office. I would also like to ask for your help when they call me into the police station,” Alessandro said.

  Victor’s assistant entered shortly and brought him a cup of coffee, then left.

  “I have a good lawyer; we’ll make arrangements for later in the afternoon to meet with the police,” Victor replied.

  “Thanks for helping me,” Alessandro said. His face looked distorted with a mix of pain, tiredness, helplessness and rage.

  “Any idea who would do this?”

  “I’ve been considering that question since the moment I found her. I think it might’ve been her ex.”

  “This is a very serious accusation, are you sure about that? I mean, I’ve known Daniel for years; he was an average guy…not the violent type.” Victor stood and poured more coffee for himself, then filled Alessandro’s cup.

  “Well, you know he threatened her and even tried to hit her. I told her something bad might happen. But she didn’t want to leave her apartment.”

  “I’ll do some investigating of my own,” Victor said. “I know some people, I have connections.” He came and sat in the opposite chair. “Did she tell you anything about the farmers?”

  Alessandro lifted his eyes from his cup and looked at Victor. He sat up straight in his chair.

  “No, she didn’t.”

  “She came to my house on Sunday after she met with two of the farmers. One of them brought his contract. We compared the contract she had from the notary’s assistant with the farmer’s contract. There was a discrepancy be
tween them.”

  “I don’t understand,” Alessandro said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Well…” Victor sighed then stood and went to his desk. He retrieved the two contracts and gave them to Alessandro. He couldn’t understand them, but Victor pointed at the amounts and the name. “This is the same person, but one contract has one sum, the other a different one, lower. We figured after each farmer signed their contract and received the money from Tessa’s hand, they needed the notary’s stamp and signature to make the contract valid. According to Tessa, the signing of the contract happened in a different room, so she had no idea what was happening there.”

  “I don’t understand. If that’s the case, why are both contracts signed by Tessa?”

  “She received a call from the notary the day before the contracts were to be signed. The notary told her about some weird flooding happening in her office that damaged the contracts and she needed to come urgently to the office and sign a second set of them. Because of the time constraint, Tessa just signed them without reading the contracts, nor did she verify that the amounts coincided.”

  “Okay…suppose this is true…how did the notary convince the farmers to give up some of their money?”

  “It turns out the notary is a very influential person in their community, the mayor’s daughter. She told them that the exchange rate changed from the date they negotiated to the day they signed the contracts; therefore they needed to hand over some of their money. Now, you have to understand that the farmers are uneducated people some of them with barely four classes and terms such as exchange rate, bank accounts and trades are foreign to them. So, it was easy for her to manipulate them.”

  Alessandro stood and paced the room. “This is absolute madness! What world are you people living in?”