“Your mother was a truly beautiful woman. Just like you, her hair was like a cloud above her head. It was her halo,” playfully, he rubbed his hands in her Afro of hair. Carla would constantly tease her about her ‘nappy’ head, but he loved that Adaline never let it get to her. She loved her hair and now loved it even more knowing that it made her look like her mother. Despite the negativity in the house, he wanted her to be proud of whom she was. “And she was so intelligent. Whenever I was around her, I was in awe of who she was.” His gaze began to wander as he spoke, “I remember the first time I laid eyes on her. Some older gentleman had said something pretty racist about how she looked. I was getting ready to intervene, but before I could even move, she told him off.” He laughed at the memory. “Amaris was like wildfire, and I had never experienced anything like it.”
Adaline frowned at the memory he explained. While still young, she could tell from the emotion coating his speech, that this memory held unparalleled significance. But why would her uncle have been so close to her mother. Hadn’t he been with Victoria? “Were you and my mother best friends?”
Uncle Dean was rocked from his memory by the sound of her voice, he hesitated before nodding his head slightly, “Yes, Adaline. Amaris was my best friend. So every time I see you, I am reminded of her. You are as much a daughter to me as Carla. I don’t want you to ever forget that, do you hear me?”
A blush rose to her cheeks as he bent down and gave her a peck on the cheek. “Thank you, Uncle Dean.”
And then he surprised her. He signed, “Now sleep.”
Gasping, Adaline could only find her voice enough to say, “Uncle Dean?”
The wide smile on his face gave him laugh lines around the corners of his eyes and displayed a slight dimple in his left cheek. “I’m trying to learn for you. It’ll be our little secret.”
And for years, it had been. While he had never been fluent, Adaline heart had warmed at his attempts. But she had never again questioned him about his relationship with her mother, though he had obviously been a source for more information. Victoria had always been close-lipped about Amaris and their experiences growing up. Adaline had assumed that it was simply painful to remember, but her uncle had never seemed pained by the memories. Instead, it was as if he held onto them like a lifeline. They were memories of happiness and love. Love. It still confused her. How could there have been love between Dean and Amaris? Hadn’t their only connection between Victoria?
More and more questions raced through her mind as she climbed the stairs of her childhood home. But more important than curiosities into the past was the state of her Uncle now. That day with Murphy, Victoria had called her in anger and for the first time, Adaline had seen fear in her expression. There had been an accident.
Her uncle had been working on the roof when he slipped and fell to the ground. According to her aunt, he had been in critical condition from a head injury. The damage was not as severe as it could have been. However, because of how he landed, there was cranial nerve damage causing temporary loss of vision. At the news, Adaline had wanted to laugh at the humorous coincidence of the world. But that short millisecond had quickly transferred over to worry and fear of losing someone she never realized mattered so much. It was only now she was remembering the many times Dean had been a source of strength for her growing up in a foreign household.
He had been released from the hospital after being under the care of the doctors for several weeks. While he still did not have his vision back, it was a miracle he wasn’t in a coma. After Victoria ranted and raved to the hospital staff, they finally agreed to let him come home and rest in a familiar environment. With still round-the-clock care, Dean was nowhere near being his former healthy self, but he was continually making steps in the right direction.
All this from one phone call. Adaline could only wonder how different things could have been had she just answered them before. Their efforts had only continued because her uncle had been desperate to see her again.
Adaline entered the master bedroom tentatively after knocking on the open door to warn of her presence. Victoria and Dean’s room was a massive suite. Their king-sized bed didn’t even take up half the room. It sat in the far corner while a sitting area and bookcase decorated the immediate area. In the far right corner was a hallway into their walking closet and bathroom suite. She could count on one hand the number of times she had ever entered their room. It had been a forbidden space in her childhood, which had only further incurred her curiosity. Once she entered it however, she had been thoroughly disappointed by just how normal it was. Despite the size.
“Aunt Victoria,” she called out softly. She could see her aunt sitting down beside the bed with her head in her hands. At the sound of her voice, Victoria immediately looked up and frowned at seeing her. Her immediate reaction quickly changed when her husband spoke,
“Is that Adaline? Adaline?” Her uncle began to sit up. Large pillows surrounded him and his head was still wrapped.
“Yes, it’s me, Uncle.” Adaline came closer to the bed and leaned down to give him a peck on the cheek. He smiled up at her automatically even without his sight.
“I’m going to step out and give you two some time to talk,” Victoria stated stiffly. Without so much as a glance in Adaline’s direction, she walked out the door to their bedroom.
“She has every right to be mad at me,” Adaline conceded. “I should have answered you all sooner. I’m sorry about that. I just got caught up in my life at Boston; I didn’t want to somehow be persuaded to come back here after feeling stuck for so long. But I’m here now, Uncle. And I’ll stay until you get better.”
Dean laughed softly and shook his head, “I’m not on my deathbed. Don’t be so dramatic. It’s only my sight.”
But even as he joked, Adaline could tell from the lines around his brow that it worried him. While it was only supposed to be temporary, no one could say exactly when his sight would return. Adaline already knew Victoria and Carla were anxious for that day. But what if it never came? Adaline worried that they wouldn’t be capable of the compassion and understanding Dean would need during his times of vulnerability and frustration.
“I feel like I deserve this,” he stated softly.
Immediately, she emphatically shook her head even though he couldn’t see her. “No, don’t ever think that! This was just a silly accident. What would ever make you say such a thing?”
“Because of the way we treated you, Adaline. Because of how adamant we were that you speak instead of using sign language, even when I knew how much it meant to your mother that you never feel less than. She wanted you to know that your lack of hearing gave you a community few are privy to. That it made you belong, just in a different way. I knew that. Victoria knew that. But we still did nothing.”
Adaline reached out so that she could wrap her hand gently around his. “I won’t lie that it was hard for me living here, and that I weirdly feel as if I have a foot in both worlds as a result of my upbringing. It is a blessing and a curse, I think. But I don’t want you to think that you never did anything for me, Uncle. You signed for me when Auntie wasn’t looking, and that meant more to me than you could ever know. You told me stories about my mom when I needed to hear them the most.”
He scoffed, “But I never told you the whole truth.”
She smiled slightly, “I figured as much actually. Even what I know today doesn’t always add up.” Adaline paused before adding, “Would you fill in the blanks? Like you said, you’re not on your deathbed.”
To her surprise, he laughed at her, “Yes, I did say that.”
She waited as he seemed to gather his thoughts.
“I didn’t want to tell you this when you were a child because I didn’t want to confuse you. It was difficult enough for you to lose both parents. But then to find out that...I know why Victoria treats you the way she does. It’s because I loved your mother first.”
“What do you mean? Y-you were with my mother first.”
“What happened?”
“Amaris entranced me; she was unlike any woman I had ever met or dated before. In fact, I would say she was my first real relationship. I was a cocky and spoilt, having never had to question my upbringing or my future because it was all set for me. We were so different, I never knew what she exactly saw in me, but she always said there was something genuine about me that she was drawn to. Heck, I was just happy to grab her attention. But being the arrogant son of a bitch I was, I fucked things up between us. I couldn’t fathom being that young and having found someone I could spend the rest of my life with. So I sabotaged it. And I lost her.”
“How did you end up with Aunt Victoria then?”
Dean sighed and shook his head, “I don’t want you to think me telling you this means I don’t love your aunt. I do. When I met Vicky, I had no idea she was at all related to Amaris. They were so different in appearance and attitude. When I found out, your mother was already in a strong relationship with your father. And I was preparing to pop the question to Victoria. There was a moment of doubt in my mind; I wondered whether I could get Amaris back, but I saw how happy she was. And I knew I could find my own happiness with Victoria. So I did.”
It wasn’t what Adaline expected to hear.
“When your mother and I finally got up the courage to tell Victoria, as you can surely imagine, she was not very happy about it. I think it made her very insecure about our relationship. The rivalry between them had been going on for years! Amaris was the rebel and the free-spirited younger sister, while Victoria had always been highly conscious of following the rules and pleasing her parents. To her, it always seemed as if Amaris got the better end of the deal. To add insult to injury, she had me first as well.”
“So she blamed me for this? Why is it my fault that my mother marched to the beat of her own drum?”
“It’s not. And you should never have suffered because of the dissolution of their relationship. I know Victoria cares for you. And I don’t want you to feel that you are not an equal part of this family. You are as much my daughter as Carla is, Adaline. It pains me to see how you’ve run from us.”
Immediately, Adaline reached out until she was laying partially on the king-sized bed. With his hands between her own, she gently placed her head onto his shoulders. She couldn’t help the tears that began to cloud her eyes.
“It was never my intent to hurt you.” She sniffled and shook her head as she admitted, “I didn’t think you’d really care that I was gone.”
He leaned into her embrace. “I missed you, sweetheart.”
When Adaline finally stepped out of the room to allow him to rest, Victoria and Carla in the kitchen greeted her. For a moment, she admired how much they mirrored one another. Just as Uncle Dean had attested to, Victoria and Amaris were so different in appearance; they couldn’t have ever been mistaken for sisters. While Adaline had inherited her mother’s dark and even skin, Victoria was only a few shades darker from Carla’s natural honey skin tone. Both of their facial features were sharp and delicate. Adaline had sometimes envied their beauty. Not because she couldn’t appreciate her own, but because it sometimes felt that the world around her couldn’t. But for them, admiration always came easy.
“How is he?” Victoria asked softly.
“He’ll be fine; he’s just resting.”
There was an awkward silence that hung between them as they all became subsumed within their worry over Dean but simultaneously aware of how little they had to say to one another. It became starkly apparent how little they knew one another now. In a span of a few months, they were suddenly different people than before. Strangers.
Seeming hesitant, Victoria asked, “How long will you be staying?”
“I only asked for a few days off from work so I can’t stay that long, unfortunately. But, I’m here to help out as much as I can while I am here.”
At her words, Carla snorted derisively. “Now you want to be here to help? When you’ve been so selfish these past months? My parents opened their home to you and look at how you repay them? The moment you got a chance to move out, you didn’t even bother giving them a second look back. You never even called.”
It seemed that the slight truce that had existed from their worry over Dean had officially passed. Adaline was flabbergasted by the hypocrisy in Carla’s words. Selfish? Carla had been catered to her entire life. While she was certainly grateful to Victoria and Dean for opening up their home after her parents’ unfortunate demise, did she owe them her hopes and dreams because of it? She had been under their wing for too long out of fear, and now that she had the courage to venture away she was being called ungrateful. Victoria’s silence at her daughter’s words was enough for Adaline to realize her agreement with the accusation. She felt her eye twitch at the irritation and disgust growing in her stomach at the sight of both of them.
Her only reason for coming back was lying in bed upstairs. And she felt torn as she faced the impetus for her hasty escape. She was tired of being looked down by these two women. Victoria may have cared for her at a certain level, but she never showed it. If anything, it seemed to Adaline that Victoria’s unresolved issues with Amaris drove the seemingly infallible dislike she had for her. Adaline didn’t understand it.
“You know what? I don’t get it, Aunt Victoria. You, on the other hand,” she pointed to Carla, “have never been anything else but a grotesquely hideous creature.” Adaline turned back to her aunt, ignoring the gasp of outrage from her cousin. “But, you…what do you have against me? I will never apologize for wanting to leave a place that constantly made me feel like an outsider. Why bother taking me in if you didn’t want me here? Huh, Auntie?
“Uncle Dean is the only reason I am here. I don’t need your judgment and frankly, I don’t give a shit because he is happy I’m here. I know how he was in love with my mother first before he ever met you. I know that makes you feel insecure about your relationship. But, hello! My mother is dead! You don’t have any competition anymore. So what do you want from me? What do you have against me!” Her accent had thickened considerably as her voice grew louder.
Adaline could no longer hold back the pain of rejection she continually felt at the hands of the only mother figure she had growing up. Tears sprang to her eyes despite her best efforts to keep them at bay. She felt her hands, balled into fists, shaking at the effort to control her inner turmoil. She didn’t want to be vulnerable in front of these women. She couldn’t afford to be.
Victoria looked upon her niece in confusion and shame. She let out a deep sigh as she replied simply, “Everything.”
Chapter Fifteen
Dominic didn’t know what to think as he looked upon the older man sitting behind the menacing oak desk. Just like the man, it was scarred but ruthless. Dominic could remember the very same furniture as a small child. He would look up at its brilliance with awe in his eyes and pride once his gaze would settle on his father behind it. That was whom he dreamt of becoming. But now…
He couldn’t help but to sigh wistfully at the memories of the past. The man before him was no longer an enigma of power, wealth, and dominance. Now, Dominic knew him to be just a man. And, as with all men, he had his flaws. At first his awareness that his childhood hero was not unflappable, that the invisible shield of armor he held around his person was not bulletproof, had created feelings of resentment and distrust. Now, that resentment was replaced with acceptance. Dominic had a deeper understanding of his father and was no longer clouded by feelings of inadequacy because of romanticized views of his father as an impenetrable force.
Consequently, Dominic was currently frustrated by the man’s lack of foresight. How could he not see that Dominic and Dmitri’s plan for the hotel resorts would be exponentially more profitable? Dmitri’s presentation on orchestrating more regionally relevant, go-to market strategie
s to international clientele were in hindsight pretty obvious according to the board members. It was as if they had completely forgotten Dominic’s presentation that had said the exact same thing their last meeting! But no, they had been so focused on the logistics of entering the international market they had never thought of carefully constructing a culturally sensitive marketing plan. Dominic blamed his father’s pigheaded resoluteness for such an oversight.
“You were right, son.”
At the four words, Dominic blinked but could not gather enough energy to respond. His mind was too overcome by those pleasant-sounding words. Had his staunchly proud father just admitted his fault?
Nikolai’s gaze strayed from the sight of his youngest son to the image of his family on his desk. There were several photos of his daughter Nadia and his beautiful wife, Natalia. In contrast, there were only a few of Dominic. And absolutely none of his oldest child, Dmitri. His attention turned to the memory of watching his two sons present to the board. There were still feelings of resentment between him and Dmitri, so he was appalled by the overwhelming pride he felt at seeing his son’s brilliance. Dmitri was supposed to be sitting in front of him, not Dominic. He had been preparing his oldest son to take over since he was young. Despite the dissolution of his first marriage, Nikolai never felt that Dmitri was not his heir. But in his rashness, Nikolai silently admitted, he had destroyed any hope of that coming to fruition. While he was equally proud of Dominic, he wondered how his desertion of Dmitri may have marred the legacy he came to the United States to create.
Every day Dmitri’s wife came closer to delivering his first grandchild, he wondered what he was gaining by holding onto his resentment. Could he continue this way and face the loss of love from his other two children? Before, he was able to hold onto his hate because he had not been alone. Nikolai knew Dominic and Dmitri had never been close, and he inwardly triumphed at how the family had turned their back on Dmitri. To Nikolai, it had been well deserved. But all of his self-righteousness came back to haunt him that fateful night Dmitri had brought his future wife into their home. Suddenly, he was the family’s enemy.
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