Chapter 14 - Stefania
It’s late morning, and I’m in the library, browsing for my next read while Marlen is at work for the day. Humming to myself, I trace my fingers over the book spines, waiting for something to catch my eye. Rows and rows of gorgeous leather covers and crisp, inked pages.
A glimmer catches my eye, and I stop, my finger resting on a thick black book wedge between two pale brown leather ones.
“A walk through the dark woods,” I mutter, reading the gold lettering embossed onto the black spine.
I slide the book out from between the others.
It’s heavy in my hands. Solid and weighted with potential mystery and magic.
The cover is beautiful. Black leather with a gold snake twisting around the front, its eyes piercing and captivating.
When I tilt it in my hand, the gold catches the light and shines through the high library windows into the sun.
Smiling, I nod, satisfied. “You have been chosen,” I declare, speaking to the book.
It’s a chilly day with grey clouds and a cold breeze. The perfect day to curl up on the sofa and read with a mug of tea. Heading downstairs, I turn toward the kitchen to make the tea, the book clutched safely in my hands.
Unexpectedly, though, as I turn the corner into the kitchen, I bump into a tall man whom I’ve never met before. My heart stammers, and I come to a dead stop, freezing in place in the kitchen doorway.
I squeal in fright and lift the book over my chest like a shield.
“Who are you?” we both say at the same time.
But then his eyes flash with recognition, and he whispers, “Stefania Shevchenko?”
The shock in his voice is unmistakable.
“Yes,” I say cautiously. “How do you know me?”
“I’m Simon. Marlen’s brother. Uh, your family has been looking for you. Talia is worried sick. What are you doing here?” he asks, taking a few steps back to give me some space.
I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. Rolling my shoulders, I try to ease the fright from my body.
“I’m, um, I was…” I don’t know how to answer him. Whose side is he on? What will he do? I know nothing about this man or how he’ll react.
Simon’s face darkens, and his lips set in a firm line. He looks so similar to Marlen in some ways, yet so different in others. “Marlen kidnapped you,” he huffs angrily.
“No, um…” Yes.
“You don’t have to defend him. I don’t know if he threatened you or something, but it’s pointless trying to convince me otherwise. He obviously kidnapped you,” Simon says, leaning his back against the kitchen counter and folding his arms across his chest as he studies me.
I bite my lip and fidget with the book in my hands.
“Are you ok?” he asks after a while.
“Yes,” I nod.
“Did he hurt you?”
“No, he um…” I press my lips together.
“He what?” Simon demands.
“He, um, married me. He made me marry him,” I mutter.
Simon sneers in anger and shakes his head. “For fuck sake. He lied to me when I asked him if he knew where you were. I especially told him I wanted to find out for Talia’s sake. She begged me to help look for you,” he says, talking to himself more than me.
“Talia?” I perk up, realizing he’d mentioned her earlier as well, but I was too stunned to register it.
“My sister,” he says as a way of explanation.
“I know. She’s my friend. Obviously, you know that.
A very good friend, actually. Have you spoken to her recently?
Is my family… are they worried about me?
” I ask, my stomach churning with anxiety.
Of course they’re worried. They’re probably living in constant stress while you’re out here going on island holidays with the enemy.
He’s not the enemy. Not anymore.
He is to them.
“They’re obviously worried, Stef. They haven’t stopped looking for you. Your brothers are going crazy not knowing where you are,” he tells me, his tone heavy with regret. “I can’t believe Marlen did this behind my back,” he mutters.
For a while, Simon and I stand in the kitchen in silence. Neither of us knows how to handle the situation. He doesn’t want to rat his brother out, and I don’t want to get Marlen in trouble with anyone. Marlen hasn’t hurt me. He hasn’t harmed me at all. He’s a good man with a good heart.
But I hate the idea of my family suffering with worry.
“Simon?” I ask nervously.
“Yes?”
“Is there possibly some way that you could get a message to my family without implicating Marlen? And without Marlen knowing about it? I want them to know I’m alive and unharmed, but nothing more than that,” I ask, watching his face to try and gauge his reaction.
“I don’t know, Stef. I don’t know how I would do that without giving away how I know,” he says with a heavy sigh as he pushes his hand through his hair.
“Can you try?” I plead. Maybe through Talia??”
Simon sighs and nods. “I can try, but honestly, it’s not as easy or as straightforward as it sounds. The best thing to do is for you to just go back to them.” His eyes lock with mine. “I can help you get back home, Stef,” he says, the words hanging heavily in the air between us.
If he’d offered me this chance a few weeks ago, I would have snatched at it without a moment’s thought. But now I’m filled with hesitation. I bite my lip, unsure what to say. Not wanting to turn down his offer, but unable to accept it. What will happen to Marlen? What danger would I put him in?
“Listen,” Simon says, pushing away from the counter, “I can see this isn’t a straightforward option either. Just think about it. You can reach out to me any time, and I will get you out of here, ok?”
“I don’t have a phone. I don’t have any way to reach you,” I mutter quietly, wondering if I’m making a massive mistake by letting him leave and not going with him. This might be my one chance to get back to my family.
“There’s a phone in the library, hidden behind the furthest bookshelf.
The dialing code is seven seven zero. After that, you press seven again, and it will automatically dial me.
It’s an emergency phone programmed only to call the family.
Every call on there is logged and reported back to Marlen’s phone, but all you need to do is call me, and I’ll come get you right away.
You don’t have to worry about Marlen. I’ll deal with him when I get you. ”
Letting out a soft breath, I nod. “I appreciate that, Simon. Thank you,” I say quietly. My head is spinning with confusion. Why wouldn’t I just rush home the first chance I get? Why am I staying?
“I’ve got to get going. Seven seven zero and then another seven to reach me. Will you remember?”
“Seven seven zero seven,” I repeat, smiling. My body is tingling with anxiety. Go with him. No, you can’t.
Simon takes one last, long look at me, then smiles tightly. “Stay safe, Stefania,” he says gently, reaching out to touch my arm. Then he leaves, and I’m standing alone in the kitchen.
I don’t end up making tea or starting the new book. I find myself sitting on the sofa staring out of the patio doors into the grey afternoon. Freedom is four numbers away. One call. Freedom for myself, and for my family from their worry.
But maybe Simon can get a message to them through Talia. If they weren’t worried… then what? I’d stay here forever? What is my plan with all of this? What am I hoping to achieve by staying?
You’re protecting Marlen. If your brothers find out he took you, they’d tear him apart.
All afternoon, I sit and think, stressing, confused, and worried about making the wrong choice. I can’t live with myself if something bad happened to Marlen. He’s a good person. He did a stupid thing, kidnapping me, but I know he has a good heart.
***
Marlen arrives home, and I hear the front door click shut behind him.
I’ve been sitting here locked in my thoughts all day. I can’t believe I didn’t realize how much time passed.
“Stef?” he calls out.
“I’m in here,” I call back.
“Great, give me a second,” he shouts.
He walks into the living room carrying a bag of takeout and two plates that he’s fetched from the kitchen. He sets it down on the coffee table in front of me.
“Reading?” he asks, picking up the book. “This one is brilliant. What do you think of it so far?”
“Oh, I haven’t started yet, I just chose it from the library,” I smile, hoping he can’t see into my thoughts.
“Well, you’re going to love it. It’s one of my favorites.
The gold cover is limited edition; it took me ages to get my hands on one,” he says.
“I might not read often, but this is a book I would read again and again,” he says, setting it back down and tugging the takeaway packet open.
“I hope you’re hungry? I was thinking we could enjoy the cold weather and tuck under some blankets and eat takeout, and watch a scary movie? ” he says, raising his brows to me.
Guilt wraps around my heart and tugs at it. Guilt for my family and guilt for what might happen to Marlen.
He’s so sweet to me, so attentive. All afternoon I’ve been thinking about the things he’s done for me over the past few weeks. He has a strange way of dealing with me, but his intentions are never bad. He’s taken care of me.
Looking at him now, at the wide smile and hopeful expression on his face, I realize that he’s the kind of man I would want in my life. Someone who comes home from work and looks forward to spending time with me. That’s how he makes me feel, anyway. Like he’s happy to see me.
“I’m really hungry, actually. Is that Chinese?
” I smile, shoving any thoughts of calling Simon aside.
Even if I do decide to go that route, I’m not going to do it tonight, and there’s no point in dwelling on all of the choices and consequences and possibilities right now.
I should enjoy this moment. Enjoy my time with Marlen.
There is no telling what tomorrow will bring.
For all I know, Simon might tell my brothers, and all hell might break loose.
His brother wouldn’t do that to him. You don’t need to worry about that.
Marlen grins. He hurries to the other sofa and grabs the blanket hanging over the back of it, carrying it back to me.
He spreads it across my lap and tucks it in around me, then kicks off his shoes and climbs under it too.
Picking up the remote, he hands it to me.
“You choose a movie, and I’ll get these boxes open. ”
While he unpacks the takeout, he chats, and I flick through the horror movies, reading the titles out loud and laughing at how corny they sound.
“Beneath the Stairs?” I say, pausing on one that doesn’t look as terrible as the rest.
“Beneath the stairs it is,” he nods, handing me a plate filled with a portion of each dish he ordered and spring rolls and sweet and sour pork balls.
“I haven’t had Chinese in ages. It’s my first choice whenever we get takeout,” I tell him.
“I’m really glad I chose it then. It was between this and pizza, but pizza seemed so generic and boring.
” He leans back and sets his plate on his lap, then wraps his arm around the top of the sofa pillows behind me.
Picking up his fork, he spears a pork ball and dips it into the sauce.
It seems like the most natural thing in the world to be sitting here next to him, eating dinner with his arm behind me, making me feel safe.
I hold my plate on my lap and click play on the movie. Tossing the remote aside, I snuggle deeper into the blankets, closer to him and his gorgeous scent, as his warmth soaks into my side.
“Oh, I almost forgot the most important part,” he exclaims, leaning forward to grab two fortune cookies off the coffee table. “Pick one,” he says, holding his hand out to me.
I take one of the little folded cookies.
“You have to open it now and eat it before you read your fortune, otherwise it won’t come true,” he says.
“So many rules, I never knew about the rules,” I giggle, tearing the packet open. I break open the cookie, pull out the little slip of paper, pop the fortune cookie into my mouth, and chew it.
“What does it say?” Marlen asks.
“It says… sun shines like warmth from your heart, you must choose wisely who to share it with,” I say, almost a whisper. Damn. Even the fortune cookie can read my thoughts.
“That’s deep,” Marlen muses.
I shove the fortune into my pocket, shocked at how relevant it is.
“What does yours say?” I ask.
“It says… mistakes made can be forgiven, but repeated, they are a pattern, not an error.”
He narrows his eyes and smiles. “These things are pretty intense, hey, what happened to the you’ll have a great day' fortunes?”
I giggle, amused that he seems as affected as I am by his fortune.
“The universe has funny ways of telling us what we need to hear,” I say, picking up my chopsticks.
Marlen eyes me for a second, then chuckles. “I admire you for eating with those things. I can never get it right.” He holds up his fork and grins sheepishly.
It’s hard to pay attention to the movie and eat, and deal with the distraction of Marlen being this close to me. But at least with so much going on, I’m not thinking about Simon’s offer anymore.
When I’ve finished my dinner, Marlen takes my plate off my lap and sets it on the table.
This time, when he leans back, he doesn’t put his arm on the pillows, but rather wraps it around my shoulders and pulls me close to his side.
I snuggle against him, getting comfortable and forgetting anything else.
“This is nice,” he whispers quietly.
Glancing at him, I find him watching me.
A smile plays over my lips. He lifts his hand and brushes his thumb over my cheek. “Your dimples make your smile even more beautiful,” he grins.
My heart flutters and I bite my lip, wanting to kiss him, but knowing I shouldn’t. Just because we had an incredible moment on the yacht… it doesn’t mean we can be together. We’re from opposite sides of the same world. It would never work.
Instead, I lean my head against his chest, and he plays with my hair while we watch the movie in comfortable silence. His heart beats against my cheek, and my heart beats in time to it.
It’s strange how I can feel so relaxed in his arms.
I can’t do anything that will put him in danger. I can’t risk his safety.