The Pharaoh 18.
It’s very loud. The small private hospital room filled with Tovah’s family is too much. Too many people. But I can’t leave. She’s unconscious. Injured. She came so close to dying…
I will not live in a world where my omri does not. I can’t bear it. It’s stifling, pressing down on me, stealing my breath…but Tovah makes it better. Just looking at her eases the pressure. Hearing her raspy voice is like basking in the sunshine after a long, dark winter.
And my entire life has been an interminable winter.
“We brought you here, saved your life! And this is how you repay us? Marrying my daughter in secret? How dare you treat her like she’s something to be ashamed of!”
She is…everything. I am the one to be treated like a dirty secret, yet if I gave her permission, she would let everyone know that I am hers. She’s proud of me, and I don’t know why. She should be ashamed of me; I’m not even a real husband. Tongue tied, I can’t say any of this to Steven or the others. The words get caught in my throat. It took everything I had just to tell them I was her husband.
“Answer me!” Steven rounds the bed and gets in my face. He’s breathing hard, his face a mottled red, his shoulders hiked up and his body prepared for a fight he won’t get. “What did you do? How did you convince her—”
“Steven!” David pulls him back with a hand on his shoulder. Spinning him around, David holds Steven at arm’s length. “Stop. Wait until Tovah wakes up. She has never done anything in her life that she didn’t want to do. She’ll explain everything when she wakes up.”
“Fine,” Steven grits out through clenched teeth. He glares at me once more, then turns his ire on Yakov. Over Steven’s shoulder, I mouth “sorry” to Yak, he just shrugs. “You! You knew, you know everything that happens! You kept this from us! From your Avinus!”
Yak’s calm as he responds, “Wasn’t mine to tell. Didn’t affect the Kosher Nostra or the family. Didn’t put anyone at risk.”
Steven shoulders sag. “Don’t be logical with me! I’m pissed!” There’s no fight in his voice though.
For the time being, an uneasy truce settles over the family. Tovah will explain when she wakes up. I stare down at her, even as Tevye slides a chair behind me to sit down. My omri . She needs to wake up. I need to see her eyes. I need her.