Chapter 28 #3
“Why didn’t you bring him? I don’t buy this story about a nurse saying it and you obeying.
That isn’t you. So why didn’t you really bring him?
Why doesn’t Heithor come see me anymore?
Or call? And why don’t you talk to me about him?
Did he leave on some urgent mission? What?
I can’t believe he accepted any job, not now when our baby has just been born and he didn’t tell me anything…
Why do I have the feeling I’ve been excluded from something?
And please, this time, if you care about me at all, don’t say I’m imagining things, because I’m not, and you know that. ”
I paused, my expression firm.
“Tell me, Pietra. What’s really going on?”
She went to the sofa and sat down. “Why wouldn’t I listen to a trained nurse who knows more about infant care than I do? I may be many things, but negligent isn’t one of them, especially with my nephew, and…”
“Enough, Pietra!” I growled, a little agitated.
“Enough evasions, enough stringing me along. I’m sick of it!
Whatever is happening, I have the right to know.
Start talking, because one way or another, I’ll find out.
And it will be better for you to tell me now than for me to hear it later from someone else. ”
And the bomb came, short-circuiting my mind.
“Thor doesn’t want to see you. That’s why he hasn’t come back, and he didn’t allow me to bring Lucca. He doesn’t want you near the baby.”
“What?”
“He…” She paused heavily and came to the foot of the bed. “He thinks… I mean, he believes you’re a danger to Lucca.”
My eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
Didn’t want to see me? Danger to Lucca?
“What do you mean, Pietra? What are you talking about? I don’t understand any of this.” My voice was hollow with shock. “Explain this to me.”
“Thor went to confront Norah the day he left here… She said she had already been out of town three days before the… anyway…”
“That’s a lie, Pietra! She wasn’t out of town. She was at the mansion and knocked me down the stairs! I swear, Pietra! She was there and knocked me down the stairs! I would never do anything to hurt my baby. You know that. I wouldn’t… I love him. I wouldn’t…”
“Eric, Josie, and that Jason confirmed she was in Palm Springs with them.”
“How? Josie?”
The shock sank into me.
“What does Josie have to do with this?”
Pietra offered me a look I definitely didn’t like. She walked to the sofa and sat, resting her forearms on her thighs.
“Thor confronted Norah…”
“I got that. Get on with it.”
“He didn’t believe she was away, but Norah said he could call Eric, Josie, and that Jason, and they would confirm they had gone together on a couples’ trip to a resort in Palm Springs.
They checked into the resort three days before the fall and checked out three days after you were admitted here.
They were unreachable those last three days because they rented two cabins on a mountain where there’s no internet or cell service. ”
My mind went blank, horrified by every word.
I wasn’t crazy. I hadn’t imagined Norah and her cursed foot.
And with absolute fucking certainty, I hadn’t caused the fall.
I replayed that scene in my head again and again, to the sound of my heavy breathing and the morbid silence of my despair and the rage in my soul.
“And you? Do you also believe I caused the fall?”
“I didn’t say you threw yourself.”
“I didn’t end up unconscious at the foot of the stairs because I flew there, I guarantee you that. Heithor believed that bitch because she has an excellent alibi. The only option left for Heithor to think I’m a danger to my own son is that I caused the fall. He believes that, right?”
She nodded.
“And you, Pietra? What do you believe?”
“Dio, Ella, I…”
“You believed it… After everything I went through and you witnessed with your own eyes, you believed it. That’s why you stayed away.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Then how is it? Tell me. How is it, then? Actually, what the hell are you doing here if you believe what that crazy woman invented? Because she made it up, Pietra. She set this up. She may have gone on a couples’ trip, have records and good alibis, but somehow, she found a way to set me up and did it very well. ”
“Damn it, Ella! I’m here because I’m your friend, and I don’t believe you did that, I swear. I don’t know how she did what she did, or if she did… Dio, my head is still spinning.”
“Really? And since when did you reach that conclusion? Let me see. On your last visit? Because before that, I remember your absence very well, and when you came to see me, I remember your posture, your strange looks. Wasn’t it because you believed her that you were skittish around me?
That you could barely spend ten minutes with me? ”
“What did you want me to do?” Even her anguished tone was a hard stab in my aching heart. “I’m not saying I believed it, or that I didn’t. When Thor told me, I was in shock. I didn’t know what to think…”
“Maybe you should have remembered that we’re friends, best friends, that we know each other like no one else does? How about that?”
“Fine. What would you have done in my place, Antonella? Tell me, since you’re suggesting I wasn’t your friend,” she scolded.
“Tell me, what would you have done? But consider that you had suffered an accident, because, for all intents and purposes, at that moment you had suffered a domestic accident with only a few weeks left before giving birth. Add to that the torment of waiting for news while you were in the operating room having an emergency C-section with lives at risk. Yours and Lucca’s.
Then comes this story, your version against Norah’s, and we know she’s no rose.
She has a real alibi… I should have remembered that we’re friends, that we know each other like no one else does?
Why don’t you remember that you’ve already had attitudes I never in my life considered you capable of having, not even in my worst nightmares?
That we fought a lot because of them?” Stab after stab struck me.
“I’m not perfect, Antonella. I have my mistakes and flaws, a mountain of both.
So don’t judge me for having doubts. You know better than I do that you’d have them too if the situation were reversed. ”
“I understand,” I said slowly. “Everything I went through and fought for wasn’t worth shit. It meant nothing. I’ll always pay for my mistakes. It doesn’t matter how hard I work to do the right thing, everything good I do will be worth nothing, because my record will always condemn me.”
“No, you didn’t understand. And what you did was worth a lot.
It was because of that, and also because I know you, that I don’t believe you tried to hurt the baby.
” Pietra sat on the edge of the bed and held my hand.
I stiffened at the contact but said nothing, perplexity weighing on my tongue.
“I’m sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have brought this up like that or thrown those things in your face.
It was wrong of me, but you need to take everything into consideration, no matter how hard it is.
And understand, beloved, at no point did I believe you had thrown yourself down the stairs, I swear.
I was shocked, perplexed, when Thor told that story.
Yes, I had doubts, I won’t deny it, but that only lasted until I managed to think straight again.
“It wasn’t because I believed her, but you have to admit that hearing a story like that with real alibis would drive anyone crazy.
Dio, beloved, I was lost, trying to find a gap, something that didn’t make sense.
I didn’t want to come here because I knew you would ask me about Thor, and I didn’t want to tell you the truth.
Not to deceive you, but to spare you. Was I wrong for that?
I don’t know. Maybe yes, maybe no. But you’re still recovering, and the last thing I wanted was to add something that would harm your recovery.
I still don’t understand… it doesn’t seem to make any sense, although there are facts proving her alibi. ”
“It doesn’t make sense because Norah is lying. Somehow, she found a way… I don’t know how she did it. Norah planned this perfectly.”
“I questioned Josie, and she confirmed…”
“You think I deliberately caused the fall, putting myself and my son at risk, to prove that bitch is no good? …Josie confirmed… That, I truly didn’t expect. Not from her.”
“Josie is devastated, beloved.”
“I imagine so. Thanks to her, I’m without my son, being blamed unfairly and unable to defend myself. Completely alone, damn it!”
I drank the water she offered me, but nothing would calm me.
“I know it isn’t easy to receive news like this, especially in your situation, but don’t blame Josie. It isn’t her fault. I know right now it’s hard to see beyond the pain. She didn’t do anything deliberately to harm you. Josie is devastated by the magnitude of the consequences her answer caused.”
“I did not cause the fall, Pietra.”
“Norah has alibis. They’re real. Thor checked… Are you sure you didn’t lose your balance? I don’t know, it could have been a misstep, and you came out of trauma too. That can confuse things…”
“I’m not confused,” I exploded. “I didn’t imagine anything. It happened! She was there, playing the role of a crazy woman and a murderer. How many times will I have to say that?”
“All right. You don’t need to get upset.
I’m just trying to understand the situation.
I also don’t believe you threw yourself on purpose.
The only possibility left to me is that you took a wrong step, something you say you didn’t do…
Per Dio! It’s complicated! The more I think, the less sense it makes. ”
Desolate and shattered, I didn’t have the energy to argue with her.
“How could Heithor believe her?”
“She showed proof…”
“I understand that. But how could he believe I threw myself? It’s so illogical. It makes no sense… Dio, Pietra, did he say he had proof? The alibi, I understand. But this proof… What proof?”