Chapter 60
ways to heal a broken heart
Jorge
After everything that happened, I made the kids go back to the hotel.
Carolina practically had to drag Ana away—she didn’t want to leave without knowing how my sister was doing.
In the end, I’m the only one left, though I hope my mom won’t take too long to get here and give me a hand.
Elena is in her bed; it took me forever to get her to stop shaking and explain clearly what had happened, but after that I couldn’t get her to say anything else.
She’s locked herself in her bedroom and I can barely hear anything through the door.
“Hey…” I knock on the door with my knuckles. “I made you some chamomile tea, and Mom will be here soon. I asked Carol to call her…” I press my forehead against the wood and close my eyes. “Elena, you can’t lock yourself in,” I murmur and let out a sigh. “You promised me you’d never do that again.”
Before I can step back, the door opens, and when my eyes fall on her, I recognize the woman I saw years ago; her face is pale, lifeless, and distraught.
“You shouldn’t have said anything to her; it wasn’t necessary.” She snatches the cup from my hand, and just as she’s about to close the door, I stop her.
“Of course I should, and I don’t give a damn what you say,” I snap, worried about her. “I’ve been through this before, and I’m not going to let you go down the same path.”
“Well, it seems I’m destined to go down the same shitty path my whole life,” she replies as soon as she turns her back on me and walks over to the bed, where she sits down after setting the cup on the nightstand.
With her legs drawn up to her chest, she rests her head and lets her gaze drift off into her thoughts.
“I don’t understand why Vicky did this to me… ”
“Because humans are the only ones who trip over the same stone a second time.” I sit down next to her and hold one of her hands. “I guess there’s no helping it.”
“I suppose…” she murmurs, her voice choked with tears.
“Elena, I want you to forgive me. If I’d stopped Carolina and asked her not to invite Victoria, none of this would have happened.” She moves to hug me tightly. “I should have seen it coming and…”
“Don’t say that… I’m the one to blame,” she confesses. “My love for Victoria completely blinded me, and all I saw was pure fantasy,” she whispers, breaking down in tears again. “Why did she make me believe it, only to do this to me?”
“I don’t know…”
“It’s just that…” She pulls away and looks me in the eyes. “Who calls their partner over just to listen to a conversation that’s so…?”
“Wait…” At that moment, I snap out of it and my emotional state shifts completely. “Did you say you only heard one conversation?” I ask, forcing her to look at me.
“Yes, I think that’s what it was,” she hesitates. “But the call ended before anything else happened, and I was grateful for that because I don’t know if I could have handled it.”
“So, you didn’t hear anything other than Joana and Victoria talking, right?”
“I just told you,” she confirms, her red eyes fixed on me. “Why all the questions?”
“Do you realize it’s possible you might have misinterpreted things?” I ask, opening up a possibility that didn’t exist even for me just a few minutes ago. “You say you only heard them talking. Are you sure Victoria would be capable of deceiving you?”
Elena looks at me, not knowing what to say, and then straightens her back to think things through. I bring a hand to the back of my neck, reach for my phone, and start typing a quick message to Carolina:
I think this has been a misunderstanding. My sister told me she only heard Victoria and Joana talking, but that the call ended before anything happened. Damn it! Call her and talk to her. And please apologize to her for me.
“Vicky wouldn’t do that to me, would she?
” The question makes me look away from the screen and focus on her.
“But the thing is… Joana was inviting her to have some fun with her, and…” She hesitates for a moment and looks me in the eyes.
“What if she got carried away? What if she said, ‘Oh, this stays between us, Elena will never know’?” she asks, imitating Victoria’s voice. “I’m scared, Jorge…”
“You have to start letting go of fear. You’re not the young woman who got married a few years ago, but you seem like her when you let yourself get consumed by negativity.
Look at your attitude, Elena.” I stroke her cheek and then smile at her.
“I’m sure if you looked at it from a different perspective, you’d realize it. ”
“And what if I’m wrong?”
“All I can tell you is that trust is the most important thing in a relationship,” I explain, moving closer to her and holding her hands in mine. “You can’t move forward with someone if you don’t trust them, because that will only cause you pain. No matter what, you both deserve to be happy…”
“I don’t know what to do…”
“Maybe it would do you good to talk to her,” I suggest, making a funny face. “Although after my outburst, I don’t know if she’ll dare come back to Ibiza.”
“You’ve turned into such a brute…”
“No one touches my sister,” I retort, pulling her close in my arms. “Your situation with her is complicated, but before you make any decisions, you need to talk. I give her a kiss on the cheek. “Don’t keep anything bottled up inside. Be honest with her, and if you don’t trust what she tells you, don’t move forward, no matter how much it hurts. ”
“I wish she were here right now…”
“I’m sorry, guys, the taxi was late. What happened?” asks my mother, barging in without thinking.
“I think I need a break, Mom. Can I spend a few days at home with you?” My mother, who doesn’t understand any of this, walks over to Elena and wraps her in a motherly hug that manages to bring a smile to my face.
“It’s normal for you to feel this way. You’ve been working so hard, and the stress of the wedding…” she says, looking at me. “You could have helped her a little.” She taps me on the arm, giving me a hard time. “Your sister isn’t a machine.”
“But I…”
“Thank you, Mom…” Elena whispers.
“Don’t thank me. You know you can come home whenever you want,” she says, then looks at me. “And you, too. You’re my little ones, and our doors will always be open to you, no matter what happens.”
When she hugs us, I feel like we’re those kids again who need a Band-Aid to heal the wounds of their broken hearts. Grown-up kids who, in the end, are learning to move on with their lives.