Hidden Heart (23 page)

“
I gave her a lesson, like
I’m going to give you.”

Daniel jumped to his feet
and faced her. In one single motion he ripped her shirt upward and
squeezed her breasts before she could stop him. It hurt her to
tears. He placed a hand roughly at the nape of her neck and bit her
lips, then lowered his mouth to her neck as she pushed
ineffectively against him. He rubbed himself cruelly against her,
his penis hard against her abdomen.

Tessa closed her eyes and
took a deep, ragged breath. She shoved him away with all her
strength, knocking him off balance and ran into the hallway,
reaching for the door to escape.

Daniel regained his balance
and lunged after her. He caught up to her in the same moment she
wrenched the door open. He hit the door and pushed Tessa against
the door slamming it closed. He placed a hand over her mouth to
muffle her scream for help.

“
You, whore, where do you
think you’re going?”

Daniel’s blow to her eye
exploded like a thousand stars in her mind’s eye. The next strike
to her stomach left her winded. She collapsed, sliding down against
the door. He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her away from the
door. She curled in a ball, covering her belly and her face while
he kept kicking her with his hard shoes.

“
Where is that jerk of
yours to save you, huh?”

His cruel fist crushed
against her jaw like a hammer pounds against the anvil. His second
shot caused a wicked pop that dislocated her jaw. Her vision dimmed
and a deep, low note rang in her head.
A
tolling bell
, she thought before losing
consciousness.

She blacked out briefly,
and awoke abruptly laying on her back with Daniel straddling her,
her chemise torn apart, her bra gone and her thighs bare. She
sobbed and tried to cover her breasts. She saw Daniel opening his
zipper, terror ripping through her mind at the sight. She begged,
“Please don’t,” just as his fist connected squarely with her jaw.
She tried to find the words to pray for the safety of her baby, but
darkness filled her vision until only blackness was
left.

Romanian women, for
generations, were taught that the man in the family had the right
to abuse his spouse and Tessa wasn't an exception to this way of
life. She took the slurs, spitting and punches as was expected
of her position in the Romanian society. She took the blows and so
ingrained was her conditioning that not even the slightest thought
of fighting back entered her mind.

Chapter 12

On
the other side of town, Alessandro grunted in frustration. He
called Tessa’s house and cell phone, but to no avail. He left a
dozen messages and he couldn’t get to her apartment fast enough.
He’d even called the office, but Eva told him Tessa hadn’t come to
work. His plane had landed thirty minutes later than planned and he
could’ve crawled to Bucharest faster than the traffic
moved.

He felt restless.
Where is she? Why isn’t she answering the
phone?
He pushed a hand through his hair
and drummed his fingers on the door’s handle.

Alessandro bolted from the
cab before it halted in front of Tessa’s apartment building,
tossing money carelessly at the driver. He didn’t see her car
parked in its usual place, and the closer he got, the more he felt
something was wrong. He reached to unlock the apartment door, but
it was open. Now he was certain something horrible had
happened.

Alessandro walked inside
and turned the lights on. He saw the trail of blood leading towards
the kitchen. Dread filled his hammering heart as he hurried
forward, unconsciously avoiding stepping in it. In the kitchen more
blood on the floor and around the sink seemed dried already.
Groceries sprawled across the table, spilling on the
floor.

No sign of
Tessa.

He walked swiftly down the
hall into the living room. There Tessa lay, unconscious, blood
running from above her eye, pooling around her lip. With horror he
dropped to his knees, belatedly noticing her tattered, bloodied
clothes. He covered her breasts with the torn t-shirt as he
frantically fumbled for her wrist, searching for signs of life. Her
pulse was barely perceptible, but her chest rose and fell with her
breath. He took a deep breath; her face was shattered, swollen,
bruised and bleeding; the woman lying on the floor looked nothing
like his Tessa.

He dialed 112, the phone
number he learned early on after his move to Bucharest for the
ambulance, but realized after hearing the dispatcher’s voice that
he’d be unable to ask for help since he didn’t speak
Romanian.

He called
Victor.

“
I need an ambulance.” His
voice trembled as he tried to conceal the helplessness, the anger
and fury feelings.

“
What? Why?” Victor asked,
alarmed.

“
I’m at Tessa’s apartment.
I just returned from Italy. The door was unlocked. I came in to
find her unconscious; she’s bleeding heavily. She’s been
beaten.”
And probably
raped
, he wanted to say, but couldn’t get
the words out.

He tried to remain calm and
not move her at all for fear he’d add to her injuries. He sat next
to her, soothing her head, biting back his violent emotions.
Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he shouldn’t touch
anything in the house, hoping fingerprints might help find the
beast who had done this.

Victor showed up just as
the ambulance and two officers did. The paramedics hovered over
Tessa, while the officers questioned a frantic Alessandro. Victor
translated, but the officers said that they needed an official
translator. They allowed Alessandro to follow the ambulance in
Victor’s car.

Once at the hospital, they
met Dina in the waiting room. The police brought a translator. They
took notes as Alessandro tried to tell them all he could remember;
not an easy task when his mind was on Tessa, wondering what was
going on with her. Finally they told Alessandro not to leave the
country; he wasn’t a suspect, but they needed him to come to the
police station for more questions.

While Dina and Victor sat
in the waiting room, Alessandro paced the place like a caged
animal, then stopped each time a nurse or a doctor walked by,
anxious they’d bring news about Tessa.

He wanted to wallow in
misery alone more than anything else.

“
Go home, Victor, it’s
really late,” Alessandro said, then sat next to him.

“
I’ll stay to see what the
doctors have to say.”

“
I promise I’ll call you
the minute I find out. Look at Dina, she’s half asleep, please take
her and go home. You’ve done so much already.”

Victor looked at his wife
who dozed next to him, her head resting against his shoulder. He
woke her up gently, then stood helping her, too. Dina gave
Alessandro a motherly hug, caressed his cheek and walked out of the
waiting room.

Alessandro walked to the
window and stared into the darkness. Unable to comprehend why such
a horrible thing had happened, he tormented himself for not being
there to protect her, to rescue her. A bastard had killed Rafaela;
another one almost killed Tessa. And each time he couldn’t help or
couldn’t save them. He blamed himself for not convincing her to
move in with him. This whole episode could have been
avoided.

It took the doctors close
to four hours to get him news about Tessa’s condition.

“
Sinteti rude?” asked a
nurse coming in.

“
Sorry, I don’t speak
Romanian,” Alessandro said.

She left and another nurse
came. She spoke English. “I’m sorry, my colleague asked if you are
family?”

“
I am,” Alessandro
said.

“
Her husband?”

“
No, not yet. I’m her
fiancé,” he said, trying to sound as convincing as he
could.

She asked him to follow her
to Tessa’s room, where for now, the nurse told him, she was sedated
for her own comfort. A doctor would soon come to talk to
him.

The monitors around Tessa’s
bed kept the room dim. IV’s snaked to her arm, she breathed through
a tube, and her face was swollen and covered with bandages. When he
saw her, his heart seemed to stop; he made an effort not to cry. He
slowly walked next to her bed, gently lifting her hand; he caressed
it and the small part of her cheek that wasn’t bandaged.

“
I am so sorry I wasn’t
there,
cara mia
!
So sorry!” He felt a weak squeeze and then nothing. He froze; did
she hear him or had he just imagined it?

“
Buna seara. Sint doctorul
Ivan,” the doctor entered Tessa’s room.

“
I am Alessandro Santinelli
and I don’t speak Romanian,” Alessandro said in English, shaking
the doctor’s hand.

“
Okay, then let’s speak
English,” Dr. Ivan replied with a strong accent. He pulled a small
flashlight out of his pocket and lifted Tessa’s eyelids, one by
one. He placed it back in his pocket, looked at the machines and
noted something on the chart hanging on the bed’s metal frame. “I
am very sorry for what happened to your fiancée, it’s amazing how
many bastards are out there. We see far more of these cases than we
should.”

“
Please, doctor, how she’s
doing?”

“
I won’t lie, the assault
was bad...we have her sedated and gave her something to ease the
pain; she’ll be asleep for some time. Her upper lip and right
eyebrow needed stitches... her jaw is fractured, but we were able
to reset it. Her shoulder was dislocated. She received bruises to
her right temple, one behind her left ear. Four broken ribs,
several others bruised. Her right lung is punctured; she’s stable
now, but the first twenty-four hours are critical; I can’t give you
a prognosis until after further observation.”

He paused and cleared his
throat, “Recovery will take a long time, months even.
Unfortunately, the rape has caused serious internal damage and we
couldn’t save the baby, we couldn’t stop the blee—”

“
The baby? What baby?”
Alessandro interrupted, his despair over her injuries overrun by
this astonishing announcement.

“
You didn’t know,” the
doctor murmured. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this. The pregnancy
was at an early stage, but we couldn’t do anything to save it. I’m
sorry for your loss.” The doctor patted him on the shoulder and
told him he may as well go home; Tessa wouldn’t wake up anytime
soon.

Alessandro refused. He’d
sit in a chair next to her bed, just in case she woke up; he didn’t
want her to be alone. He’d had no idea about the pregnancy. He
wondered if there were signs he’d missed. More anger washed over
him; he always wanted a family, children he’d be able to raise,
protect and love. But the bastard that assaulted Tessa took that
away from him, no matter how unplanned and surprising the pregnancy
was.

He listened to her last
message on his cell; he realized she sounded anxious. Maybe this
was the news she wanted to tell him. He listened to the message a
couple of times; it felt good to hear her voice.

Alessandro didn’t go home
until sometime after the doctor’s visit the next afternoon, when he
was told once again she’d be unconscious for days, if not weeks. He
felt numb with pain, a feeling of loss he’d felt before; at least
Tessa was alive and one day she’d come back to him. Soon she’d be
his forever and they would have more babies and no one and nothing
would ever hurt them again. He’d be there to protect and watch over
her.

He didn’t allow himself to
fall prey to the despair that lurked in his soul after he found
Tessa. He didn’t allow himself to mourn the baby she’d lost. He
didn’t allow himself to feel much for fear he’d crumble under the
immense pain.

He went to see
Victor.

“
I know I owe you some
explanations, but I can’t talk about this now."

"I had no idea you two were
a couple."

"One day I’ll feel better
and will talk… I think we should keep this just between the two of
us. The doctors don’t think she’ll wake up anytime soon and even
when she does, it will be long before she’s fully recovered from
her injuries, so you’ll need to figure out something for the people
in the office. I would also like to ask for your help when they
call me into the police station,” Alessandro said.

Victor’s assistant entered
shortly and brought him a cup of coffee, then left.

“
I have a good lawyer;
we’ll make arrangements for later in the afternoon to meet with the
police,” Victor replied.

“
Thanks for helping me,”
Alessandro said. His face looked distorted with a mix of pain,
tiredness, helplessness and rage.

“
Any idea who would do
this?”

“
I’ve been considering that
question since the moment I found her. I think it might’ve been her
ex.”

“
This is a very serious
accusation, are you sure about that? I mean, I’ve known Daniel for
years; he was an average guy…not the violent type.” Victor stood
and poured more coffee for himself, then filled Alessandro’s
cup.