Miranda (33 page)

Nature was conspiring with him… The breeze carried every word he spoke and cleared the way for him to continue.

“I supposed, well, that at Medika’s helm, I would be in control, that I could handle the situation, control Isabel’s impulses, make her abandon her idea, or at least, give her part of the money that was hers so that she would leave us alone. So I met with Paul at the airport. On that day, I understood that Isabel was planning something worse than I had imagined.”

“What made you think that?” I asked, but I answered my own question. “Ah, what he told you at the airport that changed your mood.”

Eliezer agreed.

“Paul said, ‘good work.’ I didn’t know to what he was referring, but it raised my suspicions. He supposed that Isabel’s plan was our own alone. We would handle it, and no one else. I had known Paul a few years before. Isabel said that he was a businessman. They would meet at cafes, bars, and at home. She never wanted to tell me what business she had with him. Nor did I ask many questions. Isabel’s life didn’t matter much to me. When you and I were on our way back, when I unexpectedly saw Paul in New York, I wanted to confirm another link between Paul and Isabel. Norman said that he didn’t know. I didn’t believe him. Elizabeth, his sister, was the one who told me the truth. I was searching for evidence during those days when I disappeared that so infuriated you. When I found it, I confronted Isabel. She arranged a meeting for Paul and myself at her apartment. They had no other choice but to tell me about the plan that they had conceived so far. Paul wanted to kill you because you may get part of his inheritance. I couldn’t believe what they were telling me, but I didn’t show it. Together, we hatched the perfect plan.”

“Together? Hatched?”

“Yes… I made them believe that I would support their plan. In fact, I offered a suggestion to make it ‘better.’ We agreed on the date, place, and method. As you can now imagine, everything went badly. Isabel suspected that I had stopped hating you. Apparently, I’m also not a very good actor and, of course, Norman… Norman committed a very grave error.” His eyes looked at my face with tenderness. His hands fixed a few locks of hair that were coming out of my ponytail. “He confessed to her that you were pregnant and that I was the father. So Paul and Isabel’s plan changed, and obviously they didn’t tell me. The place remained the same, but the date changed, and their method would be more cruel, impersonal, and quick. I kept Inspector Hernandez informed. We had counterattack plan: gathering the evidence we could, arriving at the location right before it would happen, and sending them to jail for attempted premeditated murder. I wasn’t cautious enough. I shouldn’t have been so confident. They played me, Miranda…. They played me.”

His fists held so much frustration that his knuckles turned white and looked as if they would explode. I put my hands over his fists, in an attempt to diminish the tension. It worked. I still had that power over him.

“That night, when you went to the office looking for an answer, I couldn’t give it to you. There were so many things that I was hiding, that I couldn’t give you a ‘yes.’ You marched away at my silence. Within minutes, Norman called me to follow up, thinking that you had told me about your pregnancy. He was sure that after speaking with you, you’d change your mind. I couldn’t even respond to his cordial gesture. I hung up the telephone and went out to look for you. I had only your eyes filled with pain and frustration burned in my mind. I wanted to reach you, to tell you that I’d be there for you… for both of you… that I wouldn’t disappear, that I wasn’t Paul Wise, and that I… I love you, Miranda Wise.” He closed his eyes, opened them again, and took a breath.

“On a corner of the block where your house is, there was always a black car. Did you notice it? Hernandez and I had your house under surveillance. We wanted to protect you, whatever the cost, 24 hours a day. I got to your neighborhood and stopped next to the contract bodyguard. That’s how I noticed that looked like he was watching but wasn’t blinking, and that a trickle of blood was coming down his lips. I imagined the worst. I reached into the window and took his gun. I went to your house, to the nightmarish scene. I think you know the rest, and there’s no reason to make you relive it… You were on the way to the hospital when I went out searching for Isabel. There she was, in her apartment, drinking champagne with Paul. I snuck in and had him at gunpoint. Isabel screamed as always, as if she owned the world. I fired into the ceiling, and she got down on her knees and begged for me to not lose control. But I had already lost control. I gave her a blow to the face with the gun and she fell unconscious, gushing out blood on the floor. Then it was Paul’s turn. I gave him a beating like I had never given anyone before. Now I have to go to court every few weeks, and I have had to bear the consequences of my actions for a few months. They are behind bars, but I think it’s not punishment enough. She should rot in jail, and I should have blown his head off… Ironically, it was you and the baby that you’re carrying that saved them. I thought of both of you. I can’t leave you alone in this world that has turned to shit.”

He touched my abdomen again, and the baby kicked. He smiled.

“I’m no longer the same, Eliezer. You can’t come here with your beautiful words and erase the memory…
my
memory.”

“For the past five days, I’ve done nothing but watch you, because I didn’t know how to approach you or how to speak to you. At 6:45 in the morning, you sit on the third step of the stairway to this terrace. By twelve, you had already gotten up four or five times, but you would always return to the same spot. When night would fall, you’d move to the big chair. You’d still be awake at midnight. I know by the frame of light that shines out of the bedroom where I had you for the first time. You still have hopes. I still have hopes. Come with me. Take my hand. We can give it a try.

“I’m not the same person.”

“You are Miranda Wise… International,” a tone of timidity and an attempt to smile colored that last word.

“I no longer know who I am.”

“You are the marvelous woman who managed to awaken the will to change in me.”

“Someone marvelous doesn’t get into bed every night thinking about a thousand and one reasons to not get up the next morning.”

“I know what it is to be scared. You don’t owe me any explanations.”

“No, no. You don’t understand. Marvelous people aren’t dragged out of an abortion clinic. A marvelous person doesn’t go with the idea of having an abortion.”

“We aren’t perfect, Miranda. Sometimes we don’t make the right choices.”

“I’m even afraid of my own shadow. The sound of my breathing keeps me awake. What have I become?”

He gave me a hug.

“I’m here, Wise. I’m here and I’m not thinking about leaving. I don’t know what tomorrow, the next day, or the day after that will be like. I don’t have the slightest fucking idea, but…”

My Eliezer had returned. I smiled to myself.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have….”

I put my fingers on his lips.

“Don’t worry. I missed your expressions.”

He kissed my hand.

I held his face and kissed his lips. I felt that, with that kiss, I brought life back to my body. I brought the shine back to that look… that look… that look….

If that’s how, stuck to those lips, this damned life becomes complicated, I would never want to pull back, because I want to relive those moments over and over again, in which nothing and no one else exists other than us. Let it be nothing more than he and I alone… only he and his teasing, and I and my agitated heart and my frustration at hearing him.

Maybe it was a lie. Maybe it would be another act where the curtain would fall. Maybe it was a pause in time to get the answers to my questions. Maybe the most beautiful thing awaits me.

My savior’s eyelids fluttered in a wave of victory. Eliezer let himself fall backward onto the terrace, my refuge. He reached up and said with a smile, “Come be next to me.”

2016

For the last two years Eliezer Clausell has made certain that the woman who gave him the gift of fatherhood, Miranda Wise, had the world at her feet. He has no doubts about having her by his side for life.

Meanwhile, Miranda has been silently fighting against the havoc in her mind caused by the vile attack. Her fears and anguish grow, but she is reluctant to seek professional help.

“Look only ahead to the future.”

With those words as their guide, Miranda and Eliezer make a deal to find the peace and happiness they desperately seek. Nevertheless, even though they have a common goal, they seek it in very different ways, and as far as his wife and child are concerned, Eliezer thinks that the ends always justify the means.

What Miranda doesn’t realize is that those repressed feelings are a time bomb that explodes when Eliezer decides to confront the cause of his love’s unending nightmares: convicted criminal Paul Wise. However both are unaware that Paul is determined to take back what he thinks is his and will make use of the most terrible means to achieve his purposes.

In the sequel to
Miranda
, love will have to fight against intrigue, deception, and regret in an uncertain desire to survive. Ultimately, will the ends justify the means?

Thank you to all those people who, one way or another, inspired, motivated, and believed in this craziness called,
Miranda.

Pabsi Livmar, my editor and proofer for the spanish version, Hilda Naranjo, my translator, whom destiny placed in my path through a click on the Internet during one of those many sleepless nights. It’s been a real pleasure and honor to work with both of you. You have no idea how much you’ve taught me. Thank you for making my story yours.

My little guinea pigs… you know who you are. I’m not going to mention your names to protect your reputation. What would others think if, being so serious, they knew that you read this story? Ha, ha, ha! Thank you for setting aside your complicated schedules and reading my musings. Your comments, observations, questions, and suggestions helped me nourish every one of my characters.

Shennen, when you reach adulthood, you can read what your mom writes, but not before…. nooooo!

Mikon, thank you for believing in me and giving me those kicks in the rear that gave me impetus when the road looked rocky. Love you!

To you, reader, who had the courage to give me a chance, and chose to read this story. I hope that you have enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. Thank you!

A special thanks to De Lorenzo Roman, my companion in letters, for putting his gorgeous poetry at my disposal. You can enjoy his work at
www.lahuelladelpresente.blogspot.com

Thanks! Thanks! Thanks! Infinite thanks!

Visit
www.ssheeran.com
for more information about Sheila Sheeran projects.

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1
Scheiße
: German for shit.

2
Dummkopf
: German for stupid.