Secrets of the Past
Enrico
When Lindsay returned to the waiting room after she visited Rachel, her expression made it clear that something was wrong. I felt a tightening in my chest as if something inside me was breaking apart.
As she approached us with each step, the uncertainty about what she was going to tell us became more evident to me. An inexplicable desire to flee the room and avoid hearing what she had to say grew within me, but of course, I couldn't do that. I would have to exert all my self-control.
"What happened, Lindsay?" Joseph asked nervously. "It seems like it's not good news."
Joseph stood up from his chair to approach Lindsay, but before she could respond, she motioned for him to sit back down, gently holding his hands and looking him in the eyes as if he were a child she needed to explain something to.
That warm gesture towards my father deeply touched my heart, making clear the great affection between them, something I had already noticed since our days in London. Even Rachel seemed to have a special fondness for Joseph, and he reciprocated the same affection for her, which deeply concerned me in her case.
Rachel always had a way of getting close to people to get what she wanted, and when it came to my father, I would never allow her to be used manipulatively. Though I knew Joseph had never been an easy person, perhaps age had made him less rigid and more susceptible to influence.
"So, Lindsay?" Joseph insisted nervously. "How is Rachel?"
"She's alright, Joseph," Lindsay affirmed convincingly. "She just needs plenty of rest and proper care."
If Rachel was alright, the sorrowful expression on Lindsay's face could only mean one thing.
"And the babies?" I asked anxiously. "Both babies, are they... okay?"
A lump tightened in my throat, and uttering those last words was a daunting task. Even before Lindsay responded, it was clear the news wouldn't be pleasant.
"Unfortunately, Rachel lost one of the babies..." Lindsay said with sorrow.
I was standing, but the weakness in my legs forced me to sit down in one of the chairs. Joseph was shocked too.
"I can't believe it... How did Rachel take the news?"
I couldn't look at Joseph at that moment, and his voice was trembling and uncertain as he asked. I was light-years away from him, unable to utter even a simple sentence, with emotions blocking my throat.
I didn't hear Lindsay's response. My thoughts echoed in my mind with a single phrase: "She lost one of the babies."
Rachel had just lost a child, and no one deserved to go through such deep pain. Losing a child is an extremely painful experience for any mother, even if that mother was Rachel, a spoiled and selfish young woman who had caused so much harm to her sister.
Losing a child! My heart ached, and it felt like I had also suffered the loss of a baby alongside Rachel. Even knowing they weren't my children, I felt the pain as if they were.
"We'll meet you at your house then," Lindsay said, and the sentence caught my attention, as it didn't make sense.
"If Rachel is discharged, why don't we all go there now?" I asked, still feeling a bit lost and trying to keep my voice steady.
"You weren't listening to what I said to Joseph," Lindsay replied.
"Sorry, I didn't hear," I had to admit.
"Rachel doesn't want to go home with you, Enrico," Joseph stated bluntly. "Which is quite understandable, considering you rejected her children from the start."
That direct accusation left me stunned and nearly speechless as I had just taken a punch to the face.
"I didn't reject them!" I protested loudly. "But we can discuss this further."
I planned to have a frank conversation with my father because I wouldn't accept being accused like that again when people didn't know the whole truth of the situation.
"Now I want to understand what you were talking about," I returned to the matter that mattered at that moment. "If Rachel isn't leaving with us, are you planning to call a taxi? Is that it?"
"We're leaving with Thompson," Lindsay answered somewhat uncertainly as if she wasn't entirely happy with a decision not hers.
I could hardly believe the absurdity I had just heard from Lindsay.
"What do you mean Rachel isn't leaving with me and my father because she'd rather go with that jerk!?" I needed to be sure my ears weren't deceiving me.
Lindsay was uncomfortable and probably didn't agree with Rachel's choice, but as always, she sided with her friend.
"Please, Enrico," Lindsay pleaded, "don't make a big fuss over something so trivial. The important thing is we're going to Joseph's house. There, you'll have plenty of opportunities to talk to Rachel if that's what you want."
Lindsay was right, of course, but accepting Rachel's decision to go home with a man she had only just met a few days ago instead of with me was quite difficult.
"Fine," I reluctantly agreed. "Let's go, Dad."
I didn't want to stick around and watch Rachel leave with another man, something I should have been used to by now, after always being her last choice.
When we finally got home, after a silent journey, I collapsed onto the first couch I saw and stretched out my legs. I was exhausted after all the commotion and had barely slept the night before, worried sick about Rachel's test results that day. Knowing she had lost one of her babies did nothing to improve my mood, and I could already feel a slight headache coming on.
I closed my eyes and rested my arm over them, trying to find some relief while waiting for Rachel to arrive. I couldn't leave for the hotel without speaking to her. It was essential to see her.
Suddenly, Joseph said:
"There's something very important I need to tell you, Enrico. A conversation I should have had with you many years ago, but I've always been too cowardly to do so."
Joseph's words completely captured my attention, and I immediately pulled my feet off the couch, sitting upright and staring at the man standing in front of me. Joseph looked like someone about to enter a battle, and I felt that something extremely significant was about to be revealed, even though the timing wasn't ideal for me, considering my vulnerability.
"Your mother is back in Seattle," Joseph said bluntly, leaving me speechless once again that morning.
"My mother?" I asked, struggling. "I thought she died when I was two!"
"I never told you that, Enrico," Joseph replied weakly.
I realized Joseph was trembling and seemed on the verge of breaking down at any moment. Despite my turmoil, I was concerned for his well-being and helped him sit down gently beside me.
"You always said my mother was gone forever when I was two," I protested, indignant. "I believed she had died, and that's how you told me."
"Your mother left us when you were too young to remember," he said with great difficulty. "She met a Formula One driver and left with him to Italy. I don't know what happened after that, as your mother never contacted us again."
Joseph didn't need to go into all the details of the story. That revelation was enough to clarify something of extreme importance that I had never understood before, until that moment. All the inexplicable anger Joseph had towards motorsport and the way he always tried to dissuade me from pursuing that path had just been explained.
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