A Petty Woman
Enrico
From what I understood by listening in the hallway, Rachel was "asking" someone to leave. Her tone of voice was rude and not at all delicate. I recognized the voice as Dorothy's, my mother who had disappeared and now reappeared desiring an unwanted closeness.
I wasn't in the mood to talk to my mother and I felt no affection for her. She was just my biological mother and nothing more. But, faced with her pleading tone, I decided to hear what she had to say.
"Alright then," I agreed to Dorothy's request, even though completely against my will.
I confess I was curious about the important matter she wanted to discuss with me, with a feeling that it was not just about me being her son or not. Something told me that her return and insistence on getting close to me were not motivated by feelings.
"I'll go upstairs then," said Rachel, about to leave the room turning her back to me.
I interrupted her attempt to move forward by wrapping my arms around her shoulders in a hug, pulling her to my side. I gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek and looked directly at her, not caring about the presence of others in the room.
"Please, don't go," I asked, smiling persuasively to convince her to stay by my side. "We will soon be married and there is no reason why you can't hear what Dorothy has to say."
Upon hearing my words, Rachel immediately looked at the elegantly dressed woman in a discreet navy blue dress, holding a bag in an even more elegant and discreet manner. She clearly expressed her displeasure and then looked at me, looking undecided.
"I think I better leave you to yourselves, Enrico," insisted Rachel. "I believe this is a private matter."
"The girl is right, my son," Dorothy seized the opportunity. "The matter I have to discuss with you is extremely personal and I would like to talk in private. Is that okay?"
"No," I responded assertively. "It's not okay. Rachel will stay here in the room, and if you want to tell me something, you'll have to do it in her presence."
It was evident that Dorothy did not want to talk in Rachel's presence, but since I didn't give her an option, she let out a discreet yet audible sigh. After staring at me in silence for a few seconds, as if wanting to confirm that I was truly unyielding, she made her way to one of the sofas, making it clear her desire to sit, even without explicitly stating it.
“So, let's sit down,” I said, allowing her to do what she wanted at that moment.
After Dorothy settled on the couch, maintaining a rigid posture with her hands on her lap, she looked at me with a softer gaze, but there was a plea in her face. But, once again, she didn't convince me, especially after hearing how Rachel had spoken to her. Even without witnessing it, something told me it wasn't something for free.
“I really wish I could go back in time and do things differently, Enrico, but I can't” Dorothy repeated something she had said when I visited her at the hotel a week ago “And even though you made it clear that you don't want to keep in touch with me, your own mother, I want to ask again if we can become closer. I want to show that I can be the mother you always wanted, son.”
I wouldn't be able to explain to anyone, but nothing Dorothy says manages to touch me. But I decided to pretend otherwise. I'm sure there's something behind all this and I want to know what.
“I think I can do that,” I said in a calm tone.
My quick agreement made Rachel try to move away from me, but I held her tightly in my embrace, avoiding looking at her face, which was surely filled with surprise at my attitude. I planned to talk to her later.
Dorothy was also deeply surprised, to the point of standing up from the chair she was sitting in and taking a few hesitant steps toward me.
“Enrico, you have no idea how happy this makes me,” Dorothy said emotionally.
The joy on her face was so evident that I almost believed she was just a mother seeking her son's love. Almost.
I accepted the tight hug she offered me once again and, only at that moment, allowed Rachel to move away from me a little. However, I quickly brought her back into my arms and made a point of kindly asking - which was hard, given the circumstances - for Dorothy to leave before my father arrived. He didn't take it well the last time he saw her and I didn't want to cause more discomfort.
“You're right about Joseph, Enrico,” Rachel spoke for the first time since I arrived. “By the time they left, they should already be back.”
Dorothy clearly expressed her dissatisfaction with Rachel's words, casting a quick disapproving glance towards my fiancée before resuming her serene posture.
“I wish I could stay a little longer,” Dorothy lamented. “Joseph needs to accept that I'm back and that we're getting closer after years, darling.”
Well, she was going the wrong way now.
“I will never impose your presence on my father, Dorothy,” I made it clear once and for all. “He never abandoned me and I recognize everything he did for me.”
My words provoked a strong reaction in Dorothy, turning her whole face into a mask of coldness and even contempt.
“You should reconsider your views on Joseph, after all, he shouldn't be put on the pedestal you've placed him on,” Dorothy said with poison in her voice.
“Why do you say that?” It was Rachel who reacted first to the venom distilled by the elegant lady. “Joseph took care of Enrico and loves him truly. He's the only father he has, since not even you, who is the mother, did that. You chose to leave and leave him in the care of the husband you were also abandoning!”
Rachel's attitude didn't surprise me, especially when Dorothy was directing her words mainly towards my father, someone Rachel has a huge unquestionable appreciation for.
“If Joseph loves Enrico so much, why has he never taken a paternity test?” Dorothy provocatively asked with a malicious smile.
I hadn't considered this question, but before Rachel could respond, Dorothy interrupted her and expressed exactly what I was thinking at that moment.
“No need to answer, I'll tell you myself,” Dorothy said, raising her hand and pointing her index finger at Rachel. “Joseph never took a paternity test because he prefers to live in uncertainty about whether he is Enrico's biological father or not. Know that if he were certain that you are not his son, he would never have raised you as he did. He wouldn't have loved you.”
Dorothy's intention in saying this was as clear as day. She wanted to shake the confidence I had in my father's love and diminish the merit of everything he achieved and experienced since he was abandoned by his wife.
Despite reason pointing this out to me, she still hit the nail on the head and made me question why Joseph never actually did the paternity test.
She also exceeded her goals and surprised me in a way she didn't even suspect, leaving me truly disturbed. I looked at Rachel feeling like a scoundrel, while at the same time thinking the same about my father.
"You can't try to downplay everything Joseph did in this petty way, Dorothy."
The vehement defense didn't come from Rachel or me. It was Lindsay who said that practically pointing her finger in Dorothy's face as she walked into the room with my father, who still looked shocked, whether from hearing the accusation of his ex-wife or just the fact that she was back in his house.
"And who are you to interfere in a family discussion?" Dorothy, of course, didn't accept another intrusion. "As far as I know, you're just a maid in this house. Or did you also deceive someone else in this family?"
"Lindsay is a good girl, and I won't accept you coming here to insult her," Joseph said without hesitation. "I consider her as a daughter, just as Enrico is my son, even though we don't share the same blood."
"It's unthinkable to categorically claim that Enrico doesn't have your blood," Dorothy retorted extremely rudely. "I was having an affair with Klaus, but we were still together when I got pregnant."
Everyone was already paying attention to what my father was saying, but in that moment he managed to provoke various reactions on all of our faces, the anxiety for his next words hanging in the air.
"I don't believe I owe any kind of explanation about our life to someone like you, but I did, in fact, do a paternity test," Joseph revealed surprisingly. "And that didn't change anything for me, even after being certain that Enrico is not my biological son."
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