AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sofia had a son…?” Eyes wide, a look of wonder crossed Valentina’s face.
I nodded. Her cleft lip is less pronounced. “Then you had two great-granddaughters, and now you have a great-great-granddaughter—actually, two.” Emphasizing the positive results, I glossed over my cousin. “See the good that came from your marriage?”
Valentina sneered. “Descendants don’t change the fact that Mateo only tolerated me—never loved me.”
“That’s not true.” A disembodied, masculine voice resonated. The air shimmered, and a translucent image in a blue campaign shirt and rusty-brown trousers materialized.
The specter was so transparent, the cabin’s walls showed through him.
Mateo. I caught my breath.
“Maybe it began as a marriage of convenience, but over time, I came to love you.”
“You did?” Her cheeks lifting in a smile, Valentina’s cleft lip appeared less prominent.
“Yes, after the first few weeks, I”—he shrugged—“forgot your defect, for lack of a better word.”
“How could you forget?” Shrinking, she touched her lips. “How could anyone forget this blemish?”
“Instead of the scar, I saw your gentle spirit.” Mateo reached out his hand.
“I never knew…” Her lips and mouth intact, Valentina straightened her back as if a great weight had been lifted.
I blinked. Her cleft palate is gone.
“All this time, I thought you were ashamed of me—had settled for me.” Valentina gazed at the viga beam overhead. “To escape the humiliation, I hanged myself, but instead of releasing me, my death bound me to these rafters…these walls.”
I followed her line of vision, cringing at the despair that drove her to suicide.
“I loved you too much to blame you. Instead, I blamed Marianna. I thought, if you could forget her, you could love me.”
“I did love you—”
“But you wanted Marianna.” The charged air became glacial. “Calling her name in bed was the final humiliation.” Her cleft lip again as prominent as a camel’s, Valentina went purple with rage.
Mateo winced. “An innocent slip of the tongue—”
“Maybe unintentional, but not so innocent. You showed your true feelings.”
“I can’t deny I loved Marianna. Love is stubborn. You can’t will it to come or go, but I did love you…still love you.”
As the temperature warmed, I stopped shivering.
“You do?” Her voice as plaintive as a child’s, Valentina gazed into his face. Again, her scar was barely visible.
Nodding, he held out his hand. “Come with me.”
She leaned toward him as if tempted, then pulled back. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
She glanced about the cabin’s four walls before staring at the overhead beam. “I belong here…”
“No.” Shaking his head, he again reached out. “You belong with me.”
“I do?” Radiant, all traces of the scar gone, Valentina floated toward him and took his hand.
I closed my eyes as an earsplitting explosion of light consumed them.
