THE PROMISE
Finale
by Judi
Over and over I fall
When I hear you call
Without you in my life, baby
I just wouldn't be living at all
And I will take you in my arms
And hold you right where you belong
Til the day my life is through
This I promise you
Just close your eyes
Each loving day
And know this feeling won't go away
Every word I say is true
This I promise you
This I promise you
-
Richard Marxx
With breakfast finished and the kitchen cleaned up, they sat
together on the sofa. Luka was tired. All he wanted
to do was take Isabelle to his bed and fall asleep in her arms.
But, he knew that something was troubling her. She
never showed up unannounced. So, he waited patiently until
she was ready to tell him whatever it was she came to say.
He put his arm around her, pulling her close to him.
He was hoping this would relieve her nervousness; get her
to open up.
Luka marveled at how at ease he was when they were together.
Since becoming intimate with her, a weight had been lifted
off his chest. While he still mourned for his wife, knowing
that he could still feel something for woman pleased him.
Up until now, he thought those kinds of feelings were dead
to him. This is right, he thought, this is where I belong.
He felt secure in
telling her he loved her, but why he spoke those words in
Croatian, he did not know. Maybe it was easier for him.
He was just about to tell her he loved her, in English,
when she squeezed his arm to get his attention.
"I,um.....I came over here to talk to you about something,
not just fix you breakfast." Isabelle was a little
scared. "I couldn't sleep last night. I kept
thinking about" she paused, feeling her cheeks getting hot,
"well, you actually. I have some things I need to tell
you." She looked up at him; he had a puzzled look on
his face. "Oh, it's nothing shocking or anything like
that. It's just things I've kept locked away that I don't
talk about anymore." She reached up to gently stroke
his cheek. "When you told me the other night that you
loved me, I knew in my heart I loved you, too"
Luka felt his stomach leap to his throat. He had waited so
long to hear those words again. But how did she know what I
said, he thought. "Isabelle, I wasn't speaking in
English."
She reached into the back pocket of her jeans, pulling out the
picture of her father. Handing it to him, she asked
"Luka, do you remember this man?"
Luka stared at the picture. Seeing this man again brought
back a wave of emotions he no longer wanted to feel. And
what was Isabelle doing standing there next to him?
"Yes, I remember him. This is Ivan." He
looked at Isabelle, seeing the sadness in her eyes.
"How do you know him? He died in Vukovar."
"He's my father." She took the picture and placed
it on the table in front of them. Facing him, she took both
his hands in hers. Without looking up, Isabelle continued.
"I changed my name to keep my past from catching up
with me. I took the last name Malucci, after my mother's
brother. Isabelle is my middle name. My first name
is...."
"Marina," Luka answered softly. "I'd given
up hope of ever finding you."
Now it was Isabelle who had the puzzled look. "What do
you mean by that?"
"I promised your father when he died that as soon as it was
possible; I would come to this country and take care of you.
But, you proved to be very hard to find. I never
really gave up; I just slowed down the search." Luka
leaned over and kissed her. "I can't believe that
after all this time we are finally together."
"You were searching for Marina Radokovic. You never
expected to find Isabelle Malucci. I got a little lost
along the way." Isabelle crawled into his lap,
wrapping his arms around her as she leaned her head against his
shoulder.
Luka tightened his hold around her, and softly kissed her cheek.
"I was lost once," he whispered, "then I
found you." Isabelle smiled, stroking the arm he had
wrapped around he waist.
"Please, Luka, tell me how he died. I never was told
all the details. Were you with him?"
Luka closed his eyes, letting a slight sigh escape his lips.
He was hoping she wouldn't ask this question, but knew he
eventually that he would have to tell her. He took her hand
from his arm, kissing the palm. Folding his fingers between
hers, he began.
"Your father was a good man, Isabelle. Always giving
of himself to others, never expecting anything in return."
Luka chuckled thinking his daughter was the same way and
told her so. "You must have inherited that from
him," he smiled, and continued. "I learned how to
be the doctor that I am from Ivan. He taught me more than I
ever had learned in school." He paused for a moment,
searching for the right words to say. He wanted to make
sure he said everything correctly. "Then the war came.
Bombings, sniper fire. It was difficult to treat the
wounded when all around the buildings were being destroyed.
When the hospital was hit, we resorted to treating the
patients in basements; medical supplies were hard to come
by."
"When my wife and children were killed, Ivan took me
in." Luka stopped to quickly brush a tear away, then
continued. "He comforted me; took care of me.
The scar above my left leg came from a sniper bullet on a
day I went for water. Fortunately for me, no major damage,
but it took a long time to heal. While I was recuperating,
your father would tell me stories of his beautiful daughter that
lived in New York City. He shared with me the tragedy of
his own wife's death, and how raising you without a mother was
hard. All he talked about was getting back to you."
He paused for a moment, looking into her eyes. Such
sadness, he thought, we have both suffered such a terrible loss
from that fucking war. He pulled her closer to him.
He regretted having to tell her the rest, but he knew he must.
Luka took a deep breath, and continued. "Against
better judgment, we both went out early one morning to get some
food and water. We were lucky to find something, but not so
lucky trying to get back to safety. Your father was hit in
the chest by a sniper. I tried everything I could to stop
the bleeding, but it was hopeless. No medical equipment, no
medicine, there was nothing I could do to save him. The
last thing he said to me was to go to America, find you, tell
your that he loved you very much. And then I promised him I
would take care of you and keep you safe from harm."
Isabelle buried her head in his chest and cried until she could
cry no more When she was through, Luka wiped away her tears and
kissed her softly.
"When he told me he wanted to go back to Croatia, I was so
angry with him. We fought about it up until the day he
left.
It was before the war came, but he said he knew trouble was
coming and he had to go back." Isabelle paused; she
could feel the tears falling down her cheeks again and quickly
brushed them away. "I never got to tell him I was
sorry that we fought so. I wanted him to know that I did
understand why he had to go back, but I was selfish. I
wanted him here with me. Was that so wrong?" She
looked up at Luka, searching for the answer.
"No, you wanted him to be safe. That is
understandable. But, we are proud people, Isabelle.
He felt it was his duty to go there and take care of
them."
"Yes, but wasn't it his duty to stay here and take care of
me? I felt like he deserted me. After Papa left, I
was so angry with him, that I didn't care about school, or my
family, or anything. I started hanging around with the
wrong people, got involved with this guy, Joe, which I knew was
bad news, but I didn't care. He said he loved me and would
take care of me. I believed him. When he wanted to go
to Miami, I dropped out of college and went with him."
She stopped for a moment to collect her thoughts, then
continued. "That was the biggest mistake I ever made.
Six months after we settled into our apartment, I found out
he was dealing drugs. His whole attitude towards me had
changed. He got really mean, started drinking and getting
verbally abusive with me. When he started smacking me
around, I tried to leave, but he threatened to kill me."
Luka winced at this. The thought of her being hit by
another man was unthinkable. "You are safe now, my
love," he whispered in her ear, "I will never hurt
you." Kissing her forehead, he again held her tightly
against his chest.
"I have never felt safer than I do right now with you,
Luka." She smiled at him, gently touching his cheek.
Then she continued. "To dull the pain and forget
about everything, I started doing the drugs he was selling.
I'd get high everyday and not give a damn what happened.
I put up with the him hitting me for almost two years.
Until the day he came home in a drunken rage and almost
killed me. Broke my jaw, broke my left arm and gave me two
black eyes. He kept screaming he was going to kill me.
Fortunately for me, he passed out before he could finish
the job. I managed to call 911 and get to the
hospital."
"That's when Dave rescued me. Of course, Joe was
arrested. But when he was released on bail, Dave, well,
Dave took care of him, so to speak. Left Joe with a broken
leg, a broken collarbone, broke his nose and his right arm. Joe
threatened to kill him, but Dave told him he'd have to find him
first."
Isabelle looked at Luka and smiled. He looked lovingly at
her. "I am so sorry that you had to g through all
that," he told her. "I will never let another
terrible thing happen to you again."
"Ah, you are my knight in shining armor," she said.
"But it wasn't your fault. I allowed it to
happen to me. I owe everything to Dave. He got me out
of Miami, helped me find a program to get me cleaned up, and
persuaded me to go back to school. He told me it was
probably in my best interest to change my name in case the
asshole came looking for me. Joe only knew me as Marina.
He was too dumb to have ever found me as Isabelle."
"Dave was with me when I got the news of Papa's death.
He had been keeping a shoebox full of letters that were
forwarded to Chicago from New York for me, knowing someday that I
would come home. I must have read them a hundred times
while I was grieving Papa, then I put them away and forgot about
them. Until now."
Isabelle reached into her back pocket again, this time pulling
out the letter and other picture. She handed the letter to
Luka. "I have something for you, but first you need to
know that I only discovered it this morning. When I
couldn't fall asleep, I started thinking about you, about us,
about where this relationship was going. You have been so
brave; sharing your past with me, that I knew it was time that I
did the same. So, I pulled out the old shoebox, looking at
what little I have left of my parents, and found that letter.
I swear on all that is holy, that I don't remember ever
reading it." She looked at him pleading; "Luka,
you have to believe me."
"Isabelle, I would never have cause to doubt you," he
said to her as he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it
gently. "I love you."
"I love you, too." She felt her chest pounding.
" I know we haven't known each other for very long,
but I knew I loved you since that first night we met. We
connected that night, something sparked between us. Like we
were meant to be together, destiny, or whatever you want to call
it."
"Or maybe Ivan watching from heaven making sure we would be
together no matter now long it took. He told me once that
he regretted not teaching you more of your Croatian heritage.
I guess that would be my job now." He leaned in
to kiss her again, but she stopped him.
Isabelle slid off his lap and pointed to the letter.
"You need to read this, then I have something for you,
remember?"
"Ok," he nodded. She sat watching as Luka read
the letter, tears forming in his eyes. When he was done,
she gave him the picture of his family. Luka ran his
fingers over the images of his son and daughter, then got up and
left the room.
Isabelle sat quietly on the sofa. Knowing him like she did,
she waited until she could no longer hear him weeping.
Standing in the doorway of the bedroom, she watched as Luka
kissed the picture and whispered, "I miss you all, and love
you very much," then placed it on the nightstand. She
quickly brushed a tear from her cheek and went to him.
Standing in front of him, as he sat on the edge of the bed,
she reached down to take his hand in hers. He squeezed it
gently.
"Thank you for this," he said quietly, as he pointed to
the picture. "And thank you for loving me."
He wrapped his arms around her, resting his head on her
chest. She kissed the top of his head, gently stroking the
back of his neck. "We have both suffered so much pain,
losing family, giving up on life. It is a miracle that we
found each other. I believe it was God's plan that we are
together."
He pulled Isabelle next to him as he lay down on the bed.
Facing her, he stroked her cheek and kissed her.
"A friend of mine once told me that there was woman
out there for me that would love me like my wife did. She
was out there; I just had to find her. I prayed to be given
a second chance to live again, to love again. To find a
woman I could start over with, someone to spend the rest of my
life with, a soul mate. I found you, Isabelle. I
promise you, as God is my witness that you will never hurt again.
I will keep you safe and I will love you with everything
that I am."
With that said, Luka kissed Isabelle with all the passion he
could muster.
All was right with the world.