Hidden Heart by Camelia Miron Skiba

felt
guilty because I knew about Mama’s betrayal, but could never say
anything to anybody. And each time I looked into Dad’s eyes, this
guilty feeling tore me apart,” Tessa said again, her voice sounding
strange, as she’d come back from somewhere far away. She paused for
a moment. “I felt I betrayed him, but yet how could I say anything
to him? To this day I feel they lived a life of lies, a marriage
that looked good on the outside, but so false on the inside. Dad
passed away a long time ago and I don’t know if he ever knew. I
mean, how can a woman come home to her family and go to bed with
her husband, yet hours before that she was with another man? Call
me old fashioned, but cheating is not a word in my dictionary and
will never be,” Tessa said and crossed her arms over her
chest.
     
    None of them spoke again
for a long time. They knew their mother’s life story. Ana had been
forced in to marriage at a young age. Raised just by her mother,
Ana and her siblings were so poor, they went to bed many nights
with nothing to eat. Her father cheated constantly and finally left
his family when Ana was just a couple of years old. Her stories
were about hunger and poverty, being judged by kids for her old
clothes, laughed at for her worn out shoes, which she had to share
with her other sister; stories of cold Christmases coming and going
with no presents, growing up with a mother so violent, bitter and
lost, she never got any love or kind words.
    When Ana was only sixteen
years old, Paul—much older than her—met her in a tram station and
helped her get rid of a drunken man that harassed her. Paul walked
her home to ensure she was safe. He was fascinated with her beauty.
At first she got scared and didn’t want to talk to him at all, but
then as they walked side by side to her neighborhood, they began
talking. He came every day for a couple of months to see her, and
although she wasn’t attracted to him at all, she allowed him to
pick her up from high school.
    When Ana’s mother found
out, she beat her up for being a disgrace for the family, yet Paul
never touched Ana nor spent any time alone with her in the house.
When Paul saw her the next day all bruised and hurt, he asked Ana
to marry him; he was so madly in love with her. She told him she
didn’t love him, but even knowing that, he still wanted to marry
her. And so they did, with Ana giving birth to a baby boy a year
later. The boy died a couple of months later and Ana suffered the
rest of her life for that loss. She could’ve divorced Paul, but
chose not to and soon after that they had Octavia, Chiara and
Tessa.
     
    “ Sorry you had to deal with
this by yourself, sis,” Chiara said. She came over and hugged Tessa
and then Octavia came and the three of them hugged and cried
together.
    “ I just wish I knew more.
It almost feels like she had a double life, one with dad and us and
one with her lover. Was it all a lie?”
    “ This envelope, whatever it
contains, I can’t read it. It’s too much to take on for such a
short period of time.” Octavia stuffed the envelope in her purse.
Chiara and Tessa did the same.
    Again, silence filled up
the room.
     
    The three of them were so
much alike, but yet different; Octavia, the older sister, was
petite, with graceful curves. Her large, hazel eyes framed by dark
short hair compelled men to stare at her. She came across as solid
rock, cerebral and anal. It was a rare sight to glimpse an
expression of love, compassion or tenderness from her—she feared
the torments of the heart.
    She finished high school
and college in Bucharest with straight tens, changed her mind and
her career path and went to a different college. While working as a
tour guide at the Black Sea, she met rich businessman, Andrew
Blackheath, ten years older than her. After falling madly in love
with him, they married two months later. They lived in a rented
upscale apartment in Downtown Bucharest, while Octavia worked and
Andrew traveled between