Page 67 of Love Among the Ruins
“I’ll never forget it. Are you prone to tripping?”
“Only around you.”
“Right. Only around me.”
But she truly felt sorry for him. For once a wave of sympathy came over her. A lot was riding on Dominic’s shoulders. The pressure to perform and get results. To be responsible for so many people, to have to answer to shareholders and his family.
It was only her mother’s approval she sought, and that was hard enough. She wanted to make Dominic feel better. “You may think your father is being harsh on you, but at least he wanted you.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, quietly.
“Just that …my father didn’t want me.”
Dominic stared at her quietly for the longest time, as if the sentence didn’t make sense. “What do you mean he didn’t want you?”
“My mother told me that he wanted her to get rid of me when she told him she was pregnant.”
Dominic’s mouth opened, and then closed again.
“She was in love with him,” Eleni continued, grateful that she’d managed to get his attention and not have him focus on his problem. But with his rapt attention, and his gaze tender as he listened, she now wasn’t sure about oversharing. “I think he might have been her first love, I don’t know because she never talks about him, so when she did finally open up about him, I knew it had to be something important, and that’s when she told me that when she announced she was pregnant, he told her to get rid of it. To get rid of me.”
“What? That’s despicable. What makes a man say something like that?”
“Already having a wife and family would do it.”
He looked visibly shocked. “Fuck. That’s cruel. That’s appalling. I’m sorry.”
“What do you have to be sorry about? At least now I understand her better. All this time, I wondered why she hated me ...”
“Your mother hated you?” He moved closer, raising his hand as if he was about to cup her face, but stopped himself before his hand touched her skin.
The breath that she had been holding slowly released. “We don’t have a great relationship. She was a young mother, and I feel like I messed up her whole life for her.”
“A young mom? How old is she?”
“Forty-two.”
“She’s not that much older than me.”
Shock wrapped itself around her, like a sheet of ice. “How old are you?” She’d often wondered.
“I’ll be thirty this year.”
She grinned. “Youareold. Ancient, like many of the temples Galatis has you visiting.”
He cracked a smile.
“But you’re not anywhere near my mother’s age. She had me when she was twenty-one. My mother told me this, about my father, a few weeks ago, right after I started here.”
“Jesus.”
“So, you see. You’re not alone, Dominic. We both have not-so-great relationships with our parents, but at least you have a father. That must count for something? And at least you know who you are, you have an identity. I only know half; the rest is a mystery and its left me with so many questions.”
“I can imagine.” He looked sad for her, or maybe he felt sorry for her.
“The people I love die. Not just that, but the people whoshouldlove me, they don’t. My father didn’t want my mother to have me, and even though my mother went against his wishes and had me, I think sometimes that she regrets it. I’ve spoiled her life. She was a beauty, and she had this wonderful life ahead of her, but I ruined it all.”
“That’s not true.”
