The Gift Ch. 11-15

"What does he have to do with it?" Luciana asked. Chris was standing at a distance, drinking his coffee and watching the conversation unfold with great curiosity.

"He doesn't want to have anything to do with me anymore," she asserted. "I don't want to strain your relationship with your brother."

"Well, then you shouldn't have come to me." She gave her a knowing look. "I know you're here because you still love him. Otherwise, there were thousands of other interior designers you could choose."

"Look, I—"

"It's okay, because he still loves you too."

"He doesn't," she shook her head, her face turning despondent. "If he did, he wouldn't have let me go."

"Really?" she snorted. "Or did he do it because your parents were making life difficult for you?"

Michelle didn't offer a reply. Chris decided to add his two cents to the conversation.

"Go easy on her, Lu," he said with a soft smile. "The memories are probably as heartbreaking for her as they are for you. I've gone through a broken relationship and I understand how tough it can be to shake off the feelings."

"Yes, but when Elijah is being an arrogant fool, he should be shown his place," she argued. "He maintains that he stopped loving her long ago but still cherishes her picture and her gifts and listens to the CD when there's no one around. It—"

"What?" Michelle spoke up, her face an expression of shock. "What did you say?"

Luciana sighed, suddenly looking exhausted. "He's too much of a stoic, Michelle. He doesn't admit his feelings but pines for you in secret. He's lonely. Believe me, I've seen it."

She grabbed her hands and held them in her lap, her eyes welling up. "You have no idea how happy it makes me to have you back," she said. "I was so fond of you... I thought I would see you even after going to foster care. But Elijah would always visit me alone. It was much later that I learned you broke up."

"I don't blame him for anything," she sighed. "I hated the way my parents treated him but could do nothing."

When she looked at Luciana, her eyes were moist. "He's the only person who ever made me happy," she said brokenly. "I was homeschooled for 16 years and grew up out of the touch with the world outside. When Elijah came into my life, it signaled a big change. I remember he had tried to resist me in the beginning, snapped at me for being too kind, but both of us were looking for the same thing— someone to love, someone who made us happy."

She looked between Luciana and Chris and broke into a wistful smile. "Just how happy the two of you look together," she said. "I barely know anything about your lives but I see it in your eyes, the love you have for each other and the joy it brings you."

An arm came around her shoulders when Luciana blushed furiously. "How long have you been together?" she asked fondly, directing the question at both of them. Chris and Luciana exchanged a glance, wondering if they should reveal that they just consummated their relationship twenty-four hours ago.

"Not long at all," she finally replied, "But we have known each other for a while. He's Elijah's neighbor."

"Oh," she smiled warmly, nudging her again. "You make an adorable couple."

Chris let out an embarrassed chuckle even as Luciana's face flamed with embarrassment. She then looked at Michelle again.

"Come celebrate Thanksgiving with us," she implored. "You are in Chicago now, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"Are you crazy?" she exclaimed. "If our paths crossing at the reunion was anything to go by, he will not be happy to see me."

"Do you still love him?"

"Luciana..."

"Do you?"

Michelle sank back in the couch and crossed her arms against her chest, looking exasperated. Luciana glanced at Chris and back at her, staring at her face for a reply. When she didn't get one, she smiled, perfectly reading her silence.

"I see it on your face," Luciana gently patted her knee. "I'm highly intuitive. You cannot hide from me."

"Why did he treat me like a stranger when we met?" she croaked, trying and failing to hold back the tears. "He gave me the cold shoulder, like I was a different person."

"I'm going to make everything alright," she reassured her. "Now that I've found you again, I will not let you go. Not when I know you still love my brother."

They were interrupted by Poppy, who had left the window again and come up to Luciana, meowing loudly. She hopped on to her lap and started to knead, her little claws certainly leaving holes in her jeans. Chris came forward.

"What's wrong with her?" he asked, concerned.

"I usually give her a little treat at this time," she laughed, stroking her head. Chris picked her up from her lap, chuckling.

"I can do that," he announced. "Where are the treats?"

Luciana rolled her eyes. "In the kitchen, with her other food. No more than two kibbles, alright?"

"You're talking to a vet, honey," he smirked, putting down Poppy on the floor as he walked back to the kitchen. A moment later, he returned with two kibbles in his hand, and the cat eagerly lapped it up. Chris then asked her to have a drink of water, and much to their surprise, Poppy walked over to her fountain and took a few licks.

Michelle laughed. "I feel so proud of you, Lu," she said. "You turned out just as your brother hoped you would."

Luciana pulled her into a hug, closing her eyes when tears clouded her vision again. She felt Michelle's arms gently stroking her back, in a maternal affection she had never known.

"Please tell me you will come to my Thanksgiving party," she said, her voice throaty. "Please?"

She felt a deep sigh against her shoulder, followed by the faintest nod. The arms around her tightened.

"Alright," she relented. "I will do it for you."

---

Thanksgiving wasn't Luciana's favorite holiday. It was an American thing, and she often wondered why other countries didn't have it. Either they were perpetually thankful or strangers to the very concept. She wasn't even fond of eating turkey, which was something that most others looked forward to the whole year (except, of course, if they were the turkey).

But it was the only occasion when Elijah had time to stay home for half a day and enjoy a big, home-cooked meal. Her job was to take care of the cooking, while his job was to buy the turkey, put it in and take it out of the oven. Most year, Matt and Kyle would join them, with Matt's famous pumpkin pie.

This year was different, though. Instead of going over to Elijah's house, she asked him to come to her apartment, to which he obliged. Luciana had installed screen doors to the kitchen again, to prevent Poppy from entering the place while she cooked. Now that she could not enter the kitchen to supervise her cooking, she would sit outside the screen doors and meow relentlessly. Unlike Cleo, she had not tried to claw at it yet. Luciana knew it was only a matter of time.

Chris had gone home on Sunday evening, but not before they had made love twice more. He wouldn't be able to come to her house on Thursday because he usually celebrated Thanksgiving with his parents and brother, but he did promise to spend the weekend with her. He had been slightly concerned about what she planned to do with Michelle and Elijah, but she had assured him that no one knew her brother better than she did. Elijah could be the tough guy for everyone else but not with Luciana. She could see right through him.

On Thursday morning, Matt came to her apartment to help her with the cooking. He was a tall, somewhat out-of-shape guy with curly brown hair and blue eyes, dimples appearing in his cheeks like punctuation marks. He also had a peculiar sense of humor, often bordering on sarcasm. When a friend had asked him for advice on how to get over someone, he had said, "If they are upright, use a trampoline. If they are lying down, just step over." His partner Kyle was a fashion photographer, working with some of the top brands in the country. Sandy-haired, lean and muscular, he was everything Matt was not. Highly extroverted, loquacious, and affable, he seemed to balance out the quiet, introverted and often detached personality of Matt.

Elijah had come early, armed with the biggest turkey he could find as well as an adorable pumpkin shaped sweater for Poppy. Kyle had put the dogs behind a child door, but even without it, they were friendly towards Poppy, having grown up with a cat. Cleo had been older than all of them combined, so although they realized Poppy was a different cat, they extended the same generosity towards her. Later, after putting the turkey in the oven, Elijah left for some errands, and Kyle decided to help Matt with the pie.

Thirty minutes after Elijah had gone, Michelle arrived. Matt knew all about her, but when he finally got to see her in person, he pulled Luciana to a corner and whispered, "So she's the one Elijah lost his virginity to?"

Before she could ask him to shut up, Kyle whispered back, "And vice-versa."

Luciana asked both of them to remain silent and walked back to the living room, where Michelle smiled at her.

"You look gorgeous," she said, admiring her dress and the messy French twist she had turned her hair into. Luciana smiled back gratefully, unable to help wondering why a woman like her would wait for someone like Elijah all her life and waste her youth. She also wondered if she'd had flings like her brother, extending no further than the bedroom.

She introduced her to Matt and Kyle and the dogs, and directed her towards the big bowl of salsa and chips they had been eating to hold them off until dinner. Matt stared at the situation for a little while, before shaking his head.

"I don't know what you're planning to do," he said to Luciana, "But this is going to get very awkward once Elijah arrives."

"We're here to watch the fun, aren't we?" Kyle chuckled, mashing the boiled potatoes. Matt gave him a look, indicating he was genuinely concerned about what was going to happen. Everyone knew Elijah had a torrid temper sometimes, and they hoped it wouldn't spoil their Thanksgiving meal.

Luciana, on the other hand, knew what she was doing.

Michelle visibly tensed up when they heard Elijah's car, and Luciana stood at the door of the kitchen to see what he did. When he entered the room and saw Michelle, he looked surprise, a small frown appearing on his brow. Luciana could see the fear in her eyes as they stared at each other.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"I invited her," Luciana replied, arms crossed against her chest. "She's my new client."

"Oh," he snorted, taking a few steps back. "So you realized that the best way to me was through my sister, huh?"

"Why didn't you tell me you were in touch with her?" she asked firmly. "And why exactly did you lie about going to the high school reunion?"

"I didn't. I went to hand over a check to the principal." He narrowed his eyes at Luciana. "You thought I went to the party?"

"You met her there, didn't you?" she motioned at Michelle.

"We met in the parking lot," he shrugged. "We exchanged a few words."

"Elijah, you do know who you're talking about, right?"

"Of course I do. She's the girl I was once in love with, whose rich parents were arrogant snobs and didn't want poor grandkids."

Michelle visibly flinched when she heard those words, her face lowering as her eyes met the floor. She put down the coffee mug on the table and rose from the chair.

"Do you really have to keep reminding me?" she said, the hurt visible in her voice. "I was young, I didn't know what to do..."

"Why didn't you tell me anything?" Luciana asked her brother. He shrugged again.

"What was there to say? Do I tell you about everyone I happen to run into?"

"She isn't everyone, for god's sake!" she screeched. "She's the one girl you ever truly loved."

"That was years ago," he said. "She's nothing more than a familiar face to me anymore."

"You were the one who left," Luciana reminded him. "You didn't stick around to help her fight her parents."

"Fight for what?" He inched closer to Michelle, staring at her face and pacing around her as he spoke. "The guy with no family, no money and no social status?" He let out a dry laugh. "Besides, hadn't they threatened to report to the police about me if I continued seeing her? I wanted to join the police, I needed to have a clean record."

"I wanted us to elope," Michelle murmured, her gaze still low, her chest rising and falling to the rhythm of the sharp, quick breaths. Elijah laughed again, going around her in circles.

"Right. And have me arrested and thrown behind bars." He stopped, his eyes locked on her face. "You were timid, do you know that? You had seen nothing of the world for the first 16 years of your life, had no idea what suffering was or what it was like to grow up without a home or a family. Your parents had all the money in the world and held high social status, so why did they send their daughter to a public school? They could've sent you to an elite, private academy where you wouldn't meet someone like me."

"Elijah..." Luciana tried to break in, knowing he was tormenting Michelle, but he held up a hand to stop her.

"I didn't deserve what they said or did to me," he continued. "I tried to help you. It would break my heart that you were being beaten up because of me. I wanted you to complain to the police and I'd support you. But you didn't. You were scared, faint-hearted."

"My parents had friends in high places, Elijah," Michelle was now in tears. "They could buy out everyone. The police wouldn't believe me once they spoke to my parents."

He sighed, looking away. "They locked you up in your room when they found out we were in a relationship," he said quietly, his eyes closed. "You left me with no choice, Michelle. The only way to save you from any further torture was to let you go. It still stings when I think about it."

"You left her and never had to deal with her parents again," Luciana finally spoke. "But she had to keep living with them. Didn't she suffer more than you did?"

A wry smile appeared at the corner of his lips. Luciana stared at his face, surprised at how sad he suddenly looked.

"I wanted to marry her when I got a real job," he said wistfully. "I know we were young and clueless, but if there was anything in life I could be sure about after the fire, it was us. I'd met girls before her, but she was everything I ever wanted." He started to go around her again, hands firmly lodged in his pockets, shoes tapping on the floor with every step. "No one had been so loving towards me since mom died. It almost made me want to cry. She did my homework if I was busy at the garage and always saved her lunch for me, so much so that her parents began to wonder why she was losing weight."

Michelle squeezed her eyes shut, tears raining down her cheeks. Luciana exchanged glances with Matt and Kyle, uncomfortable but still wanting Elijah to go on. She hadn't had any idea that Michelle had been abused by her parents or that he had tried to help her but failed. He wasn't the kind of person who would let something go without a fight. It somehow made more sense now. He didn't fight for the love of his life because he had wanted to protect her.

Elijah grabbed her arms and forced her to look him in the eye. Luciana almost wanted to stop him before he lost his temper and ended up hurting her. Michelle didn't struggle. Even as he held her close, she seemed slightly dazed.

"You know what cinched it?" he said, staring at her but directing the words at Luciana. "Her affection for you. She was an only child and didn't know what it was like to have a sibling. But when I saw her with you, it...it did something to me. I felt that she could be your best friend, everything that I couldn't be. The female figure in your life you could turn to..."

He swallowed slowly, his gaze softening. "You were it, Michelle," he breathed. "I would never have to look at another girl again."

"Why didn't you get back in touch with me later?" she demanded.

"Because I was sure you wouldn't want to have anything to do with me after I left you. Something told me your parents had found a rich guy for you. Besides, Lu had come back to live with me, and I also wanted to buy a house."

"Or you thought I was dead?" she barked out. Elijah pushed her away, his face darkening.

"Stop it," he hissed, lifting a finger. "Don't try to do that with me. Have you thought about what your parents are going to say if they know you are in touch with me?"

Michelle looked up, her blue eyes glistening with tears. "Maybe I will ask them when I meet them in the afterlife," she replied quietly.

Elijah stared at her, his expression changing from anguish to one of remorse, as though he regretted what he'd just said. Luciana stepped forward and put a hand on Michelle's shoulders, reassuringly nodding at her.

"Her parents are dead," she said. "She's moved back to Chicago and I'm working on the refurbishment of the house. The same house she grew up in."

"Elijah, why don't you just calm down?" Matt intervened. "She's Lu's guest. She can invite anybody she wants."

"Of course she can," he retorted gruffly. "But she has no idea what seeing Michelle does to me. It brings back painful memories of the life I had and the life I could have had." He turned to look at her again. "The life we could have had."

"Are you done?" she finally asked, wiping off the tears from her cheeks. "Because if you are, then I must go."

"You're my guest, Michelle," Luciana broke in. "You won't go anywhere."

"So am I supposed to stand here and listen to his rants about how I wronged him?" she exclaimed. "He behaves as though only his heart broke. What about me? Did I not have a heart?"

She took a small step towards him and grabbed his shirt with both hands. "Listen, Elijah Russo," she whispered angrily. "Just because my parents treated you bad doesn't mean I supported them. Yes, I was timid. I was defenseless and scared and couldn't muster the courage to act against my parents. But it doesn't change the fact that I loved you. So much that I never looked at another man again. I met you when you were nothing. You weren't chief of police, you didn't command any respect. Everyone loathed you, called you a freak and weirdo. Do you remember those days?"

She let go of his shirt and poked his chest with a finger. "I saw the person inside," she said. "And fell in love with him. You were the first to have me, body and soul, and I wanted you to be the only one."

Elijah ran a hand through his hair as he turned away and walked over to the couch. He put both his hands on the backrest, closing his eyes and letting out a sharp breath.

"You should have moved on," he said, his voice softer. "I was never fit for you."

"Really?" she snorted, folding her arms around herself. "Did you think so when I climbed three stories of our school building on a rickety service ladder to watch you tending to a family of birds on the roof? Or when you let me name all of the sparrows? Or when you kissed me there for the first time, the wind howling in our ears?"

"Michelle—"

"Or when Luciana got sick and you couldn't come to school for a week, so I brought you the notes and the medicines she needed? Or when you insisted to stand up to my parents and make them stop mistreating me? Or those evenings in your bedroom, when we—"

"Michelle, stop, for goodness' sake!" he screeched, turning around. She smiled sadly, even though the tears were threatening again.

"See how that feels?" she cocked her head to a side. "The memories aren't painful for only you. They are equally painful for me. But you know what?"

She stepped forward until she was inches away from him, her eyes scorching his. "I would go through it all over again in a heartbeat, just to be with you," she murmured.