Chapter Thirty-Eight

 

One thing Romanian hospitals seemed to have in common with those in the United States was the ridiculously long discharge procedure. It took hours to fill out all the necessary paperwork, get the all clear from the doctors and nurses, and receive the instructions for care once released. After spending the night in the hospital to make sure her head injury was no more severe than a minor concussion, Abby was sitting in the hospital room with Galya, waiting for the final signature from the neurologist. Unfortunately, there was only one for the entire hospital, and she wasn’t exactly a pressing concern. The people who needed immediate help took precedent over discharge paperwork.

Abby decided to take the opportunity to interview Galya one last time before they left for Norway. The girls were at the hotel, and she’d interview them once she arrived. She wanted to record their final thoughts before the specter of the Olympics shadowed their views, and it helped keep her mind off her own pain and fear from the attack.

“Given everything that’s happened, do you still think Shaye’s going to win the all-around title?”

Galya replied without hesitation, “Now more than ever.”

“How can you be so sure?”

He paused. “Have you ever watched the winner of the individual Olympic title when they realize it?”

“Sure,” Abby said. “They cry. Most people would.”

“Of course, but these tears are different. They aren’t usually pure happiness. It’s mostly relief. Knowing they could quit gymnastics tomorrow if they wanted to without regret. Imagine being crushed by an ever-increasing weight for eight to twelve years, and in one moment, having it released. The weight of expectation on such young women can be brutal.”

“Do you think it’s fair to put that kind of pressure on Shaye?”

“This is why I’m so sure she’ll win. Simone made it her quest to make sure Shaye knows that no amount of medals will change the way she’s loved. Shaye is very competitive, make no mistake, and she wants this more than anyone could imagine, but she understands it’s not her whole life.”

“Do you believe she’ll still think that the moment she steps into the gym with the Olympic rings on banners all over the walls and TV cameras following every toe point and breath?”

“I suppose we’ll find out.”

“Why did you agree to take Shaye on as a pupil when she was thirteen?”

“What do you mean?”

“From what I’ve read, she had a good reputation, but she hadn’t really done anything, and Simone could hardly afford to pay you enough for the kind of training she needed. Why do it?”

“To this day, I’m not sure. It was gut instinct. I knew she was a natural. When she was rehabbing her Achilles, she did a lot of swimming. On a whim, I clocked her fifty meter freestyle. Keep in mind, she’d only been swimming for a couple of months, and she’s shy of five feet tall.”

“What was her time?”

“A little over a second short of the high school state record. Same results for every other instance I timed her, and she didn’t know I was doing it. I just asked her to do some sprints. If she wanted to play softball or soccer or basketball, she’d have the same results. There’s nothing she can’t do with her body.”

“Do you want me to edit that so it sounds less pervy?”

“Ha ha,” Galya said. “You know what I meant. She wouldn’t have been happy running back and forth on a field or down a court, doing laps in the pool. She’s too much of a daredevil. She craves the adrenaline rush.”

“Sometimes people like that are described as suicidal,” Abby said, doing her best to sound objective.

“I don’t think Shaye ever had a death wish, but you have to understand her circumstances. Her mother died when she was two, her father basically ignored her growing up, and her sister was out of the house by the time she was old enough to remember. She didn’t want to die, but she wasn’t sure it mattered if she was alive or not. When she got hurt, she realized what she meant to her sister.”

“Why didn’t she become more cautious?”

“I imagine most children who are voluntarily given up by their parents wonder if the people they are given to would be better off without them. She’s determined to make herself a champion in order to pay the debt she feels she owes, and there can be no timidity in that quest.”

“If modern gymnastics is Shaye’s world, where does Trixie fit in?”

“Shaye may be a natural athlete, but Trixie is a natural gymnast. She was born graceful, with long, balletic lines and an inborn charisma that makes you want to watch her. Shaye might not have liked Texas, but the coaches there know what they’re doing, and so do I. If Trixie had access to the same kind of training Shaye did, it’s difficult to tell which one of them would be better at this point. Trixie has improved tremendously in the time we have been in Romania. If she moved to the states to train in Houston or with me, she might be able to surpass Shaye.”

“Do you want that to happen?”

“I would love the opportunity to train her, and I think she would have a more successful future if she came to America. But she deserves a chance to mend her family, if that’s possible.”

Abby smiled and turned off the camera. “You’re a good person, Galya. How’d you get to be such a nice coach after how you were trained?”

“Maybe I’m not as nice as you think.”

“Yeah. You are.”

The nurse entered the room. “Good news. You are all set to go.” She gave her antibacterial and scar cream for the cut on her lip and chin, pain medication for her head and back, and reminded her to drink plenty of fluids in order to keep her creatinine levels normal considering how hard she was kicked near the kidneys.

They took a cab back to the hotel, and Abby leaned gingerly against Galya as they slowly made their way to the elevator.

As soon as they stepped onto their hallway, they heard a commotion coming from the room. “Sounds like the girls are getting rowdy.”

Galya unlocked the door to the hotel room, and she was greeted with balloons, a cake, and a homemade banner that read ‘Welcome Back, Abby!’ The girls and Veronica cheered when she entered the room, which made her laugh. She’d spent about fourteen hours in the hospital. It wasn’t like she was returning from a foreign war.

Trixie was filming the scene in the corner, and Shaye jumped up and down on the bed excitedly. She backflipped onto the floor, making Abby gasp. Galya only rolled his eyes. Apparently he’d seen that trick before.

Before Abby could think of anything to say, there was a knock on the door. Galya opened it, and her heart sank when her father and Cruz entered the room.

As shocked and dispirited as she was to see them because she knew what was coming, she couldn’t help but feel a surge of joy that she was once again in the same room as Cruz. She’d been so busy in Romania she had not realized exactly how much she missed him until this very moment. He clutched her tighter than ever before, making it difficult to breathe, but she did not pull away even an inch. Cruz rested his cheek on top of her head and took a deep breath. Just as she hadn’t realized how much she missed him, she only now understood the sense of security that came as part of their relationship. She hadn’t felt scared or unsafe without him, but for the first time since leaving U.S. soil, she knew she would make it through the experience relatively unscathed. The others in the room must have been talking, but everything sounded like white noise, dull, vague background music to what was real in her life.

“What are you doing here?”

“You used your real name at the hospital. It popped up on your father’s radar about five minutes after the police were called.”

“Yet another reason why the guy who attacked me must pay.” She knew they would never figure out who assaulted her, but she felt the need to act like they would.

Naresh was wearing wrinkle free khakis and a black Polo shirt. His eyes squinted when he saw her face, but other than that, he showed no emotion. “Get your bags. We’re going home.”

Reluctantly, Cruz released her. She turned around, and he put his hands on her shoulders, careful with the arm in the sling. Abby could feel her face start to throb, and she wanted to go home. She wanted to be safe in her own bed, far away from this uncertainty, danger, and heartbreak, but she couldn’t give up now. She couldn’t fail Trixie, abandon Shaye, and quit on herself.

“It doesn’t feel as bad as it looks,” Abby said, trying to sound confident. The truth was it felt worse than it appeared. Even with the pain medication, her head was throbbing, her back ached in a way that made it difficult to stand or sit up straight, and her face was so stiff it was hard to talk. The orthopedic surgeon reset her shoulder, but it felt like Dr. Frankenstein was responsible for its reattachment.

“Tell me where you are in the investigation,” Naresh said.

She felt like that was a feint toward professional respect, so Abby gave him an abridged version of events, leaving out most of the details that would make him lose his mind. “At least it’s over now.”

“You’re right about one thing,” Naresh said. “It’s over.”

“I can’t leave, Dad. I finally have solid evidence, and I know what to do with it. I can go to the police once I get a confession.”

“Once you get a confession?” he repeated. “Someone beat the crap out of you to stop you from doing this. I can’t believe you’re being so reckless.”

“Excuse me, but I’m not a bored housewife who took up a crusade. This is real. Did you think I’ve been lounging on the beach for the last month?”

“We didn’t know what you were doing, that’s kind of the problem,” Cruz muttered.

“You’re on his side?”

“I’m on the side where you’re not getting assaulted in a foreign country and then putting yourself in more danger.”

“See, even Cruz thinks this is a bad idea,” Naresh said, as if that settled everything. At least now she knew why he brought her boyfriend.

“You’re the one who gave me the courage to do this in the first place,” she said, turning to face the man she thought would always have her back. “I’d been talking about doing this documentary for months, you knew where I was. If you wanted to stop me, you could have told my father where I’d gone the first time he asked, which was probably the day I left. But you didn’t, because you were supporting me, and that shouldn’t change now. I’m so close. I need you to believe I can do this.”

“I need you to be safe,” Cruz countered.

“Why are we discussing this? Abby, you’re coming home. This isn’t a debate,” her father said.

“If you try to make me go, if you force me, the second we get home, I am going to file kidnapping charges. International kidnapping. I don’t want to do it, but I will. Is that really something you want to deal with?”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Don’t mistake this for a bluff.”

“After all your mother and I have done to make sure you’re protected and taken care of, why would you do this to us?”

“I’m not doing anything to you, Dad. I’m doing something independent of you. Why can’t you understand that? I’m so appreciative of everything you’ve given me, I truly am, but you didn’t raise me to sit silently by while atrocities are being committed. I would let someone else handle this, but unfortunately there is no one else, so excuse me for not wanting to turn my back on a murdered little girl.”

For the most fleeting of moments, Naresh smiled, but it was gone almost as soon as it appeared. “Your mother didn’t come because I wouldn’t let her. I didn’t want her to see your face like this, and I’m glad she’s not here because you look like you’ve been hit with a cement block, and this would break her heart. You’re breaking your mother’s heart, right now. If you’re okay with that, go ahead and stay.”

“I’m sorry. But I’m staying.”

He nodded curtly and left without saying another word. It was that dismissive attitude that hurt the most, it hurt her every time. She turned to Cruz, and he shook his head. “He’s not wrong, you know.”

“Did you think I would quit at the first sign I might fail?”

“This isn’t a sign you might fail,” he shouted back at her. “This is a sign that someone might kill you if you keep it up.”

“I didn’t mean to scare you, but if they wanted me dead, the man who attacked me last night could have easily done it. This guy was a pro. The whole thing couldn’t have lasted more than ten seconds.”

“Thanks for making my point for me.”

“Telling the whole story is my only true insurance policy, not to mention Trixie’s. What if I don’t finish this thing? What will happen to her career? To her family? To the next child Evgeny Popescu is coaching when he loses his temper?”

“No offense, Trixie,” Cruz said, gesturing toward her before looking back at Abby, “but, babe, that isn’t your problem.”

“I can’t abandon them, and I can’t believe you just said that.”

“How do you think they’re going to feel if you get hurt again because you feel this crazy obligation?”

She was so close to ending the investigation, she could taste it. “I need you to support me on this, Cruz.”

“Support you putting yourself in danger?”

“If that’s what it takes, yes. Besides, the danger has passed.”

“Oh, really? Gee, I suppose it’s a good thing Popescu has never reacted with irrational violence when he’s gotten upset.”

“I’ll be careful. You should trust me.”

“Abby, you want to confront a man who murdered a little girl by beating her to death because he was having a bad day. What the hell do you think he’s going to do to you when he realizes what you know could put him in prison for the rest of his life?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t. But I don’t understand how you can stand there, knowing what I know, and think I would be able to live with myself if I don’t do everything I possibly can to make this bastard pay. It was always dangerous, it was always risky, but you’ve been so encouraging. What’s the difference now?”

“The difference is you have a welt on your face, a bruise on your head, and you can barely walk—”

“I’m fine.”

“It’s my job to protect you, and I couldn’t do it. And I can’t, not if you’re determined to continue down this path.”

“It’s not your job to protect me. It’s your job to love me, in all my idiotic splendor.”

“You’ve never been in a dangerous predicament before, you don’t know what you’re doing, so you need to listen to me and your father and do what I’m asking.”

There was a whistle from one of the people Abby forgot was in the room, and Shaye muttered, “Cruz, dude, you shanked it.”

“Good to know how you really feel. Thanks for sharing,” Abby said.

Now he spoke quietly. “Abby, if this happens again because you refused to heed this warning, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive you.”

She thought she was in pain before, but the emotional punch of his words gave her a jolt. “You won’t be able to forgive me?” she whispered.

“I can’t stand seeing you hurt. Looking at it right now makes me sick, physically sick. I’m sorry. I know you didn’t expect this, but now you do. Now you know what’s going to happen if you stick your head in the lion’s mouth, but you’re going to do it anyway.”

“That’s what lion tamers do.” She shrugged helplessly. “I honestly can’t believe you’re asking me to quit. If you’re worried, stay here with me. I don’t mind.”

“Have you been listening to a word I said?”

“Have you? If not, let me make it real clear. I’m finishing this. With you or without you.”

“Then I guess you made your decision.” Cruz threw up his hands in defeat and shook his head. He walked toward the door but stopped and turned around before placing his hand on the knob. “Abby, please, don’t make me do this.”

Her breath caught in her throat, but she held strong. “I’m not shoving you out the door, Cruz. I asked you to stay. You want to protect me?”

“Yes,” he said with earnestness.

“Then believe in me.”

“I love you. Why isn’t that enough?”

“I don’t know. But it isn’t.”

Cruz opened his mouth then shut it quickly. He stared at her for a brief moment, muttered, “Good luck,” and left, slamming the door behind him.