Translation of Love

My eyes flutter open. There are bright lights above me and I have to shut my eyes to allow them to adjust to the brightness of the room. My whole body is sore and I’m not sure if I can move even if I tried. I open my eyes again, trying to assess the situation. I hear a constant beeping sound coming from behind my bed. Slowly, I turn my neck and see that it’s a heart rate monitor. There’s a needle in my arm, that’s hooked up to an IV. I’m in a hospital room, but I don’t know how I got here. The last thing I remember is arguing with Brian. It was just like the last time. He was angry at me because I refused to get back together with him. The next thing I knew, he was hitting and kicking me. I tried to get away but I couldn’t and now I’m here. I attempt movement but a sharp pain slices through me. I shut my eyes tight and try to breathe through the pain. I turn my head to the right and gasp when I see Victor sitting in a chair with his head down, resting on his arms on my hospital bed. How did he get here? Why is he even here? Seeing him now hurts more than the bruises all over my body. My first thought is to get him the hell out of here. The sooner I get rid of him, the sooner I can move on with my life and try to forget that the last few months ever happened.

I shove Victor’s shoulder. My touch startles him and his head shoots up. His eyes are wide, he looks surprised to see me. I can tell he’s been here a while. His eyes are bloodshot and he looks disheveled. Seeing me awake brings a genuine smile to his face. It makes my heart skip a beat. I hate that I can’t just turn off my emotions.

“Hey, Babe, how are you feeling?” he asks, cautiously.

“Like I just got the shit beat out of me.” He flinches at my words. “What are you even doing here?” I try to sound annoyed, like his mere presence is nothing but an inconvenience.

“When you wouldn’t answer my calls, I couldn’t take it anymore. I hopped on a plane and came to see you. When I got there, that son of a bitch was kicking you. You were unconscious on the floor. I thought he killed you.” His eyes start to water. “I pulled him off of you and started beating the shit out of him. I would have killed him if your dad and Gavin didn’t show up. They were coming to check on you. They pulled me off of him and called 911. You’ve been unconscious for almost 36 hours.”

“You beat Brian up?” It’s funny that’s all I can process from that story.

“He’s in this hospital somewhere,” he says, grabbing my hand. I pull away from him quickly, the movement causing a sharp pain to surge through me. “Shit, Babe, you’re in pain. Let me call the nurse,” he says, getting up and pressing the call button on the bed.

“I want you to go, Victor. Just go and leave me the hell alone.”

“I’m not going anywhere until you hear me out. I know you’re in pain but there are things you need to know.” He’s trying to remain calm but there’s a hint of desperation in his voice.

“I know everything that I need to know. Just please go.” He shakes his head at me.

We’re at a stalemate, my mouth is telling him to go but the rest of me wants him to stay. I hate myself for still wanting him after everything that’s happened but a part of me wants to hear him out. A part of me wants to believe that there’s more to this story than meets the eye. Victor’s mom worked with Brian to break us up. Is it too much to think that maybe she did other things?

The nurse walks in before I can say anything. “Well it’s nice to see you awake.” The first thing I notice is that she’s super tall and thin, with kind, dark eyes. “I’m your nurse, Wendy. How are you feeling?” she questions as she checks my vitals.

“I’m really sore. My mouth is dry.” Victor gets up and pours me a glass of water. The nurse gives him a smile and adjusts the bed so that I’m able to drink.

“Your vitals are good, sweetheart. I’ll get you something for the pain and call the doctor.”

“Thank you.” She gives me a smile and leaves me alone with Victor. “Where’s my family?”

“Jordan and Alex just left. They went to your house to straighten up and get you some clothes. Your dad and Gavin are in the cafeteria and Gemma is at a friend’s house. They didn’t want her to see you like this.”

I nod. I don’t want her to see me like this either. “Do you want to say what it is you came to say so that you can leave?”

“I’m not leaving, I told you from the beginning I wasn’t gonna let you go that easy I meant it.”

I want to argue but the truth is, deep down I want him to fight me, to break me down and get me back to that place where I’m happy again. I hear movement, and look to the doorway to see Dad and Gavin. Their faces are hard, angry. They look like they haven’t slept in days.

“Hey, guys.” I manage to get out. There are no pleasantries exchanged. They’re pissed off and it shows. Gavin sits down but says nothing, just runs his hand through his messy hair. Dad walks over to me, placing a kiss on my forehead. He stands up straight and with determination in his voice finally speaks to me. “You will not let him get away with it this time, do you understand me, Elizabeth?” He never calls me Elizabeth, just kiddo or Elle. “You let him walk last time but this time I f*cking forbid it! You will talk to the police. That motherf*cker will never touch you again.”

“Okay, Dad.” I have no intention of letting Brian get away with what he’s done, not again.

“Good. I’ll make sure an officer comes in to talk to you today. The sooner the better.”

Nurse Wendy returns carrying a small cup with what I can only assume are pain meds. “Why don’t you all go and let her get some rest. You can sit in the waiting room.”

Dad nods at her, Gavin gets up to leave. Victor does not budge. He squares his shoulders and looks Nurse Wendy in the eyes. “I’m not going anywhere.”

I hear Dad and Gavin chuckle, apparently they’re not so mad at Victor. “We’ll be in the waiting room,” Dad says before he and Gavin walk out.

Nurse Wendy makes no further attempts to kick Victor out. I think she likes him. “Here you go, sweetheart, this will help with the pain.” I take the cup from her and swallow the pills. “Good, the doctor will be in a little later. Just press the call button if you need me.”

When she leaves, I rest my head back against the pillow and Victor pulls his chair closer to the bed. We stare at each other for a while, neither one of us sure of what to say next. Reluctantly, Victor pushes the hair out of my face. I close my eyes when he touches me. It’s an attempt to keep the tears at bay. “I know you think I betrayed you, Love, but I didn’t. When you’re ready, I’ll tell you everything that you need to know.” A single tear escapes from my eyes and trails down my cheek. Victor wipes it away. I open my eyes to look at him and I swear I can see something in his eyes that makes me want to believe that there’s truth in his words. “You may not believe me, but I love you so much, I promise it’ll all make sense to you.”

“I just want to sleep,” I say, too weak to hear anything else. I’m not ready for his words, for explanations. I just want to close my eyes and shut out the world even if just for a little while longer.

The sound of voices wakes me up. “Her vitals are good, she has a concussion, and several bruised ribs. All in all, she was very lucky. We’ll keep her on pain medication but injuries like these take time to heal.”

“When can I take her home?” I recognize Victor’s voice.

“We’ll keep her one more night. You can take her home in the morning.”

“Thanks, Doctor.” I hear the shuffling of feet and I know that I’m alone with Victor again. I choose to keep my eyes closed and attempt to go back to sleep, but before I can doze off, I hear a phone ringing.

“What?” he sounds pissed. “She’s alive, no thanks to you.” I’ve never heard him so angry. “No. I don’t want you here. It doesn’t matter that you’re sorry, it’s too late. I don’t think I can ever forgive you for this.” I hear a beep signaling that his call is over.

“She okay?” It’s my dad.

“Yeah, she’s been asleep for a while. The doctor came in, says she can go home tomorrow.” I can feel his arms rest on the mattress, as he sits down next to me.

“We can take care of her when she gets home if you need to get back to work.”

“I’ll take care of her. I’m not leaving her.” Victor sounds determined. He’s not letting anyone try and get rid of him.

“Good. An officer should be by soon to take her statement. I’ll be in the waiting room if she needs me.”

I must have dozed off again, the sound of Victor calling my name wakes me up. My eyes flutter open. “Hey, Baby. Detective Andrews is here to talk to you.” I nod my head, and try to sit up but I can’t. It hurts to breathe. “No, don’t try to move. I’ll help you,” he says, slowly moving the bed to a semi seated position.

Detective Andrews is okay. He asks me a few questions and sits patiently and listens while I tell him what happened with Brian. It’s hard to get through the story but Victor holds my hand through the entire thing. I steal glances at him while I speak. I can see the anger in his eyes when I describe how Brian slapped, then punched me in the face. The detective asks Victor a couple of questions as well. Victor describes how he found me and how he thought I was dead when he pulled Brian off of me.

“You beat him pretty badly.” The detective says to Victor. “Though, I can’t say he didn’t deserve it. I think I have everything I need for now. I’ll be in touch.” He pulls out a card and hands it to Victor. “Give me a call if either of you think of anything else.” With that, Detective Andrews is gone.

“Are you hungry? They brought your dinner tray in while you were sleeping. It’s just soup but there’s a microwave across the hall, I can heat it up for you.”

“That would be good, thanks.”

He smiles at me and picks up the cup of soup. “I’ll be right back.”

Moments later, Jordan enters the room carrying a shopping bag and one of my gym bags. She takes one look at me and bursts into sobs. “Oh my God, sweetie, I’m so glad you’re okay. You scared the shit out of me.” She sets the bags down, takes the seat closest to the bed and grabs my hand.

“I’m alright, Jordan, just a little sore,” I say, trying to comfort her.

“Thank God Victor got there when he did, Elle. It could have been so much worse.”

“Don’t cry, it’s over now. I’m okay and I just gave my statement to the police. Brian isn’t gonna get away with this.”

“I know. I brought you a change of clothes. I saw Victor in the hall and he said you’re going home tomorrow. That’s great news.” I nod in agreement. “He hasn’t left your side, not once. We’ve been bringing him food from the cafeteria. Alex and I just came from the mall. We bought him some clothes so that he could shower here.”

“Yeah, he hasn’t let anyone kick him out, not even me.”

“Have you gotten a chance to talk?”

“Not yet.”

“When you finally do, just listen to him first, okay?”

As if on cue, Victor comes back in. Jordan and I both look at him. He smiles. “Why are you two staring at me?”

“Were we staring?” Jordan turns back to me. “I’m gonna let you eat dinner. I’ll drop by to see you after you get settled back at home.” She gets up and kisses me on the forehead.

“Thanks, Jordan,” I say.

“You’re welcome.”

Victor helps me sit up further and slides the tray table over the bed. On the tray is the cup of soup Victor heated up, some crackers, Jello, hot tea and apple juice. He chuckles. “What can I say, it’s hospital food. I’ll make sure you have a much better selection at home.”

“No, this is fine, thanks.”

“Okay, you eat that. I’m gonna take a shower in the fabulous shower you’ve got in there.”

I let my eyes roam over him from head to toe. “Yeah, sounds like a good idea.”

He laughs. “Alright, smartass, I’ll be back.” He picks up the shopping bag that Jordan left behind and goes to the bathroom. I focus my attention on eating my meal, thankful to have something warm in my stomach.

“Where’s Victor?” I look up from my tray to see Gavin leaning against the doorframe.

“He’s in the shower.” He pushes off the doorway and enters the room, sitting down next to me.

“I just wanted to check on you before Dad and I leave.”

“I’m okay.”

“I shouldn’t have left you. I was there and I left.” I can see the guilt in his eyes.

I reach out and take his hand. “Hey, you had no way of knowing. I’m the idiot that answered the door in the first place. I just assumed it was Victor coming after me, I didn’t even bother to check the peephole.”

“Victor’s a good man, Elle. Give him a chance.”

“I’m not making any promises but I’ll hear him out. That’s all I can agree to right now.”

“Good enough,” he says, releasing my hand and getting up. “I’ll drop by the house to check on you tomorrow.”

“Okay, go home and get some rest.”

I’m finishing up my Jello when Victor strolls out of the bathroom in dark grey sweatpants and a black t-shirt. My pulse quickens at the sight of him, looking completely refreshed and just plain hot.

“You just missed Gavin,” I say trying to ignore the reaction that my body is having to him. “He and Dad are leaving. He said they’d drop by the house tomorrow.”

“Good. How was your dinner?”

“Strangely enough, it wasn’t so bad.”

He pulls the table so that it’s out of my way. “Your pain meds should be coming soon. You wanna lay down?”

“Yes,” I reply softly. He’s being so good to me. It’s hard to stay angry with him when all I really want to do is let him hold me. He helps me get comfortable and sits down next to me.

“It’s time for you to hear me out, Babe. I’ve let this go all day, let you get your rest but now it’s time for you to listen.” I take a breath and nod my agreement. It’s time to get this over with and hear what he has to say.

“Everything that has happened in the last few days was an attempt to break us up. I think if you really look back at everything that happened, you’ll see that we were set up.”

Can I really believe what he’s saying? That someone would be that malicious just to break us up? It hits me at that very moment what he’s referring to. “Your mom?”

He runs a hand through his hair and nods. “She’s been plotting since she met you. Since she found out I was retiring and she blamed you.”

“Brian told me that she contacted him, trying to get information on me. He said that she paid him for the video.”

“Yes. She ran a background check on you and found Brian through an old rental agreement from when he lived with you. She paid him for the video and once she had it she waited till we were together in Miami to show it to us. She wanted to humiliate you, hoping that you would be embarrassed enough to leave and that I would be mad enough to break up with you.”

That does make sense. It coincides with what Brian told me, but it doesn’t account for the rest of it. “All of that may be true, Victor, but what about Christina?”

“Well you can imagine that when we didn’t break up after I saw the video, my mom was less than thrilled. She called in for reinforcements. She used the record company’s jet to fly Christina down to Miami. She knew that you and I would be out most of the morning looking at houses. She knew she needed to separate us so she called me, asking me to have you meet her for lunch, extend an olive branch.”

“Yeah, a lunch where she called me a whore and offered me two million dollars to get out of your life.”

His whole body goes stiff, his eyes wide. “She did what?”

“She always assumed I was a gold digger. I guess she thought I’d be more than happy to leave you for the right price. I told her no, in case you were wondering.”

I can see the pain in his eyes. “I know you would never do that. I’ve never doubted you,” he says, grabbing my hand. He takes a breath and begins again. “While we were looking at houses that morning, my mom had someone come into our room and plant a small camera over the bed. Because she’s my manager, she was able to get an extra key to our room, which she later passed on to Christina. After you left to go meet her, I took a nap like I told you. Christina was watching the feed, she knew you were gone and she knew that I was asleep. Mom called her when you were on your way back to the hotel. Once that happened, Christina let herself into the room, and hid out in the bathroom until you came back. You know the rest.”

It sounds unreal but after meeting his mother, I believe that he’s telling the truth. “How could they do that? How could they be so cruel?”

“I don’t know, Babe. I still can’t believe it myself. Anyway, once my mom got word that you left, she called Brian. She let him know that you were headed back home and that we were over. I think she was trying to put the idea in his head that you were single again and maybe he’d try to get you back. I don’t know, but whatever her reasoning, it landed you here.”

“I don’t know what to say.” My eyes are stinging with unshed tears.

Victor gets up and sits on the edge of the bed. He cups my bruised face in his hands. “Say that you believe me. Say that you know I would never do anything to hurt you, that I would never betray you like that. Say that you believe me when I tell you that I love you, Babe. Say that you forgive me.”

I take a breath, tears now streaming down my face. “What is there to forgive? You didn’t do anything wrong? I believe you, it all makes sense. I had a bad feeling when your mom asked me to lunch but I went anyway because I wanted to make things better for you. I was hoping that she was genuinely trying, but as soon as I got there I realized that wasn’t the case. I should have trusted my instincts.”

He wipes the tears away. “I guess none of it matters now. What’s done is done.”

“Is it always gonna be like this if we stay together?”

He lets go of my face and picks up my hand again. “Not if. We are staying together, and no, it won’t always be like this. I fired my mother as my manager. Alex is taking over for the remainder of the promotional and concert tour. I don’t know if I will ever forgive her for all that she’s done, but even if I do, you’ll never have to see her again if you don’t want to.”

“I can’t think about that right now. Right now, all I wanna do is move on.”

“I’m okay with moving on as long as we do it together. I promise you that I will never let anyone hurt you again, Babe.”

Victor keeps telling me that he won’t let me go that easily and I finally realize that those words are a promise, a promise that he always intends to keep. He’s a fighter, always willing to battle on, to make sure that we come out together at the other end. Even though he’s had to battle several people to make sure that we stay together, it hits me that the biggest threat to this relationship has always been me. Me and my inability to believe in a happy ending, always expecting him to let me down or hurt me. The whole time I was allowing myself to experience a relationship with Victor, I never allowed myself to think in terms of the future. I would only let myself think of the here and now with no regard to the possibility of a real life with him.

“I want us to figure it out together. I should have stayed and listened to you, instead of running away yet again. I swear that I’ll never do that again. I love you.”

“I didn’t think I’d ever hear you say that again. I love you too, Babe.” He leans over and places a gentle kiss on my lips, careful not to hurt me.

“When I woke up and saw that you were here, deep down, I was really happy.”

“There’s no where else I would be. Now go to sleep.”

“Demanding as ever. What about you? Where are you gonna sleep?”

“This chair pulls out into something that resembles a bed.”

I giggle but have to stop because it hurts. “You can go and come back in the morning.”

“You’re in pain?” He stands up presses the call button for the nurse. “I’m staying here.” There’s no point in arguing with him. I know he’s not going anywhere and I really don’t want him to. Having him here makes me feel like I’m protected. The night nurse comes in and gives me some pain medication while Victor gets his makeshift bed ready. I’m able to sleep peacefully with the knowledge that this nightmare is coming to an end and when tomorrow comes, Victor and I will be together.