V & V (wlw)

Chapter 21 - The one with the secrets

A little while prior from now, a different person, with a different problem, boarded a different plane that took them to the same place Veronika was going.

So it was with surprise that opened up the door to her mother's house, to find Benjamin in the living room couch cradling a steaming mug. The pot of coffee was still on the table.

"Hello," he said, and lifted his mug to her.

"Hello," said Ron, stepping inside, and – before he could – asked, "What brings you here?"

It was unfair to call children problems. Ron was a child once, and she knew she wouldn't have liked being called a problem. At any rate, her littler cousin Christina came running in from the kitchen, and it was clear that this was the source of Ben's problem. But the way he looked at her explained it to Ron.

It was like eating peanut butter – Ron didn't eat peanut butter purely out of preference, but she understood why other people did. She also felt this way about having children.

"That's your niece," said Ben, confirming it.

She dropped her stuff by the side of the couch and flopped down next to him. Her niece Christina came to hide behind her dad's knee and peered up at her.

"Hello," said the child, shyly, in the way often-ignored children do.

And so Ron said hello back, and Ben picked his daughter up into his lap as he explained, "I've had enough of home."

Christina curled up for all but a few minutes before she clambered back onto the floor and ran into the kitchen. Ben smiled at his kid, terrible and bittersweet.

Veron had seen firsthand how her aunt and uncle treated the two, realizing that the argument she and Vic had eavesdropped in was probably about that. But recalling it made her think of Victoria, so she elected not to.

"Did you have trouble getting here?"

"Not at all. The years I spent neglecting my daughter counted for something, at least." Ron would come to find out he had moved on a work visa and planned to make it permanent.

"It was nice of Aunt Jan to put us up for a while. We have an apartment ready, but she insisted we stay for a bit."

Summoned, Janice poked her head out into the living room, saw Ron, and shrieked. "Veronika! What are you doing here?"

Ron went to embrace her mother, ignoring the question. "I'm visiting."

"Without telling us?"

Ron would have, but her phone rang with Victoria's calls that she had turned it off entirely. She did write an email for her mother, but didn't send it. Who emails their parents?

"It's supposed to be a surprise."

"We're glad to have you here. Where's Victoria?"

Ron tried not to make her face freeze. "Home, she's busy. And anyway a little time apart isn't so bad."

"Bring her next time," said Ruth, emerging from the kitchen with a mug for her. Ron poured herself coffee and drank it to stop her from speaking.

Afterward, when they were washing up the dishes – of course Jan had told them not to bother, and of course they had ignored her – Ben had hesitated a breath, exhaled, and inhaled in trepidation again.

Even Veronika was perceptive enough to notice when someone wanted an invitation. She said, trying not to sound morbidly curious, "So, Christina's mother..."

She trailed off on purpose, but Ben either didn't notice or care. He stared into the dishwater, transported. "College girlfriend. I loved her.

"I was still in school when she was born. She didn't make it." To Ron's horror – and she did feel guilty about it - Ben started crying. She put a hand square on his back and made soothing gestures, hoping he didn't notice she got soap on his shirt.

Ron let him cry with no interruption, because she figured he needed it. She gave him her handkerchief when he began properly sobbing, and held him around the shoulders. After a while, he could speak again.

"My parents wanted to raise Christina as their own, and I was content to let that happen. But I didn't want her growing up with them, so we left."

His lower lip trembled, like a young boy seized with terrible child grief, and he pulled her into a hug. "Thanks for listening to me. I didn't know if I was ready to talk about it. I'm glad you have Vic. It's lonely not having a partner when you miss having the one."

They both knew he meant he missed his girlfriend, but they dropped it when Christina ran into the kitchen and Ben scooped her up in his arms.

With Ben and Christina staying in her old room, she was relegated to sleeping on the couch. Ron tossed and turned in the cramped sofa, and finally gave up and settled on the floor instead.

Just as she had found a comfortable position, she heard footsteps down the stairs.

"Ron?" said Ruth, and Ron screwed her eyes shut and pretended to be asleep.

She heard rustling as Ruth crept up on the sofa, found her on the floor, and came nearer. "Are you awake?"

Ron lay perfectly still, breaths deep and even in imitation of sleep. Ruth blew a sharp gust of breath right onto her face, and her eyelids flinched.

"So you are awake," said Ruth, smug.

"You are a child," hissed Ron, as Ruth planted herself right on the floor beside her.

"Yeah yeah. Why are you here?"

"I wasn't going to make Christina and Ben sleep on the couch."

Ruth waved a hand, batting away her deflection. "What happened with Victoria?"

"Nothing," she said, which was the thing people say when something absolutely happened. But it rolled off the tongue so easily.

"I know you miss us," said her sister, "But you wouldn't have left Vic just like that. What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Partly because she didn't have it in her to explain the contract and the wedding, but also because the betrayal was still fresh. And it was betrayal, because it hurt her and surely that made it real. Didn't it?

Ruth was quiet for a while, and then, voice tremulous, "Did she hurt you?"

"No," she said, sharp. "Nothing like that. She's never raised a hand at me."

"She had better not."

"No. It's complicated," Ron said, earning her a tsk from her sister. "If she contacts you, just don't answer."

"Are you sure–"

"Yes, Ruth, I don't want to talk about it. I need to sleep." She turned on the uncomfortable floor and snuggled under the blanket. Ron could feel her sister watching the back of her head for a while. Then Ruth poked her cheek and retreated upstairs before Ron could snap at her.