Milan's Return

by Grae Lily

  She waited for him to hand her a business card, but he didn't have one, so he wrote a number down on a scratch piece of paper and handed it to her. When she turned around, she was surprised to find Sarah standing on the stairs watching her.

  "What are you doing, Johanna? Who was that?" Sarah asked, disappointment in her eyes.

  Johanna pointed to the door. "You mean that guy? No one important. Don't worry. I got rid of him. It's not like we don't have enough people snooping around here, right?" She hated having to lie to Sarah, but she believed that Milan would thank her some day for taking charge and reclaiming what was rightfully his.

  Sarah studied Johanna's face for a moment. Johanna could see her struggle to believe her, but whatever doubts she had, she ignored for the time being, and Johanna couldn't have more relieved.

  "Fine. Thank you, Johanna. Now, I was wondering if you would mind helping me in the kitchen? There's so many items that need to be taken out of the cabinets and the pantry. I just can't find my way out."

  "No problem." Johanna answered, anxious to get as far away from the realtor as possible before he decided to come back and ask more questions.

  In the kitchen, Sarah had all the drawers and cabinets open. She pointed to the areas of the kitchen that needed to be addressed and dove right back into what she was doing.

  Over the next forty-five minutes, the two women managed to tackle several of the cabinets, but still had so much more that required their attention.

  Johanna slumped into a kitchen chair, exhausted from the repetitive twisting and turning she'd been doing.

  "Sarah, sit down and take a break. Aren't you exhausted? This place looks like it was just abandoned as is. Why did he just take off, if he was innocent?" Johanna felt like she'd been working her fingers to the bone, but for every room they cleared, there were two more that required work.

  "This is only the beginning. After we get it cleared out, Milan has a team of contractors that will come in and begin the real work." Sarah reminded her.

  "Then, what? Get rid of it just like that and go on like this place never existed?" Johanna had grown weary of hiding her frustration. The whole ordeal seemed so unfair and wrong.

  Sarah couldn't hold her tongue any longer. She'd put her relationship with Milan on the line for this young woman without knowing who she was or where she was from and it was high time she put the young woman in her place.

  "Do I need to remind you who is in charge here? Milan owns this home. He gets to make the decisions. Our job is to clean the house and prepare it to sell, not to do what we think is right. Why do you care so much about this house anyway? What does it matter to you?" Sarah watched as Johanna cringed at her words.

  Tears welled in her eyes, Johanna hoped it wouldn't come to this. Admitting why the home appealed to her so much seemed so trivial compared to all that was taking place. It felt selfish and juvenile.

  After wrestling with how to say what she felt, Johanna started, "This is going to sound horrible and I apologize for that. This thing... This home is more than just a place to rest your head for me." The tears began to spill down her cheeks. "This is something not everyone gets in their lifetime. I waited my whole life to have someplace to call home and to have a chance at a family, a real family. I guess, when I first saw this place, it felt like a home, a real home and it had a family. When I heard the stories of how much Milan had when he was growing up, I guess it made me think about all the stuff I never got to have."

  Sarah watched her as she spoke. Johanna's pain was palpable. She knew she was looking at a girl who had had everything in life taken away from her. She understood that because, although Johanna couldn't yet see it, her plight and Milan's plight were not very different from each other.

  "Whatever you've been through in life shouldn't have an impact on how you conduct yourself here. This is a job, not your second chance at the life you think you needed. I'm sorry that things were difficult for you when you were growing up, but this isn't the time nor the place to try and reconcile with that part of your life. Right now, you need to make a decision and make it fast because from where I'm standing, all you're doing is making this more difficult for Milan."

  "That's not what I meant to do. I didn't come here to defy orders. I just wanted a job. I wanted a chance to start all over again, you know?" Johanna wiped the tears from her face.

  Sarah let what Johanna had just said sink in for a moment. She hoped Johanna would see the connection between what she was seeking and what Milan needed most in the world.

  Johanna's mind floated back to all that she'd lost in her lifetime. Making the connection would take some time. She still had too many of her own demons to face and many new, better plans to pursue. She just hoped it was for the right reasons and that her efforts would be worth the risks involved.

  Sarah asked, "Now, tell me, who was that at the door?"

  Johanna bit her lip, not yet ready to explain what she'd done and why. She knew her best option was to change the subject, so she asked, “Why did the Sheriff and his men leave? Is the investigation over?”

  Sarah looked away. The two women sat silently looking over the work they'd done, opting not to speak for several minutes. Johanna focused her attention on the window overlooking the back yard and the tunnel.

  In the short amount of time she'd been at Merced Manor, she hadn't had the opportunity to explore the tunnel. Having the police there didn't exactly afford her any opportunity to venture outside and see what it was that had everyone in the county so spooked and so ready to hang Milan for.

  Sarah glanced out the window too, wanting to warn Johanna to stay as far away from the tunnel she so despised. No one had business near that dreadful tunnel and the creek that had led too many people to their deaths.

  While Sarah didn't believe the stories of the tunnel being inhabited by evil spirits or ghosts, she did believe that there was something about it that made people feel they could do the unthinkable out of the view of neighbors or society at large.

  Johanna noticed that Sarah was watching her. She could tell from the look in Sarah's eyes that she too feared the tunnel.

  Sarah finally broke the silence. "There are some things that I'd like you to take down to the cellar for me. This old back and my arthritic knees can't handle those steep stairs."

  Johanna readily agreed, anxious for some alone time to sort out her feelings. "What do you want me to take down there?"

  Sarah stood up and walked out of the room, not saying a word. Johanna shook her head, believing that Sarah had finally had enough of her.

  "Great. Guess I'll have to figure that out by myself too." Johanna sighed.

  The cellar door resisted Johanna's many attempts to open it. It creaked and squealed, fighting as if opening it would unleash something deadly.

  She was dripping sweat after several minutes of pulling, tugging, and yanking with all of the strength her tired muscles could spare, but the doors would not open.

  "Here." The sound of Sarah's voice sent Johanna hurling against the cellar doors.

  "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you, Johanna. Here's what I need you to put in there." Sarah held a box in her hand.

  "You scared me. Everything has me so jumpy these days." Johanna stood up, wiping the dirt from her hands and clothing.

  "There's a key for the doors. If you would have waited a moment, I would have given you the key." Sarah placed the box down on the ground and pulled a key out of her pocket to show Johanna.

  "There's a key?" Looking at the doors, Johanna asked, "Where do you see a lock?"

  Sarah grinned and lifted a stone from the rubble. Underneath was a small door with a lock. "Right here. It's hidden for security reasons."

  "Security reasons? Why? What's in there?" Johanna asked, watching Sarah unlock the doors. The doors opened with ease.

  Johanna peeked into the dark, cavernous space, seeing a set of stairs that led down.

  "You want me to go in there?" Johanna asked, but it was too l
ate. Sarah was already walking back to the other side of the manor.

  "Why does she keep walking away," Johanna muttered, looking down at the cellar. I hate cellars."

  "Okay, if I'm going to do this, I'm only going to make one trip and then I'm out of there." Johanna lifted the box and started a slow descent down the creaking, wooden stairs.

  Unlike the attic, the cellar had lights. The string from an overhead light hit her face the second she got to the bottom of the stairs, sending her heart racing.

  The dim light exposed a small space lined with boxes of all sizes, each labeled with a year on it.

  Curiosity got the better of her, Johanna wondered why the contents of these boxes were deemed more important than all of the other items in the house.

  She knew it was wrong to look. She wouldn't want someone going through her most private possessions, but there were so many secrets being kept from her, so many being kept from everyone, she felt compelled to look inside and see if there was anything that could help her figure out why.

  *

  "You're back. How did things go?" Sarah asked Milan.

  "Fine. Did the realtor, stop by?" Milan asked, looking around for any sign of Johanna.

  He hadn't mentioned it to anyone, but he'd hired an investigator to look into Johanna's background, just to be sure she didn't have some strange connection to any of the controversy surrounding the manor.

  Knowing what he knows now, he was feeling ashamed of himself for being so mistrusting of her. What he'd learned about her upbringing saddened him. He felt guilty for having been so short and mean to her.

  Sarah bit her lip, realizing that the person who had come to the door earlier must have been the realtor.

  Angered because Johanna had blatantly lied to her, Sarah chose to protect Milan from the truth until she'd had a conversation with her first.

  "No one has been here today. What happened in Nashville?" Sarah thought a distraction would help him to forget that he'd asked.

  Milan had secrets of his own. He didn't want Sarah to know that he'd hired someone to look into Johanna's background. He knew how disappointed in him Sarah would be, if she found out the truth. He said the first thing that came to mind. "I went to speak to my attorney about all that has happened as of late. Not to worry though, he made it perfectly clear that all will be fine here. As soon as we are ready and the contractors have done their part, I can be on my way back to California." Milan hated lying to her, especially where it concerned anything that would impact not only him but her as well. He knew that she'd grown fond of Johanna in the short amount of time that they'd known each other and he hoped that she would understand how imperative it was that he find out exactly what people may or may not have been up to.

  "Good, then, when will the construction start?" Sarah asked, trying to mask her disappointment that he was going to actually go through with the sale of the property.

  Milan looked around. Although the living room had been cleared of all non-essentials and the kitchen was in the process of being emptied out, there was still much work to be done. He'd taken the time to make a chore list for himself and the two women, but thinking about it now, he had to admit that his time line was completely off and, truth be told, they'd probably still be cleaning for the next few weeks.

  "I've hired Jeb and Rob Sanders to handle the remodeling. In fact, they should be here sometime this week to take a look around and give me some estimates. I also hired a team of landscapers from Nashville to help make the garden presentable again and get rid of that tree." Milan was glad he'd taken care of some of the details earlier because he was beginning to lose his resolve. This town had reared its ugly head again and, this time, he wasn't sure he'd be able to recover.

  "The Sanders men? Really? Well, I'm glad that they agreed to come back." Sarah's eyes were wide.

  "What does that mean? You sound surprised." Milan asked, trying to sound as if there was nothing extraordinary about inviting them back to the manor.

  She gave him a knowing look, reminding him of a past incident with Jeb Sanders and his son, Rob. "I thought after the incident with Paulina that you never wanted to see Rob again? Why the sudden change of heart? I know how anxious you are to return to California, but is this really a good idea? I don't want to have to separate you two."

  Milan shrugged. "Sure. It will be fine. That was a long time ago. Anyway, they were the only ones I could find that could take the job on such short notice. Don't worry." He patted her arm and walked away.

  "I hope so." Sarah whispered, watching as he walked away. She sensed that he was up to something. His whole life he'd always done the same thing when he was trying to hide something. His right eyebrow would quirk up when he wasn't being truthful and she noticed that again now when he told her about what he was doing in Nashville.

  Milan called down the stairs, "Where's Johanna?"

  "She's around here someplace." Sarah hadn't yet told Milan about the things she'd hidden in the cellar. He didn't like the cellar and never went in there, so it seemed like the only logical place to place the things she thought he'd one day be grateful that she saved. Every item in the cellar belonged to Paulina. Everything from her baptismal gown to her wedding gown was stored down there. She didn't see any point in discarding everything as if she'd never existed. She saw no harm in keeping some of the items that he'd stored in the attic.

  Having known Paulina, Sarah knew how much she treasured the few possessions she'd brought back from Spain with her. She wasn't like Milan. Her family wasn't wealthy. They survived on the small pittance they were paid performing for others.

  When Paulina met and fell in love with Milan, his lifestyle seemed like a dream to her. He'd never wanted for anything, while her family would spend years saving for necessities. Their upbringings couldn't have been more opposite, but the love they shared was stronger than anything either had ever known. They were meant for each other.

  Keeping Paulina's most prized possessions was the only logical thing to do. Sarah didn't mean any ill will and didn't want the cellar to represent anything painful for Milan. She hoped that one day, when some of the pain had dissipated and the anger was long gone that he would find comfort in knowing that Sarah cared enough about him to have kept a piece of the life his beloved Paulina had led.

  "Well, when you find her, tell her I'd like to speak with her, please. Remind me to call that realtor and see what happened to him. I was hoping he'd drop off some information for me. He said he'd bring comps. I really don't want to waste any more time on this." Milan explained.

  "Of course not. Take a few minutes to relax. I'll make you something to eat, then, you can worry about all the other stuff, okay?" Sarah hoped that he would remain upstairs for a bit while she went to check on Johanna. It had been over thirty minutes since she'd left her out by the cellar.

  *

  Johanna turned her head, her tear stained face startling Sarah.

  "Did you know?" Johanna asked.

  Sarah shook her head, visibly shaking, she fought to control her trembling hands. "No, I didn't. I... I had no idea at the time.”

  "Why are shaking? Did you see these? Is that why they are down here? Does Milan know?" Johanna fought to stand up, clutching them in her arms.

  Sarah stood in front of Johanna, her nostrils flaring. "You can't tell him. Not now!"

  Chapter Twelve

  “Yes, this is Milan. I was wondering if you could run another background check for me. I'm thinking of hiring someone on at the firm and just want to make sure everything is clear.” He listened for a moment before continuing, “Yes, go back as far as you can. If I'm going to have someone on my team, I need to know everything: where they're from, who they've worked for, where they went to school, who they were involved with, everything. Call me as soon as you find something and email everything. Understood? Good.” He hung up the phone, breathing a sigh of relief. Someone he trusted would now put the pieces together for him and he could prove one way or another exactly
what his motivations were and why he'd murdered his wife.

  "Another one," Lou, Milan's Private Investigator and longtime friend asked. "What is going on? Is your company expanding?"

  "Something like that." Milan answered, hoping that would be sufficient enough for now. He hated lying to yet another person about what he was doing, but he felt the fewer people that knew, the better for him.

  Someone was responsible for Paulina's death and for all that had happened since then and Milan couldn't let another day go by without ascertaining exactly who it was and finally bringing them to justice. Paulina had never done anything to anyone in her lifetime. There was no logical reason for anyone to have wanted to bring any harm to her. He'd always suspected that what happened to her was a personal attack aimed at him and they took the most precious person in his life from him. Milan wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't find the sick person that took her from him.