Úrsula arrives at nine and her teary eyes betrays her emotions at seeing all that we were able to do in record time, the outside buffet under glowing colorful lights, wildflowers and torches marking an illuminated path to the improvised altar, an old table decorated with flowers and candlesticks. The tables set around the balloon-filled pool.
Úrsula hugs us, a wide smile on her face and I tease her, asking her to twirl to show how elegant she looks. She’s wearing tailored white pants, with a white shirt and blazer, no shoes. Dressed up but barefoot.
"You look gorgeous, Ursa. Stylish as shit."
"Thank you, Kau. You don't think Luiza is taking too long?"
"Relax. Are you afraid she'll change her mind and run away?" She laughs and nods.
"Yeah, something like that. Keep making fun of me. In no time at all it will be my turn to tease you. I bet you'll be a wreck in yours and Anahí's wedding day."
Anahí and Magali are both wearing light, breezy dresses. Anahí with a knee-length, light-blue dress that has a slight cleavage, and Magali wearing a yellow long one, that favors the creamy brown tone of her skin. The two greet Úrsula, letting her know that Luiza has arrived.
"Úrsula, get to the altar. Luiza just got here.”
Úrsula walks slowly down the path, greeting the guests with a nod, and as soon as she gets to the table, shakes the justice of the peace’s hand. Two of Úrsula's friends play All Star by Nando Reis on the acoustic guitar, and Luiza appears wearing a white lace knee-length dress and a pair of blue All Stars.
It would be weird if I didn't fall in love with you
The salt would become sweet with new lips
Columbus searched for the Indies
But he saw land in you
The sound I hear is from the slangs in your voccabulary
It's weird that I like your blue All-Star shoes so much
It's weird to think that Laranjeiras
Smiles satisfied when I get there
And get into the elevator
I push the button of the 12th floor
Which is where you live, I can't wait to see you
And continue with that talk
That we didn't finish yesterday
And got postponed to today
It's like we're not even there, the two gaze at each other without looking away, in their own bubble, like they're surrounded by a magnetic field of love and feelings. Úrsula lowers her eyes to Luiza feet and smiles, kissing her hand. The justice of the peace starts off with a quick speech about love, the different types of love and the importance of tolerance. He finishes by asking if they were entering the union by their own will, and after they both answer, they exchange rings, signing the document for a stable union and sealing the moment with a simple, chaste kiss.
Now we're sitting around the musicians, who improvised a luau to liven up the wedding and I watch Úrsula and Luiza with a smile on my lips... I never saw my sister so relaxed, satisfied, complete.
Renato dances with Magali in a private corner, with his children playing around them. And looking at Anahí, the woman I chose to be mine, walking my way, I understand that the magic of a moment like this is only possible because true and pure love will always be bigger than any obstacles on our lives.
After the party Anahí falls asleep tiredly in my arms and I smell her skin that calms me down, searching for the peace I need. It takes me a while to fall asleep, anxious about having to face and confront a mountain that will be hard to overcome, a mountain called Débora Schneider.
CHAPTER 20
ANAHÍ
Úrsula and Luiza's wedding party lasted until well after midnight and today the sunny morning on the farm looks wonderful, the weather matching the relaxed moment. Magali and I put on bikini's and take advantage of the free time to take in some sun while we watch her children, Érica and João Vítor, playing in the pool with Renato.
Janice, wife of Sebastião, the farm's housekeeper, comes to the pool area bringing juice and light sandwiches and I attack the tray getting juice and two sandwiches, savoring them as if it's my last meal. I'm starving, this last month I'm always hungry, I think it's because of all the stress with Klaus's recovery and now this fixed idea of us getting married in two months. All that tension is making me eat my nervousness with no control, just like a dredge.
Magali laughs when she sees me eating my third sandwich.
"I wish I could eat like you and not gain weight. You should be studied, Anahí."
"Me, not gain weight? I wish! This last month I gained five pounds. All my jeans are tight. Look at the size of my hips! Ever since Klaus got into his mind that we need to marry so fast, I'm eating like this."
She takes off her sunglasses and looks me up and down, stopping for more time than necessary at my belly and asks laughingly, "Oh-oh! Are sure there's not a mini-Klaus on the way?"
I look at her surprised, and then I deny it. No! No way! A child right now would be completely bad, my relationship with Klaus is still so new, we have so much we need to square away, adjust to one another's character, and, besides, there's his recovery that is escalating, we still have such a long way to go... No, this is definitely not the time for a child to come into our lives.
"No, no way. There's no chance. I got my period this month. I just have to keep my mouth closed."
Klaus takes a shower in the outside shower next to the pool and I look away from Magali to enjoy my man wearing swimming trunks. He freshens up distracted and I raise my eyes, slowly, gazing at his shapely legs and thighs, the narrow hips, the lean stomach with that conspicuous V that marks the path to happiness. He turns around and I follow every inch of his slightly tanned skin, sexy to the bone, savoring the sight of his masculine hard ass and his wide back, with muscles tense and striking with the movements he makes to wash his face and wide chest... Shit! Why does he have to be so hot, so well-endowed? Those blue eyes that make me crazy, the intense way he fucks me hard and tortures me with that damned mouth...
"I know what you're thinking. How can he be so hot, right?" Magali guesses my thoughts and looks at Renato playing with the children wearing a white swimming trunk that leaves little to the imagination, and I have to admit he's also a great specimen of a man.
"That man has had me every night for the last eight years and he's like wine, every day he gets tastier, full-bodied... If he'd at least have a little bit of fat in that belly, but no, perfect six pack with nine inches that drives me wild... Sorry, I was thinking out loud. We've had so many ups and downs, but in the end, I know, even though he can make mad, life with him is never boring," she says admiring Renato from afar.
I agree with Magali, thinking about what she said: the changes in my life after meeting Klaus, how intense he can be sometimes, possessive, mercurial, the way he takes and fills my shortcomings. My Viking can definitely be a hard-headed, have a short temper, and be controlling, but he's never boring.
Luiza joins us, with a wide smile on her face, even with dark circles under her eyes, the wedding night must have been busy. Ha! Úrsula, proving the insatiable Schneider appetite, must have certainly exhausted poor Luiza, but she doesn't seem to want to complain. On the contrary, the glow of her skin and eyes show that though very tired, she's been well loved.
Úrsula drops her sunglasses and t-shirt on a lounger next to ours, dressed in a top and shorts. She waves at me and Magali, gives Luiza a smiling wink, and joins Klaus and Renato in the pool.
A car parks and the driver gets out hesitantly, scratches his head an opens the back door. He gives a helping hand to someone and when the blonde and smug figure comes out of the car, Magali's last words run through my mind, boring is definitely a word that doesn't exist in the family Schneider's dictionary.
Débora Schneider ignores the drivers hand and when she walks unsteadily towards us, there's no doubt that she's had way too much to drink. Even noticeably drunk, she's still poised, smoothing down her designer black wrap dress, flattening it on her hips and raises her chin, marchin
g to us with the same haughty and overbearing demeanor as always. Úrsula leaves the pool furiously looking at her while she gets closer, and in the end, Renato and Klaus also leave the pool. Klaus joins his sister in a defensive posture and Renato moves closer to our loungers with wide eyes, saying from the corner of his mouth,
"Shit, a storm is coming, girls. But unfortunately, it's not our place, this is family business."
"What is that witch doing here?" Luiza asks pissed off, and nobody can say anything against her since Débora did everything she could do throw a wrench on her and Úrsula's wedding.
Débora stops a few feet from us and, almost falling down, starts clapping her hands sarcastically.
"Congratulations Úrsula, now you're married lady, serious. That's what you were trying to prove by going through this mummery, right?"
"What the hell are you doing here, Mom? Coming to see for yourself if your plans worked? Well, I'm sorry to tell you you failed, Mrs. Débora Schneider," Úrsula yells, provoking Débora.
"Are these the low-level people that helped you drag our name through the mud, isn’t it? I can promise you, you'll never be happy. Do you know why? Because you're wrong, sick. I knew it since you were a kid, we could never expect something good out of you. Always playing with boys, never wanting to be a real girl. We should've known you'd grow up broken, perverted. I wish you could have a daughter so she can cause you the same heartache you've cause me. But that's never going to happen since that cursed relationship can never bear fruits."
"Shut up, Mom! Don't you think that's enough? Why do you have to be like this, so cruel? I'm ashamed of being your son!" Klaus roars unhinged and Débora claps and laughs on Klaus's face.
"And who said you're my son?" She says facing him with cold eyes and a deranged look on her face.
"That's enough, Mom. Leave." Úrsula tries to drag her away and Klaus yells, looking lost.
"Let her go, Úrsula. I want to hear what she has to say. Go ahead, Débora."
"Your idiot grandfather was such a misogynistic son of a bitch that before he died he made it a condition on his will that for Chico to get his whole inheritance he had to have a son. That thing's pregnancy was so bad that during birth I almost died because of a bleed in the womb and I had to have it removed. But I forbid your father to tell anyone and it wasn't hard, your grandfather spent more time in Germany than here. This shook our marriage in such a way that we almost divorced. During the crisis you father had an affair with the cook, he was always into fucking the help, the little people, just like you and your sister. The bitch got pregnant and after you were born she left you behind for some good money. Our lawyers made everything legal and you were registered as my son. I have loved you as a son, raised you, cared for you, even knowing you were the son of that slut and my husband, and for what? So you can break my heart, just like your sister. She’s shacking up with a dyke and you getting involved with an Indian, a savage without a penny, no name, and no place to drop dead."
Klaus faces us looking lost, numb, tears falling from his bleak eyes. I stand up seeing red and I forget that she’s Úrsula's mom and the woman that raised Klaus. I stop in front of her and growl between my teeth, with my face inches from Débora's.
"You’re right in one thing, only, I really am a savage Indian. If you were in my territory, my people's village, you'd be beaten for being such a cruel mother. But even being out of the jungle doesn't stop me from giving you a warning, leave my Viking’s life. Disappear from my sister-in-law's life. If you approach them to wound, to hurt them one more time, I'll break your plastic face. You understand me, Mrs. Débora Schneider?"
"Who do you think you are to talk to me like that, you little Indian girl?
"I am Anahí Saraíba, granddaughter of chief Apaioká, from the Terena tribe and in two months I'll be Anahí Saraíba Schneider, wife to Klaus Schneider, this amazing man that unfortunately was raised by a viper like you."
The driver comes closer and supports Débora by the shoulders, saying ruefully, "Maybe we should go, Mrs. Débora."
"Let me go, you imbecile. I can walk by myself."
Débora leaves us with a face torn up with anger, staggering all the way, and the only reason why she doesn't fall on her face on the grass is because the driver helps her to the car. Úrsula approaches Klaus and he asks her, disappointed.
"Since when have you known she wasn't my mother?"
"Since I said that I was leaving and came out as lesbian. She said she expected more of me since I was her only daughter, dad told her to never bring it up again, but she seems to have an astonishing ability to effortlessly hurt people. I'm sorry I didn't say anything. I didn't want to see you hurt, Kau."
I come near Klaus and he strokes my cheek, my teary eyes and shakes his head, devastated. He passes by all of us, and Renato's children mumble that Klaus is crying. He keeps walking slowly and says just loud enough for all of us to hear.
"I'm going to my room, I need to be alone."
When we think we're so close of reaching peace, quiet, life comes along and pulls the rug from under us. I can imagine how distraught Klaus is, living a whole life of lies, rejected by his biological mom as a baby, and now by his adoptive mother. Now when he was, literally, starting to stand up. He didn't deserve one more punch from life. I think of going after him, but Úrsula advises me to leave him alone, at least for a little bit, to try and make sense of the mountain of shit Débora dumped on him.
KLAUS
I sit on the bed feeling defeated, all these years living a web of lies, I don't even know what to think. I look at the cellphone in my hand and all I know is that I need answers, and only one person can give them to me, my dad. I call him and on the third ring he answers sounding worried.
"Klaus, it's been too long. How are you?"
"Not good, Dad. Not good at all," I answer feeling a lump on my throat.
"What happened, son?"
"I just want the truth. Débora was here and told me about my mother. That she was cook and a slut. What's the truth, Dad?"
"God, why did Débora do that?" Dad mumbles fitfully.
"I'm waiting for the truth, Dad. And I have the right to fucking know it!”
I'm sick of all the lies. Ever since I can remember I've lived in an environment where looks and social status were the most important things. For Débora all that mattered was high society life, the party invitations, the most expensive clothes, if our friends' bank account were bigger than ours. This always bothered me so much that when I started making my own money and my own fortune, I kept her as far away as possible, her shallowness is so big that it makes me sick.
"Your mother was never a slut, Klaus. She was an honest, hard-working woman, even coming from a humble background she was always dignified. I loved her so much, to the point where I told her that when I divorced Débora we'd be together, like a family. But as soon as you were born, she suddenly disappeared without a word. I looked for her for many years but I could never find her. I always thought your mom had something to do with Mariana's disappearance."
"Mariana, is that my mother's name?" I croak.
"Yes, Klaus. Mariana Gomes."
"Thank you for telling me the truth."
I hang up quickly and call my lawyer, Douglas Seixas. I need information, and now that I started I have to see it through to the end. He answers and after a brief greeting and go straight to the point.
"Douglas, I need you to hire the best PI in the city. I want to know everything about Mariana Gomes, specially her whereabouts. Spare no expenses, I want this ASAP, okay?"
"Is something wrong, Klaus? Is this woman in some kind of mess?" Douglas asked concerned with my desperate tone.
"No, I just found out she's my mother."
"Leave it to me. If she's still alive, we'll find her."
If what Dad said is true and she was an honest woman than why did she leave me and disappeared? Why hasn't she come looking for me all these years? When I think my life is reaching a calm patch, th
ere comes a hurricane taking away all my convictions, blowing everything apart. As much as it hurts, I need to know what actually happened with my mom and if she's still alive, to ask her face to face why she never came looking for me.
CHAPTER 21
KLAUS
A week has gone by since I learned the truth about my birth and I haven't heard from Douglas. Saying that learning that I'm not Débora's legitimate son hasn't shaken me, would be a big lie. The news dropped on my lap like a bomb, one of those that are very hard to disarm. And this anxiety is making me even more sour and frustrated since I still don't have the answers I need. So, like the huge asshole I am, who's bearing the brunt of my anger and bad mood? My little cabocla. Anahí has had it up to here with me and at my hundredth grumble she stops the PT session she can’t take it anymore.
"Renato, Ciro. Please leave, I need to be alone with him," she yells to Ciro and Renato.
They look at Anahí surprised and then leave quickly. Bunch of pussies, the boat is barely sinking and they run like cowardly rats. I leave the mat sweating bullets and huff annoyed, searching for the fucking towel while Anahí faces me with arms akimbo and eyes narrowed with anger.
"Fuck it, I hate searching for my stuff and not finding it."
Anahí takes aims and throws one, two, three, five towels on my chest, growling with a death stare.
"Don't you want a towel? Then take a damn towel. Listen to me closely, Klaus Schneider, the people around you aren't idiots, they're professionals trying to help you. No one has to take your fits. Until you can diligently dedicate yourself to you exercises and respect those professionals whom you're paying, let's be honest, their weight in gold, you PT sessions are suspended."
Fatefully Yours Page 15