“We could do this together in Italy.”
Akemi swallowed and looked away.
“You don’t want to,” he said.
“My family is here.”
“And mine is there.”
“Not all of it.” Akemi shot him a look. “Rory missed you.”
Lorenzo flinched.
“Wemissed you,” she added.
He turned and walked away, pacing the sidewalk. He didn’t get far before he turned around and walked back towards her. As he got closer, she saw such obvious pain in his eyes that she immediately felt guilty.
“Everyone I love most is here,” Lorenzo said, taking her hand. He looked close to tears. “You are here. My children are here. But my work is in Italy, and I cannot just abandon my parents, not while my father, he is so sick.”
She squeezed his hand. “I get it.”
“I cannot just leave him.”
“Enzo, I understand.”
“But I don’t want to leavehimeither.” A tear rolled down Lorenzo’s cheek as he reached towards their son. “I miss him terribly. I miss my daughter just as much. And I miss you,Akemi. More than I can say.”
She looked at him, feeling for him – but even as she held his hand, frustration ate away at the edges of her empathy.
Akemi and Lorenzo met for the first time when he came to Hawaii to get to know his daughter. He adored her… and yet it had been nearly a year since his last visit.
It was one thing to make grand statements. It was another to actually uproot his life and show up for his children.
Rory wasn’t going anywhere. Wasn’t that reason enough for all of them to stay?
“It feels as though my heart is torn in two,” he said.
Akemi didn’t know what to say to that. She turned the stroller around and started back down towards the sea.
The walk home felt long and heavy.
She spent the second half of the day cleaning up after the party while Lorenzo fed and played with Kaleo. He finally handed their son back to her at dusk, when he was ready for bed.
Akemi nursed him to sleep and then sat on the edge of her bed, staring out at the moonlit water and wondering why her life felt like such a tangled mess.
A soft knock came on the door, and she went to answer it. Lorenzo stood there, doe-eyed and sad. She let him in without a word.
He walked over to the bed, looking down at their son. Akemi closed the door softly and went to stand beside him. Kaleo looked so angelic when he was asleep, all big soft cheeks and pouty pink lips. He was still just a baby.
“I don’t want to leave you,” Lorenzo said after a while. “Either of you.”
“I know,” she said, not quite meeting his eyes.
But wanting wasn’t good enough.
He had the power to make a different choice… so why didn’t he?
“Akemi, I’m serious. I want to stay.”
