The Homecoming
Filomena welcomed her sweet bambina home with open arms. "Ohhh Anna ~ bambina, where have you been? I was so worried sick about my little bambina! Roberto came home months ago. He pack his things and say nothing to Filomena. Where Roberto go, Anna?" Filomena blurted out with tears in her Italian eyes.
Anna considered lying, but Filomena was like a mother to her. She'd see right through the lie. She just could not lie to the one person she trusted above all others.
"Ohhh, Mena, I am SO happy to be home. I missed you so! Robert... he- we got a divorce. I- I betrayed him, Filomena. I didn't deserve him." Suddenly Anna was crying. Tears washed down her cheeks. She was crying for the first time since Robert came to the hospital to tell her he was filing for a divorce.
"Ohhh no! You and Roberto so much in love, mia bambina!" Filomena cried. Then she suddenly noticed Anna's protruding belly. She reached out to touch it as if she were in awe. "Roberto's bambina! Anna, shall you tell him?"
"No, he mustn't know. Mena, I am giving the baby up." Anna's voice was full of sadness and determination.
"Ohhh no, Anna! Why?!"
"I can't keep it! I- a baby needs both his parents, his mother and his father. And besides, the DVX are after me. The baby wouldn't be safe. The baby of Anna Devane Scorpio and Robert Xavier Scorpio would be a great target for DVX bullets. I can't provide for this child. I will constantly be on the run from the DVX with no steady job. What kind of life would that be for a little baby?"
"Anna, you could stay here in Italy! You and the bambina could stay with Filomena!" The older woman was babbling with excitement. She had no idea the kind of danger Anna was truly in.
"That's impossible. Soon the DVX will discover my whereabouts and trace me here to your village. Then I'd put both you and the child in danger. Lord, how I wish it could be different, but what I want can never be."
"No, Anna, don't give away your bambina. I feel as if I am it's grandmama!"
But Anna did not change her mind, even after Filomena gave her the written message that Robert had left for her. The message said:
Anna, I told Balentine you were killed during the drug bust. Robert.
Anna took the small scrap of paper up to the loft. It was her last bit of communication with Robert. It broke her heart when she saw that all of his belongings had been removed from their bedroom. Then she noticed that the glass had been broken in their wedding photo. Evidently, that was Robert's way of reminding her of their broken marriage.
Sinking down on the bed, Anna placed her hand over her enlarged abdomen. Very gently she spoke to the baby. "I love you so much," she said as a single tears streaked down her face. It was the first time Anna had ever let herself acknowledge just how much she loved her unborn child.