His Dark Secret 4

"I could never imagine lose a child either," said Monica.

"How many do you have?" asked Marian.

"Two, a boy and a girl. Jill's married and has a son and daughter. Martin sells toys."

"Oh, so you're a grandmother!"

"Yes." Monica suddenly realized she was probably the oldest person in the room.

"I think that's wonderful! Do they live near you?"

"Yes, we all live in Los Angeles. Where are you from?"

"Canada. Devin plays ice hockey. I was very athletic too, when I was younger."

"So how did you and Devin meet Ben?"

"I met Amelia before I met Ben. We were in a German class together. We got to be friends and met each other's families."

"But didn't she already know German before she moved over here?" Monica asked Ben.

"No. There did not seem to be any reason for her to learn it. My family and I speak English," said Ben.

What a claustrophobic existence! thought Monica.

"Do you know German?" Marian asked Monica.

"Not a word!"

"Switzerland is full of foreign nationals, and most of them know English," said Ben.

Monica thought of her family back home and realized she already felt homesick. I can't stay over here in this cold little country for good, she thought to herself. I'd miss them too much.

Later that night, she was lying in bed beside Ben when suddenly, she had to know.

"How did she die?"

She heard Ben sigh and, for just a second, regretted asking.

"She fell from a platform into the path of a train," he said at last. "It was an accident."

"What a horrible way to die!" Monica imagined the impact, bloody chunks of Amelia's body lying along the tracks for miles.

"I beat her up," Ben said softly. She heard the sob in his voice. "We had a fight, and I beat her up. I put her out of the house that morning. She had nowhere else to go."

Icy fingers of fear caressed Monica's spine. She was sharing the bed of a wife beater - he'd just admitted it.

"The last time I saw her, her face was all bruised. I might have broken her cheek. I couldn't let Wyatt and my mother see her like that. I packed her bag and told her she had to go away for awhile. She asked if it was all over between us. I told her I did not know."

"My God," Monica breathed.

"A few hours later, the police came...they found her cell phone next to the body..."

He was sobbing hard now. Monica tried her best to comfort him, but she still felt inadequate. Eventually, Ben drifted off to sleep, but Monica lay awake a little while longer. She'd been shocked by Ben's admission that he'd beaten Amelia up, but on the other hand, he did seem truly devastated by her death. Had her ever beaten her up before? Had he been very upset at her about something and just lost control?

Monica had always thought it was never justified for a man to hit a woman. Lolly's face swam into view in her mind's eye - how she didn't favor Ben at all, how Monica had a hard time imagining how such a dark complected child could have come from Ben and Amelia.

Had something about Lolly been the reason for the physical fight? She couldn't imagine Walter ever having hit her under any circumstance, but perhaps Amelia had been a different kind of wife. She might have had a violent strike herself. Perhaps Ben's actions had been in self defense.

She drifted to sleep partially comforted by that thought.

Ben acted normally the next day and didn't mention the previous night's conversation.

Soon Ben returned to work and Wyatt to school, and Monica was left alone with Lolly for the first part of each week day. On the first morning, Emma came over and was surprised to see her.

"Normally, it is just me and Lolly here in the morning," the older woman explained.

"I'm staying another week," Monica said uncertainly. "I don't really know my way around yet, but I guess I could find somewhere to go if you want to be alone with your granddaughter."

"My goodness, no!" Emma laughed. "I am happy you are here and wish you were staying longer. Ben has been so lonely for so long, and he seems much happier since he met you."

"I enjoy his company as well." Monica had never even seen Ben lose his temper, and his confessions of a few nights before were still a mystery to her.

"Are we going shopping, Grossi?" asked Lolly.

"I do need a few things," Emma replied. "Would you like to come along, Monica?"

"Sure!" said Monica.

She let Lolly sit in the front seat beside Emma and took the back seat, enjoying the view of the scenery along the way. They arrived at the supermarket in a few minutes.

The inside of the supermarket looked very similar to Monica's favorite supermarket back home, except the signs were in German and mentioned grams and milligrams instead of pounds and ounces. Emma started her shopping in the produce section.

"Ben told me about the horrible way Amelia died," Monica mentioned as Emma was picking out tomatoes.

Emma only nodded.

"That must have been so hard for Ben, to lose his wife and son so close together like that."

"The loss of Karl was horrible for all of us," said Emma. "He was a lovely child, but I would not consider Amelia to be much of a loss. She was a neglectful mother, and she was also unfaithful to my son."