When a man confesses his love
I love blending the past and present into a fantasy tale with intriguing tribal secrets, magical heritage, love triangle, and an exciting and dangerous life in a secret society. The inspiration to write Ilona’s story came from reading about my ancestors, the ancient Huns, and from my experience working in the medical field all my life. My grandma told me stories about the ancient flower language they used when she was a young girl and I incorporated the meaning of flowers into the story. In this excerpt, the red tulip is the symbol of everlasting love.
Excerpt from Turmoil, book 2 of the Ancestors' Secrets, a magical realism, alternate reality epic fantasy trilogy
Chapter 15
Confessions
Chapter 15
Confessions
Ilona and Bela took their coffee out to the porch, and they sat down on the comfortable wicker chairs to enjoy the afternoon sun. They watched Gypsy trailing behind Elza. Gypsy was born without a left hind leg, and his custom-made artificial foot was making clicking sounds on the gravel. Tui, of course, was right beside him. It was so comical watching them go. While Gypsy took one step, Tui had to take twenty running steps on her tiny feet. The calf-sized Saint Bernard and the two-pound Chihuahua were best friends for life.
They don’t care about size, breed or pedigree; they just like each other, Ilona thought. The sun tickled the skin on Ilona’s bare arms. Bela was deep in thought, fidgeting in the chair as if he wanted to say something, but didn’t know how to begin.
Ilona asked lazily, “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, no trouble, I just wanted to talk to you about something,” he answered, looking away.
Ilona sipped her coffee, “Okay. Don’t hold back.” She was anticipating a gazillion questions about being a Hunor and her abilities.
“It’s not that easy. I’ve wanted to talk to you about this for years, but always thought there was enough time,” he whispered, eyes dropping to his lap.
“What is it, Bela? You are scaring me. You know you can talk to me about anything,” Ilona said feeling alarmed and sat up straight.
He shifted in his chair, “Well, yes, but this is something that’s not so easy to talk about. Anyway, here goes.” Turning towards Ilona, he began, “You know that I love you, right?”
“Yes, I know,” Ilona replied while the worst possible things that could happen were running through her mind.
Bela reached behind him and then extended his arm toward Ilona. In his hand was a red tulip, the symbol of true love, a representation of adoration and devotion. Ilona’s heart thumped loudly in her chest as he started talking very fast, “I love you, but not only as a friend. I know you don’t want to be more than that, but I have to tell you. I’m in love with you Ilona. I’ve been in love with you since fifth grade. At first, I thought it was puppy love, and I didn’t want to say anything as I didn’t want to risk losing our friendship, but when I saw the way you looked at Zoltan, I couldn’t take it anymore. It nearly broke my heart. It was easier before because you only played with the idea of a relationship with guys. You had nothing serious going on, but he is different. You are different. You have to know how I really feel.”
“I have always been in love with you, but because you wanted only to be my friend, I never told you. I pretended just to love you as a friend. I’ve tried to let you know, but I couldn’t. I felt as if you had built a wall that I wasn’t allowed to climb over.”
Now he tells me! Ilona was dumbfounded. It was as if lightning had struck her right in the middle of her chest.
Although Bela noticed her distress, unknowingly, he continued turning the knife in her heart. “Didn’t you ever notice how I truly felt about you?”
“No, I thought you wanted only to be friends. You made it very clear so many times that I lost hope a long time ago, and now I think I’m falling in love with Zoltan,” Ilona whispered.
“What? Do you mean that? What a stupid idiot. I didn’t know. I thought that...” Bela mumbled.
“Ilona, I love you! You’re the love of my life! If only I knew… If I knew I had a chance, I would have told you a long, long time ago.”
“Why didn’t you?” Ilona whispered.
“It’s not too late! Please tell me it’s not too late,” he begged, still holding the red tulip in his trembling fingers.
He tried to hand it to Ilona; only she couldn’t take it from him. She loved him still, but it wasn’t the same as before. If he’d told her before she’d met Zoltan, Ilona would have been the happiest woman on earth to accept his tulip, but not anymore. In the past, Ilona had resigned herself to being rejected and ignored. Meeting Zoltan had opened the possibility of being loved in return.
Ilona’s heart was aching so much, she felt like she couldn’t take it. He didn’t release her face but stroked her cheeks gently with his thumbs, and then leaned closer and closer. Their lips touched softly. It felt wonderful. Ilona had been waiting for that real kiss for almost a decade and a half. It had to come when she’d found love in her heart for another man. Life’s irony, she thought, fate is probably rubbing its hands in glee that it could fool and confuse the living heck out of me, once again.
Book 1 eBook is free on various sites
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Read an excerpt from Book 3, Destiny
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