part0005

“Lorenzo, let me help her,” Catalina said. “C’mon sweetheart, I’ve already packed your things.” Catalina pulled the covers off Marietta who sat up wide-eyed and confused. She obediently accepted the undergarments passed to her. The drugs weren’t working. When she should be sleeping she was awake. And when she tried to wake all she wanted to do was sleep. She felt her mind unravelling with each day that passed.

“What are you giving her Lo?” Catalina whispered.

Marietta pretended to not hear. She knew she had been drugged. She didn’t care. She wished for death.

“Something to help her with stress.”

“Don’t put that poison in her anymore. Okay? It’s not helping. She’s not getting better.”

She heard Lorenzo curse as he approached the bed. Marietta looked up at him and pleaded with her eyes for him to end her torment. He kissed her brow, took her arm and inserted the needle into her vein. Marietta lids grew heavy. She felt hands on her and knew she was being lifted to stand, but her legs were weak.

“Help me Marietta,” Catalina pleaded. “Let’s finish dressing together, okay honey?”

She nodded that she would try. Catalina pulled up her underwear and Marietta moved her legs and closed her thighs to help. Catalina then helped her put the dress on. She was given clothing she had worn before she was stolen away to Africa by the family’s meanest enforcer Carlo ‘The Butcher’ Giordano.

“You’re doing fine honey. Just hurry,” Catalina said. Marietta didn’t bother to ask her why. If it didn’t concern the return of her daughter she had no use for the information.

“Do you know what’s happened?” Catalina asked.

“Giovanni? He’s taken my baby,” she slurred the words.

“Yes. And he’s coming. You and Lorenzo have to get out of Sicily. He has Palermo now. The Dons have agreed to his terms. You have to go tonight.”

“I need my child, Catalina. If I leave, I’ll never see her again.”

Marietta eyes rolled under her lids. The voice that spoke the name Mary to her was too foreign for her to recognize so she didn’t try.

Marietta opened her eyes, just a fraction, then a fraction more. A beautiful woman with deep dark skin and puffy thick hair smiled at her. She had hair blown out into an afro-style. “That’s right, baby. It’s okay. Mama’s here.”

The woman touched her cheek. She stroked it as a mother would do to express her love for her child. “You’ve gotten so big. You’re growing every day.”

“Your father named you Marietta, but you were my Mary. My sweet Mary. Don’t take that poison. Don’t disappear. Don’t be me.”

“Who the fuck is she talking to?” Lorenzo asked.

“This is what the drugs are doing to her. Stop giving them to her!”

Lorenzo nodded that he understood the danger of drugging of his wife. However, Catalina knew he’d found a way to keep Marietta’s pain constrained through the poison. And his need for control was ultra high recently.

“Marietta. Snap out of it. Snap out of it.” Catalina gave her firm slaps to the face. Marietta blinked out of her dazed pain.

“Giovanni is bringing my baby?” Marietta asked.

“I need to be ready. She has to be fed. She needs my breast,” Marietta asked.

“They aren’t coming to bring the baby; they’re coming to take Lorenzo by force. And me,” Catalina said. “Do you understand?”

“You? Who are you?”

“Never mind it. We don’t have much time. Put your feet in these shoes.”

“Stop filling her head with that bullshit, and scaring her,” Lorenzo snapped. “That’s not going to happen. You have plenty of men to stop them from charging in here,” Lorenzo scoffed.

“She needs to know the truth and you need to accept it. I saw Dominic. He all but warned me that it was going to happen. And you tried to meet with the Dons tonight. They refused.”

“Fucking bastards! They’re cowards.”

“Why? Because from where I see it they’ve been more generous than you or Giovanni would ever be. They told you the truth. They bargained with Giovanni. They’re giving him a free pass to return to Sicily. Palermo is his, not yours or mine. Either way you have to go tonight. Before it’s too late. Now either help me with her or move out of my way.”

“Listen to them baby. She’s right. You have to leave. Be stronger than me. Fight,” Lisa said in her mind.

“I remember that feeling. I remember how I cried when I left you behind. I was sick with doubt and grief. I was weak, but when I got stronger I came for you. I gave my life for you Mary. Isn’t Lorenza worth yours? Fight back Mary. For her.”

“I’ll try, but I’ll lose. You heard Lorenzo. He still thinks this is a war he can win. He doesn’t know the sacrifice we’ve made. He doesn’t understand it. But I do.”

Marietta held her barren stomach and forced her legs to move. She was broken inside and out. But she did as she was told by Catalina and her mother. After all she made a choice long ago when life was the most unbearable for her as a child to survive. She’d never given up. Catalina took her to a room to wait. She was left there. But she wasn’t alone. Thanks to the drugs her mother sat at her side holding her hand. Catalina collected her after a few minutes. She’d gone and gotten her shoes. Again, Marietta was forced to stand and walk. She managed.

The war between Lorenzo and Giovanni had changed everything Catalina knew and believed about her world. After seeing Dominic and telling him their love was dead she’d gone through another depressing bout of grief. She’d lost everything. She could trust no one. She volleyed between fear and regret daily.

When Giovanni returned to Sicily and found her here alone, and pregnant she didn’t know what her brother would do. However, she did believe Giovanni would deal with Lorenzo first. And she couldn’t let him die this way. No matter how much she hated him for killing Armando. There had been too much death in all their lives.

Catalina turned the corner and saw the men Lorenzo had gathered. He had enough money to buy loyalties—for now. But the Armenians were on the hunt for Lorenzo as well. Money wasn’t everything when it came to facing the enemies Lorenzo now had. The guns, of course, could help.

The men discussed the plan. It was a disaster from the start.

“We need to get to the pier before dusk, boss. They’ll think we will move at night.”

“I agree. We take four cars and head south. We send another west. To throw off any suspicion.” Lorenzo said.

It was a stupid repetitive plan that would certainly end in death. Lorenzo had taught her how permanent death could be out in the ocean.

“You can’t do it that way. You have to fly out,” she said as she entered the room with Marietta barely able to stand. “We own planes from Armando’s companies, um, Armando’s transport companies. We’ll pay a pilot. A good one. You and Marietta need to return to Spain, or go further. But you need to do it by air, not water. Gio will win any fight on open water.”

“Everyone leave,” Lorenzo ordered.

The men obeyed. He waited until they were gone before he spoke. Catalina sat Marietta in a chair.

“What planes do you own? Everything was seized by the courts, with Giovanni contesting on behalf of Mirabella you own nothing. Not even this house. Marietta has more claim to it than you.”

“Not everything was taken. When you were in Africa, lawyers came to see me. I own a company. It was given to me as a wedding gift. Something Giovanni can’t take back. Armando was going to surprise me with it. These lawyers can be trusted. They have worked for the Mancini’s for decades; they want to protect the interest of my son. They held back from revealing these assets to Dominic. It’s mine. For now.”

Lorenzo brows lowered and his blue eyes crystalized with distrust.

“Surprised huh? Armando loved me.”

“He didn’t love you, Catalina. He wanted you. He wanted you to defeat Gio. Trust me, I know what jealousy does to a man. I married Marietta for the same reason.”

“What did you say?” Catalina glanced over to Marietta who was once again mumbling to herself and answering whatever voices she heard in her head.

“The truth. I love her more than my own life today. But it didn’t start that way. It never does for men like us. And that’s why my life is such a fucking pile of shit now. I let her down. I failed my daughter. All because I’m a liar, a fraud.”

“And a murderer, don’t forget that.”

Lorenzo smirked. “Murderer? It’s one of my best qualities.”

Catalina shook her head with sadness.

“Let’s not fight.”

“I don’t want to fight with you either.”

“You’re my brother. That has to mean something?” she asked.

“I can’t be Tomosino’s first born. Can I?” Lorenzo asked.

Catalina shrugged. “In our family anything is possible, Lorenzo.”

“If it’s true then Giovanni is the pretend Don! I have been robbed. He is the fraud. It should have been mine all along. All of it!”

“Marietta lost her baby. She’s barely hanging on. For once Lorenzo, focus on her. Before it’s too late. Do you understand me? Focus on your wife and child. Forget la Camorra . Marietta and Lorenza need you, not the mafia. That’s why I’m helping you.”

“How do I know this isn’t a setup? A way for you to hand me over to Giovanni so he can silence me?”

“Are you serious? Giovanni isn’t trying to silence you. He wants to kill you.”

“To silence me! When I prove my claim to the family Giovanni will be nothing.”

“The family? Our family? You mean the one you trapped in Bagheria? You mean the family you burned out of Mondello? Destroyed our legacy, my mother’s grave!” she shoved him. “That family hates you. Nothing you say or prove will ever erase the damage you have done, Lorenzo. My mother was good to you. Look at what you’ve done to her resting place? Hadn’t she suffered enough shame in life? Did you have to burn it all to the ground?”

“I-I-I-I—” Lorenzo stammered. “I don’t trust you.”

“So what? I love you. No matter what, and in spite of it all, I will help you, because I don’t want to burn in hell. And I will Lo, we all will for what we’ve done.”

He paced the floor. His paranoia was contagious. She had to pause and consider that Dominic could be setting a trap for him and using her. But she dismissed it. “I’m the one that told you about Dominic. I’m the one that warned you not to try to see the Dons tonight. I’m the one in the room holding Marietta while she cries for a baby you and I both know she can’t have. And now you think I’m the enemy?”

“Baby? Where is my baby?” Marietta lifted her head and looked at her husband. “Lo? Where is she?”

“Shhh... sweetheart. It’s okay.” Catalina went back to her. She glanced over her shoulder to Lorenzo. “I spent my entire life worshipping you, loving you and Gio, the same. The both of you raised me. The both of you were my brothers. And now I know why even when I hated you the most I never stopped loving you. Because under the jealousy and pride is a scared boy. The fact you can’t find your soul anymore isn’t all your fault.”

“It’s my fault,” Marietta interjected. “I did it. I chose Lo over my baby girl. That’s why I lost my soul. That’s what it feels like inside. I thought I was dead, that I wanted to be dead. But the truth is I’m empty. I don’t have a soul. My mother wouldn’t have done that. She came for me. Didn’t you, mama? Didn’t you come for me?”

“Oh sweetheart,” Catalina held Marietta and let her cry against her belly. She glanced to Lorenzo who was now staring out of the window. “You’re right Lo,” Catalina began. “We don’t forgive. No one ever taught us how. But I have forgiven you and Giovanni. You need to learn to do the same, for your daughter. What is there to offer her that is more valuable than her mother? What would you want if you were given the chance to have your real mother love you? Would you want the guns and money and bullshit?”

She let Marietta go. She walked over to Lorenzo and took his hand. She placed it to her belly. “You need to get Marietta somewhere safe and then make peace with the family, with Gio, not war, to get your life back. You know that’s the only way out of this.”

“It’s too late for peace. The only way Gio gives me my daughter is if he takes my life or I take his.” Lorenzo pulled his hand away. “I was winning. I had taken Giovanni down. He was the one... that was going to lose. I was so close to having what is rightfully mine. I can still taste it.”

Catalina forced a hug on him. “I don’t want you to die.”

He hugged her. “I may never see you again. I’m sorry, piccoletta. For everything. Ti amo, mia piccola sorellina— I love you my, little sister.”

“I love you too, Lorenzo. Always.”

She let him go after a long hug and smiled up at him. He kissed her forehead. He picked up several guns and put them in the backpack he put on his back. He walked over to Marietta. She lifted her tear stained face.

“Can my mother come?” she asked.

“Sure mama, it’s time to go,” he said. He scooped up Marietta in his arms. She held on to him and rested her face on his shoulder. “We’ll get to the airport. Make sure the plane is ready for us.”

“I’ll call the pilot now.”

Catalina wiped her tears away and hurried around the desk to make the call. She spoke to the pilot and gave hurried instructions. Lorenzo waited for her to confirm that they were good before he winked at her and then walked out carrying his wife.

Zia came in after Lorenzo was gone.

“Why are you up so late?”

“They’re leaving?” Zia asked.

“You’re helping them escape?” Zia asked.

“I have to. He’s... my brother.”

Zia wrapped her shawl around her. “They can’t outrun Gio. Lorenzo has to face this, Catalina. Giovanni will not kill his brother.”

“We can’t risk that truth Zia. Let them have the time they can. Let them have hope. It’s something this family has run out of.”

Zia extended her hand. “You are your mother, when I saw you hug him it reminded me of the days when Eve would do everything she could to protect him. I used to wonder why she wasted the energy. Isabella made her life miserable. But when it came to the children Eve always stood her ground. As shaky as it were.”

“I know the truth now, Zia. I believe you. It’s just hard for me to understand why mama would protect this lie, and why Patri would crown Gio over Lorenzo. Did he not believe that Lorenzo was really his son or was it something else?”

“Hush now, you can’t question the dead and I can’t answer for them,” Zia said. “The truth is out and the truth is going to heal us. Gio will not kill his brother.”