part0019

MIRABELLA SAT UP. HER baby-girl, so tiny and needy, slept on her breast instead of in the bassinet next to her. And though the hour was late Mirabella secretly looked forward to the next feeding. It was the time reserved for just her and her child.

There was a soft knock to her bedroom door and then it slowly opened.

“Mama?” Eve whispered.

“Why are you still up?”

The door opened. Eve rushed into her room. She jumped on her mother’s bed and crawled over. “I couldn’t sleep. I miss Boo-Boo,” she said. “Papa is making her sleep downstairs because she keeps peeing in the bed and the staff told on me.”

“Come closer, sweetheart.” Mirabella opened her arm to her daughter. “We’re leaving in the morning and Boo-Boo can pee all she wants at home.”

Eve scooted in close to her mother. Mirabella helped her get under the covers.

“Where’s Papa?” Eve asked.

“Outside with your Uncles. He’ll be up here soon. Do you want to sleep with us?”

“Can I?” she looked up at Mirabella.

“Yes,” Mirabella said.

“Did Papa tell you. The new rules. We had a meeting to discuss them,” Eve said.

“I heard about this meeting. Papa says you are in charge of the kids. What you say goes?”

“Mmhmm, I’m boss,” Eve yawned. “I’m the boss of them and Papa is the boss of you.”

Mirabella chuckled. Her first born drifted in and out of comfort. She stroked Eve’s arm and let her stay as close as she wanted. “Eve?”

“I know we have tutors that come to the house, and you do your studies. But I was thinking. Maybe we can start school again?”

“Really?” Eve sat up. “I can go back to school?”

“I’ll talk to Papa. I think it might be a good idea that you start as soon as possible.”

“Thank you, Mommy!” Eve leapt on her. She nearly crushed the baby. “Thank you so much, Mommy. I will love you forever if you do.”

“Your welcome, baby,” Mirabella smiled.

Giovanni walked in the bedroom. He paused at the sight of them.

“Papa! Say yes. Please! I will be the best daughter ever. I promise. I will be.”

“What is this?” he asked.

Eve stood up on bed. Giovanni walked over and sat to remove his shoes. Eve dropped on his back and wrapped her arms around his neck nearly choking him. He chuckled as he pulled off his socks. “What are you bargaining for now, lucciola ?”

“School. I never get to go for long before I have to stop and stay home. I make friends and I lose them. I want to go back. Please.”

Giovanni pulled Eve around from his back onto his lap. He gave Mirabella a questioning look from over his shoulder. Eve took her father’s face into her tiny hands. “Look at me, Papa. I want to go to school,” she said slowly. “I want to be friends with everybody. Okay? Say yes.”

Giovanni bumped his forehead to Eve’s. “You’re the boss.”

“Thank you, Papa! Thank you so much! I love you forever!” She hugged his neck. Giovanni tickled her and then flipped her over on to the bed. She crawled over to her mother and got under the covers.

“I didn’t know she wanted to go to school this bad?” Giovanni said.

“I think she’s just excited that you gave her what she wanted twice in two days.”

“How are my girls?”

“Happy Papa is here,” Mirabella said in a mockingly close imitation of Eve’s voice. She handed her over to Giovanni. He was very careful with her as he reclined in the bed and put her on his chest. Leeza squirmed and began to cry. He stroked her back gently and she soon settled on sucking her pacifier. Eve rolled into her mother’s arms so Mirabella could hold her.

“I take it your meeting went well,” Mirabella asked.

“Things are better than well. It’s all falling into place.” He glanced over to Mirabella. “Are we okay?”

“We are. I’ve had time to think. I’m ready to take the kids back to Sorrento. To try to get our lives back to normal.”

“Where is Lorenza?”

“Sleeping with Zia Catalina,” Eve said.

Mirabella smiled. “The boys are with Zia, and Catalina took Lorenza. She’s grown very attached to her.”

“Also she has found a young woman that will travel with you when you are ready.”

He reached over and touched Mirabella’s hand. “You still with me? We’re doing this together. Right?”

Mirabella nodded. “I’m at your side.”

“Your faith in me, means everything right now Bella. It’s kept me alive all this time.”

“I keep you alive!” Eve turned from her mother and looked at her father.

“Let Papa speak,” Giovanni said sternly.

“Yes, Papa,” she replied.

“I don’t want to discuss this in front of our little parrot,” Mirabella said.

“I’m a parrot?” Eve asked.

“Let’s go to sleep,” Mirabella said.

“I’ll take Eve to her room,” Giovanni said and sat up.

“Mama said I can sleep here with you Papa,” Eve said.

“Did she?” Giovanni stared at Mirabella. She could tell he wanted more of her attention. Though she loved him as much that evening as she did any other day, she was grateful the kids separated them. What they had planned would be hard on them both and she didn’t want to fill him with her doubts.

“I love you, Bella,” Giovanni said.

“I love you too, sweetheart. That will never change.”

“Me too sweetheart!” Eve giggled.

Giovanni chuckled. “Sleep Eve, now.”

Carlo took another long drag of his cigarillo. He stared out at the moon as he exhaled. He missed her and the baby too. But for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to say it or even think it when they were apart. He had to remain focused.

“Carmine said your name today.”

“He doesn’t speak. He doesn’t even have teeth.”

“I was burping him and I swear when he let go of his gas I heard Papa.”

Carlo chuckled. Adara had a way of making him smile. She knew how to keep him happy. “Did you?”

“Are you smiling?”

“I am,” Carlo admitted.

“Good, you haven’t been doing it a lot.”

“I always smile when I’m with you.” He flicked the smoked out cigarillo to the grass.

“You spoiled us by staying and now when you’re gone we feel lonely. Are you coming home tomorrow?”

“I’ll be there, cara . Soon. I promise.”

“Are you smoking?”

He glanced to the grass and the dying amber of his last smoke. “No.”

“Are you drinking?”

“Only at bedtime when missing you becomes too much,” he said.

“Be careful. Promise me?”

“I promise. You sleep well. Need anything let the boys know.”

“I’m fine. We’re fine. We have this fancy apartment now. We’re okay.”

“I’ll call in the morning.”

“Bye, love you,” Adara hung up.

Renaldo plopped down in the chair across from Carlo when the call ended. Carlo put his mobile phone in his blazer pocket.

“I think you should sit this one out brother,” Renaldo advised.

“Why? Does Giovanni think I’ll piss my pants?” Carlo asked.

“No. The boss is leaving it up to you. But you know what we will find. What we will need to do. I think it will be hard on the boss, but if you’re there it’ll make it harder. You understand? He’s more of a brother to you than even Giovanni.”

“I fucked up in Africa. I did. But don’t pretend that this isn’t how Giovanni wanted this entire thing to play out. He uses people. We’re nothing but pieces on a chess board to Gio.”

“Whoa? Someone is in a bad mood.”

“I just see it. See what we are and who he is.” Carlo got up from the chair and paced. Renaldo watched him. “What I say stays between us? Right?”

“Let me guess. It’s your American woman, Shae again?”

“It’s me. I’ve done this shit forever. I’ve been the lackey. I’ve been the bait. I’ve been the gun. I’ve been the monster. Over and over it’s been me. It’s who they say I am and I accepted it?”

“I need to see Shae.”

“Just one visit.”

“She’s in my blood, brother. It’s killing me inside. I have to see her so I can fully commit to my wife.”

“Carlo? The boss was clear. You have a wife and child. You can’t have Shae.”

“I know I have a family. I love Adara and my son. I do. But I keep thinking of Mancini. What he did, how he left his girls behind, what happened to them. Marietta is fucked up in the head because she didn’t have a father....”

“We all are fucked in the head because of our fathers.”

“But Shae... I can’t forget her. I shouldn’t have been forced too. She was my woman and she came here for me. Giovanni had no right!”

“He had every right,” Renaldo said.

“Lorenzo took my brothers from me. Giovanni took my daughter,” Carlo said and paced with his head bowed and hands in his trouser pockets. Renaldo wiped his hand down his face. He looked as if he struggled to agree so Carlo freed him from the obligation. “I respect the life and the boss. But it’s my fucking daughter. My woman—my lady. I won’t betray Adara or the family. I just need to see them. One time. Just one time. And I’ll let them go.”

“Adara is your wife.”

Carlo closed his eyes. “I fucking know that!”

“I wonder?” Renaldo said.

“If this place is fucking with you?” Renaldo asked.

Carlo frowned. He looked around the Mancini palazzo and then to Renaldo. “Fuck this place.”

“You said it. Right? Mancini probably paced this same floor decades ago. Wanting his American black woman when he had a wife and son here in Sicily needing him. Thing is you remember it differently. Isn’t the story that he went to see his American lady one last time. And after that visit it destroyed her. Because he had to choose and tell her that she wasn’t the one he’d wanted. And look what happened to her when he left her behind. Remember what his enemies had done to him, by killing her. You seeing Shae is selfish. You telling her that you have a wife and a son is cruel. The boss isn’t guessing at the best way to handle this. He knows. We all know how it ends Carlo. Let her go.”

Renaldo stood. “Shae is safer and so is your child where they are. If you bring her into your life you have to bring her all the way in. Anything less will destroy her. Giovanni did what you couldn’t do because we have all seen this before. How this ends is never half-way. You married Adara, you have the son you always wanted. Giovanni didn’t become your boss yesterday. He’s been the man he is always. And we chose this life. No one is a victim, Carlo.”

“My daughter is a victim. My women are victims. They always have been.”

“Then stop with the blame and accept the reality. Shae is gone. The last card has been played.”

Carlo cast his gaze out across the gardens. “I wanted her so bad, I wanted her so bad it made me fucking crazy. I put poison in my body to let her go. I should have known God would never let me have her. I should have listened to Abedi.”

“Who the fuck is Abedi?”

“This is my curse. The Mancini curse is mine. God has decided my penance.”

Renaldo chuckled. “God doesn’t care about cursing you. This is just life, my friend. And none of us walk away from it.”

Carlo let go a deep breath. “Fuck you.”

“I’m heading back to Italy tonight,” Carlo mumbled.

“You decided? You don’t want to see the finale?” Renaldo asked. “How it ends for Lorenzo?”

“I had my shot. I blew it. Like you said, no point in my being there.” Carlo walked off to leave the conversation on his word. He knew Renaldo was right. As much as he wanted to blame Giovanni and Umberto for losing Shae he could not. He drowned his sorrow in drugs and liquor. He was clean and focused for Adara. His word was his bond. He planned to honor his vows and put his heart’s pain away.

THE FAMILY WOKE IN the same celebratory mood that consumed them the night before. Many of them were returning to Sorrento with Mirabella. And though Catalina loved them all, she was happy to see them go.

She heaved Lorenza on her hip and kissed the baby. “Say goodbye.”

Lorenza sucked on her pacifier and blinked at her surrogate mother. Mirabella kissed the baby. “Auntie loves you. Auntie will always love you.”

Mirabella then looked at Catalina. “I want to be here for when you give birth. To support you. Maybe Zia should stay.”

“No. I’m fine. I have my team, and Domi,” Catalina glanced at Dominic standing over with the men laughing. He glanced her way so she averted her gaze. Giovanni had stripped him of power. He did have authority in Palermo but he answered to Gio on everything. And Dominic didn’t seem affected by it. He only concentrated on her and the home she wanted to make. Though their relationship hadn’t improved, she did respect the sacrifice he was willing to make.

“Besides I got four weeks before my little one hatches!”

Mirabella touched Catalina’s belly. She leaned in and whispered so that no one could hear. “It will be okay. Maybe not now, but someday you’ll see. Trust me, trust your brother.”

Catalina didn’t have a chance to respond. Mirabella turned and walked away. Her entourage followed. Kyra was the only one of them to stop and kiss her goodbye. Catalina walked the family out. Giovanni was outside with his kids. He picked them up one by one and said a personal goodbye. The last goodbye was reserved for Mirabella. She passed him his daughter and Giovanni held her under the sunlight. Catalina smiled at the happiness she saw in her brother. Was Mirabella right? Should she finally let go and trust him to do what is best for the family?

After everyone was secured in the caravan Catalina watched them all drive away. Giovanni approached her with his men following.

He stopped before her and looked up into her eyes. “We should talk,” he said.

She nodded that she agreed. Together they went back inside the house. Lorenza was a calm baby. She rarely fussed. Catalina couldn’t get enough of her. When Giovanni reached for the child she hesitated at first. Lorenza leaned into his reach and he brought her over into his arms. Catalina observed her brother as he tickled and played with the three month old. They had a bond she didn’t see before.

“You’re good with her,” Catalina said.

“You expect me to be mean to my little cousin?” Giovanni responded.

“She’s your niece,” Catalina corrected him.

“No. She’s not.”

“Giovanni I don’t want to argue about this anymore.”

“Have a seat,” he said. He gave a nod to his men. They walked out and Renaldo closed the doors to the parlor. The capu secured the room so that she and her brother had privacy. Lorenza laughed as she tried to reach her foot while sitting on Giovanni’s left thigh. He tickled her side and she dropped back on him and gave the biggest smile of gums and two bottom teeth. You could see them briefly before she popped the pacifier pinned to her shirt, back in her mouth. Giovanni stroked her cheek with his index finger. It was the same affectionate touch he had with Eve. Lorenza relaxed and stared at Catalina. The baby settled against Giovanni as if she belonged in the conversation.

“What is it you want to talk about?” Catalina asked. She rubbed her hands over the tops of her thighs to keep from reaching for Lorenza again.

“Something you should have been told. No one knows this, but Mirabella. Not even Dominic. I’ll let you explain the truth to him.”

“He should know. He should be your consigliere.”

“He’s underboss now. He and you will run Palermo.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“I’m going to tell you the truth. A truth the women in this family find it hard to do. Zia has filled your head with lies. Lorenzo is not our brother.”

“Oh Giovanni, can we please stop this—”

“Be silent,” he warned. “I never believed this story about a long lost secret brother and neither should you. Not because Patri was incapable of the crimes he was accused of. I am no fool. I know what kind of man our father was. I saw what he did to our mother. The unfiltered version before you were born. The man that made her madre from him to Ireland to beg for scraps to feed us both. I knew the reasons why he broke her spirit before she gave up on freedom. She existed to protect us. You existed to appease Patri.”

“He was a good father,” Catalina said.

“Yes. And he was a selfish one. What is one bastard over another to Patri? Do you really think he would cast Lorenzo away? His first born son? To pick me? A boy who wasn’t even conceived yet?”

“Zia doesn’t lie.”

“You’re a woman now. A mother. You’re a widow. Zia was a mother once. But she lost that child. Think about your grief. Armando’s death was hard on you. No? What would the loss of the baby you’re carrying do to you? How far would grief push you?”

“I don’t understand. Zia lied to me because she lost her son?”

“Zia and Rocco shared the lie. Because they never forgave themselves over the death of Arturo. You know her story. Her pain. You know her past better than me.”

“Rocco is Lorenzo’s father. His jealousy of Patri was the same as Lorenzo’s jealousy of me. He kidnapped that girl and forced her to be his whore. Mama and the girl both lived in Mondello. They were friends. And after Lorenzo was born the young girl killed herself in front of Mama. Zia refused to recognize Lorenzo as Rocco’s son so he and Flavio gave the baby to Isabella. That bitch was insane enough to take the deal to have a child to kick around as punishment over Rocco conspiring with Tomosino for taking her daughter from her. Lorenzo is Rocco’s son.”

“This can’t be true,” Catalina shook her head.

“Zia confessed.”

“But why lie? Why now?”

“Every time this family faces a crisis the reaction is to lie, run, manipulate, betray or hide. Is it not?”

“I was there, Gio. I may have been young but I remember you two and Patri. I remember how Rocco treated you both. He never looked at Lorenzo as if he were his son.”

“Zia says Lorenzo looks just like his mother. Same eyes and everything. Rocco couldn’t accept Lorenzo. Not when he saw the truth every time he looked at him. His deathbed lie was his attempt to save his son’s life. To give Lorenzo the power he never had over Patri. To give Lorenzo power over me.”

Catalina loved her family with all her being but this was too much. She could trust no one. When she looked up again her brother was holding Lorenza. He was rubbing his nose against hers.

“What is the answer, Gio?” she asked.

“Lorenza is the answer. Aren’t you, bambina?” he said and Lorenza grabbed his nose. “She will return to her mother. They have been separated long enough. Don’t you agree?”

“Yes. Yes, Gio. A baby needs her mother. Marietta has been punished. It’s time it ends. But what happens to Lorenzo?”

“We men have our own way to settle things. Trust me, Catalina. You don’t need to know what happens next. Whatever I do, I do it for the family.”

“You aren’t Patri, Gio. Maybe Lorenzo is more like him than we both think. But you aren’t him. You’re not mother, either. You’re Gio. I’m sorry I let you down before. I’m sorry for the lies and deception. I believe in us, our family. I do.”

Giovanni nodded. “We leave in two days.” He stood and walked over to bring the baby to her. Catalina accepted the baby who immediately began to snuggle her. She was the sweetest child.

Giovanni gave his sister a smile and left her alone. There she sat rocking Lorenza in her arms until the little one slept on the curve of her breast and belly. Dominic arrived a few minutes after Lorenza slipped into her nap.

“Giovanni is headed to Bagheria tonight,” he said.

“I know. He told me. What time do you leave?”

“I’m not going. Renaldo and his men have it from here.”

“He said you weren’t consigliere. He walks around as if he doesn’t need one. You and I both know he does. What he is about to do, Domi, it will change this family forever. I just feel it. Gio needs you. You should be there. In the end,” Catalina said.

Dominic stared at her as if unsure.

“Like I said. I’m here if you need me, and even if you don’t.” He turned and walked out. Catalina looked down at Lorenza and brushed her curly locks with her fingers. “It was you that did the magic wasn’t it sweetheart? To soften Giovanni’s heart. Soon you will see your mother again. Giovanni will have to show mercy. Let’s pray that this is the end of it. For all of us.”