La Famiglia Read online

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart. So sorry,” he pleaded.

  “Oh God what have I done? What have you done?” she shouted at him doubling over. “My mother was murdered by your father? I have a twin sister and you knew! You bastard. Did you have Fabiana killed too?” Mira wept. She wiped her tears and snot from her face with the back of her hand.

  Violent spasms seized her pelvis. She felt like the air was squeezed from her lungs. She gasped. Mira knew instantly something was wrong. Through the discovery of her sister and her husband’s undeniable lies she had forgotten the most important thing. Her babies. “Gio—something, it hurts,” she went to her knees.

  Giovanni caught her by the elbows to make sure she landed softly.

  “What is it?”

  “Pain,” Mira wheezed. She clung to him. “I can’t breathe,” She gasped, and tried to catch her breath. “Help me,” she begged.

  “I got you.” He brought her up into his arms. “Get the doctor! Help me!” he yelled to his men who Mira saw had gathered in the hall. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut as another monstrous bolt of pain speared her pelvis. And that was when she felt her water break.

  “Giovanni, my…”

  He looked at her with horror as he laid her on the sofa outside of the hall. At first she wasn’t sure why until she looked down and saw the blood stain at the bottom of her dress. “Noooo! No God please!!”

  He caught her face. “Calm down, Bella. Look at me. We’re going to take you to the hospital. The only thing you concentrate on is being calm. Do you understand?”

  She panted breaths and contractions came again severely swift. She nodded and worked on her breathing. Giovanni looked around with tears in his eyes. “Bring him. We’re going to the hospital. Now!”

  He picked her up again. When she looked back she saw the bloodstain she left on the sofa and felt weak. She closed her eyes and forced herself to concentrate on breathing. She was put in a car with Giovanni. In his arms she pretended he was still her sweet caring husband who would never destroy her heart the way the lies have. She had to. It was the only way she could find some peace.

  He kissed her face and whispered in her ear that he’d protect her. She nodded that she believed and clung to him. Too afraid to speak or argue. She’d never argue with him again if God would spare her babies and her life.

  Mira began to cry. “I’m so scared,” she wept.

  Giovanni clung to her. “Me too, Bella. I need you to breathe. For our sons, breathe, Bella.”

  Mira nodded her head and practiced on her breathing.

  * B *

  “Put me down!” Marietta screamed.

  Lorenzo threw her into the library. “What the hell have you done? Are you fucking insane!” he shouted at her. He put his hands to his head and began to pace. “What the fuck has happened? How did you find out? Fuck! Holy Fuck!” Before she could answer Lorenzo swung and put his fist into the wood of the door. “Damn it, Marietta!”

  “Yu-yu-you… you lied.” Marietta backed away. “You tricked me. You used me. You lying dog!”

  He dropped his hands to the door and lowered his head trying to calm down. “What you’ve done could cost Mirabella her life, Marietta! Do you understand!” he glanced back at her. “Do you?”

  “Nooooo.” Marietta shook her head hard. “I just told her the truth.”

  “They’re taking her to the fucking ospedale!” Lorenzo turned on her. He was so full of rage that for the first time since that violent fight they had months ago in her hotel room she feared him.

  “I didn’t mean for her to flip out like that. I swear. I just wanted to talk to her. She started screaming and crying. She went to her dresser and got the bracelet. I couldn’t stop her! Things got of control.”

  “Things? Things! You should have never said any fucking thing to her!” he shouted with a finger leveled at Marietta. “You should have come to me!” he slapped his chest.

  “How? How can I come to you when I can’t even trust you!” Marietta yelled back at him. She wouldn’t stand for him blaming her when all of it was his fault. He advanced on her. The look in his eye, the panic in her heart, the tension coiled tighter between them and her instinct was to escape. She’d seen this rage before. She’d seen it every time Octavio came after her. Every time he’d punish her. “Stay away from me! Stay back!” she said shaking all over.

  “Enough of this shit, Marie. Come here…”

  “Stay away!” she screamed and started throwing things at him from the desk behind her. Whatever her hand landed on she threw it. “Stay back!”

  “Marietta, stop acting fucking crazy! Stop it dammit! What the hell is wrong with you?” He lunged for her. Marietta grabbed something round and hard from behind her. She was barely aware of her surroundings when her hand connected with it. When Lorenzo grabbed her arm and his nails bit into her skin she swung and hit him hard to the side of his face. Lorenzo dropped to an unconscious state.

  Breathing hard with her hand gripping the weapon she stared down at him. Her tunnel vision cleared and her thoughts became muddled with confusion. She looked at the weapon in her hand and at Lorenzo who lay sprawled out on the ground. How did he get there?

  “Lorenzo? Lorenzo, are you okay, baby?” She dropped the large globe paperweight. It hit the ground with a thud and then rolled away. She went to her knees. There was blood in his hair. She touched his face. Did she kill him? Was he dead? “Lorenzo, please wake up.” She shook him. She looked down to the blood now on her fingers and struggled to breath. “Lorenzoooo? Wake up! I’m sorry. Wake up. Please. I’m sorry.”

  He lay still as a corpse. She had killed him. She had murdered him. “I didn’t do it. I didn’t.” She scrambled to her feet and fled the room. The house was in a state of chaos. Men were shouting. Catalina, Rosetta, Cecilia, Eve, all of them were crying. Blinded by tears she raced out of the villa and tried two different cars before she found one with the keys inside. She turned over the engine and sped away.

  * B *

  Lorenzo groaned.

  He touched the side of his head in response to the pain.

  “Merda!” he spat. Not sure of what happened he tried to rise from the floor but was brought back down by a wave of dizziness. “Che palle!”

  “What the fuck happened to you?” Carlo walked in. He reached down and brought his friend to his feet. “Who hit you?”

  “Marietta, she’s gone fucking crazy,” he groaned. His vision was blurred and the pain made it hard for him to open his eyes. “Where… where is she?” Lorenzo staggered toward the door. Carlo kept him from dropping again.

  “Maybe you should sit down,” Carlo said.

  “Fuck no!” Lorenzo shoved Carlo off. He had to drop a hand to the wall to keep standing.

  “I thought you had her in here? What the hell happened?” Carlo asked.

  “Find her… we got to. Now!” Lorenzo stretched his eyes to regain sight. “Motherfucker! What the fuck did she hit me with?” Lorenzo groaned.

  “This.” Carlo picked up a marble paperweight. “She could have killed you,” he chuckled.

  “None of this shit is funny!” Lorenzo turned on him. “She’s having one of her fits. We have to find her.”

  “What kind of fit?” Carlo asked.

  “Rage. You know the fucking kind. When she’s backed in a corner she gets like this. She fights. It’s complicated.” Lorenzo dragged down a breath. He dropped a hand to the side of the door to steady himself. “How did she and Mirabella find out the truth?”

  “I don’t know. Gio has left. They are driving the Donna to the ospedale. She bleeds. It must be the babies,” Carlo said.

  “Damn it. This is bullshit. What the fuck has Marietta done?” Lorenzo groaned.

  “Is this Marietta’s fault or yours?” Carlo asked.

  “What did you say to me?” Lorenzo asked.

  Carlo stepped closer. “You lied to her, brother. She’s special and you fucked it up.”

  Lorenzo shoved him. “Specia
l? She’s my fucking wife. I’m the man that knows how special she is. Capice?” He took a step toward Carlo. “Unless you have eyes on my woman? Do you—brother?”

  Carlo glared but backed off with his hands up. “Of course not. I only want to help you.”

  It took a moment for Lorenzo to calm himself. He trusted Carlo with his life, but not with Marietta. He trusted no man with Marietta. He closed his eyes and breathed through his nose slowly. “We have to find her before Giovanni does. You want to help, then help me find her.” Lorenzo marched out of the room. In the hall he ran directly into Cecilia who carried a screaming and hollering Eve in her arms.

  “Where is Marietta?” he asked her.

  “I don’t know,” Cecilia said and hurried off.

  Lorenzo and Carlo split up. He went straight for the bedroom and Carlo went in search of her on the lower level. No one understood Marietta the way he did. To her his lies were proof of something inconceivable to him, that their love was false. And he couldn’t let her go another minute believing that. When he entered the room he froze. He couldn’t believe the destruction wielded by his lady. She trashed everything she could lift or throw. Marietta wasn’t fragile. She’d take a man’s balls if he turned his back on her. And that made her even more dangerous.

  Carlo rushed inside. His eyes stretched at the destruction. He shook his head. “Spoke to the boys, she took Leonardo’s car. He had just stepped out of it and left the keys inside. He said when he saw her speed out of the drive he couldn’t catch her.”

  “Where the fuck could she go?” Lorenzo demanded

  “How the fuck would I know? She’s your wife. Remember?” Carlo replied.

  Lorenzo paced. “How did she find this out? What the fuck happened here? What am I missing?” Lorenzo put his hands to his head. “You head toward Carini. I’m going towards Palermo. Page me if you find her,” he said.

  “Wait.” Carlo stopped him. “I can’t bring her back here, Lo. You saw the scene with Gio. He’ll be out for blood for what she’s done. If I find her I’ll take her to my mother’s in Capaci. You go there as well. I’ll call ahead to make sure the house is empty for you two.”

  “Thanks.” Lorenzo panted. “About what I said earlier. I didn’t mean to say…”

  “Forget it. I understand,” Carlo said.

  “Grazie. She means a lot to me. She’s my life,” he said.

  “You can trust me, Lo. I… I like Marietta,” Carlo said.

  “Andiamo.”

  * B *

  There was so much pain she feared for her life. The lower half of her body felt as if it were twisted into a pretzel knot. Mira opened her eyes. Beyond the blur of tears shadows hovered. Men? She heard voices. She was being pushed. No. She was being wheeled fast down a hall. Fast.

  Mira closed her eyes. “Giovanni,” she wept. None of it made sense to her heart. He was her soul mate. No matter what flaws she saw in him she believed in him. Swore her life to their family and their love. Until now that faith had been unshakeable.

  Who was he now?

  The doors swung open with a loud swoosh. Mira was lifted by the aid of the sheets beneath her. She felt people transfer her to another bed. She could feel the blood sticky between her thighs. And worse of all she didn’t feel her babies any more.

  “Something’s wrong!” she cried out.

  A nurse cut her clothes and underwear from her body. In her heart she knew that the worst had happened. There was no more shouting between the doctors. Those with her had a controlled patience in their tone.

  “Help me please! Something’s wrong. I can’t feel my babies!” Mira said.

  “Signora, relax. We have you.” A person replied before a plastic mask covered her nose and mouth. Mira’s lids fluttered she blinked twice into a blinding light and then slipped into darkness.

  “Giovanni… what have we done?” she whimpered and fell silent.

  * B *

  Giovanni brought both of his hands to his face oblivious of the blood on them. One day his life was what he knew it to be. The next everything he’d done to protect his family collapsed.

  “Bella, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me,” he cradled her in his arms. Renaldo drove dangerously fast around mountainous curves on the two lane highway. He prayed for speed. He prayed for her forgiveness. And he most importantly prayed for her life and the life of his sons.

  “Gino and Gianni,” she said, to him. The tears had stopped. She moaned in pain but said very little about his betrayal. She clung to him as his wife, deeply in need of rescue.

  “I don’t understand,” Giovanni asked. He brought his ear close to her mouth. “What did you say?”

  Mira opened her eyes. She looked at him with a glazed look of despair. “I want you to name them Gino and Gianni. Promise me.”

  “You are going to be okay, Bella. We will name them together. Soon.” Giovanni smiled and blinked away his tears.

  “Promise me!” she said in a stern voice.

  “I promise. I will name them Gino and Gianni.”

  She closed her eyes and relaxed. He kept kissing her face and she managed a smile. That smile strengthened him. The guilt over her suffering became too much for him to bear. “I confess, Bella. I kept the secret. Not because I wanted to harm you. I did it to protect you, us, our family. I failed you. I will make it up to you I swear.” He cradled her in his arms.

  Mira began to sob again.

  “Faster, Renaldo! Drive faster!” he shouted.

  “Boss?” Renaldo said.

  Giovanni’s face lifted from his palms. Renaldo stepped back. Something in his eyes made the fearless enforcer keep his distance. It scared Giovanni as well. Was it the madness that Flavio told him was his father’s curse? He’d suffered some really hard losses; his mother’s death being the worse before he knew Mira. This was something far different from the others. He had no defense to hide his weakness.

  Giovanni lowered his gaze to the floor to conceal his despair. In his life weakness, even seen before the most loyal of soldiers, was a costly mistake.

  “The doctors say they will come for you soon, Boss,” Renaldo said.

  Giovanni mumbled a thanks for the update. He replayed the events of the day. Mira woke up happy. The doctor came and said she was to stay in the bed. The next thing he knew Mira was in his office hysterical with Marietta.

  The recollection rocked him. He sat upright. Marietta? Mira had the necklace and bracelet. Mira knew the truth of his deception because her sister told her. His gaze lifted to Renaldo. “Where is Lorenzo’s wife?”

  “I’m not sure. I believe Villa Mare Blu.”

  Who told Marietta the truth? The women were kept guarded at all times. He owned the truth. He was the dispenser of justice or injustice. And some snake had slithered past him. Yes Marietta was at fault. So was Lorenzo for bringing her to Sicilia. There was, however, another player.

  “Mancini.” Giovanni pounded his fist into his palm. Somehow Mancini had gotten inside his camp. And the old bastard had gotten to his wife. “I want you to find a phone. Call Dominic and tell him to return. Make sure he knows that I need him here now.”

  Renaldo nodded and walked off. If she died, if he lost his children, he’d put a bullet in Mancini himself. He’d burn everything in Palermo to the ground.

  The doctor approached from the left and at first Giovanni didn’t see or hear him. “We must speak, signor. Please come with me.” Dr. Buhari said as he passed. Giovanni was up to his feet and following. They went through doors to another hall and then down to a waiting room that was conveniently empty.

  “What is going on with my wife? Is she okay?”

  “No she isn’t. She’s got preeclampsia,” the doctor said.

  Giovanni refused to believe the news. “She’s fine. She stopped crying when we got here. She said the pain had eased up. Give her something to calm her and—”

  “I’m sorry, signor. We are past that option now. We have to take the babies, to save their lives and hers. You
r wife’s organs are shutting down. And her blood pressure is giving us the most concern.”

  “Okay?” Giovanni said. He wiped both hands down his face. “Okay. Let’s do it. Get the fuck back in there and do whatever it takes!”

  “Let me finish.” The doctor put up both hands that were trembling with nervousness. A nurse walked in with hospital garments for him to change into. “You have ten minutes. You need to get changed into those,” Dr. Buhari said. “Baby A’s head is crowning. If he’s too far down the birth canal we have to deliver vaginally. The ultrasound shows that Baby B hasn’t turned fully. We will massage her belly some more after the delivery of Baby A. We had to sedate her. To relax her, we needed to do this.”

  “How can you deliver the babies if she is sedated, naturally?” Giovanni frowned.

  “We can do it.” The doctor reassured him.

  Giovanni grabbed the doctor by the throat. His sudden act of violence caught him and the doctor by surprise. But he felt trapped by his fears and the glaring reality of his wife’s plight. He couldn’t stop himself. “You save them both you motherfucker. Do you fucking hear me?” The man gripped Giovanni’s wrist in fright. Giovanni tightened his hold on his throat. “You save my sons and my wife or I swear to God I will come for you!”

  “Of course, of course. I will.” The doctor wheezed.

  Giovanni threw the doctor aside and began to change. He kept his gaze trained on the man as he left the room. He shouldn’t have attacked him. He shouldn’t have put fear in the man who was the only one capable to save his family. But everything he did and said was primal now. Without Dominic and Mira to reign him in he could barely get control of his rage.

  “Signor, they are ready?” the nurse stuck her head inside.

  He pulled on the hospital jacket and belted it. Giovanni was then ushered inside. He paused. Not much of her face was seen. A breathing mask covered the lower half of her mouth. A bonnet covered her hair. With legs stiff as boards he approached Mira. She looked as if she were sleeping. He found her hand and caressed the top of it. The doctors talked in hurried voices. He knew the urgency. He understood the risk. But he focused on how much he loved her and the babies. It was love that kept him standing.