La Famiglia Read online

  Zia clasped her hands together. “Yes. Yes. I see,” she chuckled. “He knows mama.”

  “He has an appetite like his father,” Catalina said with a wide grin.

  “So beautiful,” Mira answered. “And yes. Does look like Giovanni. Doesn’t he? When a babe? Does he Zia?” Mira asked.

  Catalina gave a nudge to Zia. Zia nodded that she agreed. “When Gio was born he was so tiny. Just like Gianni. And yes, he does look like him. They both do.”

  Mira brushed her finger over Gianni’s cheek as he nursed. “Mama happy. Sweetheart. So happy my baby.”

  “Mira?” Catalina said.

  “Mmm,” she answered.

  “Maybe we should find Gio? So he could see his son nurse. See that Gianni is getting stronger.”

  “He doesn’t care,” Mira said.

  Catalina looked to Zia. Zia stepped closer. “Of course he cares, Mira. He loves you both. Don’t deny him this.”

  “He can come. If he wants.” Mira shrugged.

  Zia nodded for Catalina to go find them. Catalina hurried out of the room. She found Renaldo in the hall first. “Do you know where Gio is?”

  “Downstairs I think,” Renaldo said.

  “Can you go get him? Please. Tell him Mira said she needs him to come quick. It’s Gianni,” Catalina said.

  Renaldo walked off to do as she ordered. Catalina went back inside. Mira hummed a nursery rhyme to Gianni, it sounded so sweet. She glanced up to Zia who met her stare. They nodded that they were going to help Mira to the best of their ability. When the song ended Gianni stopped suckling. He opened his eyes.

  “Hi, sweetheart. See me? You see me don’t you?” Mira looked up and smiled. “Come quick! Eyes like Eve. Like Giovanni.”

  “Are they blue?” Catalina came close. “Oh my, they are blue. He is truly Gio’s son,” Catalina chuckled.

  The door opened and Giovanni walked in. He looked at Mira holding his son and stopped his approach. Catalina walked over and hooked her arm around her brother’s. “His eyes are open. Mira wanted us to go get you. Your wife and son need you. Come on, don’t be shy.”

  Giovanni nodded. He went to Mira and got down on his knees. She covered her breast and leaned forward for Giovanni to get a good look at his son. Gianni looked at his father and then shut his eyes. Mira chuckled. Giovanni smiled. Giovanni kissed Mira on the lips. Catalina was relieved that Mira kissed him back. Mira was careful to hold him in her arms and gently soothe his back to help him burp. Everyone cheered when Gianni did so.

  “Want to hold him?” Mira asked her husband.

  Dominic brought a chair closer for Giovanni to sit in. Mira nodded encouragingly to Giovanni who opened his arms and Mira gently passed the baby over to him. The family hovered as Gianni opened his eyes and looked up at his father. “He sees me!” Giovanni said.

  The others laughed. Catalina could see the love bloom again between Mira and her brother over their son. Mira even joked that Gianni better not have Giovanni’s appetite because she only had two breasts. She watched them and silently prayed that the worst for her family was past them.

  Dominic’s hand slipped into hers. She squeezed it. He gave her a look that melted her heart. Catalina dropped her head on his shoulder. When she glanced across the room she caught the look of envy on Rosetta’s face. Catalina paused. Rosetta looked away. She hadn’t realized that Rosetta had come to the hospital. But more importantly, she hadn’t paid much attention to Rosetta’s fixation with Dominic. It felt strange.

  * B *

  “Signor, Signora, I’d like to speak with you about Gino.” Dr. Buhari came in amongst the family celebrating. He glanced around at how many were in the neonatal room at once. “I’m sorry but we can’t have this many people in here. Please, only two to three people at a time.”

  Giovanni stood and put Gianni in Mira’s arms. She accepted her son. She was careful. She glanced up to see Giovanni escort the others out the door. She hadn’t seen her husband smile as much since their wedding. Mira glanced over to Gino. While the family had cause to celebrate with Gianni, Gino’s progress was more of a concern. Her heart ached to hold him and feed him from her breast as well.

  “What is it with Gino? Is he improving?” Giovanni asked.

  “Yes. He is.” Dr. Buhari glanced over at Mira. “We see much improvement and he’s put on a little weight for his weigh in. He’s three pounds and six ounces. His lungs are developing. I’m very optimistic.”

  Mira expelled a deep sigh of relief. “Thank you. So much. For everything. You’ve done..”

  “You mustn’t tire yourself. Remember you are recovering as well. Take your time. The doctor admonished. “Your speech will correct itself soon. But you need to be careful not to over stress yourself.”

  “I will. I want… pump breast milk for Gino. Okay?” she asked.

  “Certainly it will be good for him.” Buhari smiled. “But your body may not be fully ready. You need to slow down the pace, signora.”

  The doctor nodded respectfully to Giovanni and left. Mira’s gaze lowered again to a sleeping Gianni who had now settled against her breast.

  “Things are good, Bella. Va bene.”

  Mira didn’t want to hurt or punish Giovanni. She kissed him because it was expected in front of the family, but she felt no need in private to reassure him. She just couldn’t look at him without anger after what he said to her. Until she could she refused to try. But her husband was stubborn. He brought the chair closer to hers and sat in front of her. Mira had no choice but to look up at him.

  “The food isn’t great here. Josefina has brought some thing for you to eat. Marietta is going back with Catalina to collect some clothes and things you need. What else do you want? Maybe something to read?”

  “I’ve told you. Question? You going to… give it to me?” Mira replied.

  “How can you ask that of me?” He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “The happiest I’ve been in days is right here and right now with you and Gianni,” he glanced back. “And Gino. Being here with you and our boys is what we both need, sweetheart. How can you ask me to go away when you know how much I love you?”

  “Not from them. Never ask that,” Mira said.

  “Really? Because you didn’t care when Eve was born now did you?”

  “Stop it, Gio,” Mira sighed.

  “I want forgiveness!” he insisted.

  “No!” she said in a hushed but firm tone.

  “My loving you isn’t about controlling you. My life has rules. And you know damn well why I do what I do,” he answered.

  Mira nodded. “I do. Joke’s on me. See the boys. Wheel a bed in here. Sleep with them. Every night. But not me. No more talk. Space. My way.”

  “No,” Giovanni said, his gaze narrowed and his voice was tight with restraint. She knew he wanted to shout his refusal to the top of his lungs. But he held back. “You won’t keep me from—”

  “Nurse!” Mira cut him off. Giovanni fumed but withdrew. When the nurse came closer he had no choice but to end their argument. She knew he wouldn’t be seen arguing with her in front of others. “Please take Gianni. Need someone to wheel me to my room. Zia is out in the hall. Ask her to come.”

  “Sì, signora,” the nurse took the baby.

  Mira fixed her eyes on Giovanni. “Goodbye.”

  Giovanni wiped his hand down his face. “Fuck this,” he said. He stood and walked away from his chair. He walked to the door and stopped. He looked back at the babies not her. Mira felt another deep pang of regret. But she didn’t say anything. Giovanni left. Mira forced the tears in the corners of her eyes.

  When Zia returned Mira had already made up her mind. She wasn’t going to live by his rules any longer. She was done being the dutiful Mafia wife.

  Later –

  Catalina checked her appearance in the mirror. She looked ravishing and she knew it. From the scarlet red lipstick, to the plunging low cut negligee with just a strip of lace to cover her sex. To the way she teased and curled
her black hair, she was beautiful.

  And the room in the villa was lit with tall vanilla scented candles burning brightly from every corner and pedestal she could find.

  Tonight her date with her Romeo would secure her future as his wife and in his life. Screw all other distractions. Catalina’s dreams for a career could be put on hold for a while. The most important thing to her was Dominic. Period. And she’d prove it to him. The door opened somewhere in the beach villa. “I’m in here, Domi!” she called out.

  He told her he had to meet with Carlo and Lorenzo before Carlo left for Sorrento. She told him to meet her down at their villa. She waited two hours for his arrival. Dominic stepped in the door. She didn’t bother with a robe. And the choice was wise. His gaze raked over her body with the kind of heat that made her skin warm all over. And then his eyes connected with hers. A sly ease upward of the left corner of his mouth meant he approved. “Che cosa è questa?”

  “What is this? Is that what you ask me? You know what this is, Domi. This is me and you. Only me and you,” Catalina said. “Our private reunion, silly man.”

  Dominic shed his suit jacket. He smiled with approval. “I need you,” he said.

  Catalina helped him out of his jacket. She carefully draped it over a chair before he was pulling her to him. She turned into his arms. “Mmm… slow down, I want to seduce you,” she said as he picked her up and carried her to bed.

  “Later.”

  He came down with her. Arousal curled tighter in the pit of her stomach. Her pussy clenched when he palmed her sex. And with two fingers he tickled and then unsnapped the clasp. Dominic brought his two fingers to his mouth and sucked them before lowering and inserting them into her cunt. She hissed in a breath and her eyelashes fluttered shut. He surged his fingers deeper. She knew her soft sighs and moans rewarded him.

  “My pussy, Catalina, say it.”

  “Your pussy,” she said with a naughty smile. “Lick me, Domi,” she pleaded.

  He removed his fingers and trailed them up her slit and played with her clit until she wiggled her hips and gasped from pleasure.

  “Benissima,” he said as his face lowered to between her parted her thighs. He blew on her labia and then parted the lips of her sex with two fingers. The flick of the tip of his tongue to her clit caused her to shiver.

  She tasted tangy and then sweet. The spicy edge of her essence compelled him further. He licked her pussy, toyed with the tiny nub of sensitivity until her ass bounced on the bed sheets. Dominic chuckled. He slowed the lap of her sex with soft strokes just as her hands sank into his hair and she pushed his face deeper between her thighs.

  “Yes, Domi! Oh yes!” she cried out. “Scopami! Scopami!” She gyrated against his mouth, smashing her sex against his lips and invading tongue.

  Dominic wanted her to come but not yet. The first time she released he had to be inside of her, deep inside of her.

  With great reluctance he pulled away from her pussy. He rose up on his hands and knees then sat back on his haunches. Catalina let go a small cry of frustration. Her sex was on display to him, a pink dewy plump center he owned. His dick thickened and he stroked himself. Catalina’s lids were half cast and her eyes held a dazed look of desire. She touched herself for him. Tweaked her nipple and fingered her pussy. Dominic smiled. The room smelled of her and the waxy burn of candles. It was intoxicating. Hunger washed over him like a wave of heat. He stroked his dick harder, to the point of eruption.

  “Scopami!” she cried out. It was a desperate plea to be fucked by him. La piccoletta, his beautiful Italian princess. His heart’s wish. Oh yes, he’d fuck her. He’d fuck her all night.

  Now he was ready.

  Without warning he knocked her hand away and came down on her hard and urgent. He thrust his hips forward and sank into her tight heat. Her inner walls contracted tight with a securing grip around his plunging dick. Dominic pulled out slow and thrust in hard, with repeated frequency. He rocked up and down against her body desperate to hold back his climax until she was ready.

  “Faster! Faster! Fuck me harder!” she clawed at his back and rolled her pussy around his dick with each thrust. It was all he could do from coming right then and there. His mind and heart was swimming with emotion. She met every thrust and clung to him. With a deep groan he gripped her by the buttocks and fucked her with unrelenting mercy until they both succumbed to their joyous reunion. And what sweet bliss it was.

  * B *

  Giovanni lifted his face from his hands. He checked his watch. It was close to midnight. The staff at the hospital gave him a room next to Mira’s. But he hadn’t gone inside. Instead he sat outside of her door. Waiting for the impossible, for his wife to send for him, welcome him back into her heart. The impossible never came.

  After another indecisive moment passed he stood. He had grown accustomed to the body aches he’s suffered the past few days. He walked toward Mira’s door and stopped himself. She fed Gianni and pumped milk from her breasts for Gino. All of this was done with the aid of the nurses and Zia. He was updated on her actions both successes and stumbles, but not included. With Zia gone and the hospital staff off on other duties there was no one between them.

  He pressed his palm to her door and turned the handle with the other. Slowly he eased it open. Darkness greeted him. He stuck his head inside. Mira lay on her side. She slept. Giovanni was careful to not disturb her as he entered. When he approached the bed he saw that she looked peaceful. He couldn’t help but smile at her. He adjusted the blanket and made sure she was comfortable. He brushed his lips very lightly across her cheek. He then found his usual spot in the room and settled back into a chair to watch over her while she slept. He vowed to do so for only a few minutes until the anxiety in his chest lessened. That was his vow.

  Mira turned in her sleep. She opened her eyes. Giovanni had posted up in the chair not far from her bed. The man refused to listen or respect her wishes. He was as stubborn as he was adorable when he slept. Mira flopped on her back with heavy sigh. She glanced over to him once more. It was cold in the hospital room. Possibly all hospitals kept the temperature low to ward off germs or freeze the patients into staying alive. She had to smile. Zia told her Giovanni slept in the chair all through her coma. What he needed was to be in bed with her, so she could comfort him. Put him against her breast as she did often when he returned from a hard day. But even if she could bring herself to let go of her disappointment in him to do so, her bed wasn’t big enough.

  She tossed her sheet back. She put her feet to the ground. She felt strength in her legs. When she stood she felt even more. She lifted the extra blanket folded at the foot of the bed and walked over to her husband with a sluggish yet straight posture. She shook out the blanket and covered him. Giovanni didn’t stir. He was a light sleeper usually but she imagined that he was quite tired.

  Standing over him she noticed everything about him. How undeniably handsome and overgrown he was for the tantrums he was throwing. She derived no pleasure out of his suffering. She wished she could do as Marietta had done with Lorenzo and just let this one go. But the trust between them was all she had in their stormy life. Without it she felt lost, deceived, and disillusioned. If they continued this way it could destroy their marriage. How else could she make him understand the consequences of his lies?

  Mira reached to touch his face and stopped her hand with her fingers just centimeters from his cheek. She lowered her hand. Maybe tomorrow things would feel different? Maybe the anger will have gone? She prayed so.

  She shuffled back to bed. Climbing under the covers she drew up the blankets and lay on her side. She watched over him from her bed until sleep stole her away.

  * B *

  With quiet reverence Lorenzo ran his fingers over his wife’s body. He loved her body. Every inch of her was burned into his memory. There were times when he could just watch her, not touch her. And he’d often felt such raw intense passion for her he’d have to fix himself in his pants. It was lust, yes.
But there was something else about his Marietta. Such a fiery undeniable love tie that he was certain of his fidelity and commitment to her unlike his past relationships with women.

  Lorenzo’s fingertips brushed her navel piercing and the belly chain glistened on top of her brown skin. He kissed the toffee colored peak of one nipple and then the other.

  Marietta stroked the top of his head. “It was Gemma,” she said. “She was the one who told me the truth.”

  His gaze lifted from her belly to her face. “Gemma? Where did you see Gemma?”

  “I bumped into her at the restaurant called Belina’s in Palermo. I told her about us being married and she told me about the secrets you and the Battaglias kept. Why I should fear you and not marry you.”

  Lorenzo eased up on the bed to lie on his side. He put a hand to the belly he hoped one day would carry his child. “I understand why you held back from telling me,” he said.

  She placed her hand over his and stared down at their fingers as they intertwined. “She was like a mother to me, Lo. She was the only person in my shit life to give me hope. I owe her so much.” She glanced up at him. “I’m telling you because trust goes both ways. I broke your trust with Carlo. I can’t take it back, just like you can’t take back lying to me about my mother and father. But I want us to move forward. Can I trust you not to hurt Gemma?” she asked.

  He kissed her brow. “How does Gemma know so much about your mother and Mira? Did you ever stop to think it over?”

  “She said she met my mother. That she knew her before she died.”

  “And she has lied to you before. You choose to believe her now?” he asked.

  He saw Marietta consider his words. He didn’t like a loose cannon like Gemma running around and bad mouthing his family. Especially with knowledge no one outside of the family knew. Marietta turned over and wrapped her arm around his waist. He held her. They lay in silence for a long moment. “I won’t hurt Gemma. But you have to promise me to stay away from her. If she contacts you again you tell me immediately where she says she is. I want to have a talk with her.”