La Famiglia (53 page)

There wasn’t any sign that she heard or understood him. Giovanni pressed her hand to the side of his tear soaked face. “No more secrets. They’ve hurt us too much, mine and yours. I understand that now. I’ve learned a lesson… I have. I swear it.” He kissed her hand.

Giovanni set her hand down gingerly. He dropped back in his seat with a deep exhale. He stared at his wife and considered all they faced. He would have to do today the things necessary to make forgiveness between them possible.

“Someone wants to see you,” he said. He chewed on his bottom lip and struggled with the rest of his news. “I won’t lie to you… I want to be selfish. I want to keep them all away. But I know you need me to be stronger than my pride.” His gaze switched to the door to the room. “But I swear to you, Bella, none of them will come between us. Ever.” After a long moment he forced himself to stand. He leaned over and smoothed her hair from her brow. He kissed her on the forehead twice.
“Sei la mia blu rosa. Vita mia,”
he whispered that she was his blue rose, his life.

Giovanni walked into the bathroom in her room and cleaned his face to ensure his face was cleared of any evidence of tears. Once done, he collected himself before he opened the door. Marietta looked up at him. She had eyes like his wife. It was damn hard to look into her eyes. Unable to speak he simply nodded for her to come inside and held the door open wide for her to pass through. Before he didn’t see the resemblance between the sisters, now each time he looked at Marietta all he saw was his wife. She was hesitant in her steps at first. He observed her as she passed under the threshold. Marietta paused just inside of the door. “What is wrong with her?” Marietta asked softly.

“Her heart stopped during delivery. Thanks to you,” Giovanni said. He regretted the comment the moment it parted his lips.

Marietta’s head sharply turned. She looked up at him with defiance. “You mean thanks to us. Me and you,” she replied.

Giovanni had to smile. “Yes, because of us,” he agreed.

Marietta returned her gaze to Mira. “Will she wake soon?” she asked.

“They put her in a coma. The doctors say we can only do short visits. You have ten minutes.” Giovanni left the room. He sucked down a deep breath in the hall and stood guard at the door.

Marietta found a chair had been brought close to the side of the bed. She wanted to sit but she didn’t know if it was appropriate considering what happened between them. She approached the foot of the bed. “Mirabella, it’s me. Marietta,” she said. She cleared her throat. “I... I’m so sorry, about everything. Forgive me. I knew you were on bed rest and I…” Marietta stopped herself. Nothing she said could change the events of the day. “You have to wake up. I never had a sister. I’ve always wanted one.” She wiped her tears. The admission was dredged from a deep place of longing.

“Your boys and little girl need you.” Marietta sucked down a deep breath for bravery and continued. “So many people need you.”

Mira didn’t stir. Not a hint of understanding was evident. Marietta walked around the bed and sat by the side of it. “Weird, huh? You and me? When I think on it I always felt I had… someone like me in the world. I hated my adoptive father he was a… very cruel man. He used to lock me in a closet when I was little. He would hit us for anything he thought we did wrong. I… uh, I would hide in my room and pretend I was somewhere else. Like with another family, ya know? I knew I had one. I felt you.” Marietta wiped her tears from her cheeks. “That’s why I came to Italy. Because of this feeling that I belonged somewhere, to someone. I thought it was my real father or mother, but it was you. Wasn’t it?”

Marietta closed her eyes. “I’m rambling. I know. I’m not good with words. I just say whatever’s in my head. There’s so much I want to know about you, about my real family. Our grandparents. The farm? Is it still there?” Marietta sighed, deeply. She cleared her throat and tried to be more eloquent. “I want to tell you about me. I owned a store, a business. I make things, like you. I was a decorator. Or I tried to be…” her voice trailed off.

Marietta’s eyes fell on Mira’s hand. Her sister’s diamond wedding ring glistened on her finger. She lifted her own hand and reached to touch Mira’s but her courage failed her. She couldn’t. She lowered her hand back to her lap. “You don’t know me. You don’t have to know me if you don’t want to. But you have that little girl, and your twins. Do you want your children to grow up without you?” Marietta asked. “Please don’t give up!”

“You heard her.” A voice said. “You aren’t a quitter are you?”

Mira’s gaze volleyed from left to right. The atmosphere was thick like smoke. It smelled and tasted of nothing but the fogged air made visibility impossible. When she turned in search of an exit the person who spoke walked out of a cloud of nothingness. Fabiana. Her friend looked unchanged. Her thick scarlet hair hung in graceful curves around her shoulders and was as radiant as her blue eyes. She wore the yellow dress Mira loathed and shook her hips as a reminder that she loved to tease Mira.

“Well? Do I get a hello?” Fabiana grinned.

Mira went to her friend. Fabiana opened her arms to her. She hugged her. She wept.

“How could he do this to us?” Mira sniffed. “How could I be so wrong about Giovanni?”

Fabiana hugged her tighter and Mira clung to Fabiana with all her might. “I’m sure he had his reasons, Mira. Men. They always have their reasons. And a man like Giovanni Battaglia has the most complicated of reasons. Right? You do realize that now?”

Mira let her go. “Everything has fallen apart. My children, I don’t know if they will make it. And Giovanni…”

“What about Giovanni?” Fabiana asked in a voice that sounded eerily similar to her conscience.

“I know what he is. But with me… he was supposed to be different. I thought trust was something unbreakable between us after our past mistakes. He’s not the man I thought he was.”

Fabiana touched her face. “Isn’t he?”

Mira closed her eyes to the question. Giovanni was many things, but with her he was supposed to be different. Now she knew he wasn’t. 

“You have a sister?”

Mira nodded and tried to hide her smile. How could joy and anger exist in her at one time? It made no sense. “I think so.”

“A twin? How the hell did that happen?” Fabiana laughed.

“I have no idea. All of it is so strange to me.” Mira lifted her gaze to Fabiana’s. “I can’t do this. I don’t want to see Giovanni, hear his excuses. I don’t know what I feel right now about his lies. And her… Marietta. Who is she? Really? I don’t know how to wake up one day and find out you have a long lost twin. How does a person deal with that?”

“Giovanni first. Deal with him. He’s your husband.”

“Don’t remind me,” Mira sighed.

“I have a question?”

“Go ahead,” Mira said.

“Is it possible you feel how he did?” Fabiana asked. Mira walked away from her. She stared out into the emptiness. Fabiana was close. She could feel her even in the haze of her mind. “When you took Eve from him, how did he feel the day he learned you kept his daughter a secret?”

“So that’s why he did this? Revenge? To punish me?” Mira asked.

“Possibly, or maybe he did it for the same reasons you did back then.” Fabiana touched her shoulder. “Maybe he did it out of fear. Love can make you do some of the craziest things. Look at me.”

“Look at you. None of this is real. You’re gone. Forever. And some days I can pretend it doesn’t hurt. But there are other days. Hard days. I can barely get out of bed because I miss you so much.”

Fabiana’s smile dimmed, her blue eyes glistened with tears. “I’m in your heart. Whenever you need me I’m here. Always. Forever.” Fabiana said.

Mira nodded. “Did you know, Fabiana? When you met Mancini, did you know he was my father?”

Fabiana didn’t answer.

Mira put her hands to her head. “Teddy had to have known. He set us up.” Mira remembered the days of Teddy selling her on the idea of moving to Italy. How relentless he was. “The letter Marietta gave me. It said… Giovanni’s father put a contract on my mother. That can’t be possible. Can it?”

“I don’t know, sweetheart,” Fabiana answered.

“Did Giovanni know?” Mira touched her heart. “When he met us, when he found my bracelet? Did he know? Were we set up by him? Why? Is my entire life with him a lie?”

“Ask him, Mira. None of the answers are here with me. I wish I had them for you. I wish for so many things. You have to stop running from what you fear. The only thing that can heal your family now is your love for them. Your strength.”

Mira sighed. “You said something was coming. This?”

Fabiana walked towards her. “You are Donna Mirabella Battaglia. That means so many different things to so many different people, including your husband. You’re going to have to decide what it means to you. Something is coming, a big change, and that something is you,” Fabiana said.

“Will you stay with me?” Mira asked.

Fabiana laughed. That musical laughter of hers was the same. “Where else would I go? I’ll stay, sweetheart, for as long as you want me to.”

The door opened. Marietta lifted her head and Giovanni walked back inside. She glanced to Mira. Her sister continued to breathe through the tube. Not even a flicker of movement under her eyelids. “Can I stay? I want to,” Marietta said.

He nodded his head. She watched him go to the other side of the bed and bring another chair with him. He sat to Mira’s right. They faced each other with Mira between. Giovanni’s cool violet blue eyes were hard and his stare unrelenting. She held his stare with equal accusation and dislike until she could no longer stand it. She returned her attention to her sister. This time she reached for her hand and touched it. She caressed the top of it. No matter what happened she would not leave her side. No matter what comes next. 

* B
*

Lorenzo watched from the parking lot. Armando helped Mancini into their car. Lorenzo made sure to escort them out of the hospital without incident. His effort did little to quell the tension between them. Mancini glared at Lorenzo from the inside of the car. The raw anger he saw in the old man was an open threat they would have to deal with. And soon. Before Armando got behind the wheel he smirked at Lorenzo and gave him a simple nod. Lorenzo nodded his head in response to the challenge.

The Mancinis drove out of the lot with their men following.

“Lo?” Renaldo said.

“How many men here?” Lorenzo glanced back at Renaldo.

“Six.”

“I need ten more. Every floor and entrance of this
ospedale
needs to be covered. Understand?”

“That means I can only keep three at Villa Mare Blu,” Renaldo said.

“Do it.”

Renaldo nodded. “I have been unable to reach Domi. I’ve left several messages and contacted Santo. He will locate Domi and deliver the news.”

“How is Gio? How has he been?”

“Not well, Boss. But Catalina’s here and she helps. She’s with the
bambini
. I heard one of the nurses say they don’t expect one of the
bambinos
to make it. He’s really sick.”

Lorenzo glanced up at Renaldo. “Call Bagheria. Speak to Vito. Tell him the news. He’ll bring in the family—my aunts and cousins. If we lose one of the babies we need the family here.”

Renaldo turned to leave and Lorenzo stopped him. “Call
Cardinal Callori di Vignale
and inform him of the birth of the twins.” Renaldo nodded and walked off. Lorenzo wiped his hand down his face. He could kill Giovanni for this. He warned him. They all did. His cousin was blinded by his selfish almost arrogant devotion to his wife. He could never see clearly when it came to Mirabella. History between those two predicted this outcome.

The only option left to Lorenzo was to bring Giovanni through his anger and fears. Lorenzo looked up to the sky. He felt the weight of his wife and cousin’s suffering on his shoulders. Both would blame themselves if the baby died. Mira had to survive this. The boys had to survive this. If they didn’t he’d lose Gio to insanity and Marietta as well. He turned and walked back inside.

* B
*

Giovanni’s gaze switched from his wife to the door when Lorenzo walked inside. He watched his cousin approach Marietta. He squeezed and massaged her shoulders before leaning over and brushing a kiss across her cheek. Lorenzo whispered something to Marietta that made her nod her head with obedience.
Where was this obedience when she was with his wife telling her all of his secrets?

Lorenzo’s gaze lifted and locked on Giovanni. Without a word between them Giovanni stood and walked out. He could sense Lorenzo followed. The conversation they needed to have couldn’t be had in the hall. They searched two rooms before they found an empty one. He threw the door opened and walked inside. Lorenzo closed the door.

“How bad is it?” Lorenzo asked.

“Her heart stopped. A stroke is what they said. The doctor put her in the coma. They were worried about organ failure,” Giovanni said. He sat on the edge of the bed. “She’s been through hell but she’s alive.”

“And Mancini?” Lorenzo asked.