Page 241 of La Dolce Vita

"He won't take all these risks. Lorenzo would rather die than..."

"What other choice do you have? This is it! Do it! Okay?"

"I'm sorry, I’m so sorry," Marietta said.

"It's not your fault. It’s Lorenzos!"

"It is. I've known for years. It's how Lorenzo and I met. Isabella sent me the taped confession from Lorenzo and I met with him. I've always known this secret."

Mirabella couldn't accept the shocking news. "You knew this was coming? You knew all these years?"

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry? You have destroyed my husband!" Mirabella shouted. “Giovanni is... he’s out of control. I can’t reach him. You should have told me.”

"You would have told Giovanni."

"Yes! The right way. We could have prevented this! You let Armando and Isabella play games with our lives!"

"I was protecting Lorenzo."

"At what cost? Lorenzo brought this on us. The day you knew I was your sister you should have told me. What about us? Our loyalty to each other! What about that?"

"I'm only loyal to my husband. Just like you are only loyal to yours. I can't trust your husband to do the right thing. He is capable of killing his own cousin. Isn't he?"

Mirabella put her hand to her face. "Giovanni is the bad guy because that's what you and Lorenzo's lies have made him! You guys never give him a chance. You just deliver at his feet the very worst and expect him to be the very best. Who are you to sit in judgment of him? Lorenzo killed his father the day he conspired against him. That was a choice. And the difference between our husbands is the fact that Giovanni would have never done that to him!"

"I'm so sorry," Marietta said.

"Me too." Mirabella hung up.

She dropped her head and cried.

***

"Where is Dominic?" Nico was the first to ask.

Renaldo came through the door when the question was thrown out. They were meeting in the front area ofvilla Rosso. The door to the boss’s office was closed. Nico, Carlo, and Umberto were also present. He noticed that Lorenzo was absent. Giovanni sat in a chair by himself with a drink in his hand. The side of his face rested between his thumb and his pointer finger.

"Dominic will not be coming," Renaldo said.

It was the first time Giovanni’s gaze swivled his way.

"I'm sorry to tell you this, Boss, but..."

"I already know. And we don't need him for this meeting.” Giovanni sat forward. He set the whiskey glass down and pulled out a small cassette tape player. Carlo’s and Renaldo’s eyes met. They both questioned the mood of their boss. They had seen it before. And it was never good.

"I don't know how many tapes are in circulation. But each of you here will hear this truth now and not in the streets."

Giovanni pressed play.

The men fell silent. They listened to a jovial talk between Lorenzo and a now dead Giuseppe Calderone. The men on the tape discussed the unfairness of life. Being regulated to shadows behind their Dons. Giuseppe loathed and despised his brother and father. And Lorenzo had the same feeling for Tomosino and Giovanni. They laughed at Giovanni's bastard status. The fake Don is what they called him. It was Giuseppe who stroked Lorenzo's ego. Who talked about him being a far better leader. Especially if they could traffic drugs through the triangle. Lorenzo said the only way it could happen is if Tomosino was dead. Giuseppe seized on that thought. He talked through a plan where the men would do the favors. This way they both would be beholden to their sinister bond. And Giuseppe guaranteed Giovanni would learn his place quickly. That theCamorrawould choose Lorenzo over the half-breed. At first, Lorenzo agreed and even gave suggestions of how it could be done. But then it sounded as if his cousin bored with the conversation. He told Giuseppe that it was a pipe dream, and they need not waste their time on it. He then dismissed the idea and suggested they go back in and have more drinks.

Giovanni shut off the tape.

The men exchanged looks and a few mumbled disbeliefs.

"I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that was a conversation of a drunken man. Shit talk. We all do it. You want to believe that Lorenzo didn't betrayPatri. But think of what happened afterward. Think of who we all became because of the Calderone war. Think of the blood spilled because he never told us this truth. He went out there and killed Giuseppe to bury this secret."

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