Page 31 of La Dolce Vita

Giovanni began to whistle the melody. He took the gun from Dominic and turned it over in his hand. He remembered Henry with his bright red hair and face covered in freckles, whistling the song and smiling at him. "Henry said it was the song in my mother's heart when she gave birth to me. Knowing I was conceived in rape. He said Mother knew that I carried my father's evil spirit inside of me. He said it's the song they will play at my funeral. It is my death song."

"That's bullshit," Dominic said. "Madrewas not raped. It's a lie!"

"I thought so at first."

"It's a lie Gio. I heard some women say thatMadrewas a disgrace azoccolettain Sicilia. It was in the market one day when I went shopping withMadre. I was eight. I askedMadrewhat the word meant and why they said it about her. She said it as a lie. She said she lovedPatri, and he would never hurt her."

"Madredid love him, but it doesn't change who our father was. What he did to her."

"I don't believe it, Gio." Dominic tried to stand. Giovanni grabbed his arm. He forced him to sit and listen.

"I was there, Domi. I called father to come collect us and bring us home. The look onMadre'sface when he showed up that day is one I will never forget. The look of defeat and sadness. She wore it for many years afterward; I knew the truth," Giovanni said. "Strange how a boy as young as Henry could see the devil in me. He had known before I did what I was to become.”

“You’ve become a brother, a father, a husband, a leader.”

"Father was all those things too. If I'm not careful, I'll become him."

"Why is that a terrible thing? You've taken the family further than he or Grandfather ever could. We are Battaglia, and that means something." Dominic pounded his fist into his palm.

Giovanni reached for his gun. He raised the weapon and closed one eye as he took aim at a lamp. "In the early days when I was a killer and not just your brother, I'd whistle Danny Boy when I pulled the trigger and sent a motherfucker off to the grave. When I cut up Kei Hyogo with a machete as he begged for his life, I whistled Danny Boy. When the reaper comes for me, Dominic, I want you to tell Mirabella to sing that song over my grave, as mymadredid forPatri."

"You will outlive all of us," Dominic said.

"I know how this ends for me. When I took the vow ofOmerta, I accepted it. Maybe I'll live to see my sons turn to men, to walk myluccioladown the aisle, to repair my Bella’s faith in people again and earn her forgiveness for forever changing her life. Maybe? One thing I know for certain, I won't leave this earth until all my enemies are named and dead."

"Of course, you will live, Gio," Dominic said.

"I'm done being at odds with who my mother wanted me to be, and who my father taught me to be. I'm done tolerating my enemies. I'm done being two steps behind the men who are supposed to walk in my shadow. Do you understand, Dominic?"

Dominic nodded. “I’m done being little brother. I’m yourconsigliere.I’m a man. I want you to see me as your equal not some pup you have to potty train.”

They settled into a comfortable silence.

"How does the song go Gio?"

"Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling..."

Giovanni set the gun down after humming a few bars from the song. He dropped back and closed his eyes. If his Bella had a stress disorder it gave him hope. Maybe he didn't need a German scientist to find him a cure to make her whole again. Maybe it was much simpler. He wanted to have a little faith. But nothing in his life had ever been that simple for her or him. So faith would have to wait.

"Go, Domi. Leave me alone. Tell the men to stay out of here tonight. Not in the mood for company."

“What about Mirabella? What if she needs you?”

“She has her children. The nightmares come less frequently when they are in her arms.”

He heard Dominic leave. He was alone. Giovanni pushed up from his seat and walked on instinct to the bar. His hand touched the handle, but he withdrew. He again wiped his hand down his face, though he had no tears. He went over to his gun. He checked the chamber and found it fully loaded. Giovanni closed his eyes. His mother was friendly to everyone. And her love for his father was as real as her torment. Eve took Tomosino's death hard. At the funeral, she sat by the grave long after the family left. She sat there and held a crying Catalina. It hurt Giovanni deeply. His mother was denied the permission by the church to sing at his gravesite because of the stigma of being Tomosino’s whore. So she stayed and sang the song for her and her children--Catalina, Dominic, Giovanni. It was the first time he heard her sing it of course.

Even now, all these years later he could remember her voice, her singing, the black veil covering her tear streaked face. She was beautiful, as was her singing. Everyone saw it. But Giovanni saw something else. He saw the grave. He saw the faces of his father and his uncles. He saw Lorenzo weeping. He saw the future. For all of them. He tucked the gun into the front of his pants and walked out to the front of the villa. He collected the suit and things he brought from the house. It was one of the suits that his wife had tailored for him. Maybe if he wore it for her tomorrow, it would make her smile.

Giovanni started the long climb up the stairs with Danny Boy at his side.

ChapterSeven

The Deal

Sorrento Italy

Mirabella had not closed her eyes since Giovanni walked out of the room. She lay in the darkness listening to the soft breathing of her babies. Gino was on her pillow. His pink lips puckered in an invisible suck of the pacifier now denied him. She loved the cherub face of her boys. Zia had shown her pictures of Giovanni when he was a baby. Her husband's sharp features had marked all of her children. When they looked up at her with his eyes, or smiled at her with his smile, her heart melted. There was no escaping her love for him, except in her nightmares.

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