Page 123 of Vita Mia

“I’m sorry honey. He’s dead.”

“What else did she say?” he asked and his voice clogged with emotion.

“She said she needs to talk to you. I hung up on her. I told her Carlo was dead. I told her you were Lucio now. Right?”

Carlo swung his fist at the mirror and the glass splintered. He punched the glass repeatedly with both his fist until one broke through on the other side. The sound was horrible. Carmine jumped in her arms and began to cry. There was pounding at the door. Shae opened it and passed baby carmine to Jilly. Rolando looked alarmed, he was already holding Jewel.

“Stay down stairs. Don’t come back up.”

“What is going on?” Rolando asked. She didn’t have time to answer the kids. She forced the door shut and turned in time to see the small dresser by their bed go crashing through their bedroom window. Carlo flipped the mattress and kicked anything near him. He swung air punches at an invisible enemy before he slipped and went down on the floor. He crashed hard. The only time she’d ever seen him so distraught was after Ciro’s death. His rage with Adara was never witnessed, but a man nearly had his neck snapped because of it. Renaldo’s death was a fatal blow to him. The walls came down again and her man was broken.

Terrified, she kept her distance. Carlo yelled and shouted curses in Italian while on his hands and knees. He was trying to stand but it looked as if he were too weak. The pain was turning him inside out.

Slow and easy Shae went down to the floor. She crawled over glass to reach him. She didn’t care, didn’t flinch at the pain. She reached out to touch him and he shouted at her like a mad dog in words he couldn’t understand. She nodded that she understood his pain was his. She should have trusted her instincts. She should have kept the news to herself. The last thing she wanted to do was to cause him this kind of hurt. Again, she reached for him. With his head bowed and his tears flowing she touched the top of his head. She closed the distance between them. He collapsed on her lap, buried his face against her pelvis, and held her waist.

“It’s not your fault. There’s nothing you could do for him.”

“I’m sorry Carlo. I’m sorry we keep ending up here. But you have us now. That life is over, you told me if you stayed in it you’d be dead. Renaldo would want you to be free. Please Carlo. Please be my Lucio. Please don’t go back to them.”

He didn’t respond. She prayed he heard her. She prayed he’d listened. She prayed for them all.

***

NAPLES ITALY

“What did he say?” Nico asked.

He had found Mirabella out on the outside deck of the penthouse. The men were staying but the attorneys were leaving. She’d come there with the phone to wait.

“Shae keeps hanging up. I’ve called four times now. She’s taken the phone off the hook.”

“It’s still early. She probably has to tell him in her way.”

“I don’t think she’s going to tell him Nico. You didn’t hear her.” Mirabella dropped her head in sadness. “She acted as if I was some devil woman, calling to repossess his soul. Am I? I know if Carlo comes here and it’s discovered he’s alive they will kill or imprison him.”

“You’re not the devil. You’re our Donna. And you’re doing what you need to do.”

Nico took a seat next to her. He took her hand. “None of this is your fault.”

“Yes it is, I’m not crazy enough to think that it isn’t. I know my role. I know what I’ve done. I should have gotten him released, and you, as soon as I could. I should have.”

“It’s not your fault.”

Mirabella leaned over and Nico pulled her in to hold her. She cried in his arms. Together they stayed on the patio and waited for some news from America.

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