Page 237 of Vita Mia

“No Evie. Not this time. This time the truth wins. And your life is your life, not Battaglia.”

Eve turned and looked at him. “Then tell me why? Why did you leave me in that school and why did I have to be the last of your children to learn that you were alive?”

“Can we sit?” He pointed his cane at the deck chairs on the beachfront terrace. She walked out of the open doors and sat. Giovanni came out with her. He sat on the opposite chair but turned and faced her. Eve faced the sea. “For the first five years your mother believed I was dead she suffered pretty badly. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do to her, to you, to all of you. Letting you go broke my heart. Letting you all go broke her.”

“Hard for you? We thought you blew up in that van. We saw it on the news. Bodies, all charred and torn apart. They couldn’t even tell who were officials and who were innocent travelers on that road. We had to pray that the bones they gave us to bury were yours.”

“That wasn’t the plan. After Dominic and Catalina’s wedding do you remember what happened?”

She nodded. “The Carabinieri came.”

“I was served with another arrest warrant. They were charging me again. This time for the kidnapping and the death of a prison warden. They claimed they had new evidence against me. Arielle had turned against our family and your Zio Carlo. She claimed he was alive somewhere living in the West. Conspiracy charges were put on me. I left my enemies Tarzan and Don Santoro alive at the time because I could use their need for revenge against the polizi. To free myself. All of my enemies wanted me dead. My transfer to Générale Altoviti was an ambush me and Dominic arranged, by letting the Russians and Puglias both know where I would be. Still it went wrong. Your Papa isn’t superhuman. He can’t control all of men. The van me and the Générale were in escaped gunfire and we went off the cliff. I didn’t plan for that. If they hadn’t gotten to me first before my coordinated strike, I would have gone through it my way. Doesn’t matter. The Russians found me on the road before the Puglia’s did. The door was blown open and I and some men were thrown out of it before the van was entirely consumed with flames. The explosion or what was left of it was the Générale and other men. I managed to crawl away from the wreckage. My leg was hurt. We were in the Amalfi and our people found me quickly. They got in touch with your uncle Domi. We staged the scene. Adding bodies to the flames. I told him not to reveal anything. I didn’t want to put you and your mother through it all over again. I believed that I was going to die. And if I wasn’t, I believed that you should be free of me either way.”

“You gave up on us. On her?”

“I gave up on myself. The worst moment of my life was when you fell from that window. It changed me. It changed everything. I don’t care what I am, I’m your father first. My life for yours. That is what I was thinking the entire time you fell from that window. My life for hers.”

“But you didn’t die Papa. That’s the cruelty. You watched us mourn you while you vacationed on an island.”

“Is that what you believe? I vacationed? I was sentenced to a different hell. I had to give my woman and children to another man to care for. I had to be absent. Permanently. How do you think I slept at night? How do you think I sleep now with the memories?”

“I dunno....”

“Nico and Domi were the only ones to know that truth. We agreed that I had to leave. The Russians no longer hunted you with me dead, neither did the Puglia clans. You were safest with Dominic and the life he could give you. The Santoro’s had to stand trial for my death and the Carabinieri did an all-out war on our Russian friends. Tarzan and his men were hunted hard. They wanted him to pay for the Générale. And he did. He stood trial, tried to escape and was killed in prison. The last of our enemies had fallen. Arielle was later found dead of a suicide after she learned I had died. And thePolizi di Statohad stopped its witch hunt for Carlo. Arielle had left a letter that said she lied. That it was all her fault. Everyone had gotten what they wanted. My death freed everyone.”

“You’re wrong Papa. I was there, you weren’t. I saw mum. I saw how badly traumatized she was. She wasn’t our mother anymore. She was empty. She tried. She tried hard. But I knew her in ways Leeza and the twins didn’t. I knew she was gone and I couldn’t stand to be around her the way she was. It hurt too bad. So I left for school and tried to stay away.”

“I’m sorry. I’ve never been perfect Eve. I was supposed to give her freedom. Make her strong. But I was selfish. By dying instead of rotting in a jail cell I became a martyr to her. Her grief meant she wouldn’t replace me. If she had found another husband and started a new life; I may have taken his and my own. So as much as she suffered it comforted me.”

“That’s terrible to say.” Eve shook her head and wept.

“I’m sorrylucciola. I have been a terrible man. My love is far from perfect. It comes at a price. And you and your mother paid for it. After five years your mother didn’t improve so I had to come back for her.”

“Only her?”

“At first,” he said. “You were in school. The boys were in school. MiaBella was growing without me and soon she was going to be sent away too. I came back for them.”

“And then you took Gino and Gianni out of school. You took them to Cuba with you. You came for me last?”

“You were twelve. I wanted to give you a chance to be stronger. I never knew how wrong I was.”

“You made me wait two more years. Two! That wasn’t to protect me. That was your guilt. You couldn’t face me. I was fourteen when I came here to Villa Mare Blu and found out you were liars. That you and mama were liars!”

“We hurt you the worst. In school you were thriving, you finally had freedom from all of this. I wasn’t going to change that. You were happy. You told us that. You were happy because no one cared that your father was Don Giovanni.”

“You think I was happy! Believing you were dead? How could you?”

“Forgive me.”

“I loved you Papa. I loved you first—before any of them were born. I should have been first, even before Mum. You should have chosen me first because I loved you the most.” She put her hand to her heart and her voice croaked with emotion. “So very, very much.”

Giovanni nodded. Tears slipped from his eyes to his beard.

“I couldn’t last in school after I saw you. After I learned that everything was a lie.”

“I know,” he said.

“I was out of school at sixteen, and working in the company and keeping your secrets. But you weren’t there. Not like before. No one was there for me but Nico. He understood.”

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