Page 260 of Vita Mia

“She doesn’t want to be Eve Battaglia anymore. Yes, she’s twelve Gio, and already she knows what this all means. What was I supposed to do? Take her from school. Force her to live in the shadows with us? Make her pretend for the world while she protected our secret—again.”

He turned and walked away. A bullet to the chest would have hurt less. He understood what Mirabella said but all he dreamt about was seeing his baby girl again. How could he have failed her so miserably? They returned to the house after a drive in silence. They didn’t speak on Eve for the remainder of the day. Mirabella went to bed with the kids, too heartbroken to face him. It was Nico that helped him understand.

“Boss,” Nico handed him a drink.

Giovanni accepted the glass of rum. Nico sat across from him. Giovanni smoked on his hand rolled cigar and stared at the television.

“The Donna was torn. She didn’t want to leave her behind,” Nico said.

“I understand why she did. How can I show up after all this time and expect everything to be the same? Things are still shaky between me and Bella. But we’re trying. Nothing can ever be what it was, or like it was.”

Nico fell silent.

Giovanni exhaled a cloud of smoke from his nostrils and his gaze slipped over to his friend. “Tell me about my daughter. Who she is, what she likes? I don’t even have a fucking picture.”

“Nico reached into his wallet. To Giovanni’s disappointment and relief Nico had a picture Eve had given to him on one of his visits. He accepted the picture and looked at his daughter. Her beauty was beyond his understanding. He swore he could see his mother staring back at him.

“She’s smart, Boss. She loves Paris. At first when she went she struggled. I had to make several trips to be there for her. But she made friends and adjusted. She’s at the top of her class in that school.”

“Does she ever talk about me?” Giovanni asked.

Nico nodded. “All the time Gio. Eve found a way to cope. Seeing her mother suffering was too much. She’d grown up with enough of it. She isn’t rejecting you or Mirabella. She’s young and she’s trying to figure it all out.”

Giovanni exhaled.

“I spoke to Dominic and he told me that this visit can’t last long. Mirabella has to return to the world. Get back in her business. Start again. It’s the only way we can be sure that all investigations into my past and death are over,” Giovanni said. Soon he would be alone in isolation without his babies and his woman.

“What does that mean for you?” Nico asked.

“She and I talked earlier. She is going to move to Paris to be closer to Eve. But she’ll wait a year. And then she’ll meet me in Mondello twice a year until Domi and I think it’s safe for her to be in Cuba with me.”

“The boys, they’re young. Won’t they tell the secret?”

“They’re my sons. They won’t share anything. This is how it will be. For now. Until we decide differently. Until the rest of the world is ready.”

“And Eve?”

“I want you to protect her. See about her, as much as possible. Can you do that for me friend?”

“On my life. I’ll always be there for her,” Nico agreed.

Giovanni nodded. “When she’s ready, I’ll be there for her.”

Two Years Later –2002

Mondello Beach, Sicily

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“ITHOUGHT I WOULD NEVERwant to visit Mondello again,” Eve said to Nico.

He parked in front of the beach house. He nodded. “How long has it been?”

“Haven’t been back since I was twelve. Two years. Two long years,” Eve said.

“Your mother is inside waiting for you.”

Eve frowned. “Okay? Why are you acting so weird?”

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