Page 32 of Tito
“Non essere pazzo, Romeo.”Stephano scoffed but otherwise, he ignored the comment. “But I do not know what I would do without him. He has become an integral part of our lives. Like when you need him, he’s suddenly there. After Bella…” His voice slowed down. “After we lost her, I do not know what I would have done without him. He was super good with kids and babies too. Nothing ever ruffles him. Not babies crying or kids being loud. I was left with a pre teen and three young boys, along with a baby, Amadeo. Maria was with us by then, but she had two boys to raise as well. I hired three nannies to help, but Max became indispensable.”
Silent, we all started at Stephano.
He seemed like the type of man to keep everything to himself. Not a sharer type that was for sure. So this fact explained the stunned looks on Romeo and Tito’s faces. They acted like this was a momentous event. They were shocked that he had spoken about the past or anything personal.
Now, Stephano stood from the table and seemed to realize he had shared a lot. He quietly gave us all a polite nod and left the dining room.
After Stephano made his exit, Romeo spoke up, “Well, that was different.”
“Right?” Tito said. “I’ve never heard Uncle Stephano reminiscing, ever.”
“Can’t blame him though,” Romeo said. “He never talks about mom. I think it still bothers him too much. I’ve never heard him say her name in years now.”
Julianna looked over at Romeo. “How did she um…pass?”
He stared at her. “I don’t know.”
“What?” I asked. “You don’t know?”
He shrugged.
Julianna set her wine glass down. “No way!”
Romeo slowly shook his head. “One day, we came home from school. Dante, Luca and me. Gio, um Legend was in afternoon Kindergarten. Rocky and Tito arrived with us. We all were picked up in a limo every day. Kids teased us once about it.”
“Just once?” I asked.
Tito smirked. “Yes, just one time. After a few fists being thrown, no one ever said anything about it again.”
Romeo rolled his eyes. “We almost got suspended for that one. Anyway, only Amadeo was in the house as he was only like two? We came home and she wasn't here. Finally, at dinner that night we noticed that neither her or Papa were at the table. We asked Zia about it and she burst into tears then ran into the kitchen. Well, we knewthatwasn’t like her. We were confused and then a strange thing happened.”
“Yeah,” Tito said as he nodded his head. “I remember now.”
Julianna and I looked back and forth at the guys.
“What?” Julianna demanded in avid curiosity.
“Max came to the table and told us to settle down. He stood with his arms behind his back and told us…” Romeo’s words faded away as he shook his head.
“He said that Bella wouldn’t be coming home,” Tito took up the story. “She went to heaven and we were to not ask Uncle Stephano about her. He also said it might be a few days before we saw him.”
“And it was like ten days before we saw him,” Romeo told us. “He looked like a shell of his former self.” He paused. “Strange thing about that too.” He looked over at Tito. “Do you remember that day?”
Tito nodded. “Hell yeah, I do. He came out of the…” His voice dropped away.
I stared at him. He seemed to have frozen up or something.
“Oh, wow,” Tito said in a hushed tone as he stared into space.
“What, Tito?” I exclaimed. “You’re giving me the willies here!”
He shook his head again. “He and Max, they came out of the pantry.”
We all stared at him in confusion.
“Yeah,” Romeo said. “We were all in the kitchen, looking for Zia. Max stepped out of the pantry, then my dad.”
“We were all surprised to see him,” Tito said. “So much so that we never wondered why they had been in the pantry!” He exclaimed as if this answered some huge question.
