Page 30 of Doormat
“No, because she lost her mom when she was a child, and she doesn’t know what the hell she is doing, and took advice from the only people she trusted.All of them are young, Giovanni.You calling Mia a child probably hurt a lot.”
Giovanni sighed and sat back.“You know what fucking sucks?”he asked.
“What?”
“I fucking love that she loves this stuff.She didn’t help me organize any of this, and I didn’t know what I was doing, and I just got everyone to make this work.It was so exhausting, but she wanted this.Before she heard the shit I said, she had been telling me her plans.I even found a fucking event planning book.”He shook his head.“It is thick and extensive with plans.I don’t know how she does it.”
“And you love that she loves this?”
Giovanni sighed.“Yeah, I do.She makes life seem fun, and it’s not an endless cycle of shit.”
“Yeah, well, my wife doesn’t even talk to me,” Lorenzo said.“She has said less than ten sentences to me, and her being drunk doesn’t count.”
Emilio entered the room.“I don’t have a mistress.”
This surprised Diego.“Why the fuck did you say that?”
They watched as Emilio shrugged.“I’ve told Tatiana, but she doesn’t believe me.”He dropped onto the sofa.“How the fuck did I fall in love with this woman?I mean, they’re women, and I’ve enjoyed my share of a lot of women, but Tatiana was just so ...she was ...I can’t even describe it, and right now she wants nothing to do with me.”
Diego looked over to the television to see the four women in chairs, and they were all drinking soda.
“I can’t believe you’ve got cameras everywhere.Don’t you think you’ve gotten us all into enough trouble?”Lorenzo asked.
“You got a problem, leave.I’m not forcing you to watch.”
Diego was tempted to leave, but Giovanni turned the sound up.
“Do you think I should go and put that stupid costume on?”Mia asked.
“Do you want to?”Liana asked.
Mia sighed.“Yeah, I do, and I hate myself for it.What is so wrong with wanting to enjoy stupid stuff like this?I’ve done my duty.My parents told me I had to marry, and they put me with Giovanni and I didn’t make any waves.So, I like to dress up and have dinner parties, organize stuff, and just have fun.Life sucks if you don’t make it fun.”She pouted.
“It’s hard,” Tatiana said.
Emilio perked up.
“I mean, he was so sweet and kind, and there are things I can’t say, but he made me feel so precious, and to know that all that time he was with someone else and I meant nothing to him.”Tatiana shrugged.“Sometimes, I try to forget about it, but I can’t get the image out of my mind of him with another woman.He told me he lied, but how can I believe him?”
“I can’t help being boring,” Clarissa said.“My sister was shot right in front of me.All we were doing was walking to school.Just doing stuff kids do, and this guy just pulled out a gun, and he shot her then ran off.”Clarissa sniffed.“I was ten years old.She was fifteen.He killed her because to join a gang, he had to kill an innocent girl.That is what I overheard.Being boring is not a bad thing.”
Diego was aware of what happened to Clarissa.It was a rising street gang.A group of thugs had started to terrorize local neighborhoods, and that had spread to blackmailing businesses and attempting to turn them against the Colombo Mafia.
Francesco had told him to handle it.The man who killed Clarissa’s sister didn’t know who he had messed with.It had taken him one week to rid the streets of that one gang, and since then, whenever he got a sniff of anyone thinking they could run riot on the streets, he stamped them out.
“I had no idea,” Lorenzo said.
Diego wasn’t about to admit he did know.
“Fuck me,” Lorenzo said.“She’s so fucking quiet and she had to witness that shit.”
“Her sister died in her arms,” Diego said, finally admitting the truth.“No one came as she begged and screamed for help.They had taken a shortcut, and because of it, it cost her life.”
“You knew?”
“I thought everyone knew,” Diego said, and looked to Giovanni and Emilio, who both nodded that they knew.
“Fuck me, I was out of the country back then.I was back in Italy dealing with the bullshit between my grandfather and father.”Lorenzo sighed.“How do I win her back?”
