by Sienna Mynx
She started, shaking hard. Giovanni got inside the car with her and threw her purse and shoe at her. The car drove off. They did more than drive away. The speed was so dangerous she was thrown over to Giovanni, and then back at the passenger door.
He reached for her.
“Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me!” she screamed and started fighting him. She hit him in the face and kicked at him. She fought him as much as she could. He grabbed her by the face and throat. He pinned her down to the seat.
Her vision was blinded now by tears. She sobbed. She was unable to stop. He kissed her bloody face and she turned her mouth away or tried too. His hold on her throat was too tight. He kissed her ear. “I told you, no man will ever come between us. Don’t you ever turn to another man Bella. Even if I’m dead you’re mine.”
“I didn’t do anything,” she wept.
“I am not stupid. I saw it for myself. Saw how you looked at him, how he looked at you. Confess Bella and I will forgive you. Tell me the truth!”
“A kiss. One kiss Gio! That was all.”
“The kiss caught him a bullet. I forgive you Bella. Stop crying. Stop crying.”
She did her very best.
“Shhhhh...”
She nodded that she was in control. He let go of her throat. She looked him in the eye because that as a show of respect. He stared down at her. She saw his deadly intent. Saw his murderous obsession with her. For the first time in their marriage she was afraid of him.
“I’m three months pregnant.”
The anger in his face froze. He withdrew. She was able to move from under him and scoot as far as she could from his reach. Giovanni stared at her in shock. Mirabella shook so hard even her voice trembled.
Giovanni’s eyes began to tear. “You’re going to have a baby.”
Mirabella nodded. She couldn’t stop shivering. He reached for her and she fought off his touch. He would not be denied. He pulled her over. He touched her belly. “You should have told me cara.”
She closed her eyes and squeezed them tightly shut. The shock would not let her go. She kept shivering, and it went so hard that her teeth chattered. She tried to stop seeing the flash of Giovanni’s gun. She tried hard to not remember the brain and blood spatter that covered her. Giovanni’s head went to her lap. He kissed her belly ignoring her blood and lemonade stained dress. Mirabella clenched her fists. “O bambino mio—O my divine child,” he said to the baby in her belly. His voice was velvet. “Sei tutto per me—you’re everything to me. And so is Mama.” He glanced up at her. “Sei la donna dei miei sogni—you are the woman of my dreams.”
Mirabella’s chest rose with each enormous breath she pulled in. She sniffed back her tears but even blood was in her nostrils. The desire to forgive him was there. But she couldn’t let go of her fear of him.
“I am so happy Bella. This is the happiest news. The happiest day.”
She opened her eyes and looked at him. He smiled up at her, and then kissed her belly again. She closed her eyes and tried to calm herself down, to talk herself out of her terror. She lifted her quivering hand, and slowly brought it to Giovanni’s head. She stroked his hair. The kisses went up from her belly to her breasts. At first he nuzzled them and the blood was transferred to him. He squeezed her breast. He began to pull at the front of her dress to free her breasts.
She prayed he would stop. To have sex with him after he’d murdered a man before her was obscene. She didn’t want their love to be this way. Giovanni pulled down the front fabric to her thin, silky dress and uncovered her half-bra. He dragged that down as well with his mouth, as his hand went around to between her thighs.
“Gio, please, not now, not this way,” she pleaded and slammed her thighs shut on his hand. She pushed at his shoulder. He looked up at her.
“I’m not waiting,” his voice grew heavier with lust after each word. He then returned his attention to her right nipple, now exposed. He sucked it as gentle as a babe, and as hard as her lover. Her thighs parted for him. She closed her eyes and tried to relax. Of course it felt good, but the adrenaline mixed with her repressed terror made her question everything about the feeling. His fingers sent a rush of heat straight between her thighs, and her mouth fell open. Giovanni’s tongue trailed up her collarbone to her lips. He pushed her panties aside and drove a finger deep inside, and then another.
Mirabella whimpered in surprise. She grabbed his hair and pulled it hard. He liked it. He deep throated his kiss, and she was overpowered. She surrendered. Mirabella’s hips undulated to make him move his fingers in and out of her, faster and faster.
“You’re so goddamn perfect,” he groaned deep in his throat after their lips parted. He brought her to a climax with just his hand. She climaxed hard bearing down on his fingers, impaling her deeply inside. “There is no one else like you. No one, Bella. And no one deserves you. No one except me.”
She exhaled through her climax, and fresh tears sprung beneath her closed eyelids. He let go and sat back. She was still quivering in her pelvis. Mirabella opened her eyes and looked over. She saw him unzip his pants. Bliss was emanating from her core when she dragged her panties down and abandoned them on the floorboard. He reached for her and she turned to him. He held her hips to give her advantage in the new position. Her hand went between her thighs and grabbed his cock. The dress she wore was already soiled with one strap hanging down her arm and her right breast and nipple exposed.
Mirabella straddled his lap. Beneath her he was hard and ready. She went down on his erection, and swiveled her hips to take him deeper, and deeper. Giovanni relaxed. He let go the deepest sigh of relief. As if this was all he ever needed to feel whole. Mirabella rode the edge of heartache and pleasure. She rode him faster and faster, and her body remembered every marvelous thing about him. His hands crushed her breasts and squeezed. Her hands gripped the top of the back seat with his head between her arms. He licked her neck, sucked and bit her. She cried out in frustration and pleasure. Giovanni let go of her breasts and grabbed her ass. Though her dress covered her, and his thighs and knees, he grabbed both halves of her buttocks and squeezed before pulling them apart. That made him go even deeper.
Giovanni smiled. A wicked smile of triumph. She kissed her husband, loved him the best she could. Something she should have done before the night had ever begun. Something she could have done to spare Piero’s life. And she knew. She had to tell her husband all of the truth, about Lorenzo and his father. Death came at a price. She couldn’t see another man die.
Dominic got the call around two in the morning. He’d been on the phone since it went down. Don Tacchini was dead. He had his men move in to plant the evidence that it was a retaliation strike from the Baldementi’s.
He was on the second floor at the top of the stairs when he saw Giovanni and Mirabella arrive. She wore his blazer over her shoulders, and held it tight to the front. Her hair was in disarray around her head, and she was without shoes. Giovanni walked her to the stairs and helped her up. She seemed weak and disoriented. He knew that feeling. Had suffered it the first time he was old enough to understand and witness death. The Donna had lost the last of her innocence tonight.
When they reached the top of the stairs, Mirabella’s head lifted. Half her face was covered behind a curtain of her thick dark hair. She looked at Dominic with tears in her eyes. Giovanni kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear. She paused a minute, then nodded her answer before walking off and heading to her room. Giovanni and Dominic watched her go, and didn’t speak until she was out of their view.
“She’s pregnant,” Giovanni said.
“But I thought...”
“It’s a miracle. My miracle baby.” Giovanni smiled.
“Did she have to be part of this tonight, Gio? Did you have to teach her this way?”
“You and Rocco forced my hand. You think I want my wife to look at me with fear and disgust? I saw it in her eyes. She thought I was going to kill her. And I hated him for making me show her. You gave
her power, tonight I had to take it away. I lost a part of her because of it. I know it. And I’ll have to live with it.”
Dominic nodded. “I lost Catalina. I feel it. She’s gone.”
Giovanni grabbed him by the face. He looked into his eyes. “Are you ready? Can I count on you?”
“I’m ready.”
“There is no turning back now, Domi. We are the capu di tutti capi, and we will find Lorenzo and make him watch as I take what is most precious from him before we make him pay.”
Dominic smiled. He hugged Giovanni. Before he let him go, he put in one final request. “I want her back. I don’t care, how or what I have to do to get her, but I want Catalina. She’s mine. She belongs to me, Gio. Armando should have never touched her.”
Giovanni smiled. He patted Dominic’s cheek. “We’ll bring her home, little brother.”
Mirabella sat on the tile floor of her shower with her arms wrapped around her knees. The last of the blood had rinsed from her hair and arms. Every single event in her life, from the day she found her grandmother on the floor unconscious next to her sewing machine, played in her mind. She could not turn from her memories or her regrets. She accepted them all. And now she would bring another child into this world.
When she first learned of Eve’s story she couldn’t conceive it. How could a woman be devoted and in love with a man capable of such cruelty? She thought herself different. She never once allowed herself to accept the truth of her life. Denial was her security blanket. Now she was bare, and it was a lonely oppressive feeling.
She pulled herself up. She turned off the shower and went to the mirror in the bathroom. She could only look at herself for a moment before she had to look away. The rest of her routine went smoothly on autopilot. She dried herself. Mirabella took the time to lotion her skin and blowout her wet hair. She put on her robe and didn’t bother with clothes beneath it.
Mirabella left the bathroom and turned off the light to return to the room adjacent to hers, and checked on her babies. They all slept peacefully. She thought of Tacchini’s children. Who would care for them now? Did he ever foresee this day, and did he make any plans for it? She had to force those thoughts of him and his ultimate betrayal away. When she returned to her bedroom Giovanni walked inside of the room. He stared at her, and she stared at him. Mirabella tried hard to show no fear or emotion.
“Let me shower, we can talk afterwards,” he mumbled.
She nodded her acceptance, and stood there watching him collect things to take to the bathroom with him. He smiled at her and went inside. She forced herself to smile. Mirabella then looked to the bed where they made their babies. She’d have to sleep in it with him tonight. Resigned to her role as wife and mother, she removed her robe. She went to the bed and got under the covers. She turned to her side. Her hair against her face and pillow. She stared at the wedding photo at the side of her bed. Stared at the handsome man in the image, who promised her the world. She thought of her wedding day, and night. She closed her eyes and tried to hold on to that memory, and force all the bad ones aside.
Chapter Forty-Four
Aftershock
Sorrento, Italy
“Mira! Mira, honey wake up! Please!”
Mirabella woke to Minnie shaking her. She frowned. “Minnie?”
“She’s gone! She’s gone!” Minnie said through tears.
Mirabella gathered the sheet to her naked form and sat up. She looked around the room. Giovanni was gone. The digital clock said it was after 9:30 in the morning. It took her a moment for her mind to clear. Her body still had the familiar ache of making love to her husband countless times during the night. “What is it?” she asked and rubbed the drowsiness from her eyes.
“She’s gone!” Minnie wailed. “They took her last night. Belinda said that man Leo told her. Carlo took her.”
“Marietta?”
“Yes! She’s gone with all the things you had given her. The maternity clothes and shoes and stuff. Did you do this? Did you change your mind?”
“Sit down Minnie, slow down.”
Minnie wiped her tears. “I’m sorry. I’m just... okay. When Belinda said Carlo came and took her and that Leo said...”
“There’s nothing to worry about,” Mirabella said with a sweet smile.
“There isn’t? So you sent her with Carlo? She was so terrified of him. She told me that whenever Giovanni sends Carlo to come for a woman it means that he will… that he’s some kind of butcher.”
Mirabella swallowed her fear and showed no sign of wavering in her conviction. “My husband would not harm a pregnant woman. Now. You listen to me. I want you to go downstairs, clean up your face and meet me on the terrace with the family. It’s breakfast time.”
“But...”
“She’s fine Minnie. Giovanni and I discussed the best way to handle things. We found a better way to resolve things with Lorenzo. Carlo is taking her to him. You may not hear from her for awhile but she’s okay. And so is the family. We finally made it through the darkness.”
Minnie hugged Mirabella. She then pulled Mirabella hands into hers. She stood and bowed her head. Mirabella bowed her own. She began to pray. She asked lord to heal and bless the Battaglia family. She thanked the lord for allowing grace for Giovanni. Mirabella could barely contain her torment through the prayer. She could barely continue her role as Donna Nera.
After hugging Minnie one last time and promising to take her and Belinda to Florence to do some sightseeing she watched her go. Mirabella sat on the bed with her face in her hands. She sucked in a deep breath. Giovanni didn’t talk to her last night like he promised. The moment he returned to bed he was on her. And like an addict she couldn’t resist. She made love to her husband and shut out her mind. But she never let go hope that something, anything would change his mind.
She now knew the truth. He’d sentenced her sister and Lorenzo to a fate she could not prevent. And it was over for them both. Mirabella let go the only tears she could shed in private. When she was done she got up from bed. She showered and groomed herself. She found a summer dress that Giovanni liked and slipped it on. It did reveal the hickies on her neck but no one in the family would dare say anything about them.
Mirabella went to his office first. The one he kept inside. He wasn’t there. She then went upstairs. Before she moved strangers into their home she created his home care room, they never really did much on the third level. It was reserved for the memory of his mother, and the damn secrets she kept. She searched the rooms and found them empty. Giovanni had the medical equipment removed as well. As if any sign of it gave a glimpse to his fragility. Mirabella knew her first assessment of the situation Minnie explained to her was true. Resigned to her fate and the fate of the family she went down stairs. Eventually she arrived to the breakfast gathering on the terrace. Ana had prepared a traditional feast. Nico and Cecilia sat together laughing. Renaldo held his daughter and fed her by bottle while Kyra ate. Jamie had come over. She’d returned from Paris. She was deep in conversation with Belinda. Umberto and Leo ate and laughed together. Some of Giovanni’s men brought their wives, mothers, cousins and brothers to the feast. So many gathered that the staff had set up tents in the garden to seat everyone. It was a beautiful sight. She stepped out of the shadows and onto the terrace. Everyone looked up at her. Giovanni sat at the head of the table with Eve on his lap.
“There’s Mommy!” Giovanni said.
“Mama!” Gino said from his highchair, and Gianni grinned as he ate his melon.
“Buongiorno a tutti,” Mirabella said. Jamie squealed and got up from her seat. She ran over and hugged Mirabella which made her laugh. But she stared at her husband during the embrace.
Giovanni kissed Eve’s cheek. He whispered in her ear. Eve smiled and stared at her mommy. Then she nodded.
“Mama, please sit down with Papa and have breakfast. It’s our first breakfast together,” Eve said.
Mirabella let go off Jamie. The others fell silent. She smiled sweetly
at her daughter and then walked over to the other side of the table. Giovanni looked up at her when she touched the back of her head and leaned in to kiss him in front of the family. She then leaned in and kissed her daughter. She picked up the half empty glass for her husband and refreshed his drink and joined in with the celebrating. When she fixed her plate, she sat and ate at his side.
Giovanni cleared his throat and let everyone know he had something to say. A silence again covered the families gathered and the staff came out from their duties to listen as well.
“It has been a rough couple of months for us. And we all know why. But today is a new beginning. Bella and I have some wonderful news for the family. Giovanni stood with Eve in his arms. Mirabella already had Gino in her arms feeding him from her plate.
“Go ahead Bella. You tell them,” Giovanni said.
She nodded and pushed back her chair to stand. She moved over closer to her husband and daughter. Gino wiggled in her arms to be held by his father, but she kissed and calmed him. She saw the anticipation on the faces of those gathered. Minnie stared at her with expectant eyes.
The emotion clogged her throat as she thought of he sister and the fate of her child. But she pushed forward.
