Antonio raised an eyebrow at that. “Your eye must be sealed shut behind those bandages. Are you able to see light through them?”
She shook her head.
“Not the best sign.”
His words were like a blow to her because she worried about the same thing. “When the bandage comes off, I should have a better idea of where we’re at and whether the surgery was successful.”
“I’d think if it was successful, you’d be able to see some light or somethin’ right now. I think a male doc would have been more successful.”
“I’m not sure what gender has to do with it.”
“Male doctors are superior. You must know that.”
“I don’t.”
“I’m going to be frank with you, Leana. With all this going on, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to open your hotel. I think you need to step away from it. Or not open it at all. Maybe sell it. I could find you a buyer. Hell, that buyer might be me. I’d cut you a good deal. Beyond that, none of the De Cicco women work outside of the home. Has Mario told you that? It’s a source of pride for us. The women raise the children, which is work enough. I’m assuming that at some point soon, you and my son will start a family that also will include his children from Lucia. That’s going to be taxing. It’s going to be hard work, even if you do have a nanny, which of course you will. I’d prefer it if you give up these notions of making it big in New York when really, as a Redman, you have nothing to prove to anyone. The same is true when you become a De Cicco. How many women can say that, through one marriage, they belong to two of the most powerful families in the United States, let alone in Manhattan?”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She felt her face flush. He was asking her to step away from her dreams. “It’s not about power for me, Antonio. It’s about believing in myself and my capabilities. It’s about going after a target, in this case the new hotel, and succeeding at it.”
“Because that’s what your father does and what your sister did, right?”
“I suppose so. Yes.”
“May I suggest that you channel those feelings into raising good children? Believe me, the way kids are today, doing that will be a challenge that’ll make openin’ this hotel of yours seem like a piece of cake in comparison.”
She started to speak, but he stood and stopped her with a kiss on her forehead. As he did so, Leana looked over at Mario, who was standing at the end of the bed looking tense.
“Rest now,” Antonio said. He moved away from her and toward Mario, whom he locked eyes with for an instant before approaching the door. “Think about what I said. Think about what success really means to you. Naturally, the answer for any woman is family. We all know that. It’s not about opening fancy hotels and that sort of bullshit. It’s not about bustin’ your father’s balls because you feel betrayed by him. It’s about family. And for the De Ciccos, family matters most. I have a gut feelin’ that you’ll come to the same conclusion soon, once you and Mario have a talk. A good talk. I’ll see you in two days,” he said. “And at that point, when they take off the bandages, I hope you’ll have no trouble seeing me. You know, as well as I know that you’re hearing me right now.”
CHAPTER FORTY
“Sean,” Leana said. “Would you mind stepping outside and leaving us alone for a moment?”
“Not at all, Miss Redman.”
She waited for him to leave before she turned to Mario. “What was that?” she asked. “Was that the 1950s calling? Is that what I just heard?”
Mario came around the bed and took the chair where his father had been sitting. “Neither of us agrees with our fathers, Leana. I can’t control him or his beliefs just as you can’t control your father or his beliefs. When he called last night, I was hoping he’d come here with the best intentions. And maybe he did, because like it or not, that really is how he thinks. He believes a woman should raise children and make her man happy. Period. I know it’s offensive, and I’m sorry if he upset you.”
“Both of our father’s need psychotherapy.”
“I won’t argue with that.”
“You realize he just left us with a threat? You heard that, didn’t you? If I go forward with opening the hotel, which I plan to do, he’ll see it as a slight against him. He’ll be incensed. Your father may have said the past is forgotten, but he hasn’t forgotten any of it. It’s still fresh. He can’t stand me because of what happened to Lucia. He holds me responsible for her death even though I had nothing to do with it. Do you agree?”
“After the performance he just gave? Yeah. I agree.”
“Mario, I love you, but I’m not going to give up my dreams for anything or anyone. Especially not for archaic ideas about how a woman should behave from someone as stilted and as backwards-thinking as your father.”
“I’m not asking you to, Leana.”
“Then how do we handle this?”
“We get married,” he said. “Right here. Today. We send him a message that we’re moving on with our lives and that we’re not going to take his threats or his bullshit.”
If her jaw didn’t drop, it should have. Leana didn’t see that coming. “You want to get married today?”
“I want to be married to you. Period. We’ve waited long enough. I’ve waited three years, for Christ’s sake.”
She reached for his hand. “We need to think this through,” she said. “Your father just threatened me a moment ago. How do you think he’s going to feel if we go forward with this without him? He’ll expect to be here. He’ll expect to be invited.”
“I really don’t care, Leana.”
“You need to start caring. He’ll feel betrayed. It won’t go well. You went to him for help—”
“And he comes here and threatens you. I’m done with him.”
“Mario, I can throw my father away, and nothing would happen with the exception of me being stripped from his will. That’s assuming I’m even in the damned thing, which is a long shot. The question is whether you can do the same? You’re in a completely different situation than I am. Your family lives by a code. If you break it, you suffer real consequences. You know that’s true. You don’t know what he’ll do if you cross him this time.”
Mario shrugged. “All he’ll do is cut me off. He’ll act like I’m dead and never speak to me again, which is fine. He won’t do anything physical. I’m certain of that.”
“How can you be certain?”
“We were out of his life for three years, Leana. Nothing happened.”
“He assumed you’d be back. And he was right. If you marry me after that visit and under these circumstances, you’ll essentially be telling him to go to hell. Is that what you want? Is that the chance you’re willing to take? It could affect both of us.”
“It won’t.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ll talk to my brothers,” Mario said. “They can influence him. I’ve seen them do it before. And then, when they tell me it’s time, I’ll go and talk to my father, get the big kiss-off from him and move on with my life.”
* * *
Two days later, after Mario pulled strings so Leana could sign the marriage certificate in her hospital room, a justice of the peace married them.
“I’m the last one who should wear white, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to,” Leana said. “And by white, I mean this white sheet. The nurse changed the bed this morning. It’ll do.” She winked at Mario, who was across the hospital room, dressing. He lifted an eyebrow at her. “I’m kidding,” she said. “At least about the sheet.”
Only Anastassios, Sean, Michael and Zack had been asked to witness the wedding. And, remarkably, Leana was fully able to see each of them because earlier that morning, when the bandages were removed from her eye, it wasn’t just light she saw, but everything around her. Though the surgery was a success, she’d need to wear an eyepatch to protect her eye for the next several weeks.
Still, the relief that she had her eyesight back after a week
of not knowing whether she’d be blind was enough to make her kiss her doctor on the cheek. She blushed when Leana did so, and turned an even deeper shade of red when Mario turned to her and did the same, but full on the mouth.
“Italians,” Leana said to the doctor. “Sorry.”
Later, after they were married, Leana changed into a fresh white suit, applied more makeup to conceal as much of the bruising around her eye as possible and was discharged from the hospital. Before a nurse wheeled her out of her room, Zack came to her with a gift.
“You pulled it off?” she asked, looking at the gift-wrapped box.
“This wasn’t exactly difficult.”
“Do the press know we were married?”
“Somebody might have made a few calls this morning and tipped them off.”
“I wonder who?”
“They’re outside now. You should see the crowd. Teeming. They also know you’re about to be released, so get ready for the melee. Here. Let me help you open the box.”
She removed the item from the tissue paper and held it up in front of her. It was a marketing brochure for The Park. Dark blue background with gold letters that said “ThePark.com” and, beneath that, “Opening September 23rd.” She laughed.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Was I on drugs when I asked you about this?”
“I think I asked you that question.”
“This was a stupid idea.”
“I don’t know. Maybe; maybe not. Your photo is about to appear everywhere. This can go either way. I suggest you go with your gut.”
“What do you think, Anastassios?”
He had a bemused look on his face. “I’m with Zack. Some will sling mud at you for it, but you can take it. If you’re going to use it, just be subtle about it. Hold it casually.”
“Michael? You probably know about promotion better than anyone here, with the exception of Anastassios. Thoughts?”
“I wouldn’t do it,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because there’s something to be said for saying nothing at all. They’re going to write about the hotel, anyway. It’s a natural part of the story. If you do go through with it, it would be like someone rolling me out of the hospital with one of my books or DVDs in my arms.” He shook his head at her. “I know you were probably medicated when you thought of this, but I wouldn’t do it. It feels like a cheap stunt.”
“He has a point,” Anastassios said.
She turned to her husband. “Mario?”
He was standing across the room in a dark blue suit. “I can see both sides.”
“Is that it?”
“That’s it.”
“Oh, you’re a big help.”
“I think you’ll do what’s best.”
Zack positioned the brochure in her arms so it didn’t look too obvious. “I don’t know. That will go everywhere. You can’t buy that kind of publicity.”
“Actually, Leana can,” Anastassios said.
When Mario wheeled her out of the hospital, a black patch covering her eye, it was without the brochure. Her head was clear and she knew that Michael was right. When they wrote about this, the hotel would be mentioned. Another consideration was that the caliber of people she was trying to attract to The Park would see straight through what she was doing and they’d consider it cheap. They’d have none of it. She’d have fallen in their estimation.
It wasn’t lost on her that, years ago, when she was still living with her parents, she would have held the brochure out of defiance because she knew it would have looked ridiculous—and that it would have angered her father. But now Leana was a businesswoman, a role she took seriously. With a smile on her face, she greeted the reporters with a wave before getting out of the chair and turning to look at the hospital. For a moment, she was filled with an overwhelming sense of gratitude for how they’d helped her. Impulsively, she blew a kiss at it.
At that moment, all around her, dozens of cameras flashed.
What the press captured were images of a grateful patient whose eyesight had been restored when the odds were against it ever happening. Within hours, the images had gone viral on blogs, websites, and television news and entertainment shows. By the next morning, they had appeared in newspapers.
And Leana Redman, freshly married into the De Cicco crime family, had become a household name for a host of reasons.
BOOK TWO
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Leana wasted no time getting back to work, but before she planned her day, she needed to settle some business with her father.
When she returned home from the hospital the day before, Michael called to fill her in on his conversation with George. He wanted to share it with her privately—not in front of the group gathered in her hospital room. And certainly not on what turned out to be her wedding day.
“So, that’s why he didn’t come to visit me?” Leana said.
“Apparently.”
“I can’t say that I blame him. I could have stopped in to check on him when he was in the hospital—I was, after all, in a room of my own just down the hall from his. But I didn’t. At that point, after all that had happened, I wanted out of there and out of the country with Mario. But let’s face it—I did it out of spite. I could have made sure that he was going to be all right before I disappeared, but I didn’t.”
“Well, haven’t you grown up.”
“Somebody has to.”
“How are you feeling today?”
“Grateful. My eye hurts, but that’s natural after having a piece of glass wedged into it, and then the surgery.”
“Have you learned anything about who might have done it?”
“Nothing.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It is what it is, Michael.”
“Is Sean going to be with you today?”
“Sean’s my new best friend.”
“You’re taking this awfully lightly.”
“I just sound as if I am. Am I scared about what’s going on? Of course, I am. Am I going to let it stop me from moving forward? No. Will I take precautions to protect myself? Absolutely. Which brings us back to Sean. From now on, he goes where I go.”
“Have you heard from Mario’s father?”
“Not yet.”
“Do you think you will?”
“Mario’s meeting with his brothers today. We’ll see what comes from that. Apparently, if Antonio is angry, which I’m pretty sure he is after being left out of our impromptu ceremony, they’ll be able to reason with him and calm him down. Do I believe that? No. Do I care? Not a bit.”
She told him about Antonio’s trip to the hospital.
“He expects you to become a fifties monster?”
“Raising and burping babies. That’s what women are good for when it comes to Antonio De Cicco.”
“You know, you are part of the family now. Are you sure you want to cross him?”
“What I’m sure about is that I’m going to live my life.”
“Sometimes, I worry. Mario is a great guy. I like him a lot. But he comes with baggage.”
“Who doesn’t?”
“I’m not insulting him, Leana. It’s his family I worry about. They’re unpredictable. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“Physically?”
“That’s right.”
“What would they do to me?”
“The question you need to ask yourself is how far they would go to get Mario back.”
* * *
She called her father at home.
“Are you available this morning?”
“I have several meetings. What about this afternoon?”
“It’s five o’clock. Your meetings generally begin at eight, unless you’ve suddenly become more ambitious and are starting them earlier. Why don’t we meet at seven? If you still want me on the Columbus Circle project, I need to understand the scope of what you want from me, which I assume goes beyond keeping Pepper in line.”
“Actually, Pepper has co
me around over the past few days. She’s been doing great work and the crew tells me she’s been less abrasive. I’m hearing better reports about her behavior now.”
“Did you tell her that she’d be working with me?”
“I did.”
“And she started to behave after you told her?”
“She did.”
“And you don’t see a connection there?”
There was a silence.
“I’ll see you in my office at seven,” George said.
* * *
This time when she arrived at Redman International, the man behind the front desk looked up from his newspaper with recognition square on his face. This was not the man who had asked her to show him her ID before. It was another man, and he smiled as she crossed the room toward her with Sean at her side.
“Let me get my ID,” she said, reaching into her bag.
“There’s no need for that, Miss Redman,” he said. “I’d recognize you anywhere. And I’m glad to hear that you’re on the mend. Mr. Redman is expecting you. You can use one of the elevators behind me.”
“This is Sean Scott, my head of security.”
“You’re both welcome.”
She thanked him and entered the elevator. When the doors closed, she checked herself in the mirrors surrounding her. She was wearing a red suit, her dark hair was pulled away from her face and she’d done nothing to conceal the bruising around her eye—she had applied her makeup around it, but not over it. The patch covered some of the discoloration, but not all of it, which is how she wanted it.
Leana wanted her father to have a good look at what had happened to her.
“Do you mind waiting outside my father’s office, Sean? This probably will get ugly.”
“Outside is fine, Miss Redman. If it gets too ugly, just let me know.”
“You mean, you’d protect me from my father?”
“Protecting you is my job.”
Park Avenue (Book Six in the Fifth Avenue Series) Page 19
