by Sienna Mynx
Mira held his hand. His long calloused fingers intertwined with hers. She had been nervous every day since her miscarriage scare. But she worked hard not to think about it. And the past two weeks had been so sweet between them. Giovanni was attentive, supportive; it was as if that awful fight they’d had never happened. And planning Eve’s party, had brought them closer as well. He actually tried to give her ideas and took out his tools and ordered planks of wood to build her a new princess house for the gardens. He painted it pink, white, and yellow and finished it last night. Wherever he went that day a few weeks ago, whomever he saw, it changed him. Brought him back around to being her guy. She now felt confident that they could move forward and leave the past behind them.
Today was the big day for their daughter and for them as parents. Eve turned two years old. And Mira would finally learn more about the health of the baby she carried. So, yes. She was nervous.
“No. I’m okay, Giovanni. I hope everything is going well at the villa. We have guests arriving in three hours.”
“Don’t you worry, Zia and Rosetta have it under control.” He took her hand and kissed it.
“How are the Battaglias today?” The doctor entered. Mira and Giovanni both looked up. The older man with a smile walked in carrying a folder. Mira’s heart leapt to her throat at the sight of it.
“We’re ready for some good news,” Giovanni said. Mira nodded in agreement.
“Well, let’s take look.” The doctor walked over to the sonogram machine. Mira pulled up her shirt to her breast. Giovanni assisted by unbuttoning her pants. He lowered the zipper slowly and smiled at her. She blushed and slapped his hand away. The doctor didn’t notice. He was punching in something on the sonogram’s keyboard.
“Have you seen the baby?” The doctor asked.
“Yes, in Capri. We heard the heartbeat. We were told to wait two weeks before the next appointment. Was that the correct advice?” Mira asked sitting up. “Is something wrong?”
“Lie back, Cara, its fine. Right, doctor?” Giovanni forced her to recline and relax.
“Yes. Unless the cramping and spotting has returned?”
“It hasn’t. I’ve felt tired, that’s about it.”
“Good.” The doctor squeezed gel over her lower tummy and picked up the wand to rub in the gel. It was so cold, it tickled. She stifled a giggle. “Aha! Here we are,” the doctor said.
He turned the monitor for them. They could see two jellybean formations with a fluttering in the center. The black and white image didn’t look like much of anything other than that. Giovanni had her hand. He squeezed it and blinked at the screen, focused hard on the life they’d created.
“Well, this is a surprise.” The doctor said.
“What? What is it?” Giovanni asked.
“Twins.”
“What!” Mira exclaimed. “Did you say twins?”
“Yes! We have two. See here….” He pointed to the tiny mass and then to the other. “And here… two bambinos. Congratulations.”
Mira glanced to Giovanni and he looked as stunned as she felt. “The doctor didn’t say twins in Capri.”
“Typically, you can’t really be certain until after you’re ten weeks. I assure you my diagnosis is correct. You are having twins and they look to be fine. I have your blood work.” He removed the wand and handed her a tissue as he asked her a few questions. She answered them and he nodded, and said she was doing well.
“Signor Battaglia, may we speak a moment while Mira gets dressed?” The doctor walked to the door.
“Are you okay?” he asked, kissing her brow.
“I don’t know. Twins? Do you have twins in your family?” she asked.
“No.” Giovanni smiled. “My boys will be the first.”
“Me either. It’s weird that we’d have two babies at once. I can’t believe it.”
“It’s not weird, Mira. It’s our blessing.” He kissed her lips and she grabbed his face and kissed him back.
“Yes! A blessing!”
Giovanni walked out with the doctor. He had requested any news that wasn’t pleasant be told to him first. His heart hammered in his chest. Could there be danger with the babies. Two babies! He could never imagine such a blessing.
“What is it?” he demanded.
“She’s healthy and the twins look good.”
Giovanni exhaled. He wiped his hand down his face. “Then why did you ask me to step out?”
“Signor, her blood work indicates a hormonal imbalance. Her pressure is a bit elevated too. It might have been the cause of the premature cramping she experienced early in the pregnancy. Has she been under a lot of stress? Moody? Restless?”
“Planning my daughter’s party has kept her active. But before that, she was planning our wedding so yes, she has had stress. What does this imbalance mean?”
“Think of hormones as chemicals that transport information throughout your wife’s body. They affect the way her organs function and how her body develops the baby throughout the pregnancy. In this case, after conception, the balance of hormones changed in your wife. Now that she is having twins, you have to be aware of her development. Increased doctor visits, and her diet needs to be monitored as well. More importantly, less stress.”
“Anything else?”
The doctor smiled. “She’ll have some mood swings, be fatigued, and the imbalance could work to the positive or negative, meaning it could increase or decrease her sex drive. She may cry for no reason, or be overly happy, energetic. I want you to be prepared so you aren’t too alarmed. She will start to notice a change in her body and behavior, considering this is her second pregnancy; and she’s aware of how things should develop. Make sure she stays on her pre-natal vitamins.”
“Will she lose my sons?”
“Sons?” the doctor smiled. “We don’t know if they are boys. I will be able to give you that information in a few weeks. I think each day, she grows stronger. I suggest you see me weekly for now. I want to monitor her pressure.”
“Grazie, dottore.” He shook the doctor’s hand.
“Congratulations to you both.”
Giovanni returned to the room. Mira was on her feet. “We have to get back. I want to get changed and there is so much to do. Did the doctor say anything else?”
“Only that I should take really good care of you.”
“You have!” Mira walked over and threw her arms around his neck. “My big strong husband, you take good care of me. Can I tell you something else?”
“Tell me,” he smiled, rubbing his hands down her backside.
“I’m so horny, Giovanni!” She reached between them and grabbed his groin, giving it a hard squeeze. Giovanni chuckled. “I’m telling you, I can’t stop thinking about sex. I dreamt about it last night. Isn’t that strange?”
He kissed the side of her neck and squeezed her to him. “I like this change!”
Bagheria Sicily –
Mancini rose from his chair. He’d been in the garden for close to an hour, but the temperature hadn’t warmed as he’d hoped. Today, the season of winter was bitterly felt. He wore a heavy wool sweater and still felt the cold to his bones, which made the arthritis in his knees coil tighter. He’d go back inside and make some calls. He had learned that Capriccio had indeed claimed to have a daughter named Marietta and David Capriccio was dead. The woman was said to have fled Italy after filing for her inheritance. He had hoped to track her down. It might take some time to convince Giovanni to work with him and let him have access to his Mirabella. He needed to do this cautiously so he didn’t alienate his girls, or his son. But he could definitely find Marietta on his own.
“Il mio cuore è solo tuo. My heart is yours. It’s the first thing you said to me when you accepted me into the family.” A woman’s voice spoke behind him.
Mancini’s head turned. Isabella appeared. She smiled the charming smile that reminded him of her mother. In this light, her auburn brown hair and eyes were so much like her mother, he had to make sure hi
s eyes weren’t deceiving him. He hadn’t seen Isabella in close to two years.
“What are you doing here?”
“Is that any way to greet someone?” Isabella smiled. “You always told me your door was open to me.”
Mancini didn’t have the strength to continue standing. He lowered back down to his chair. Isabella walked over. Her dainty pointed heels clicked on the rocky surface of his gazebo. She wore an all winter-white pantsuit with a nude colored blouse underneath. The rose color to her lips matched that of her cheeks. Though Isabella was closer to forty-five, she could easily be mistaken for ten years younger. She tossed her hair off her shoulders and sat with the cross of her legs. Her rich perfumed fragrance muted that of the flowers in the garden. “Do you remember when I was twelve and escaped the convent? That day Rosa, your wife, found me right here in these gardens. I was scared, hungry, and determined to meet the man that the nuns whispered was my father.”
“Why are you here, Isabella?”
“Isn’t it funny how many of us wayward daughters get lost until you find us?” Isabella smiled at him.
Mancini shook his head. “You know I’m not your father.”
“That’s right. And there’s the irony!” She laughed. “It’s okay. You did me a great favor when I was twenty-three. You introduced me to my real father. The years I spent afterwards with him made up for the horrors I experienced as a child, begging for kindness from sadistic nuns who hated the bastard I was born to be.”
“Again, Isabella, why are you here? You said at his funeral you’d never speak to me again.”
“Justice,” she said. “I so like that word. Every time I say it I feel like it’s the Holy Grail, just beyond my reach.” She turned her gaze to him. Her voice went from wistful to perky and upbeat. “I hear Giovanni Battaglia knows about your black bastard daughter. He came to Sicily. Don’t you think you should be honest with Armando?”
“It’s not your affair!” Mancini snapped and started coughing. Isabella laughed.
Her laughter made him want to ring her neck. She was truly her mother’s daughter.
“What happened to you was unjust.” Mancini confessed. “But your parents had no choice. Isabella Battaglia was only seventeen years old when she was pregnant with you. She came to me for help to cover the secret. My family was the only one more powerful than her own capable to do so. Tomosino trusted Flavio. If he learned about the truth of their affair, he’d have killed him.”
“And so the cycle continues,” Isabella grinned. “Rumor has it that Dominic, Giovanni’s consigliere is now fucking his baby sister. Those Battaglia men can’t control their consigliere’s dicks!”
“Get to the point of your visit!” Mancini snapped.
“Oh yes, the lovers. Isabella and Flavio. A true Romeo and Juliet. Except, instead of taking the poison, they did away with the bastard. You were so generous to help them. Offering up one of your men and branding him Isabella’s rapist; to be slaughtered by Tomosino and his brothers, was pretty ingenious. No one ever suspected. Ever! How could anyone really believe that hateful bitch would let a man rape her?”
“That is your mother you speak of! Show respect.”
Isabella waved off the comment. “You saved the day. Tomosino was so grateful. Thought of you as a brother. Guess that’s why he had such issue with you running away to America.”
“How do you know this twisted version of our history?”
“How do you think?” she shouted at him. “You covered Flavio’s crimes so he could continue to be consigliere to Tomosino. Did you know my father told me what he had to pay to you all these years for that generosity? He was your spy! How delicious!” Isabella snickered. “You were spying on Tomosino and he was conspiring against you!” she laughed again. “Flavio was in the middle, playing you both!”
Mancini was chilled by that laughter. Isabella’s madness was almost as purely evil as that of her mother’s. “What do you mean, Tomosino was conspiring against me?”
“It is strange that you would be such a feared Don in Bagheria. They say you were the man who could rip another man’s throat open with his bare hands if disrespected. Parents still whisper stories of your wrath to their children to warn them to be good. And yet all this time you are so clueless. My father was right about you. Underneath all that murderous contempt, you are nothing but a coward.”
“I’ve tolerated all I intend to from you, Isabella. Leave.”
“Did you ever know who your enemy was?”
“Many men hate me.”
“But Flavio really hated you,” she hissed, her voice sounded like that of a serpent. “You kept me here and pretended I was your daughter, until my mother took ill. Then your wife told me the truth of who my parents were.”
“I protected you.” Mancini said. “I cared for you like my own child.”
She laughed bitterly. “And look at what that care has gotten your true daughters!”
“Don’t speak of them to me! You know nothing of them!”
“It was Flavio who put the idea in Tomosino’s head after you did away with me!”
Mancini frowned. “What idea?” He sat upright. “What are you talking about?”
“He convinced Tomosino to kill that black bitch in America. The breed horse you left behind with those twin mutts. Flavio got his revenge on you and you didn’t even know it. And there’s more! He also worked with Capriccio to hide your daughter Marietta from you. Let you believe she was dead. All of this with Tomosino’s blessing and funding. He wanted you to suffer, and Tomosino wanted his true friend to return to the Mafiosi.”
“Are you saying Flavio told you this?” Mancini asked, his voice shaky with fury.
“Yes. He told me. He knew about you sending for Mirabella. He returned to Italy from visiting me too late. Giovanni had already been bitten by the same lovebug that bit you in America. He fell in love with the pathetic wench! Flavio tried to separate them. And Giovanni murdered my father for his loyalty.”
Mancini remembered the conversation. He was certain that Giovanni held back on him, but not with this truth. It was too toxic to swallow. A blood thirst for revenge gripped him by the soul. Black- layered hatred filled him to the rim. “Tomosino and Flavio killed my Lisa?” he said in an empty, hollow voice.
“Yes!” Isabella smiled. “Now you get it! Finally! Saints be praised, he has seen the light. All these years you bartered a fake truce. You had Flavio telling you about the moves of the Camorra. Staying ahead of Tomosino in many important deals. And while you did this, my father helped Tomosino destroy that woman and her daughters.” Isabella rose. She straightened her suit.
Mancini remained frozen with rage, anger, disappointment, sorrow and shame. He couldn’t speak.
“Enough about the past. I came here today to tell you what Giovanni thinks you don’t need to know. Isn’t it time the Battaglias lose everything. And my brother too.”
“Your brother?” Mancini mumbled.
“Lorenzo. He’s with your daughter Marietta. The Battaglia men are fucking both your daughters… well.”
Mancini lunged for her but she easily stepped back and he fell to his knees. His oxygen tank fell over. The excruciating pain that shot through his joints made him wheeze.
“I did it!” Isabella announced. “I brought Marietta here. Almost had Lorenzo kill the bitch, but he’s weak like most men. Now he keeps her with him like his puppy,” Isabella said with disgust.
“I will stop you.”
“Oh no, no, no, no.” Isabella knelt. “You will not stop me. If you say anything to Giovanni or Lorenzo about me, I will play the last card my father gave me. And you will lose, Armando.” She glanced up to the sprawling estate behind him. “And three hundred years of Mancini legacy. I promise you.”
Mancini struggled but managed to rise. Isabella stayed close, yet distant.
“What do you want?”
“What every daughter wants. To make her father proud.” Isabella smiled. She looked up to the su
n. “Do you think daddy is proud of me now?”
Panting, he stood straight; but it took effort to remain that way.
Isabella stared at him. “Keep silent and away from your daughters and I will destroy Giovanni Battaglia and his precious Camorra from the inside. They will return to you, for your obedience. And you will have revenge without lifting a finger. Tell me that doesn’t taste sweet.”
“Your threat means nothing. It’s not enough to stop me from telling Giovanni. I’m a dead man on borrowed time. I don’t intend to play anyone’s game.”
“Mirabella is your favorite, isn’t she?”
Mancini frowned.
Isabella nodded. “Do you know she has a Chinaman rotting in a jail cell thirsting for revenge against her now? He and I have become quite close. In a month he is returning to China. To the Triad.”
Mancini’s eyes narrowed on her. He knew full well how powerful the Triad was. They were more ruthless than the Russians and more disciplined than the Mafiosi.
“If you warn Giovanni, I will unleash the Dragon on Mirabella. He’ll send you what’s left of her when he’s done.”
“Patri!” Armando called out. “Oh, Isabella. They told me you came to visit.” He walked over and kissed her cheek.
“Ciao, Armando. How are you?” She kissed both his cheeks in return.
“Good now that you are here. Say you will stay for dinner.” Mancini looked away, to keep Armando from seeing his anger. He set up his oxygen tank and lowered back into the chair, exhausted.
“No. I just wanted to come see uncle.” She smiled at him. “I’ve missed him and you. Whenever you come to Rome, you have to look me up.”
“Will do.”
“Ciao, uncle. I’ll be in touch.”
She walked off. Armando stood next to his chair, watching her go back through the gardens. “She is still beautiful. Isn’t she?”
“Like a cobra.” Mancini said bitterly.
Buon Compleanno –
“My goodness. How old is she?” Marietta asked, walking hand in hand with Lorenzo. She had shopped in Bellagio and bought a handmade doll of porcelain for the little princess, when Lorenzo announced they’d be returning to the Campania for the party.
