Omerta

by Sienna Mynx

  “I do, Marie, I swear to you. I do. But I can’t lose you both. I won’t give up. So don’t give up on me.”

  CARLO WATCHED THE BOAT zip out across the waves. One of his men asked for instruction. Most of them wanted to follow through with their mission. But he wouldn’t give the order. He stood on the coast and he saw his life flash before his eyes. But he saw it in reverse. He saw when he was seven years old and had to fight three boys who were twice his age for the meager lunch his mother had prepared. He saw how Lorenzo who was just as scrawny jumped in to take the beating at his side. He remembered. From the first day they met they had each other backs. He knew Lorenzo in a way a brother only could. He looked into Lorenzo eyes and for the first time since his vow to give his life over to the Camorristi he questioned it all. The blood oath, the blind allegiance for family. There was one man who was his family and it was Lorenzo. What he saw was a man desperate and selfish enough to want his own life and his wife and child. A man like him.

  Instead of gunning him down on the beach as he had planned. Instead of giving Marietta the large dose of pain that Giovanni had wanted. He let them both go.

  “The antelope runs, and the lion let him go.”

  He turned to look over to his left. Abedi lowered the scarf on her head. “Give me the precious one. What do you know of babies Carlo?”

  Carlo was reluctant at first. He handed the baby over with care. Abedi smiled at the tiny infant. “Don’t worry, Carlo. I love children. I’ll protect her soul.”

  “We could still get to them, boss,” One of his men spoke.

  “He’s gone,” Carlo said to everyone. Abedi was the only one of those gathered who wore a sly smile to her face. Carlo ignored her. He ignored her haunting stare. “He’s gone. Prepare everything, if the doctor says it’s okay we will leave with the baby for... Italy... soon.”

  The men gave each other curious looks at Carlo’s orders. Giovanni’s orders were clear. They were unsure which to follow. Retreating could cost them their lives, as well.

  “What will your boss think of your staged failure?” Abedi asked.

  “Don’t fucking worry about my failures. Speak to those goons and get my plane. I was clear, make sure they understand. Lorenzo escaped. We arrived at the beach too late. We need to leave for Italy as soon as the baby can travel.”

  Carlo took Lorenza from Abedi. He didn’t trust her. He didn’t trust himself. But there were nurses at the hospital who could care for the child.

  “Carrrrlooooow?” Abedi’s thick accent curled around his name and made his pulse race. “You can do good things, mpenzi wangu, but it changes nothing of who you are.”

  “And what am I Abedi?” he asked.

  She glanced out to the ocean and the boats leaving. “I thought you were a warrior, or a demon, or both. Now, I think you are a coward. Never met a lion who was a coward.”

  Carlo narrowed his eyes on her.

  “Do what I say, or I will show you the man you have yet to meet.”

  Abedi gave him a respectful bow of her head. “Dhakyia will help you. She’ll be there tonight to care for the baby. And if you need me, I’ll be there to care for you.”

  He looked down at the little one. She slept with her lips puckered. She had slept through the gun battle. He smiled. She was a tough kid. Just like her father and her mother.

  LORENZO LOOKED OVER to his wife. Her head rested against the window of the plane her face was still damp from fresh tears. She’d cried herself into exhaustion. Sleep was the only peace he could give her. So he took some pills from Josef and slipped them into her drink.

  The belt unlatched to his waist. He pushed up from his seat and headed to the back of the plane. He took a seat next to Josef.

  “What do you know?” Lorenzo asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “Where is my baby?”

  “You saw him, mate. You tell me. The motherfucker could have taken the kill shot on the beach and he didn’t. He let you and her go.”

  Lorenzo wiped his hand down his face. He had replayed that moment several times over and over in his head.

  “If he took the kid what would he do with it?” Josef asked. “Kill your child? What?”

  “He’ll give my baby to Gio.”

  “Then you’re fucked,” Josef said.

  “No, Gio is fucked. Nothing will keep me from my daughter.”

  “You’re fucked because this was supposed to be the end, not the beginning of a new war, Lo. Alik should be waiting for us in Sicily. Those Mafia Dons want to cut your dick off over losing business. They blame you. Giovanni has the Russians and his new clan bosses all over the Amalfi. You’re fucked if you think you can go against him now.”

  “You listen to me, motherfucker. You and every man that works for you will help me get my baby-girl. Do you hear me? I don’t give a fuck what it cost or who it takes. I want my baby, so the next thing you say to me is the plan on how we get her back.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  L'amara verità - The bitter truth

  Palermo - Sicily

  CATALINA WAS STARTLED awake. Normally she’d receive a nudge from Bionca and then drag herself from bed. There was a new normal for her now. Zia had stayed the night in her bed talking to her about the old days, when her mother and father were alive. Telling her stories of Sicily, she’d never heard before. Her aunt’s soothing voice and nurturing healed her.

  Catalina looked around confused as to the cause of her heart’s racing state. She was actually breathing hard. She lifted on her elbows and blinked a few times to clear her head and vision.

  The phone in her room rang. That was it! That was what woke her. Catalina never received calls. And even rarely received them directly to her room. She didn’t know the number. She sat there staring at the ringing phone. The phone rang five times and then the caller hung up.

  “It’s okay, baby,” she said as if her child had asked the question that was hammering her heart. “It was no one.”

  Catalina found her robe.

  The phone rang again. She turned and stared at it. It kept ringing. Curiosity won out and she walked over and picked it up.

  “Hello?”

  “I need to see you.”

  “Domi?”

  “Will you see me? Talk to me.”

  “How did you get this number—?”

  “We’ll talk soon,” he said and then the line clicked off.

  She hung up the phone. There was a knock at the door. Catalina could barely recover from one shock before she was delivered another.

  “Scusi, Donna,” Bionca said. “Lorenzo has arrived, and he’s... not alone.”

  “So? He brings people all the time.”

  “It’s Signora Marietta, his wife. She’s here with him. He carried her in the door a few minutes ago. You must come downstairs. Your aunt has been told.”

  “Ah... oh... yes... yes,” Catalina agreed and put on her slippers. Lorenzo had done what he said he would. He found her. Catalina raced out of the room not sure of her feelings. Dominic hadn’t made any attempt to reach out to her since they last saw each other. And then he calls only minutes before Lorenzo arrives. She was down the stairs and rushing into the parlor before she could even fathom the next truth. She found Lorenzo holding Marietta as she clung to him and wept. Zia stood before them distressed.

  “Catalina?” Marietta said.

  Marietta pushed from Lorenzo and went to Catalina from the sofa. The two women embraced. “Oh God, I thought I’d never see you again,” Catalina confessed.

  “Me too,” Marietta wept.

  “You almost didn’t,” Lorenzo said.

  Catalina let go of Marietta and looked down at her belly bump, it was much smaller than a full term pregnant woman. “Where’s the baby?”

  “Carlo stole my baby! He kidnapped me and stole my baby. He took her!” Marietta wept.

  Zia sat. The old woman looked pale from the news. Lorenzo was so red faced he looked as if he’d bathed in the sun.


  “She’s probably in Italy now. With Gio,” Zia mumbled.

  “That make no sense. If Gio wanted revenge he wouldn’t take it out on an innocent baby.”

  “The hell he wouldn’t!” Marietta snatched away from Catalina. “He would do anything to make us suffer. Anything!”

  “Calm down,” Catalina said. “You’re alive, and so is Lorenzo. You know the baby is safe.”

  “No! Noooo!” Marietta screamed. “My breasts hurt. She needs me. She’s only had me. She’s so little and helpless. Lo, you need to find her. Now! Let’s leave tonight. Go get her. Bring her home. Okay? Tonight. Okay?”

  “I will Marie. I swear to you.”

  Catalina looked to Zia for help. When she saw nothing but resolve in Zia’s eyes she tried again to get an explanation.

  “How did you find her?”

  “That bitch doctor. Giovanni used her to have Marietta put in a hospital in Africa. He then got rid of the staff and paid off the village to jail her.”

  “It was a set-up. Carlo told me that Giovanni wanted me to feel his pain. All of it. And I do. Dear God I feel all of it. They waited for my little girl to be born and then tricked me.”

  “Girl? It’s a girl?” Catalina put a hand to her mouth.

  Marietta frowned. She then looked at Catalina as if seeing her for the first time. “Are you pregnant? You’re pregnant? How?”

  Catalina glanced to Lorenzo. She then looked to Marietta and found it impossible to speak.

  “Where is Armando? It’s his? Is it?”

  “He’s gone, Marietta. And yes, Catalina is pregnant. She married him,” Lorenzo announced.

  “Gone? When will he be back? We can use his help on this. He can help us force Mirabella to release my baby.”

  “He’s dead.” Catalina informed her.

  “What? What did you say!”

  “Lorenzo killed him. Shot him full of bullets and then tossed his body into the ocean. Made me watch him die only a few days after I married him.”

  Marietta turned and slapped Lorenzo. She hit him so hard his head jerked, and he stumbled backwards. She swung to hit him again but this time he caught her wrist and yanked her forward. He glared at Catalina over the betrayal. If Zia wasn’t present, she was sure he’d threaten her as he had done many times before. But he didn’t. Marietta was fighting and shouting accusations, calling him names in English and Italian.

  “You killed him? That wasn’t the plan! He’s my brother you asshole! My only brother! That was never the plan!”

  “You were kidnapped. He wasn’t going to help me.”

  “You promised me we could destroy them without killing anyone else! We could win! You’re a liar! You’re nothing but a liar and I should have chosen my baby over you! I should have! I’m so stupid!”

  “Marie, I love you. I did it all for you. All for you!” He held her so tight Catalina saw no way for Marietta to escape. She also saw her weakening and it made her rage too much to hold.

  “Don’t listen to him. He’s lying to you!” Catalina shouted. “Armando was looking for you. He was helping. We were on a boat headed to Spain to find you. You’re right. Lorenzo is a liar. He’s the devil! And because of him your baby is gone.”

  “Enough!” Zia shouted above all of the crying and yelling. But Catalina went in for the jugular. She shouted obscenities and all the things Lorenzo had put her through since the killing of her husband. Everything she could say she did and then more. And Lorenzo hurled just as many accusations back at her. Calling her a whore, the daughter of a whore, all the ugly things that should shred her bravery. But she wouldn’t let him win. She wasn’t going to let him walk away from confessing his crimes.

  “I said enough!” Zia yelled.

  Catalina and Lorenzo both fell silent. Marietta escaped Lorenzo and scooted back over the floor near the sofa. Catalina didn’t believe her distress fully. To her they were guilty of the same crime. She knew Marietta and Lorenzo had plotted against Armando. Did she think Lorenzo wouldn’t carry out his plan?

  “Sit down Catalina. The both of you. Sit!” Zia demanded.

  “I don’t have time for this,” Lorenzo turned to leave.

  “You will sit! Now!” Zia demanded and clutched her chest. The action stilled them all. She rubbed the center of her chest as if in pain. It scared Catalina. It scared Lorenzo too. There was something in her voice. It sounded unshakeable. Lorenzo sat down. Catalina had seen Zia upset. She’d seen her distressed. But in all her years of loving and being loved by her aunt it was even more rare to see her angry.

  “Do you not see what you’ve become?” she asked Lorenzo.

  He rolled his eyes.

  “This is not you. It never was.”

  “It is him!” Catalina insisted.

  “No. He made a mistake, a horrible one. And he spent years trying to cover it, but he’d never turn his back on his family. Now we are no family and it’s not your fault. None of you. This, what we have become was done by them.”

  “Them who?” Catalina asked.

  “Isabella, Rocco, Flavio and Tomosino. Even your mother. Them.” Zia said. “Giovanni knows the truth. My God. He would have killed you and let you believe a lie. That’s who he has become. His father. And you’re just like him. So much rage and anger. It’s all you are now.” She pointed at Lorenzo. “Your mother lied to you. From the very start. Eve and I did the best we could, but she was so angry and hellbent on revenge she took it all out on you. It’s no wonder this secret has lasted so long.”

  “My mother never loved me? So what! I know that Zia. It’s never been a secret.”

  “Be silent so you can know the truth. She’s not your mother.”

  Marietta lifted her face from her hands.

  “I tried to protect you from this. Eve, tried to protect you and Giovanni. But the lies and the secrets have torn us apart. I wouldn’t have said anything, Rocco started this path and I have to take it. Giovanni taking that baby from her mother is too far. Marietta needs her baby. This war between you two has to end!”

  “Zia you aren’t making sense. What do you mean Zia Isabella isn’t Lorenzo’s mother?”

  “She isn’t. After Rocco found out about Isabella’s affair with Flavio and sent her baby away. Isabella went mad with grief. The way you are now. Feel that pain? The loss of a child. It can bring out the very worst in you. I know that pain too. And I’ve been... never mind. Rocco loved his sister, or at least he said he did. Rocco wasn’t a good man. He did things, terrible things. Since the day I’ve known him I’ve known the side of him that you didn’t.”

  Catalina remembered the terrible story Zia told her about her first love. How Rocco stole her away from the young man and then married her by force. But this story she shared now seem much direr.

  “And Tomosino wasn’t a good man either. You knew what he did to your mother?”

  Catalina nodded.

  “She wasn’t the first. There were young girls. There was a young girl who—.” Zia sighed. “It’s so hard to explain.”

  “Explain it!” Lorenzo said.

  “Stop yelling at her, can’t you see she’s trying!” Marietta said.

  Zia nodded. “There was a young girl, she was taken from her family by Tomosino and kept in Bagheria, then Mondello. She was his mistress.”

  “Mistress or victim?” Marietta asked. “She was his hostage, say it.”

  Catalina felt a sickness rise in her. This was a story she didn’t want to hear. “I can’t do this. I don’t want to hear anymore.”

  “Listen to me,” Zia pleaded. “That girl had no one to trust but Rocco. He used her fear of an unwanted pregnancy to... force his own sick desires on her. The moment Tomosino found out she was pregnant he didn’t believe the child was his. Rocco, said he... I can’t. He... gave the baby, a little boy, to Isabella. The baby was you Lorenzo. The baby is you. You and Giovanni aren’t cousins. You’re brothers. Tomosino is your father.”

  Catalina stood. The story was a ramble of fact
s and emotion but none of it made sense. Zia shook her head sadly. She tried to explain the best she could. She went as far as to say she believed Rocco raped the woman. Still none of them could digest the tale. Lorenzo was the only one who didn’t speak or question Zia. He sat there staring.

  “Lo?” Marietta said. “Are you okay?”

  Lorenzo walked out.

  “Zia? Did this really happen? Is he really Tomosino’s son?” Marietta asked again.

  “It’s what Rocco told Mirabella and Giovanni before he died. He also had a picture of the woman and Eve’s diary. I’ve spoken to your aunts, the widows of Bagheria. It’s true.”

  “I have to find him,” Marietta said and left the room.

  Catalina felt catatonic.

  Zia found the chair and sat in it. She too looked as if the last of her strength had been drained. Catalina stared at her aunt with a new understanding and the shared sadness became unbearable. She went over to Zia. She hugged her neck.

  “This secret Zia, it doesn’t heal. Trust me. You should have kept it. This secret will destroy them both.”

  “I don’t think so. I think Rocco knew the way to end this war between them. This is the way.”

  CARLO KNEW NOTHING about babies. Abedi and Dhakyia took the burden from him. Abedi sat in the window seat next to him. From his seat he could watch Dhakyia tend to Lorenza. The child had just fed off the last bottle they had with Marietta’s breast milk.

  “What will we feed her?” Carlo asked

  “Baby formula. I made sure Dhakyia brought some with her. She can take that.”

  “Is that good for her? She needs her mother’s milk, doesn’t she?”

  “It’ll have to do,” Abedi said. “Won’t it?”

  Carlo sighed. He closed his eyes. Still he felt Abedi’s stare on him. He opened his eyes and looked into hers.

  “You care about the baby?”

  “I don’t harm kids,” Carlo said.

  “Of course, you do. How many baby girl and boys have you left orphaned because you took away their mother or farther?”