A Heart Decision (25 page)

“Wait.” He raised one hand. “It gets better.” He
turned back to Teresa. “This doesn’t explain how Antonio became my
father.”

“I’m getting there, Lucca. I told you, it’s a long
story.” She sucked in a deep breath. “Anyway,”—she stood and took
four glasses from the cabinet—“the large grocery chains were
undercutting our prices, and the store was making less and less
every month. Eventually, there wasn’t enough income to pay the
exorbitant interest on the loan.”

She pulled the iced tea from the refrigerator and
placed the pitcher on the table with the glasses.

“Don’t stop now.” Crissy filled the four tumblers.
“What happened?”

“After Papà missed several payments, your other
grandfather showed up early one morning instead of Salvatore.”

“
Knuckles Nunzio
?” Luke guessed.

“Yes, that’s how everyone referred to him behind his
back—never to his face. Your grandfather was a cruel, violent man,
which is why he was called that.”

Crissy snorted softly. “He sounds like Vito
Corleone.”

“You’re not far off, sweetie. The first two
Godfather
movies came out only a few years before. This was
1979, so naturally, when Nunzio left his two goons standing guard
outside and locked the store’s front door, I was scared to
death.”

She slid back into her seat. “Nunzio dragged my
father and me to the back of the store and explained that he’d
ordered Sal to break my father’s legs, but your dad refused to do
it.”

“What’d your father do?” Crissy asked.

“He pleaded for mercy, and Nunzio beat him until he
collapsed unconscious on the floor. When the creep tried to kick
Papà, I threw myself over my father’s body to protect him. Nunzio
yanked me up by my hair. At first, I was sure he planned to hit me,
too, so I spit in his face and told him what a monster he was.”

Crissy gasped.

His mother spread her hands in a helpless gesture.
“I figured if I was about to die, anyway, I had nothing to lose.
The bastard stepped back and looked at me up and down several times
while I stared back at him. Finally he said, ‘
So, you’re the
gorgeous piece of tail I’ve been hearin’ about. I figured my
capo had exaggerated when he claimed you looked like Rachel Welch.
Apparently I was wrong. You have a body that would give a dead
priest a hard-on.
’ Then without any warning, Sal’s father
grabbed the neck of my shirt and tore it right down the
center.”

Luke turned away, feeling sick.

Crissy slapped her hand over her mouth. “You didn’t
try to run?”

“I was too terrified to move. While I stood there
shaking uncontrollably, he said, ‘
I can see why my son has the
hots for you, but what I want to know is, how’d you make him turn
his back on the family?’”

~*~

Sabrina shuddered, imagining what must have happened
next. She glanced at Luke who also appeared to be envisioning the
worst.

“Bastard,” he muttered.

She squeezed his fisted hand, waiting for Teresa to
continue.

“Anyway, I told him I hadn’t
made
his son do
anything, and that maybe Sal simply had the good conscience that
his father lacked.”

“That was gutsy,” Sabrina muttered, feeling Luke’s
anger and frustration rising by the second.

“Evidently, Nunzio thought so, too. He said,
‘
Your mouth is nearly as big as your tits—which I’m sure my son
considers a huge plus when you’re blowin’ him.’”

Luke did a double take at his mother. “Ma!”

“I’m sorry, Lucca. You asked me to tell you what
happened. I’m just repeating what your grandfather said.”

“You have my permission to paraphrase.”

“Fine. He followed that up by saying,
‘In fact,
if Salvatore didn’t want you so damn much, I’d, uhh....take you
myself, right now.’
Except he actually used the F word.”

“Okay, we get it.” Luke raised his hands in
surrender. “Our grandfather was a degenerate. Now I know why dad
flipped out when he learned I’d drawn nipples on Brina’s
Barbie.”

Sabrina reached across the table and grabbed
Teresa’s hand. “Please, tell us he didn’t rape you.”

“No. Instead, he shocked me by saying, “‘
I like
you, Teresa. You’ve got gumption. If my son’s gonna take over from
me someday, he’ll need a wife with a backbone. So here’s what I’m
prepared to do. If you marry my son at St. Paul’s two weeks from
Saturday, I’ll let your father live. As your wedding gift, I’ll
forget the two hundred and thirty grand he owes me.’”

“He was essentially trying to
buy
you,”
Crissy pointed out.

“And your father let you go through with it?”
Sabrina asked, feeling as appalled as Crissy.

“More than that, he
begged
me to marry
Sal.”

Crissy snorted. “After he wouldn’t even let you
date
Dad.”

“My father swore, if I didn’t, he’d be a dead man
within a month.” Teresa glanced between Crissy and Luke. “I was
crazy in love with your dad, so naturally I agreed. Even though I
was terrified of marrying into that family, I was confident Sal was
nothing like his father.”

Luke finally lost it and slapped the table. “Damn
it, Ma, would you just explain how Dad’s brother became my
father?”

“You told me to start at the beginning. You can’t
understand what happened without hearing this background
first.”

“Just cut to the chase, okay?” He took a long
swallow of the iced tea Crissy had poured.

“Fine.” Teresa tossed her hands up. “To make a long
story short, your dad had already told your grandfather he didn’t
want any part of the family’s filthy business. So marriage to me
was Nunzio’s way of trying to drag your dad back into the
fold.”

“Apparently it was an offer Dad was able to refuse.”
Crissy surmised.

“You’re right. Your dad didn’t believe anything his
father said or trust him to follow through. Tony was a year
younger, so there was fierce sibling rivalry between him and Sal,
which their father took full advantage of. When your dad refused to
buckle under Nunzio’s blackmail attempts, the bastard punished your
dad by disinheriting him and naming his brother, Antonio, as his
successor.”

“I’m sure Tony was happy to take Dad’s place,” Luke
sneered.

“Not in the business,” Teresa explained.
“Unfortunately, he didn’t have the
coglioni
to stand up to
Nunzio the way your dad did. Consequently, when my father walked me
down the aisle two weeks later, Tony was waiting at the altar
instead of Sal.”

Crissy’s eyes widened. “You mean Nunzio pulled a
switcheroo at the last minute? I thought the Mafia was big on
honoring their agreements.”

“Actually, your grandfather didn’t technically
violate the terms,” Sabrina pointed out. “He only demanded that
your mom marry his son. He never stipulated which one.”

“What about the marriage license?” Crissy asked.
“The bride and groom both have to be present to apply for one.”

“Seriously, squirt?” Luke released a wry chuckle.
“The bastard probably forged hundreds of documents in his life. You
think he’d have any compunction about falsifying a lousy marriage
license?”

“Truthfully, I was so frightened I didn’t even think
about a license,” Teresa admitted. “When I balked halfway down the
aisle, my father shoved me forward to marry a man I’d never even
met. Nunzio just stood on the groom’s side of the church staring at
me and my father, making it abundantly clear what would happen if I
didn’t become Tony’s wife in every sense of the word.”

The vague similarity between Teresa’s story and the
situation that Ben and Luke had placed Sabrina in made her wince.
She couldn’t begin to imagine Teresa’s dread on her wedding
night—forced to sleep with one brother while loving the other.

She smiled at Luke as he gently rubbed her back,
almost as if he, too, could see the parallel. However, unlike his
mother’s circumstances, at least Sabrina had a deep affection for
BJ.

Still, would she experience the same wedding night
jitters if she ended up marrying Ben instead of Luke?

“So how did you eventually marry Dad?” Crissy asked,
jerking Sabrina out of her thoughts.

“After the wedding reception at Nunzio’s estate, he
dragged me upstairs to Tony’s bedroom and said, ‘
If you put up a
struggle tonight, I know my spineless son won’t force you to
consummate the marriage. However, I have no such scruples.’
Then he handed me a Xanax and told me to submit to my husband or he
would rape me.

“What a sleaze.” Crissy grimaced. “I hate the
thought of being his granddaughter.”

“That’s why your dad let you all believe he was an
orphan.”

“So now we know how Tony became Luke’s father. How
did Dad become mine?” Crissy asked.

“Well, your Uncle Tony is a decent man at heart.
Xanax was fairly new, and I’d never heard of it, so I was afraid to
take the pill. When Tony came to bed a half hour later, he found me
crying. He offered to sleep in the guest room, but I told him what
his father had threatened to do if I didn’t consummate the
marriage. The fact Tony believed me, proved he knew the cruelty his
father was capable of.”

Teresa swiped at the tears welling in her eyes. “He
was very sweet and gentle, and he promised to be a good husband. I
tried to adjust to being his wife, but I was still crying for your
dad after a week in his brother’s bed. Tony finally called him and
told him I was a lousy lay and Sal could have his leftovers.”

“What did our grandfather do?” Crissy asked.

“Not a damn thing. Tony finally found the courage to
stand up to the bastard and issued an ultimatum. Nunzio had to
leave my father alone and allow me to apply for an annulment so
your dad and I could be married in the Church. Otherwise, Nunzio
would lose
two
sons instead of just one.”

“Wow.” Sabrina shook her head. “What a romantic
ending to such a horrible story.”

“Yeah, if it hadn’t turned out that way, I wouldn’t
exist.” Crissy chuckled. “I only have one more question.”

“That’ll be the day,” Luke muttered.

Crissy glared at him. “If you were married to Tony
for only a week, why are you so sure he’s Luke’s biological father
and not Dad? Didn’t the two of you sleep together until after you
were married?”

“Don’t you think that’s a bit private?” Luke
asked.

Crissy shrugged. “Don’t
you
want to
know?”

“Yes, we lived together,” Teresa told her. “We knew
it would be at least a year before the Church approved the
annulment. When I found out I was pregnant, we weren’t sure who’d
fathered my baby until after Luke was born. Both your dad’s and my
blood type is B, and your brother’s is type O.”

“So does Tony know he got you pregnant?” Luke asked
his mom.

“For years he didn’t have a clue. Then when I went
to tell him about your dad’s illness and death, he guessed after I
started nagging him to be tested. He swore he’d never tell you he
was your father, but he made me promise, if you ever found out, I
would make sure you don’t think badly of him for not publicly
claiming you as his son.”

“Obviously, the two of you have kept in touch. Just
as a matter of curiosity, do you know how advanced his disease is?”
Luke asked.

“He only became symptomatic a few years ago. I think
the main reason he handed the reins over to Dante is because he was
told stress might exacerbate the course of his disease.”

“At this stage his chorea is probably fairly well
controlled with meds,” Sabrina told them.

“I’d like to propose a toast.” Crissy lifted her
iced tea.

They all raised their glasses and waited
expectantly. “Well,” Luke asked, “what’s the toast?”

“Thank God Tony grew a pair.”

Amen.

~*~

Hearing his mother’s story and how she’d cried for
his father while she’d been married to Tony left Luke more
determined than ever to prove himself genetically sound. He wanted
Sabrina to marry him if at all possible, however, if he tested
positive, at least she cared deeply for Ben.

The next day when he called for an appointment to
start the genetic testing process, the receptionist insisted,
regardless of his time constraints, the soonest date they could fit
him in was two weeks away. However, the woman told him he could
speed things up, in the meantime, by contacting a local therapist
to begin his counseling sessions.

At least a dozen times in the four days that
followed, he mentally kicked himself for insisting Sabrina return
to her apartment. Sleeping without her in his arms was, at best,
difficult—especially considering how far the temperature had
dropped the last two nights. Not seeing her or talking to her had
been sheer torture.

He’d spent the first two nights with his nose
pressed to the pillow she’d used. Unfortunately, by the third
night, her scent had completely dissipated.

On the fifth day, he dragged himself out of bed,
drove to her apartment in Cal’s car, and insisted she accompany him
to his counseling appointment as an excuse to spend time with
her.

“What’d Ben say when you told him I made you move
back to your place?” he asked after she settled in the passenger
seat next to him.

“Not much. He appreciated your sensitivity to how he
feels. Although, he said if I decide to accept his invitation to go
to Paris with him next week, you can bet he won’t be as noble.”

“That sounds like him. What’s in Paris?”

“He was invited to speak on the future of finance at
some economic symposium. He thought I might like to shop for my
trousseau and wedding gown while we’re there.”

No doubt his friend wanted her to witness the way
the entire financial community hung on his every word as if he were
Christ delivering the Sermon on the Mount. She already knew how
much professional respect BJ received. Still, for some reason, it
bothered Luke to have her see Ben in the spotlight, firsthand.