La Sposa (58 page)

“
That’s a myth. I didn’t kill
children.”

“
Taking a child’s parents and
casting them to the streets is as good as killing them. Do you
think I would trade my daughter for you?”

“
But you forget something. I killed
the Calderones because of my love for her. For justice. You let her
mother die, and did nothing…”

The accusation caused Mancini to seizure with
rage. He slammed his fist into his hand. “
Non essere un
idiota!
How dare you say that to me! You have no idea what I
went through, how I tried to save Lisa and Mirabella!”

Giovanni shook his head. “Try again, old man.
You had two daughters. That’s right, I know Mira has a twin.” He
reached in his pocket and tossed to the garden table Mira’s
bracelet and Marietta’s necklace. “You’re going to sit here and
tell me that you brought them both to Italy for this reunion, two
years apart? When you couldn’t give a shit about them being
separated in America for over twenty years?”

“
Marietta is alive?” Mancini sat
forward. He picked up the necklace, then the bracelet. He looked
upon them both with wide-eyed wonder. “Is she?”

Giovanni frowned. “You know damn well she
is!”

“
No. No, Giovanni. I was told she
was killed. That she died with Melissa. I had no idea she lived.
Where is she? Have you found her?”

Giovanni wasn’t sure what to make of the panic
in Mancini’s voice. “I’m not telling you anything until you share
the truth about my wife.”

“
I saw them when they were born.
Little brown girls. They weren’t identical but I loved them as if
they were. I had these made for them by Del Stavio, when Lisa told
me she was pregnant,” Mancini smiled. He stared at the jewelry, as
if lost in a memory. “Strangest thing, when the doctor wheeled my
girls out to me and Lisa. When they were born, they were different
colors. Mirabella was dark like her mother, and Marietta was fairer
like me. It was like our love had divided and bound us. A
miracle.”

“
Love?” Giovanni chuckled. “James
Walker tells it a different way. Melissa was barely sixteen when
you snatched her from him. How is that love?”

“
I loved her!” Mancini said,
closing his fist around the jewelry. “The first time I saw Melissa,
I couldn’t take my eyes off her. You had to see her. What did you
think when you first saw my Mirabella?” Mancini hissed. “Were you
drawn to her instantly? Well, multiply that times a hundred and you
will understand what Lisa did to me. She was a sweet kid. Naïve. I
helped her…”

“
That’s a lie. You ran a bar and
you seduced her away from her boyfriend. Probably raped her the
first time you had her all alone after you threw James in prison
for a crime he didn’t commit. Then you turned her onto
drugs.”

“
That’s a lie! I never turned Lisa
to drugs! Ever!” Mancini wheezed. “It’s complicated.”

“
Bullshit. I’m no fool. I know what
you and men like you are capable of,” Giovanni said.

“
You mean, men like us?” Mancini
smirked. “Where is Marietta? Is she really alive?”

The question distracted Giovanni. Did Mancini
really not know that the other daughter existed? Or was this all
more of his bullshit? There were too many gaps and holes in between
the truth. He began to question if he’d ever uncover the real
truth. “Why don’t you know about Marietta?”

“
It was a long time ago,
Giovanni.”

“
And?”

“
The Ciaculli massacre made a mess
of things in Sicily. The war with the Republic tore families, men
that were brothers in blood apart. We were all scattered to the
wind. The Dons had lost control. They needed their son’s home, my
father wanted me home. Your father tried to warn me. And I would
have listened, but Lisa was pregnant. I had abandoned her once and
when I returned, she was on drugs. I cleaned her up and left her
again. When she told me about the babies, I knew I had to be there
for them.”

“
You wanted children with an
American black woman?” Giovanni scoffed.

“
Don’t you?” Mancini
chuckled.

“
This isn’t about me!”

Mancini shot him a glare. “I wanted babies
with Lisa. She wasn’t just some American
puttana
. She was my
Lisa. Special, in ways you should know. Especially if you claim to
love Mirabella the way you profess to.”

“
But you already had a wife and a
son. You’re telling me you were willing to give them
up.”

Mancini sighed. “It was
complicated.”

“
Right.” Giovanni smirked.
“Complicated. I saw my father’s complications. How he kept my
mother and his wife. Slept with them both, crushed their spirit
under his boot heel.”

“
I was arrogant enough to believe
myself invincible, like Tomosino. And maybe I am. But Lisa never
was. I should have never trusted her to them.”

“
Them?”

Mancini didn’t answer. He kept speaking as if
Giovanni hadn’t spoken. “Somehow, my father figured out why I chose
America over my bride, my son, and the family. He was furious. I
believe it was Del Stavio who turned on me. Later, I carved him up
for justice,” Mancini said with a clenched fist.

“
You killed Del Stavio?”

“
Yes. After Lisa died, I needed
revenge to keep breathing.” A wicked smile slipped over his mouth
as Mancini’s hard stare latched on to him. “You do know that kind
of revenge. Don’t you, Gio?”

“
We are nothing alike.”

“
Are you sure about that? Enough to
risk her life twice?”

“
I can protect her. She is the
mother of my children.”

“
Children? I thought she had a
daughter for you?” Mancini asked.

“
She’s pregnant,” Giovanni
answered.

Mancini closed his eyes to the news. “Why did
you take her? You could have any woman. Why my
Mirabella?”

“
She’s mine. That’s all I will say
on it. Mine.”

Slowly, Mancini’s eyes opened and the rage on
his face revealed the dormant monster that the cancer had tamed.
Giovanni knew if the old man had a gun, he’d draw it. Mancini
continued to speak, but this time through clenched teeth. “Lisa was
the mother of my daughters and I failed her! A hit was put on
Lisa’s life to bring me back to Sicily. Her car was firebombed and
she barely escaped.” He wagged an accusing finger at Giovanni.
“Just like the bomb set in your home for Mirabella.”

“
That wasn’t…”

“
And then set again in America for
her! Do you know how I grieved Mirabella? How badly I wanted to
attend Mirabella’s funeral. The doctors wouldn’t let me travel. It
was hell. That’s why I didn’t intercede when you waged war on the
Calderones. I wanted revenge through you.” Mancini coughed and
covered his mouth again. “And one day, almost two years later, I
turn on the television and there she is. Alive. With you
again!”

Giovanni fell silent. Guilt and shame rendered
him speechless. Mancini nodded, satisfied. “I didn’t bring her here
for you. I’m proud of who she has become. A star. A beautiful,
talented woman loved by the world. As her mother should have been.
A star. And then you show up and rip her life apart. Impregnate
her. Strip her of her identity. Do you think any father would want
that for their child? Do you think I’d want her to suffer for men
like us, like her mother did!”

Giovanni shifted forward in his chair. “What
you want means nothing to me. Finish the fucking history lesson so
our business can conclude.”

“
I flew back to Sicily when I
learned my father had the bomb planted for Lisa. I left Caruso
Capriccio to look after Lisa. He and another woman named Gemma
worked for me. They decided to take Lisa to Gemma’s family in
Chicago. She was to stay there and wait for me. But something
happened. Caruso said he didn’t know much, because he was still
running our operations in Philadelphia. Gemma claims to not know
why, but for some reason, Lisa ran away in the middle of the night
with one baby.”

“
Mirabella?” Giovanni
asked.

“
Yes. She took her back to
Virginia. I only learned about it months later when I had her
found. She told me she had no choice. She told me that Caruso and
Gemma couldn’t be trusted. She begged me to help her get Marietta
back. She said she could only escape with one baby. I asked her
what she was escaping from and she made no sense. She sounded
paranoid. It was fucking madness! Like it was when she was on
drugs.”

“
She needed you.”

“
And I was needed here. We were in
the fight of our lives against the anti-mafia commission. I had to
join La
Cosa Nostra,
or risk two hundred years of my
famiglia’s
legacy.”

“
So you didn’t believe she was
still in danger, or you didn’t give a shit? Which is
it?”

Mancini sighed. “I believed her. I’m not proud
of my actions. I was a selfish man then.”

“
You still are!” Giovanni
charged.

“
I knew something was wrong. Lisa
wouldn’t separate the girls. What could I do from Sicily? She lost
faith in me and cut me off.”

Giovanni wiped his hand down his face. “And
Gemma? Caruso? What did they tell you?”

“
Gemma said Lisa was back on the
drugs. I still don’t know if that was true. She went clean when she
found out she was pregnant. Gemma said it was best that Marietta
stay with her family, and Mirabella stay with Lisa’s family until I
return. Caruso told me when he checked in on her in Virginia; he
was told that Lisa had run away again. Abandoned Mirabella and was
living on the streets. No one knew where she was.”

“
That’s a lie.” Giovanni corrected.
“Mira remembers her mother being at home with her in Virginia when
she was young. Lisa was not on the streets. Why is there no record
of their birth in Philadelphia?”

Mancini frowned. “What do you mean there is no
record?”

“
Are you telling me you don’t know
that their birth certificates were pulled? Mira and Marietta are
recorded as being born in Chicago. For Mira, she has no father
listed on the certificate.”

“
That makes no sense. I never had
that done. I always believed that Lisa’s parents had the birth
certificate changed since Mira doesn’t know me. I’m almost certain
they didn’t know about Marietta.”

“
Then your father had their birth
records removed?”

“
No.
Patri
was dying. He
just wanted me home. He wouldn’t waste resources on that kind of
deception.”

Giovanni mulled it over. It had to be Caruso.
He was working against Mancini from the start. He set things in
motion to get rid of Melissa Ellison and the babies.

“
And then what happened? How much
time passed before you found out where she was?”

“
A year, a little over a year.”
Mancini said. “I was later told by Capriccio that she returned to
Chicago. That my enemies picked up her scent. They murdered her and
Marietta. Her body surfaced days later in a warehouse. I had her
brought home. Marietta’s body wasn’t recovered. You have no idea
how much guilt I’ve carried over my dead daughter. And now you tell
me she is alive?” Mancini wheezed. He turned up the oxygen and took
down another deep breath of air through his scarred
lungs.

“
Did you ever try again to see
Mira?” Giovanni asked.

“
Years later. She was eight years
old, and I was in control here in Bagheria. I told Rosa about her
and she wanted me to bring her to Italy. Rosa always wanted a
daughter. She would have loved Mirabella. I came for her. Again, I
was met with a shotgun. I couldn’t take her from the only family
she’d ever known. But I never lost contact with her. Now you sit
here and tell me that Marietta is alive. I never knew. I brought
Mira to Italy to start her business. I found a weak man in her
company. A gambler. I laid a trap for him. When his debt could not
be paid I had him brought to me. Theodore Tate was going to make
the introduction. I only put her in your building to give her a
chance to be settled. But you acted immediately. When I found out
that you knew her, it was too late. It was after the bombing. I
thought she was dead. And she shows up with you. This was never
about you or revenge. Why would I seek revenge on you? Our
families’ truce has lasted since the Ciaculli war divided the
Camorra
and Mafiosi over three decades ago.”

“
So you don’t blame my father for
any of this?”

“
For what?” Mancini asked. “For my
weakness? For me abandoning Lisa, and losing my daughters. I don’t
even blame my own father. It is my fault. I should have never taken
Lisa.”

“
What about Caruso? Why did he
leave the mafia?”

“
He failed to protect her. He is
lucky I let him live. I banished him to Milan.”

“
And that’s all you know of his
involvement?”

“
Is there more I should know?”
Mancini asked.

Giovanni wiped his hand down his face. If
Mancini didn’t know of Capriccio, then it was possible he didn’t
know about Tomosino’s role in it. Capriccio and Gemma hid the baby
and then Capriccio later claimed Marietta as his own, to keep the
secret of what happened to Melissa from Mancini. There was
something he was missing. He could feel it in his gut.