30. Chiacchierona
Chapter 30
Chiacchierona
Antonella
“Here you are, my darling girl.” Giordano smiles, handing me a to-go cup with freshly made iced coffee.
“You woke up early to get me this?” I beam, taking the cup from him. “Thank you.” I take a sip of the iced caramel macchiato.
“You’re going to need it.”
“What? Why?” I snort.
“Ciao, bella!” Giulietta walks into the kitchen with her chin held high and her bouncy hair swaying behind her. “You ready for our shopping day?”
“Ciao, gorgeous. Um, I’m sorry. What shopping day?” I plaster an awkward smile on my face, glancing between the two siblings.
“Oh, did I forget to tell you?” He laughs while taking a sip of his cappuccino. “Yeah, you and Giulietta are going out for a little shopping spree today.”
Oddio .
“You’re bribing me! You.” I point at him. Damn him . “I don’t need a shopping spree, ” I say using air-quotations .
“You do.” Giulietta grimaces while looking at the outfit I’m wearing.
“What was wrong with wearing leggings and a t-shirt?” I cross my arms over my chest, defensive. I want to be comfortable when I’m not in an office.
She flicks her hair over her shoulder. “Serious wardrobe overhaul .”
“No need to be insulting,” he says, gesturing to Giulietta.
“I’m not trying to be. Sorry, Toni.” She purses her lips together.
“It’s fine. I suppose I could use a few new things.” Only because this is the perfect opportunity to get the juicy details about her and Giordano’s best friend.
“That’s the spirit. Perfetta . Later.” She grabs my hand as I snag my purse off of the counter.
“ Wait —”
“No time for cute goodbyes. Andiamo .” She waves to him.
I give him a pathetic smile which says, see-you-later mixed with vaffanculo-for-doing-this-to-me-without-warning .
“Ciao, amore.” He laughs, leaning back against the counter.
I raise my middle finger at him as soon as I’m out of his line of view. “So, where are we going?” I ask Giulietta.
We both get into her cute little hot pink convertible. She’s such a girly-girl. With her golden blonde hair the vibe is immaculate .
“To the best shopping places around downtown Chicago. Don’t worry, I’ll show you.” She winks at me as she lowers her gigantic, white sunglasses.
We pull up to the security gate, and she punches in the code. After it opens up, she drives out at a slow speed. Clearly a more careful driver than her brother.
Thank God .
We leisurely stroll through the mall. She has bags on her arms—I’m surprised she doesn’t have Xander behind her to carry them for her. Or are they keeping it a secret from everyone ?
“So, how’d you meet my brother?”
“Funny you should ask. We met at a coffee shop. The one I previously worked at—well— before I worked there.” I wince.
“Literally? Oh! This store you’ll love. ” She grabs my arm, yanking me into a designer store.
Here we go.
“His card wasn’t working, so I bought him the coffee while pretending to be his girlfriend, ironically.” I laugh, thinking back to the fateful day.
“ Truthfully ?” Her icy blue eyes widen. “You didn’t know him? We’re a well-known name.”
“No.” I snort. “Why does everyone act surprised when I tell this story?” I laugh and lift up a folded knit sweater—cute. Add to cart. Well, theoretical cart.
“Because it took forever for you to be his girlfriend, silly .” She snorts as she picks it up out of my hands, folds it, and places it back down where it was supposed to go.
Mindful.
She waves a finger at me while shaking her head. “Absolutely no sweaters. You need… sexy!”
I scoff while rolling my eyes. “Sweaters can be sexy.”
“ Sure .” She furrows her brows—clearly not agreeing with me. “Not today. Here.” She takes a small white dress from a rack and hands it to me.
I give her an awkward smile and then stare at the dress in my hands. There is not much fabric. It looks like a shirt—this will do.
I try it on in the fitting room—snug as a bug in a rug. I strut and give her a little spin. My ass is damn near about to fall out of this dress.
Giordano’s going to have a field day.
She claps. “Perfetta!”
“Isn’t it?” I press down on the front of the dress, admiring the quality of the fabric. I walk back into the room and change back into my original clothes.
“But where do I even wear this to? Why am I buying this if I have no reason?—”
“Toni, the reason is to be bellissima. Statazit and buy it.”
I place the dress on the counter and dig around in my purse for my wallet. I flip it open. There’s only one card in here.
His fucking black card.
I slide it out, seeing my name at the bottom of the card. Not his card. My card—not my account. I squint over at Giulietta. Both of my eyes twitch profusely; the irritation flowing through my entire body.
“Che?” She pops a bubble with her pink gum.
“He got me a card linked to his account, and stole my other cards.”
“And you’re complaining… why? ” She gives a stingy little smirk.“If you don’t want to spend my brother’s money, I’d be the first to absolutely love to. I can do quite the damage.” She outstretches her arm, opening and closing her hand a few times.
I shake my head and reluctantly swipe the damn card.
He’s sure going to get an earful later about this little stunt he pulled. And I’m going to wear the dress while yelling at him. The sales associate glares at me and places the dress in a nice little bag.
“Quite the damage —I’ll do him damage,” I grumble. We walk over to a different store, exceedingly more expensive than the last.
I flick through racks of more dresses across from Giulietta. According to her, one can never own too many dresses. I’ll agree to disagree. I can’t even dream of affording any of these on my own, either .
“How the fuck was he able to get my name on his account, or open a card in my name?” I push another dress over to the side on the rack.
“Yeah, with all the mafia shit he does, honestly I’m surprised he’s still alive,” she casually says while looking at a mauve jacket.
Oh, that’s what we’re doing today. Spilling all the secrets.
I blink.
She blinks.
We stand there, staring at each other, in the middle of a department store—like two deer caught in headlights. I tilt my head. “Scusi?”
“Oh, did I just blab?” She winces.
I nod, scrunching up my nose. “Uh-huh”
“Alright… Okay,” she whispers. “I thought you knew already. My bad. I’m terrible at um… the whole secret keeping thing.”
Except for the little one you’re keeping between you and Xander.
She laughs. “He said he was going to marry you, so like, I thought he would’ve told you ab?—.”
My laugh cuts her off mid-sentence. “ He didn’t tell me anything. No,” I shake my head. My mind is going a thousand miles per hour. Adding up all the little details I’ve learned overtime. Here’s what I’ve gathered so far:
The shooting… Cillian ordered the hit out on Giordano.
The gobs of money, the cars, and the house…
Working at odd hours, not coming home some nights…
The blood on his shirt or on his fists sometimes…
I snort, finally content I have an answer to my internal debate.
“Why are you laughing?” She crosses her arms, clearly unamused.
I signal for her to come closer. She leans in close to me. I whisper in her ear, “I also thought he could’ve been a serial killer.”
She leans back against the bench as her hands fly up to her mouth, eyes narrowing with a simper across my lips. “A serial killer ?”
“Or an FBI agent,” I admit. Another snort shoots through my nose. “A really bad one.”
“Toni, can I tell you something?” her voice is quiet. She’s capable of a lower volume?
“You’re lucky you told me and not someone else. ‘Cause he loves me. Otherwise you’d be in big trouble.” I attempt to contain my laughter. Doesn’t work, though. I probably look like some psycho to her. But, this confirms it. This confirms everything. How he knew almost everything about me. And how he found my father’s hospital room information.
I finally have a definitive answer.
The one thing which pisses me off— the only thing —is the fact he didn’t tell me himself. Whether he couldn’t, or didn’t want to, I don’t know. I want to say he tried to at one point. Maybe. But, he’s had many chances since then. He’s said nothing.
Great. Now I made myself mad. “Now, go ahead. You’ve already told me a lot.” I simper.
“Fair. I am a yapper.” She flicks her hair behind her shoulder and wraps her arms around the back of my neck. The light and airy, cucumber scent of her perfume hits my nose— expensive . “He loves you. I’ve never seen him care this way about someone before. It’s weird, honestly. I mean you’re absolutely gorgeous, I can understand why . Definitely not a you thing.”
“That much I gathered.” I nod along to what she’s saying. “I had my suspicions, I’ll be honest. You confirmed like… all of them. Allora, you sure he’s not a killer?”
Who am I kidding? Mafia people do what they do best, right?
“Well—” She snorts while grimacing. “I mean technically ?—”
“Right, what else would he do?” I shake my head, not needing any more details.
I think what confuses me the most is the fact it doesn’t bother me as much as it should’ve. I should be upset—not practically jumping for joy. Instead, I’m Little Miss Giggles over here, because I finally know what he does.
Organized crime?
The legit Italian Mafia—it’s all true.
Ah, fuck. This also means my parents are right—I’m not telling my Mama. There’s no way I’m going to give her the satisfaction of saying, ‘ I told you so, Antonella Marie. Listen to your mother and come home, now.’
“I can’t tell you, because I don’t know. What I can tell you is, you don’t have to worry about him hurting you, ever,” Giulietta says.
“Grazie.” A little smile perks up on my face, remembering a certain conversation I happened to overhear at the dinner table last Sunday.
“Let’s get out of here,” she adds quietly.
I peek over my shoulder, there’s a man standing behind one of the tall wispy-leaf potted plants, whatever it’s called, I’m not good with plant names. I squint, trying to get a good visual on who’s there. He’s wearing a black hoodie and black skinny jeans—certainly not Giordano. He doesn’t wear anything similar.
Is that…
Is that Xander ?
I squint, trying to get a clearer view, yet Giulietta whips me around and pulls me toward the door before I can. She rushes me into the parking garage. Is she aware he’s following us? Should I tell her? Once we approach her car, the trunk begins to lift up. We place all of our bags in, she slams the trunk down as I’m getting in the passenger side. Once she’s settled into the driver’s seat, she puts the cover up, sealing us in.
The top of my lip curls up. I mutter, “Can I tell you something interesting?”
“ Spill , sorella.” She leans in close to me.
“Ah—” I have to be careful how to word this. “I happened to overhear a certain… juicy something at the last dinner. ”
“Did you now?” A little bit of panic washes over her face while she laughs, trying to cover up the fact she’s been caught, poorly, but trying.
“You and the brother’s best friend, no?” I wink while nudging her arm with my elbow. “ Dirty girl .”
She squints. “You can not say a word.”
“Allora, it is true!” I gasp, covering my mouth—in fake shock, of course.
She rolls her eyes. “We’ve been hooking up, yes. Only .”
“Is that why he was following us in the mall?” I ask.
“He was following us in the mall?” Her face pales slightly, peering up at the rear-view mirror. She truly didn’t know?
I nod. “Behind us before we got into the parking garage.”
“Don’t you dare say a thing. Especially to my brother.” Her gaze flicks back to mine. She means business. I don’t want to be on her bad side.
“Wouldn’t dream of it, sorella . Now, tell me everything.” I squint at her. Desperate for more information. This is the one thing he’s been hiding from me the entire time. The one thing holding me back from agreeing to truly being with him.
This was his secret.
“You literally are the best fit for him. Aren’t you?” She lets out a high-pitched laugh. “Fine, I suppose I can tell you. But you’d be better off hearing all the details from him.”
“Tell me as much as you want. I’m going to confront him about it as soon as we get home.” I give her another wink.
“And you’ll leave me out of it, sì?” She’s completely in distress.
“Hell no. I’m totally telling him you blabbed.” I snort while covering my face.
“ Toni !” She pulls on my sleeve. “Toni, noo—o !” She begs, but only for a moment before letting me go with an entirely new attitude than before. She waves with a lighthearted laugh. “ Eh. He already knows I can’t be trusted with the secrets. This is why I’m not a part of anything. ”
Is this what it’s like to have a sister? I raise a brow, waiting for her to continue. “Go on…”
“Right… so like… He’s not only in the Italian Mafia. He’s sort of… the Don. The leader.” She clicks her tongue, glancing down at her white, coffin-shaped nails.
My eyes fly fully open—an unexpected development.
“Our father, Vito Marzano, was brutally assassinated by the Irish Mob.”
“He told me he was murdered, though not by who. So, Cillian was the one to do it then… I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Grazie.” She gives a melancholy laugh, sniffling quietly. “Giordano was always set to take over, only not this soon. Probably why he’s on edge all the time—looking constipated, stressed out.”
“Constipated.” I snort. “You’re hilarious.”
“Grazie.” Her smile’s more uplifted this time. “He’s been hunting down the head of the Irish mob this past year. Well, the one who did it. From what I can tell, he’s getting closer. He doesn’t tell me anything, obviously .” She gestures between the two of us.
I got the hint. “I probably shouldn’t have said Cillian’s name then.” As she said before, she’s no good at keeping secrets.
“How you knew he was the head of the Irish Mob and didn’t know about our family baffles me. Girl, are you blind?” She laughs.
“Hey, I had a little sheet going.” I roll my eyes.
“Tell him I told you. He won’t be mad at me for it. Well, maybe a little bit. You’re taking this information dump surprisingly well.”
I nod. “Out of all of this, I’m honestly more upset about the fact he thinks he can’t trust me.”
She shrugs. “Fair. Momma doesn’t know much about what’s going on either, but it didn’t mean my Papà didn’t love or trust her. He did it to keep us safe. Do you have Momma’s phone number?”
I take her words into careful consideration as I shake my head. I don’t have her number.
“Do you even have my number?” She raises a perfectly shaped brow. Again, I shake my head. She rolls her eyes and pulls her phone out.
I tell her my number and then she texts me another phone number. “There, now you have both. Call her. She gives amazing advice. From what I’ve already seen, she loves you.”
“Grazie, Giulietta.” I grin, saving both of the numbers in my phone.
“Give him Hell; don’t give him Hell.” She sticks her tongue out and winks while throwing up a peace sign. “Personally, I would. But that’s just me. Either way, I don’t think this is worthy of a break-up.”
“No?” I buckle my seat belt. I wasn’t planning on ending anything with him, but the validation’s nice. She’s still under the impression that we’re boyfriend and girlfriend. Should I tell her we’re just friends, fuck buddies?
Probably not.
“ No. You can certainly make him work for it.” She laughs. “Grovel a little bit. Extortion. Bribery. Blackmail… It’s in the blood. Join the famiglia.”
“You evil woman.” I cackle. “I love it.”
“Have fun with it.” She giggles. “We’re good?”
“Of course. We were never bad.”
“Wonderful, come out clubbing with me tonight! I’m going out tonight with my best friend, Kita. She’s in town from New York.” She presses a button on the car ceiling, lowering the top of the convertible again.
I guess the heavy, private conversation’s over now.
“Eh—” I hesitate, wincing. I’m not up to clubbing. Not my vibe. Ever.
“Aht, before you say no, I’m forcing you to come. Get out of the house.”
“I am out of the house. Right now .” I roll my eyes. “Which was also against my will. By the way, I had a lovely time.”
“And you’re going to do it again.” She flips her hair back over both of her shoulders as she pulls out of the parking space, finally. “You’re going. That’s final. I’m picking you up at eight.”
I groan. “Great.”
Just like her damn brother.