Chapter Not The Nonna
Not The Nonna
Max
“Are you sure this is the place?” Everett stares at the cracked walls and dirty tile floors with disgust.
The smell is the worst. “This is a government-funded nursing home. The care provided meets minimum standards at best.” At worst, it’s a place where old people go to be ignored and die. This seems like one of the worst.
“You’re a billionaire, and she lives here?”
“Yup.” The smell of vomit and feces is enough to turn my stomach. Why did I eat before coming here?
Because your woman cooked for you.
“It feels wrong to leave a human being here.” Everett shudders and gags a little bit.
“She might not be here long.” We stop in front of the door Dad wrote down on the paper for us. “Are you sure you want to come in?”
“I want to know more about my mother.”
Don’t we all? “Let’s do this.” I open the door and step inside.
The frail, gray-haired woman isn’t quite what I expected, though she should be.
“What do you want? I told them I didn’t want people like you in my room.”
And so it starts off brilliantly. Did I really expect anything different? “My name is Massimo Vincenti, and this is Everett Jaymes. We’re your grandsons.”
“You are nothing to me. I told that little sl—”
I take a step forward. “You might want to consider your words very carefully.”
She snorts. “Like I have to listen to anything you say.”
“If you want my money, you do.”
“Your money? Like you could give me anything I want.” She turns her head towards the dirty window.
“My actual grandmother would call you foolish. I’ll just remind you of what you missed out on.
My name is Massimo Vincenti. I own the largest tech security company in the world.
My net worth is in the billions. That’s with a B, in case you are confused.
Now, if you answer my questions, I will write a check to get you out of this dump and into a decent nursing home. ”
She ignores my speech and stares at Everett. “How did you end up white?”
“Because Temperance isn’t my mother. Tanith is.” Everett watches her as closely as I do.
“Who is Tanith? My daughter’s name is Temperance.”
“Your other daughter. Temperance’s twin.” Is she lying, or does she not remember her own daughter?
“I don’t have another daughter. Just Temperance. She was supposed to be my perfect child. Then your father ruined her.”
The way she said ‘perfect’ strikes me as odd. “Mother is perfect.”
“I tried my best to make her that way. Her father had some questionable relatives in his family line.” Her nose twists in disgust. “That wasn’t acceptable. I couldn’t mar my bloodline with a baby that might…might look like that.” She tells Everett, but side-eyes me.
“You can’t just decide how your child looks when she’s born.” There have been some research studies into genetically modifying humans, but that kind of testing hasn’t been allowed in human trials yet, let alone more than fifty years ago…except they cloned…no, that’s illegal.
“If you have enough money, you can do anything you want. And I wanted my daughter to have blonde hair and blue eyes. That’s what I bought and paid for.”
“You adopted a baby?” Why didn’t I think of that? It would make sense that my mother was nothing like her parents.
“Absolutely not. I’m not a disgusting peasant. My family comes from kings. I went to the doctor, and they fixed my baby to make sure she was born perfect. What, are you stupid? Of course, you are…it’s all the filth you got from your father.”
Hitting an old woman would be wrong…but listening to her speak like that about my family…
Dad asked you to get this done.
You need more information.
Get it done and get out of here, so you never have to see this woman again.
“What about my mother, Tanith?”
“Are you deaf? I told you I only had one child.”
“So, you gave away the second baby.”
She snorts. “You’re stupid and deaf. Do you think I would have undergone all of those procedures to have the perfect daughter and let them put two babies in me? It was bad enough carrying the one. There was no way I wanted to become a blimp. Fatsos are almost as vile as n—”
I clear my throat as a clear warning.
“—as people like him. So, I don’t know who your mother is, but she isn’t my child.”
“You’re lying. Tell me about my mother.”
But is she? The woman in that bed is a lot of disgusting things, but I don’t get the impression that she’s lying.
“I have no idea who your mother is. Did you bring a crazy child to visit me? Just ask your question and then leave.”
There isn’t anything else to say. “I don’t have any questions for you. Let’s go, Everett.”
“What? No, she has to tell me about my mother. She has to.”
His desperation hurts to watch. I wrap an arm around the boy’s shoulder and lead him out of the room.
Everett turns on me, anger written all over his red face. “No. We can’t go. We have to ask her more. We have to find out about my mother.” He pounds on my chest, crying. “We have to find out. I need to know she mattered to someone.”
Seething rage builds as I comfort the boy who wasn’t given the small piece of his mother that he was looking for.
So many possibilities run through my mind at once. But none of them involves that woman lying…But I can’t trust the hateful words of an evil woman, even though my heart wants her to be lying.
Everett steps back, rubbing the tears off his face with his fist. “She has to be lying.”
“Well then, let’s prove it.” I pull out my phone.
“How?”
“Birth records.”
Everett’s eyes light up. “Race you.”
To take the pain away from the boy, I’d do just about anything. “Sure. Winner buys lunch.”
“I’m going to eat two meals.” Everett’s fingers start flying over the screen.
My battered and bruised fingers don’t stand a chance…even though I know a few shortcuts. Today might be the day I let the boy win.
My phone rings. Dad’s number flashes on the screen. “I gotta take this.”
“No quarter for the old.” Everett doesn’t let that distract him.
I walk over to the other side of the hall and answer. “What’s up?”
“We have a situation,” Dad snaps out.
My stomach clenches. “What?”
“A little kid showed up at her bakery, and Fiona lost her mind. She looks like she saw a ghost and had a gun pulled on her all at the same time.”
What? “Kids show up all the time. That doesn’t bother her.” Even the addicts who should. “Was she afraid they were sent by Micky? You should take her home.”
“No. It was a little girl. Around five years old. Though she looked younger than that.”
A little girl? “That makes no sense.”
“The girl was beaten and branded.”
WHAT?
“Have you ever heard of a spider brand?”
“No.” Should I have?
“Fiona was fine until she saw the brand. Now she’s trying to get Maddox to throw us off Willow Street. And muttering about how Hope and Milia are in danger.”
None of this makes sense. “From a child?”
“That brand means something.”
“Gangs sometimes tattoo or brand the people they claim to own.” Fiona must have known the gang.
“That’s what I’m thinking.”
“Tell Maddox to increase security. I can be there in a half an hour.”
“She already did that. She demanded a full lockdown. And that his men bring every one of the kids back home individually. Finish what you’re doing. Everyone is safe here. Fiona is in with the kid now so you couldn’t even see her. They probably be in the clinic for hours.”
My woman is calm in times of stress. She doesn’t freak out or do crazy things because she’s scared…she’s more likely to run into danger.
“Got it!” Everett shouts, holding up the phone.
“We might have just found something. Are you sure I shouldn’t come back?”
“Do what you need to do, Son. I’ve got things under control here.”
That I can trust. My father won’t let anything happen to family.
I click off and turn to Everett. “What did you find?” We’ve got to get this done fast so I can get back to Fiona.
“There’s no record of another girl being born on that day in the same hospital as your mom.”
So she wasn’t lying.
“But there were three other women that gave birth there the same day. One of them is in this nursing home…” Everett hacked the nursing home already…impressive.
“Do you have a room number?”
The boy nods. “She’s three stories up.”
“Let’s get to it.”
A few minutes later, Everett knocks on another room door.
“Come in,” a sweet old woman says.
“Ms. South?” I step in with Everett by my side.
“Yes, that’s me.” The old woman gives us a sweet smile from where she is in the hospital bed, covered in a homemade quilt.
“My name is Massimo Vincenti, and this is my brother Everett.”
“Do I know you boys?”
“No, ma’am. But we’re hoping you can help us find out about his mother.”
Her face softens. “Oh, you poor boy. Everyone should know their mother. I don’t know if I can help, but I’ll try.”
“You gave birth at the same hospital on the same day as our mothers were born. We’re wondering if you remember anything about this woman.” I walk over to her bed and hold up my phone with a picture of our grandmother.
She takes the phone from my hand and stares at it for a while.
“I remember her. She was in terrible pain during the birth. She yelled at everyone, from the doctors to the cleaners. She had a beautiful little girl that day. She had the thickest head of white hair I’ve ever seen on a baby.
Usually, babies that are born with blonde hair don’t have much of it.
But that baby was born with a full head of hair.
She was the prettiest baby I’ve ever seen. ”
“And what about her sister?” Everett asks.
“She didn’t have a sister. The woman only had one baby. Though she complained enough that you thought she had seven. She told her husband that she was done. They were only having the one. I think she meant it too.”
Our grandmother wasn’t lying. “Thank you, Ms. South. We appreciate your talking to us.”
“Oh, it was nice to talk to you. I get so few visitors. My family is always busy. They moved out of state, so visiting me here is a challenge for them.”
That breaks my heart. “Thank you.”
She hands my phone back. “My pleasure.”
As soon as we step into the hallway, Everett says, “That can’t be possible.”
“Did that woman look like she was lying to you?”
He closes his eyes.
I do that too sometimes when I'm focusing on the images in my head for small details.
“No. She seemed nice. There were no tells.”
“Exactly.”
“Where does that leave us? Because my mom didn’t spontaneously appear out of thin air.”
No, she didn’t. “We need to find out about the doctor.”
“What? Why?”
I step closer, blocking my face from any video cameras that might be around, and engage the jammer that I always carry with me.
“Because you were raised in a military bunker. And organizations like that have been known to do things that aren’t quite legal.
The doctor who helped our grandmother get pregnant could be the next clue about what they were doing there. ”
“Oh…maybe we shouldn’t ask.” Everett glances down at his feet.
“I’m asking, but what you need to get through your head is that this is happening whether you like it or not. I will find my aunt’s killer. I will find the men who are threatening you and our mother. And I will wipe them off the face of this earth.”
His mouth opens and closes like a fish's.
“My patience is wearing thin. You need to start learning to trust us.” I march off to go see the woman who isn’t my nonna again.
Everett catches up just as I go to open the door.
I quirk an eyebrow at him.
“We’re in this together.”
Finally!!! I nod and walk inside.
“Who let you back in here?”
She really is cheerful. “I came to ask that question.”
“Make up your mind already. Do you want to ask me something or don’t you? Stupid man.”
Don’t let ignorant people get to you. How many times has Dad had to say those words? One time is too many. “I need the name of the doctor who helped you have a perfect baby.”
“Why would you want that? It’s not like he can wipe your father’s DNA from your body.”
Deep breath in.
And out. “That’s what I want. A nicer facility in exchange for the doctor’s name.”
“You know what they say about a fool and his money…”
Says the woman who doesn’t have enough to feed herself. “The name.”
“Doctor Rothswyler.”
“You can expect a transfer within the week.” To somewhere far away from my family.
I stride out of the room, away from the woman who I hope to never have to see again.
“I’ll research him.” Everett’s already got his phone out.
“Do it on the ride home.” We have things to get done.