Chapter Seven- Dior
I was so angry I could scream. My face burned from anger and embarrassment because Victoria had me fooled; she tricked me into giving her Catalina’s number. She never once told me that she was going to invite both Catalina and Enzo over here.
I could do nothing as I watched Buddha go after that woman. This was the second time I had to witness him choose that bitch over me, and I was over it. I knew I couldn’t go after him; I was the cause of this. I had no choice but to allow him to go behind his precious Catalina.
“Amore mio (my love), what have you done?” Tomasso said, turning to his wife. Angry lines creased his forehead as he glared fire at Victoria.
“What have I done?” Victoria said, pointing at her chest. “You and Phillipe dare keep something like this from me. I am your wife, and that is my son, whom that pedophile took advantage of. Don’t you ever question the lengths I will go to protect my children.
I hate that woman with everything in me, and you know that, yet you kept the fact that you both saw her in Italy!
” Victoria’s voice rose, and that was when Tomasso put his foot down.
“You don’t raise your voice at me, woman.
Especially when you’re wrong. I never met Catalina in Italy.
Buddha did, then he let me know, and we decided to deal with this Enzo issue on our own before letting both you and Dior know.
That’s the first thing. The second thing, you need to stop acting as if Phillipe was not a grown-ass uomo (man) when he started screwing Catalina.
Your son took the risk to get involved with that woman, and he paid dearly for it.
Now, I’m leaving for the day, and maybe I’ll be back tonight, or maybe I’ll go sleep in a hotel,” Tomasso put his wife in check before he looked over at me as though he wanted to smack the taste out of my mouth.
Damn, these Ricci men ran a tight-ass program around here. I thought as we all watched, Tomasso stormed off toward the front door.
“Wow, you and Dior landed yourselves in the dog house. My bet is neither of your husbands is about to return home tonight,” Sofia said, pointing at both Victoria and me.
Ignoring her, I turned my attention to Victoria and made a face.
“Really, Victoria? Talk about throwing me under the bus. You never once mentioned that you would invite Catalina and Enzo here. That was foul as hell,” I folded my arms as Victoria finally sat back down. She looked at me with a blank expression.
“I did what was needed. She’s lying about Enzo, and I want to know why.”
“How do you know she’s lying?” I asked out of curiosity because Victoria seemed 100% certain of what she was saying.
“A mother always knows. Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Victoria said, pushing her chair back so she could stand. Saying nothing else, she walked out of the dining room, leaving Sofia and me alone.
“Jesus, this family stay in some drama,” I muttered, rubbing my forehead. “How you even deal with all of this? It's beyond me,” I turned to Sofia, who was stuffing her face with some sort of jelly-filled Danish.
“I warned you the very first time you sat at this table that our family was dysfunctional. Did you think I was playing?”
“Kinda…sorta, yeah,” I answered, which made Sofia shake her head at me.
“One thing I never do is joke about how fucked up this family is,” Sofia explained further. Something she said stuck with me, though, and I bit my lower lip.
“Do you really think Buddha wouldn’t come home tonight?” I asked, feeling as if everything that happened was my fault. Buddha was right, I shouldn’t have trusted Victoria; she played me.
“One thing to always remember about Buddha and my father is they’re like two peas in a pod.
So if my father says he’s about to sleep in a hotel tonight, he'll call Buddha to let him know. Then my brother is going to say he’s coming too, and the next thing you know.
You and my mother will be sleeping alone tonight,” Sofia schooled me about my own husband.
“I never meant for this to happen. I just wanted the truth about Enzo, but Buddha refused to tell me anything. So I told Victoria, and she let me know she’ll handle it. I feel responsible for the way everything went down.”
“You are responsible,” Sofia said bluntly. I turned to her and made a face.
“Well damn, thanks for the vote of confidence,” I cracked, rolling my eyes.
“What do you want me to do, sugarcoat it? You should be thinking of ways you’re gonna make it up to my crazy fratello (brother),” Sofia said, pouring herself a glass of orange juice.
I studied Sofia and realized we never really sat and talked, since everyone was gone, maybe I should take advantage of us being alone.
“Can I ask you something, Sofia?” I enquired, wondering how she manages to remain so slim after seeing her pick up another jelly-filled Danish.
“What’s that?”
“How do you enjoy being a mother to Rocki?” I asked the genuine question. Sofia’s chewing slowed down as she thought about what I asked.
“I love being a mother. Rocki is such a joy to be around that I can’t imagine not being his mother. Parenting has changed a lot in me for both good and bad. Are you and Buddha thinking about having a baby?” Sofia’s question damn near made me keel over.
“Me and Buddha…parents? Oh God no, we haven’t even spoken about that. I’m quite certain that Buddha doesn’t want kids,” I laughed nervously, realizing that important discussion between us we never had. Shit, did I even know if he wanted to be Enzo’s father? I never really asked him.
“Don’t tell him I said this, but I think Phillipe will be an excellent father.
He cares about Rocki so much; he’s always checking on him and asking if he needs anything.
Rocki is lucky to have him as an uncle, and when the time comes, so will his child.
” Sofia smiled, and I could tell she really meant what she said about her brother.
I bit the inside of my cheek, wondering if I should ask what I always wondered about Sofia. After a quick decision, I went for it.
“Sofia, I don’t mean to pry, but do you have a good relationship with Rocki’s father? Is he still in the picture? At what age was he diagnosed with having autism?” Her face immediately dropped, and I felt like I just should have minded my business. I instantly opened my mouth to apologize.
“I’m sorry if I’m out of place. You don’t have to answer that. Forget I asked anything,” I waved in a dismissive manner. Sometimes I didn’t know when to keep quiet, and this qualified as one of those times.
“It was a silly one-night stand that should have never happened. When I found out I was pregnant, he didn’t want to be a father, and I chose not to pressure him.
So we decided that I would never ask for anything, and he could be free to live his life as though Rocki doesn’t exist. As for his autism, I noticed small delays with his progress.
I took him to the doctor when he was a year-old.
They ran some tests and said he was autistic.
They believe he may never speak,” I listened attentively and thought that was very sad.
I couldn’t even imagine Tomasso agreeing to some man just carrying on as though he didn’t have a child to help raise.
Not to mention Buddha and Snow, what did they have to say about this?
Something about this didn’t sit right with me.
The Riccis seemed to be very close-knit, never mind they were a bit on the loco side. They were very family-oriented.
Then there was Victoria. Was she really fine with this arrangement of Rocki growing up without his father?
I just felt like part of the story was being omitted somehow; maybe Sofia didn’t trust me enough yet to share everything with me.
Also, Rocki being diagnosed with autism at only a year old, assuming he would never talk.
That doctor needed his license to be revoked.
Maybe he was just developing at a slower pace.
“I think you’re a great mother, and Rocki is really lucky to have you. As for Rocki’s father, he’s missing out on a really great kid.” I gave Sofia her flowers because God knows how hard being a single mother was. She looked over at me and smiled wide as hell, appreciating what I said.
“Thank you so much. My brother got the best arranged wife he could ask for.” Hearing her label me an arranged wife was so unexpected that I could do nothing else but burst out laughing. We were both cracking up as the chef walked in, holding Rocki’s hand, bringing the child to his mother.
I thought it was so cute that Rocki always ate breakfast with the chef, Yusef.
Wait a minute! I looked at Yusef and then at Rocki and wondered if it was possible that Yusef could be Rocki’s father.
Yusef wasn’t a bad-looking older man; he was probably in his late forties.
Sofia was twenty-nine, soon to be thirty; the age difference wasn’t that huge.
Rocki appeared to be quite comfortable with Yusef.
I’m thinking Sofia and Yusef are having some kind of illicit love affair.
A Romeo and Juliet type shit, where they both came from different walks of life and their love would be frowned upon.
I could be correct, or it could be that I’ve watched one too many romance movies.
“Hi, Rocki,” I waved to the toddler, and he waved back just as my phone began ringing. I sighed softly when I saw it was my sister calling.
“Hey, Chanel,” I answered on the first ring.
“No, it’s not Chanel,” the familiar voice said on the other end. My eyebrows shot up when I heard my aunt’s voice.
“Aunt Debbie, hey, is everything ok?” I immediately began to panic, thinking something had happened to my sister.
“Look, I have no idea what has been going on with both you and my brother, but you two need to stop taking advantage of me.” I became confused at what she said because I didn’t know what she was referring to.
“I’m sorry, what’s all this about?” I asked her.