Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Tommy
“Tommy! Hurry!”
I’ve barely opened the car door, and my mother’s running toward me. What the hell happened? I glance over at Frank and Santi as they get out of the limo too.
“What, Mama?”
“It’s Stella. Someone attacked her and Pauly. They just got here. She’s upstairs.”
I bolt past my mother and into the house, the door left open from when she ran out.
I take the stairs two and three at a time.
I burst into my bedroom where I heard voices.
Stella’s eyes are closed, and her face is so pale I wonder if I’m too late.
Even from the doorway, I see the livid bruises around her throat.
Dr. Stansted, our family’s private physician, is on one side of the bed, and Elena and Gio are on the other. Aria, Gia, and Edoardo huddle together at the foot of the bed. He has his arms around his sisters who cling to him and each other.
As I walk farther into the room, I hear Mama, Frank, and Santi come in behind me. I glance at my mother, and shame’s written all across her face.
“What did you do?”
I hiss at her, keeping my voice low, but I know everyone heard me. Her hand is in this up to her elbow. Tears well in her eyes, and her lips draw in.
“I sent her to Lynn to the Korean market. She was supposed to pick up the beauty products Annie and Donny sell. As she and Pauly walked out, three guys approached them. She’d just gotten into the car when two more guys showed up.
One pulled her out, and the other went after Pauly.
He stabbed the guy a moment before the one who had hold of Stella punched her in the temple.
Pauly shot him, got Stella in the car, and came straight here. ”
“That’s an hour drive easy. She’s been out the entire time?”
Dr. Stansted answers this, so I walk away from Mama to hear him.
“No. She came round in the car and was having a hard time breathing at first. Pauly said she drank some water, but she passed out again. She was lucid while I examined her, but she was in pain. Between the nearly crushed vocal cords and concussion, she’s exhausted. She’s sleeping not unconscious.”
My heart slows as I stop beside the bed. The doctor moves out of the way, so I can stand closer to Stella.
“Tommy?” Her voice is so fucking raspy.
“I’m here.”
Her eyes flutter open, and she meets my gaze.
Then she looks around at everyone else in the room before looking back at me.
From the corner of my eye, I watch my mom lead Frank and Santi out of the room.
I shift my focus to Elena and Gio, who stare at their daughter.
My attention on them makes Stella look at her parents.
“I’m okay, Mama. Promise.”
Elena smiles at Stella, who looks over at me again. I watch Elena as she looks up at me. Today may be the day of my death. Her eyes tell me she’ll be out for vengeance, and I fear my name and my mother’s are at the top of her list.
“When did you get back?” Stella’s voice sounds painful.
I squat, so I’m eye level with her. “Shh. Rest your throat. I just got back.”
She nods before focusing on her siblings. All three of them are staring at their youngest sister. From what I know of Gia and Aria, they’re never this concerned about anyone but themselves. Maybe I should give them more credit. Edoardo and Gio are exchanging a look that matches Elena’s.
“I want to speak to Tommy alone.”
That surprises everyone—including me—even if it’s what I want most. Her parents appear doubtful while her siblings look suspicious.
“Out, please.” Her voice strains more with each word.
Her family hesitates before Gio nods. I’m certain at least he thinks we should have a chaperone in here if she’s asking for me, and everyone heard her nickname for me. I haven’t gone by Tommy since I was six and declared I was too old for one when I got to kindergarten.
“I’ll get you when we’re done talking.”
“We’ll be in the hallway.” Elena bends over to kiss Stella’s cheek.
We wait until the door’s closed before I perch on the edge of the bed and swoop in for a kiss. I keep it light, not wanting to hurt her. She fists the front of my shirt and tugs when I pull away. The kiss keeps going until we’re breathless.
“Bambi, I’ve never been so terrified or panicked as those two minutes between Mama saying someone hurt you and getting in here. You were so pale, I thought…”
I can’t bring myself to say it. She looks much better now that she’s awake. But she still looks exhausted. She gestures for me to come closer. I lean in, and she puts her lips near my ear.
“I swore Pauly to secrecy until I spoke to you. We heard one man say something as they crossed the street. It was while Pauly and I fought the men by the car. One of them said, ‘He wants her dead.’”
I sit back and stare at her. He. He who? Someone in my family? Someone in hers? Someone in a rival’s?
She gestures for me to lean forward again. I hear her hum for a moment before she speaks. Her voice is stronger than a moment ago.
“Your mother didn’t do this. Mano did. The man who grabbed me wasn’t one of the street gang members.”
“Are you certain?”
“Besides not being Asian—the other men were probably Cambodian—Pauly recognized him.”
“What?!”
“He told me when I woke up in the car. He wasn’t convinced it was safe to bring me here. He called someone, and whoever it was, told him you’d already left Logan and were on the way here.”
Fucking hell. Frank. He got a call as we got on the highway. He told someone we were on our way here.
“My brother. He didn’t tell me.”
“Pauly didn’t tell the person I was hurt. He just asked if you’d arrived yet. I guess he knew you were coming back today.”
“So did Mama. Didn’t she tell you this morning?”
Stella grimaces, and I’m ready to wrap my hands around my mother’s neck. I might not stop with just bruises to match Stella’s.
“What’s she done? She said she sent you to Lynn.”
“I can explain that later. I know she was trying to protect you. Your uncle’s stayed away because he put a hit on me. Why would he do that before the wedding? He doesn’t have my dowry.”
“He does. Your father transferred everything once my appraiser signed off on all the evaluations. I didn’t know until I left. My guess is Gio assumed Uncle Mano or Santi told me. Santi didn’t know Gio hadn’t told me.”
“This time, he was going to get the money without having to marry the cash cow first. He was going to get rid of me and save himself the trouble of having a wife temporarily.”
I’m going to kill my uncle. This is unforgiveable. I never had proof he killed his first two wives, and I think Mama doesn’t either. She just suspects it like I do. I was being pissy the other day when I thought she suggested it. She never would.
“What did you mean just now when you said my mother was trying to protect me?”
“Our mothers figured out something is between us. Aria and Gia accused me of it, but Mama believes they’re jealous of the attention I’ve gotten since you assigned yourself to guard me.
I think they believe Mano did that, but I’m certain my parents and your mother know you decided.
Beatrice wanted to punish me, so she kept coming up with harder and harder shit to do.
I think she believed I’d catch on that being into you would only make my life miserable.
I think she wanted me to understand it’s futile to want to be with you, and I think she wanted me to break things off with you before Mano comes back.
The more I’ve thought about it, the more I believe she fears for you if your uncle gets any hint there’s something between us. ”
“She didn’t just have a conversation with you about it?”
“She senses how stubborn I am. I think she fears I’ll insist you and I can be together. Or worse, you’ll insist, and I won’t tell you no.”
“That’s fucked-up.”
“It is, but I bet no one knows Mano better than his sister.”
“That’s true. Mama mentored him into becoming a powerful don, but she has limits he doesn’t. She knows Uncle Mano will kill me if he perceives I’ve wronged him. It doesn’t matter that I’m his nephew.”
“I don’t like your mother, but I understand her.
I think she’s coming around to respecting me because I’ve accepted her challenges and met each one.
One way or another, she and I will be family.
I want us to get along, and maybe with time, we might like each other.
I saw her when I got here and when I woke up.
She’s not faking the guilt she feels, so go easy on her.
She’ll punish herself more than you can. ”
My mother rarely feels guilty, but when she does, it takes ages for her to forgive herself.
She believes she didn’t push my father hard enough to see the doctor when he started feeling ill.
That if she’d insisted when he first started getting sick, a doctor would’ve diagnosed the cancer in time to save him.
She blames herself for the disease progressing so rapidly.
She doesn’t remember the arguments they had when she demanded he at least have Dr. Stansted check him out, and he refused, claiming he didn’t have time.
I still have a scar on my right elbow from when I learned to ride my bike.
I made it a foot after she let go before I realized she wasn’t there, twisted to see her, and fell off.
She was beside herself that she didn’t keep running alongside me after she let go.
She still glances away when she sees it, and it’s practically invisible.
She’s capable of guilt, shame, and remorse even if she lets next to nobody see it.
Stella’s figured her out. She’s right that no matter what I say or do, nothing will compare to how she torments herself.
Uncle Mano may have put the hit on Stella, but Mama will blame herself for being hard on Stella, then sending her somewhere that left her unguarded enough for Uncle Mano’s men to attack. He must have paid the gang members too.
“What’re you going to do, Tommy?”