Chapter 46
We were nearly eighteen months married before Vince found out about Milo.
We had settled into married life easily and Vince and I bought a new house in Beacon Hill, a fresh start.
I hadn’t wanted to live in Anjelica’s shadow.
He still talked about her, but less frequently.
I had insisted, after the first year of our relationship, that we take vacations to places that Vince had not been with her.
We went to the West Coast a lot to see Vince’s boys.
Carmine got a job in Cupertino, something to do with tech and Microsoft.
I never understood exactly what the job was, but he was well paid and got great benefits.
Nick, on the other hand, was struggling.
The boys had grown apart since their college years.
Nick’s girlfriend had dumped him, and he did not take it well.
She told Carmine that she was worried about him, that he had started talking about conspiracy theories.
He believed in chemtrails, the theory that trails in the sky left by aeroplanes were leaking poison into the atmosphere and brainwashing the population.
He stayed in his rental studio most of the time and had sealed the windows shut.
Despite his fear of inhaling chemicals, he chain-smoked in that room until his landlord threw him out after an inspection revealed he was a hoarder and was living in total squalor.
The neighbours had complained. Vince paid for him to come back to Boston.
When he returned, he was upset that we had sold the family home, though we’d told him at the time, and he had visited with us before in the new house.
He acted like it was all new information, something that had been orchestrated behind his back to erase his mother’s memory.
He also wanted to know why I hadn’t had babies yet.
Childbirth was a woman’s purpose, he said.
He didn’t like the fact that I worked and said that I should be more like his mom and stay home raising children.
He would get angry and sometimes aggressive about these issues.
He had latched on to the theory that the moon landings were faked and that humans could not have built the pyramids.
He believed that Tupac was still alive and running a motel somewhere in Brazil.
He started living on the streets by choice, believing that everyone around him was out to get him, and even that his brother was a clone.
This was all hard on Vince and Carmine, and though I played it down, I was beginning to fear him, as a lot of his anger seemed to be targeted at women and at me in particular.
When we did manage to meet him somewhere for a meal, I felt uncomfortable.
A lot of times he would be completely uncommunicative and would stare at me with open hostility, or he would cower in fear until I left the restaurant.
I would get my food to go and wait in the car.
Vince would emerge as soon as he could, upset and distressed.
Vince appeared at my side. ‘Hi,’ he said, thrusting his arm forward to shake Milo’s hand. ‘Who’s this, honey?’ I still couldn’t speak.
‘Milo Kelly, I’m an old friend of Erin’s.’
As he said it, I could see that he was bracing himself for some reaction.
But the name meant nothing to Vince, and he had other things on his mind.
‘Well, Milo, it’s a real pleasure to meet you.
I’m Erin’s husband, Vince Delgado, and I’m looking for my son Niccolo, or Nick.
We’re worried about him.’ He was handing Milo a picture of Nick with our contact details. ‘Do you reckon you’ve seen him around?’
Milo tore his eyes from mine and studied the photo.
‘I deliver food to places like this around the city from my uncle’s diner where I work downtown.
’ The information was for me, but he peered more closely at the photo.
‘I’m not sure I’ve seen your boy, sir, but I’ll hang on to this and look out for him, all right? ’
‘Thank you, my friend, we’d be very grateful, wouldn’t we, sweetheart?’
‘Yes. Thank you.’ I kept any emotion out of my voice. My response was robotic. Vince put his arm around me and led me across the street to our car.
‘He seems like a good guy. How do you know Milo?’
In the car on the way home, I told him.
Vince was horrified by what Milo had done to Ruby and by extension to our family.
He understood now why Ruby had never come back to Boston.
He sympathized with teenage me, but I assured him I was over it.
Milo had served his time in prison. Ruby was in Ireland.
I begged him to let the past be the past.