22. Vincenzo
Vincenzo
I walk with my hand on Anna’s lower back, following the surgeon.
He passes the glass door that we went in before and the sink station.
I scowl behind him, and the good surgeon must have a sense of self preservation.
He turns mid step, and I almost plow into him.
“We’ve moved your mother from recovery to a private space. ”
“Good.”
Anna’s soft hand entwines with mine, calming my anxiety about Mom’s reaction to my father walking back into her life from the dead.
My father intentionally lets all of his children walk into the room first. Lanah sidles up to the bed and kisses Ma on the forehead.
“We’re all so glad you’re okay. We love you. ”
Ma smiles gently at her family but shock washes over her entire face as my father steps into view. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you sooner, Tesoro.”
She closes her eyes and breathes deep. I watch her carefully hoping we didn’t just cause my mother to have another incident because that’s all the fuck she needs, but when she opens her eyes again and locks onto him, all the love I’ve seen for my entire life shines through for everyone to see.
Her voice cracks. “Vincent, my love. I knew it, in my heart I knew it.”
I give Ma a kiss on her cheek. “We’re going to leave you two to catch up. Don’t overdo things. You need rest.”
I clap my father on the back, holding him close for a moment. “When you need a ride, you let him know,” I say gesturing to the door. “I’ll get you a safe ride out of here.”
He gives me a nod. I know it won’t be long before I get that message from a burner.
Gianni, Agosto and Nicolo all fall in line to see our mom before I gesture to the door. “Let’s leave them.”
We’re barely in the hall when Agosto starts. “No matter what, you should have told us, Vincenzo. We all had a right to know.”
Nicolo grabs him by the shirt and pushes him against the hospital wall. “You listen to me. He has a job to do, protecting all of us, no matter what we want. You need to stop worrying about yourself and grow the fuck up and have some respect for his position or I’m gonna beat it into you. Got me?”
Agosto glares at his brother. “Get away from me.”
“You just remember what I said. Next time you pop off like that I’m going to teach you a lesson we should have taught you a long time ago.”
“Enough. I made the promise knowing Pa asked it to keep everyone safe, and I’m not going to hear another word about it. Finito!”