I sit in the living room and wait for Luca to return with our drinks.
“You will need something strong to digest everything I’m about to tell you, Vanessa”
Luca hands me a glass half full of golden coloured liquor. I bring it up to my nose and take a sniff.
“Whiskey?” I ask him before setting the glass down on the coffee table.
“Si, Scotch Whiskey.”
He brings a chair and places it in front of me, sits down, and crosses his leg over the other while he cradles his glass.
“What is this all about Luca?” I ground out impatiently.
The last place I wanna be right now is here. Nothing good ever happens when we're together.
“I was told that you know my brother Giovanni is a big Criminal Lawyer in Milano, Si?”
“Yes. And that your parents were murdered because he has put members of the Mob away?” I look at him with pity.
“Si. That is true.” He pauses taking a sip out of his glass.
“Luca I’m so.. sorry. God, It must have been horrible for you” I say with empathy.
“It was a long time ago, I have learned to deal with.”
“But not accept it?” I ask him.
“Never. The men tried to assassinate Giovanni outside of the courtroom. They failed three times, their last attempt sent Giovanni into hiding. At that time I had already boarded a plane to New Zealand to set up a Security team that I could bring back and forth with me. It wasn’t until I had landed twenty-four hours later that I was able to get full access to my voicemail. I received a message from my parents telling me about Giovanni, I also received a billion messages telling me my parents had been murdered right after. I boarded the next available flight back home, it was the longest flight I’ve ever experienced.” He looks at me with sad eyes.
“I can only imagine what was going through your head and how vulnerable you must have been.” I wipe a tear from my eye.
“I soon learned that they had killed another twelve innocent people, they had opened fire on everyone in the clinic. The youngest victim was a three-month-old girl. She was getting her routine immunisation shots that day, she died in her grandfather’s arms in the waiting room along with five other patient’s, two nurses and the receptionist.” He pauses briefly and stands walking over by the window.
“They tried to burn down the facility, burning the bodies so we couldn't have the honour of burying our parents. We were fortunate enough that the fire was put out just in time before it had burned any of the victims or did some serious damage to the facility.”
I get up and walk over to him by the window. “They did all of this just to get to your brother?” I ask him.
“They did this to make an example out of him. Using my family to prove a point that no one is untouchable. Using defenceless elderly people to send a message to anyone who tried to bring them down that age is not a factor on their radar. Giovanni and I spent years using all the resources we could get our hands on and brought them all to justice. They say you do the crime, you do the time’. We would have preferred an ‘Eye for an Eye’. We rebuilt the Facility a year later, it is now called ‘Venturi Memorial Hospital’, a hospital I run when I go between countries to swap our security men over.” He runs his hand along my jaw and absentmindedly leans into his touch.
“You recruit men here in New Zealand because it is a day’s flight out from Italy?” I ask him and he nods.
“Have you had a bad experience in hiring Italian men before?”
“Si, we nearly lost someone dear to us. We put our trust in people who checked out. But when money talks, your men walk.” He sneers.
“Rosalia?” I hear myself faintly ask him.
“Si, Rosalia. They kidnapped her after they picked her up from school. It was a miracle she was found twelve hours later. She was a little roughened up, but she was not sexually assaulted and I think that is what had us all terrified the most. We feared for her life, but to have your innocence robbed from you from a bunch of low life thugs and live through the whole ordeal? I am not certain our little Rosalia would have fully recovered.” He says sadly.
“Luca, what you have told me is very… very devastatingly tragic. I am happy that you, your brother, and your sister are still alive and are well. I’m so sorry for your loss too, but what I don’t understand is... What has any of this got to do with me?” I ask him distraughtly.
He looks at me for what seems like forever before he sighs deeply. “Celeste.” He says painfully.
“How does my deceased sister have anything to do with this?” I gasp
“Celeste and Giovanni were lovers, your sister took her life because your parents were going to send her away.” He watches me closely.
“No! You’re lying.” I shove at him hard, and he grabs me by the shoulders, stilling me.
“I’m a lot of things, but a liar isn't one of them Vanessa. Your sister was Incinta. Pregnant with Giovanni’s baby. Celeste hid her pregnancy from your parents the best that she could, being seven months pregnant at the tender age of fifteen was a difficult task to accomplish. And when your parents found out they threatened to have Giovanni put away for statutory rape. He was sixteen when they slept together, they were accusing my brother of rape. Your mother organised to have Celeste sent far away and when the baby was born.. the baby would've been put into a foster home... Being lost in the system forever.”
“No! No, you’re lying. Why would you lie to me?” I cry out hurt.
Why does he always feel the need to hurt me more than I'm already suffering with?
“Celeste saw no other option than to take the sleeping pills. She could not bear the thought of losing both Giovanni and the baby. The baby was due in a few weeks and she knew that there could be a chance of the baby surviving. If she was found in time to have the baby removed from her dying body. She called my brother minutes before she took the pills telling him she loved him and to take care of their precious baby. Giovanni called the emergency service straight away if he hadn’t…”
“And the baby?” I burst out crying.
“Oh god, the baby died to didn’t it?” I bend over sobbing, sobbing at the loss of not only my sister again, but for the loss of my sister’s baby too. An innocent link I never got to meet.
“The baby survived Vanessa.” Luca bends down on his knees cupping my face gently, staring straight into my soul through my watery eyes.
“The baby survived. Rosalia survived the hands of death not once but twice.” He purrs.