Page 23 of The Last Vendetta

He pressed his fingers to her pulse point, nodding. “She’s got a pulse. Stay back, please.”

I scrambled back, staring wide-eyed as they took over. We employed a medic, but that was it. More and more soldiers and guards entered the room. In the hall, they hurried to the master suite to deal with my father.

In the frenzy of too many actions, all the men speaking and working as a team, I tried to follow what they decided and instructed.

Securing the premises. Taking my mother to the hospital. Guarding my father’s body. Checking on who else could have been hurt.

“Giulia.”

I whipped around at Uncle Dario’s voice. He hurried with his cane the best he could, and I ran to him, helping him stand steady.

“What’s going on?”

“Father is dead. It seems that Mother was drugged.”

He frowned down at me. “Drugged?”

I was guessing there, but I had no other instant idea coming to mind. She was alive. I saw no signs of an outward injury. “I don’t know, but?—”

“Just now?”

He turned to Francis as he rushed up to us, relaying the basic facts that my mother would be transported to the hospital now.

“Giulia?” Marianna called from her room.

I winced, running to her and keeping her in her room.

“What’s going on?” all three of them asked as I stepped inside Marianna’s safe haven.

“I’ll tell you…” Later. I didn’t want to break the news to them, but they had to know one way or another.

“Your father is dead,” Uncle Dario answered for me when I hesitated. He came into the room, hugging Lucia as she cried out.

“Is Mother…?” Marianna’s eyes bugged out.

“No. She’s breathing,” I told her. “But I found Father dead and Mother lying on the floor. They’re taking her to the hospital now.”

At the news that one of our parents was dead and the other was unconscious and needing medical assistance, the trio of sisters reacted with tears, shocked gasps, and so many blurted, panicked questions. None of which I could answer. I’d only discovered this hell this morning, and with Dario’s help, I tried to keep them as calm and safe as possible.

Francis directed the guards. They rushed through the house. I heard them shouting outside. When they weren’t, their fingers were lifted to their earpieces as they conversed with each other.

Dario hobbled out of Marianna’s room, leaving me with them and expecting me to do my best to calm them.

No one was calm. How could they be? Waking to this news rocked us all. I looked cool and collected, but it was a sham, a brave front I put on for the sake of my sisters crying and clinging to me as they struggled with this double discovery.

Uncle Dario was furious, raising his voice at Francis and the other guards. Through the door, I caught every angry word he flung at the men who were supposed to protect this home. He demanded answers, expecting someone to report in with evidence of someone breaking in to kill my father and drug my mother.

Word came back quickly that she seemed fine. Drowsy and still loopy under the doctor’s care, but alive.

I didn’t want to know what they did with Father’s body, and when they wheeled him out of there, I turned my head and ordered my uncle to shut the door after him. We didn’t need the girls to witness his being removed from the house.

Marianna was sullen and quiet, likely reverting inside and clamming up. She helped, though, hugging Lucia and holding Beatrice’s hand. We weren’t orphaned. Mother lived, but without our father at the head of the Family, it dawned on me that we were in dire straits.

We were just at a funeral yesterday, and now we’d woken to more death. Death at home. On our turf.

As I listened to Dario speaking with the guards again, I thought back to Renzo’s reaction to the death in his Family. I’d never thought of the Bernardi brothers as close siblings. Not like I was with my sisters. If one of them had passed away, I wouldn’t have been able to remain this calm and level-headed, even though I was so shaken and bewildered, confused and nervous.

Renzo hadn’t cried and freaked out at Luka’s death. All I could discern was that he wanted to seek justice. To find the killer.

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