Page 108 of Twisted Obsession

Epilogue

Dante

Three hundred and sixty days later

Ilooked outside of the boxes we were seated in, to find that virtually every seat in the Sala Santa St. Cecilia in Rome was full. Every box contained at least one person, and the stalls were heaving with people clutching the program my wife had designed, in their hands. This evening had been the brainchild of Giovanna and my sister Serafina, to raise money for the St. Cecilia Conservatory. A place that given Serafina’s son Luca’s, our nephew’s, partial deafness, was close to all our hearts. Even Salvatore was in attendance.

The hall was stunning. It seated, I had been reliably informed, just under three thousand people. And it was fitting that it was sold out, just as she deserved it to be.

My wife had worked harder to reach this, than I had ever seen anyone else strive to do anything. It had taken nearly six months for Giovanna to get to the point in her recovery where she could play the piano and feel she could even attempt something like this. And nearly another six months later, the specialists were still advising her that although all her fingershad healed, with their strength sometimes in question, she shouldn’t push.

But Giovanna was a law unto herself. With her parents gone, and now surrounded by the love of her family, and with her forever grateful husband by her side, she had told me only yesterday that she felt she could take on the world.

The love I had for the woman grew each day, and every night when I held her in my arms, I endeavoured to make sure she could not only feel that love, but also that she understood she and I would never be apart again. But the truth was, while I had spent a year making sure Giovanna was able to return to full health, mentally and physically, I had also spent a year holding myself back, from the way I wanted to not only take care of her, provide for and protect her from the outside world, but also from my need to dominate her. A gentle lover I could be, but I understood that I couldn’t be that way for the rest of my life.

Heat swept through me at my own thoughts.

Sitting up straighter, I stuck a finger inside the white shirt I was wearing, at the thought of all those years of her not being by my side and feeling the need, I loosened my tie and exhaled loudly, a little too loudly. I watched in my peripheral view as Luna, my brother’s wife, leant forward and around him to offer me a quick grin.

‘Nervous?’ Alessio asked. ‘The place is secure; I promise you that.’

‘I know, Brother.’ I lifted my hand over the wheelchair he now had to use and dropped it on his nearest shoulder. He had defied all the odds and had fought to return to us after his ambush. His brain was as sharp and focussed as ever, but a bullet had severed his spine, and he would never regain the use of his legs. On the plus side, he and Luna had just announced that they were to be parents for the second time, and with the deepest respect, when the men in the family were together forany reason, our banter had recently been about how pleased we were that something other than his brain and mouth still worked.

Salvatore had, a short time ago, made him his consigliere. Romeo, Gabriel and I were now his joint under bosses, which showed the mutual respect our two families now had for each other. It also showed all outsiders our strength. In our part of the world, strength and the loyalty we had for our families and our way of life meant our children were safe, and if we had anything to do with it, would remain that way.

‘I’m not nervous,’ I carried on. ‘I trust you with the security—My wife is a brilliant pianist, and Rome is about to be blown away by her.’

‘I understand,’ he offered, nodding.

‘I’m not sure you do,’ I admitted. ‘This, tonight… all of it, is amazing. She’s amazing and she’s worked so damned hard to get here.’ I curled up the program in my hand, the one that showed the world what a beautiful woman my wife was. The one that thousands of other eyes had already feasted on and a pang of jealousy coursed through my veins, igniting everything in me that I’d always sworn never to turn into. I might have a deep respect for Salvatore De Luca, but the thought of turning into him was an ever-present threat. Although why, I didn’t understand. He loved and cared for my sister, their children and our extended family. I exhaled and looked around the elegant hall again, hoping to calm myself.

As if Serafina and Salvatore could feel my inner battle, they both caught my eye and smiled from their box opposite ours. When Salvatore reached for my sister’s hand and brought it to his mouth and placed a kiss on the back of her hand, I watched on intently. As he claimed his wife, he raised his glass of Grappa in a silent salute and lifted his eyebrows in question, and I knew he understood. Romeo leant closer to him and said somethingthat no matter how much I tried to read, I couldn’t, and the two arseholes laughed, while looking straight at me.

Maybe my struggle hadn’t been as well concealed as I thought.

Fuckers.

I uncurled the program and looked once at the photograph that had been taken of her sitting at the piano her grandfather had bought her, wearing a deep green coloured ballgown. Her beauty, intelligence and kindness shone through.

‘But you’d like her to yourself for a while,’ Alessio carried on.

‘Something like that,’ I admitted, not wanting to say out loud that what I really needed was to lock her up in our home back in Calabria and keep her barefoot and pregnant for the next fifty fucking years.

‘I get it, and it will come.’

‘It will,’ I replied, with more conviction than I dared hope for.

Trying to find some silence to ponder my own thoughts, I started to flick through the pages I’d placed on my lap. Pictures of the conservatory, the teaching staff and the children the concert had been put together to help, filled my vision. Then I thought of back home, where our parents and Gabriel and Mia had stayed, to look after the eleven grandchildren of the De Lucas and Giordanos. They even had Salvatore and Serafina’s youngest twin daughters, Rosa and Lia, who had arrived slightly early, when Serafina had gone into labour as we fought to bring Giovanna home. I smiled when I thought of my parents, in their element, with their nipoti.

One day soon, amore mio, our many babies will join them.

Giovanna

I stood back and looked at myself in the full-length mirror of the dressing room. For a few seconds, I almost didn’t recognise the woman staring back at me. The gown I’d chosen for this evening was burnt orange in colour, it had a strapless corset, and the gown followed every contour of my body until it reached my knees, where it then fanned out enough for me to walk. When Serafina had gone with me to buy something for this evening, her eyes had lit up when she’d found the dress. I’d almost had to pour myself into it to try it on, but however hesitant I’d been about buying it, that had completely dissipated when I saw my reflection standing tall in the dress. It was perfect, all I’d had to check was that I could sit to play the piano.

‘Perfect,’ I whispered to myself, as I smoothed my hands over my hips.

I knew the dress was perfection and it added a glow to my skin. It would also offer me the courage I needed to go and play in front of the thousands of people who had purchased tickets for the evening. I was only playing a few pieces, as some of the students were also taking part. But I knew in my heart, that my favourite part of the evening would be when I played Für Elise, the piece of music that I would dedicate to my grandfather. The same one that I had played to him the day I left to go and join Dante, and I hoped I would feel him there with me, just like he’d promised me all those years before.

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