Page 28 of La Dolce Vita

“Away? Away where? It's me. Your brother. You can't keep me out.”

“I’m doing what I have to do.”

“What does that mean? You take meetings without the cover of your men. You leave here in the middle of the night, and no one knows where you go. You are putting yourself, this family, and our business at risk. I am out there trying to clean up the messy trail you and Armando left behind after the kidnapping. I need you, Gio," Dominic took a step. "But guess what? You need me too!"

“I need you?” Giovanni sat forward. His gaze narrowed on Dominic. “What the fuck do I need you for? To question me? To complain more than my fucking wife and kids!”

Dominic puffed out his chest a little and held his ground.

"Do you understand what she’s been through? None of you know the toll it’s taken on her and me. He poisoned her. He pumped her with fucking poison! She could have died."

"She's not dead," Dominic said. He approached. “You saved her.”

“I know. I saved her. I did it alone. Remember?”

“That’s not true.”

“Get out, I came here to be alone.”

“No! Have me thrown out or listen to what I have to say.”

Giovanni dropped back on the sofa seat and slumped down. A headache he carried most of the day now throbbed in his temples. Bella had her nightmares, and so did he. He’d felt alone in this war to save his wife from the dark events of the past since the day he found her on the bathroom floor suffering one of her many seizures. Every bone in him felt broken. Every tendon in him felt ripped. He bled internally with such grief he choked on the invisible sob clogging his throat. He squeezed his eyes and tears formed, but none of them were brave enough to drop. Not because he was above crying. He didn't cry for her because that would be the final sign of defeat, and he would not allow himself to give up.

"Listen to me. Listen, Gio," Dominic said. "I've met with her doctors. I had her medical file sent off to Sweden to get a third opinion. She isn't dying. Do you hear me? She isn't dying. The problem is far simpler than you realize."

Giovanni gaze shifted from the ceiling to hisconsigliere.

"What is it?"

"The seizures, the muscle spasms, the uncontrollable vomiting are concerning. I know, Catalina tells me these things. But the doctors believe the symptoms will stop. It's something she must endure."

"Endure? Is that what you think she's doing? Enduring? She’s doing what I do. She wears a mask. The one for the family and then the one you don’t see. The one she keeps even from me. She pretends to be okay, but I can see through it. Not the physical, the mental strain. She can only let me hold her after a fight. She doesn’t let me in like she used too. She pretends with me! Me! Her fucking husband."

"She's in a lot of pain because she misses the confident woman she was. She told Zia that she is your wife. She can’t be weak. Her words. She thinks the nights you disappear and these business trips are an excuse for you to get away from her.”

“Bullshit!” Giovanni said.

"You two don’t see it, you two don’t believe it, but you’re pushing each other away.”

“Don’t counsel me on my marriage,” Giovanni grunted.

“Fine. It’s not my place. I have other news. I was referred to another doctor, one in Firenze. I spoke to her today. She has read Mirabella's file. Do you know what she thinks triggers these episodes?"

"I never gave you permission to see another doctor," Giovanni said. “Why not tell me about this?”

"Hear me out. First, you have to accept that she was poisoned."

"I accept it," Giovanni said. "I know more about the poison in her than you or those doctors."

"What I mean to say is that you must accept that her body's reaction to detoxing the poison is a long hard road. It happens. The fevers, the tremors, the vomiting, even the fainting, and seizures are part of this. It's all normal. Accept that."

"But it isn't normal. It's the fucking symptoms of a junkie," Giovanni said. "When she first came home, for days she was fine. She was mine. And then... and then this came on? It’s not normal. We need to find a cure."

"You're right, brother. But she's no junkie. And there may be no cure.”

“I won’t accept that.”

“Listen to me, Gio. We have approached this wrong. Our focus is on what Kei Hyogo gave her and not what he did to her."

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