Page 81 of Destino

Giovanni wiped his hand down his face and slouched in the sofa seat. “Yes, she was a child.”

“I understand, you don’t have to—.”

“I’m not done.” His tone was flat but assertive. “He commanded a lot of respect.”

“As do you?”

Giovanni glanced over to her with a curious frown.

“You helped me with opening the doors to my boutique when we were closed down. Seems that your family’s influence extends through southern Italy.”

“It does.” Giovanni chuckled. “To insult a man of my father’s prominence is a grave mistake. The McHenry’s didn’t know this. My grandfather challenged Papa openly for touching his daughter inappropriately during a visit to their store. He threw him out. My father left without any complaint. This part of the story was told to me by my cousin, as part of my shame.”

“Why is it your shame?”

Giovanni stared down at the picture. “My father ordered his brothers and men to leave the McHenry’s alone. No punishment was to be extended for the insult. It confused them all. One thing Don Tomosino wasn’t was a charitable man. But he had other plans for the family. He had other plans for her.”

“What did he do to your mother?”

“The unthinkable. He raped her.”

Mira froze. Had she heard him right? He used the word rape as casually as a man would say the word love. She looked down at the picture of the family with a renewed understanding. It pained her to hear the fate of an innocent girl by the hands of a lustful, calculating man twice her age.

“How did he get her alone?”

“My mother attended a school in the hills during the day, while her mother and father worked to get the business off the ground. They had a driver pick her up each evening and take her home. She once told me her dream as a young girl was to be a nun. Her father had taken her to Vatican City and she believed in her calling.” Giovanni chuckled bitterly. “It was not to be.”

“We don’t have to talk about it.”

“We do. I want to. Papa learned of her school schedule and interceded. He had her brought to him.”

“Did your mother tell you she was raped?”

“No. I’m a man now. I know how this works. Whether she understood or consented to what happened to her that afternoon, she was a young sheltered girl who had no idea of the consequences. After it happened she tried to cover her shame and avoid him, but Papa convinced her that she would have to continue to let him have his way with her or her family would be disgraced. Soon she was pregnant with me and her world fell apart.”

“I know the rest of this story.” Mira said sadly. Her stomach soured. She didn’t want to hear anymore. “Her family threw her out. Didn’t they?”

He nodded. “As my father knew they would. Her parents were sickened and enraged to learn that the affair had been going on under their nose. To them it was the most unforgivable sin. My father being a married man made it all the worse. She fled to him for protection. Because her father felt wronged, he went to a feuding family that he heard customers whisper were enemies of ours. He asked the Don for revenge. In exchange he would give him part ownership of his textile company. That was a direct insult to my father since he had given my grandfather a free pass in his city. Blood spilled in the streets over this feud, and until this day many blame the Battaglia’s for this. Mama’s parents fled in the night to Ireland with nothing but the clothes on their backs.”

They sat in silence.

Mira put her hand over his. He turned over his hand and captured her palm, intertwining her fingers with his. “Then came you?”

“Papa’s wife was barren. To Papa the union was a fraud. He felt cursed to be joined to her and treated his bride horribly. Mama was her replacement. She gave him what he always wanted, what none of his mistresses were able to achieve. A son.”

“Does he have other children outside of you and your sister?”

Giovanni sighed. “I don’t know. None have never come forward.”

“Then why not divorce his wife and marry your mother?”

“Divorce?” Giovanni nose wrinkled. He glared at Mira. “We’re catholic. Divorce is not an option.”

“But he had affairs. Adultery is a sin.”

“Divorce from men like him, like me, would never be an option.”

Mira withdrew her hand from his, understanding his message loud and clear. Giovanni’s gaze returned to the portrait. “His wife was madly jealous of Mama, the Irish woman with the bright red hair who had charmed her husband away. Even though my mother was a child herself, she hated her on sight. She made Mama’s life miserable during the last months of her pregnancy. Even in Mondello the people shunned her. When Papa came for us, I was two months old and Mama was heartbroken.”

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