Page 117 of Vita Mia

Chapter Twenty

A Cry for Help

Napoli Italy

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WHEN MIRABELLA WOKEthe next morning, it was Sophia who told her she had an urgent phone call. Martha had already taken the kids to the playground in the security protected villa they lived in. Mirabella sat up with a startled sigh. She now slept with one eye open waiting for the dreaded call that her husband had suffered some fatal accident in prison by that satanic warden. She accepted the phone with a trembling hand and waited until her heart stopped beating so fast before she answered.

“Pronto?”

“Mirabella, it’s Domi.” Dominic’s voice was hoarse, barely recognizable, as if he’d been yelling at the top of his lungs for hours.

“Why are you calling so early?”

“I have some bad news.”

“Is it Giovanni? Did they... did something happen to him Domi? Oh God. What is it?”

Mirabella grabbed her heart. She squeezed her eyes shut so tight she saw bands of color under her closed lids. She began to hyperventilate. “Please Domi, tell me. Is he alive? Just tell me he’s alive!”

“It’s not Gio. It’s Renaldo.”

“What?”

“Last night he got into some kind of prison fight with the Puglia’s. He was killed.”

“No! That... didn’t happen. Domi?”

The phone line went silent.

“Domi! Domi! Domi!” Mirabella said his name over and over. Her mind was screaming thoughts but all she said was his name. She knew he was there. But his silence confirmed every fear she could conjure.

“It’s what I know now,” he responded.

Mirabella put her hand to her head. The phone slipped from her fingers to her lap. Martha and the children came running back in. She could hear one of the babies crying and the pitter patter of little feet running through hall. She remained still as her mind plummeted into the past. She remembered the kidnapping and Renaldo’s shooting. The celebration at Kyra’s when he came home from the hospital. The many times Giovanni would walk through the door and Renaldo would be his shadow. The many times she didn’t say to him how much she loved him. How often she took Renaldo, Carlo, Lorenzo and even Leo for granted. She remembered every story Giovanni ever told about them when they were younger and who they wanted to be when they were older. Was this really the end of it all? Was Giovanni wrong? What had they done?

“Mum! Mum! Guess what!” One of the twins ran into her room. “Look! Look what I found!”

Mirabella’s gaze lowered. Gino had a tiny turtle in his hand. The shy thing kept retracting inside of his shell.

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