Page 252 of Vita Mia

MIRABELLA FLOATED ONthe waves in the deeper end. Her arms and legs were tired. The tide was pushing her closer to the shore and she let it. She looked up at the reddish, purple sky. She blinked and stared at the heavens while water framed her face and clogged her ears. Was he watching her from above? What did he think of her now? She closed her eyes to the answer and began to swim back to the shore. When she reached the point of standing, she did. She ran her hands back across her hair and it lay flat to her skull, slick to her neck and shoulders. Five brutal years of suffering for him had destroyed her family. She couldn’t do this anymore. She needed to be free of his memory and the grief. She needed to be a mother to her kids again.

The future was decided by her as she walked out of the ocean. She would take the boys and MiaBella to France. She’d find a chateau near the boarding school and start to paint again. Five years of mourning Giovanni would have to be enough. It had to be enough. For the sake of her children she had to be stronger.

From the corner of her eye she caught movement on the deck of the beach house. She stopped immediately. She saw nothing. She frowned. She stared at her beach house unsure of what she thought she saw. No one went into the beach house but her. Ever.

“Dao!” she cried out.

“Yes Donna,” her bodyguard said. He ran across the sand toward her. His gun wasn’t drawn but she knew it was on him. “Anyone at the beach house?”

Dao frowned. He glanced to the beach house. “I can check Donna.”

Mirabella nodded that he should. She waited as he sprinted across the smoothed sand closer to the waves. He went up the stairs quickly and disappeared inside. Mirabella walked over to her cover-up and pulled it on. She put on her sandals though her feet were covered in sand. After a few long moments Dao emerged.

She started toward him.

“No one is inside, Donna,” he said. “It’s all clear.”

She smiled her gratitude.

“Must have been my mind playing tricks on me.”

She kept walking.

“Keep some men on the beach. I think I’ll stay inside Serenity for the night.”

Dao nodded.

Mirabella often stayed on the beach when MiaBella was gone. If she was going to leave for France, then this routine would end. The beach house was the only place that remained as she and Giovanni left it. Untouched by time. She climbed the steps slowly deep in thought. She entered her beach cabin barely noticing anything. First, she went to the bathroom. She showered and rinsed the sea water from her hair. She dried it the best she could with her towel. It was wild, crinkly and untamed when she let it air dry. She didn’t care. Mirabella left the bathroom naked and went to the closet to put on her kimono that she kept at the beach house for its flowing thin silk and long bell sleeves. There was another room to the cabin. A room where MiaBella slept when she was younger. But now she just stored things in it and had her baby girl sleep in the bed with her for comfort. The door remained closed. Always. When she passed the door, she noticed it was ajar. She paused. Then she remembered that Dao had come into the beach house to search it. He must have left it partially open. Mirabella walked over to the kitchen area and put water in the kettle. She set it on the stove and turned up the gas flame. Mirabella went to the cabinets and brought down the jar with her different tea bags. After turning on music and securing the windows to her home, she fixed a cup of tea and ventured outside to her long beach recliner that faced the sea. The stars were uncovered. She used her blanket to snuggle and stared up at them for a while before drifting to sleep.

Giovanni opened the door to the room and peered out into the beach house. It was dark inside, however, the moonlight did pour in from the open deck area. He would have come out earlier, and confronted her. He should have had the conversation he’d been replaying in his mind for so long. But he couldn’t bring himself to do so. He waited inside and watched her from the open door. Every time she moved out of his line of sight he felt his heart race with desperation. They said so many things about her over the years. In the end, he believed her madness to be equal to his own. But that is not the woman he found. She was comfortable in her solitude. Humming along with the music she played as she poured honey into her tea.

He waited until she slept. He walked over to the record player and turned off the tunes. All that could be heard was the ebb and flow of the sea. He stepped out on the deck and stared at the ocean for a moment. Darkness was everywhere. It was a calm night. So many stars sprinkled the sky a fisherman could sail for miles under the guide of the moon. His gaze lowered to her. She slept with her face turned left, her lips parted slightly, a soft snore escaping her. Dominic’s men were closer. They walked the beach with their guns and flashlights. They protected her. And they knew of his return. Some of them paused to stare at him out of wonder and disbelief. He had risen from the dead. He sat in the beach chair across from her. She’d passed forty. The aging had matured her beauty only slightly. A touch of grey at her roots, a few wrinkles to the corner of her eyes. But nothing more. She was still as captivating and serenely beautiful as she was the day he lost her. Giovanni leaned in. He moved some of the hair from her face with his pointer finger.

She didn’t stir.

Giovanni stroked the side of her cheek with the back of his three fingers. Slowly her eyes fluttered. His heart jumped in his chest with anticipation of them opening, of the reunion he’d dreamed about so many nights on an empty beach like theirs. He leaned in further and kissed her lips.

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MIRABELLA FELT THEbrush of a man’s lips against hers and tasted a brief sample of his breath. Her eyes remained closed. It wasn’t often that her dreams of him felt surreal. She smiled with her eyes closed, she was too exhausted to do much else.

“Gio,” she said when his lips left hers.

“I’m home Bella.”

Her eyes opened.

He was there.

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THE SMILE SHE HAD FROMhis kiss slipped away. She drew back a deep scowl of confusion. He understood why. The scars to the side of his face weren’t to be conjured in her dreams. They were the reality.

“What is happening?” she said and sat upright. “What is happening!”

“Bella,” he reached for her.

“No! You’re not real! You’re not real!” she scrambled to get from the chair. Giovanni caught her waist and swept her up in his arms.

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