Page 255 of Vita Mia

“And then? After? What happened after this convenient accident that killed everyone but you?”

“I had to keep moving. We started in South America and I eventually made it to Cuba.”

“Cuba? That’s where Domi goes—?”

“To see me, three times a year.”

“You’ve been in Cuba all this time?”

“Bella. I had no real plan. I just knew that if I was alive to the world none of you were safe. I can’t let them know I’m alive. Ever.”

“Then why are you here?” she said and wiped her tears. “Why now!”

He didn’t answer.

“I trusted you Gio, with my heart, with our children. You broke us.”

“I gave you up. After years of holding on so tight to you I gave you up. That broke me too. And I couldn’t stand it anymore. I have to have you back. My family. I can’t live this way without you. I came to take you with me.”

Mirabella paced.

“I buried you. I cried over your grave for months. I mourned you. I sent our children away. I gave up on life. I fell apart. And all the while you were in Cuba? I gave you everything and you just gave up?”

Giovanni got out of bed. Mirabella picked up the gun. She pointed it at him.

“Get out!”

“Bella?”

“Get ooooooooooouuuuuut!” she shouted at him holding the gun on him.

“You’re not going to use that.”

She fired at the lamp and it exploded. Giovanni flinched.

“Go back to Cuba. Go back to hell. I don’t care. I was an idiot. I chose you over my kids. How am I any different than Marietta? And look at what we became?”

“Then shoot me,” he said.

Mirabella wiped her eyes. The door to the beach house flew open and the men came in. They looked at him and then her.

“Leave us,” he said and put up his hand to stop them from stopping her.

“They don’t work for you. They work for me. You’re a dead man—no one listens to the dead. Get him out of here!”

The men seem confused. Mirabella glanced to the others and turned the gun on them. “I gave you an order.”

“Leave us,” Giovanni said again.

The men decided to obey him and left. Mirabella screamed in anger. She fired the gun several times into the floor and then threw it at him. She had perfect aim. Then she turned to the cabinet and opened it. She grabbed at the pills she kept there, she dumped several into her palm ready to take the whole bottle to make the hallucinations stop. But he was on her. He slapped her hand and knocked them all on the floor.

“Noo!” she dropped on her knees and tried to pick them up. He went down on the floor and grabbed her by arms and shook her.

“Stop!”

She felt the wheezing of her breath return which always came before a panic attack. He pulled her up to stand. He forced her into his arms and held her so tight she couldn’t escape. “Please stop Bella,” he said. She put her face to his chest and buried it against it. He rubbed her back and let her go through the episode.

“It never happened. Maybe I can fix it. Maybe. I failed. We didn’t go. Did we?”

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