Page 79 of Forbidden Pregnancy
“She gets along much better with Gino. It’s hard to keep our relationships and preferences apart.”
“I didn’t ask Gino out to dinner. I asked you.”
Ian returns with the salmon before I can answer. But what “answer” could I possibly give my father? This isn’t a request, regardless of how tame the situation might seem. My father doesn’t make requests. He issues demands.
“Nicoletta will kill me in my sleep.”
“She already agreed to the arrangement,” dad says calmly, cutting into his steak and nodding with approval as the medium rare appearance meets his expectations perfectly.
He continues, “You’re taking her out to the lake house after dinner tonight. I’m giving her one last night at The Richardson to ensure her compliance and then she’s your responsibility.”
My responsibility.
“Is there a way out of this?”
“No.”
“Fuck.”
“The two of you are blood. Since you’re so interested in our bloodline, work on your relationship with your youngest sister.”
“This is a punishment.”
“It’s not a punishment. It’s a necessity. If you’re going to preach about Italian blood purity and responsibility to our heritage, I want to see you demonstrate more of it. There’s no point in having a principle if you don’t live by it.”
He won’t change his mind.
“How long?” I ask desperately. He can’t expect me to live with Nicoletta for longer than a month. After two weeks, I’ll go crazy. But I can survive as a crazy person for two additional weeks. Anything past that and I’ll need to spend a couple hours a day at the gun range to keep my emotions in check. Or some other high intensity emotional outlet.
“A year.”
“Ayear?”
It takes all my strength to steady my voice and tighten up my tone around my emotions. I clearly pissed him off, because this is almost as bad as a death sentence. At least when you’re getting shot in the head, it’s over quickly. Spending an entire year caring for Nicoletta will slowly drive me insane.
“Yes. She’s your family, Renzo. When I’m gone, she’ll be your responsibility.”
Despite my best efforts to keep my emotions away from dad, he must be able to sense my disappointment that I’ll be hostage to caring for my sister for an entire year. He can’t seriously expect me to spend a full year of my life responsible for Nicki. Out of desperation, I make an effort to appeal to dad’s logical side rather than his emotional side.
“Even if I agree to this and act perfectly, Nicki will be the problem. She’ll be worse than Angela.”
She’s still a sore subject for dad. He hasn’t exactly “accepted” her relationship with Devin, but he has surrendered to it, whichseems to be all that dad expects from her now. It must be nice for my sister to so easily shrug offherexpectations and responsibilities while I sit here and find out I’m facing a fate worse than death.
My younger sister.
“I’m allowing Nicki enough privileges that she will obediently remain in your custody. Trust me.”
“Nicki has never been obedient a day in her life,” I remind my father.
He returns my complaint with a stony, disinterested stare.
“You are going to learn how to take care of your family. If you want power in this organization, you will find a way to make it work.”
I fight back my initial anger. “Understood.”
“Nicki will test your weaknesses,” my father says. “Most of the women in our family test our weaknesses, but I want you to become a better man from this assignment.”
“I’ll try.”
