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“And I will tell you. Let me just find us some clothes.”
I went to the suitcase and pulled out a pair of grey sweatpants for me, and one of the robes Chiara got for Grazia the day we got married. Once we were both dressed, we sat on the couch, looking at each other. She was waiting for me to start talking, but I wasn’t sure where to start. What the hell was the beginning of all the mess Fabiano created?
“This whole story, it’s about my mother, Grazi.”
“Your mother?”
“Yes. More specifically, the way she died.”
Fuck, I hated hearing this story when Father told me, and I hated even more to be forced to tell it to Grazia. Fabiano deserved every ounce of shame, hate, and disgust, but I knew what I was about to say will sadden her, and that was a hard pill to swallow. I wanted my wife smiling all the time.
“I thought she passed away from complications after your birth.”
“In a way, yes. She died nine weeks after I was born and for the longest time, that’s all father knew – complications after birth – but it was more complicated than that.” I sighed again. “My mother was the love of his life. When she died, he did too. It was only his body that went on.”
“I know. I still don’t understand. Our fathers had been friends for years after Christina died.”
“Right. As I was saying, father was crushed when the hospital called him to say that my mother had died, he couldn’t handle it. At that time, he relied a lot on your father to handle everything, and I mean everything. Fabiano had to take care of the paperwork, the funeral, all of that, and your mother took me in for a couple of weeks.” I paused and Grazia nodded. She was still with me. “Cristina Fiori died because she bled out and it was because she was vulnerable after birth – I was a damn big baby – but she took a pain killer that day which triggered the bleeding.”
“Oh. Oh, I’m sorry, Sasa. I still don’t get why…”
“I know. Just bear with me. The day she died, my mother was out of the house for the first time in weeks. She was supposed to be on bed rest still.”
“Nine weeks is a long time. Rebecca recovered much faster.”
“Yeah, that’s my fault. I was indeed a big baby and it was a hard birth. She was discharged, but there was some damage. Anyway, she told my father she had a doctor’s appointment that day and he just assumed that she wasn’t feeling well, that she had bleeds after the birth, and that was why she died.”
“It wasn’t?”
Fuck me, I was not doing a good job of telling her the truth.
“It was, but she wasn’t at a doctor’s appointment. It wasn’t until a few years ago that someone in the PalermoCarabinierifound a buried police report that had the whole story of that day on it. Because mom died in the hospital, they had to report it, but that piece of paper never made it to my father until four years ago.”
“What did it say?”
“That she wasn’t at the hospital when she started bleeding. She was in a hotel room and the ambulance was called after… well… after a sexual encounter.” I remembered my father’s face when he told me the same words. He was livid and crushed with pain, and I didn’t feel an ounce of that. Maybe it was because I didn’t get to know my mother, or maybe just because if something wasn’t about Grazia, I was a block of ice. I wasn’t hurt, but my ego and my trust were still tarnished by the devil Fabiano Caputo was.
“She… not with your father?”
“No, Grazi.With yours.”
She jumped up like something had burned her, her lips opening and closing back a couple of times before she was able to put together a few words.
“He didn’t. Sasa, no.”
“They had an affair. From what I got from my father, Fabiano admitted it started a while back, even before she got pregnant.” I looked at the ceiling, exasperated. “It wasn’t a love affair, just fucking. He was just fucking… my mother.”
“I’m… I’m going to be sick.”
“Do you need me to get you anything? Water?”
“No, I need you to finish the story. Adrian said my father killed Christina. Is it true, did he hurt her?”
“No, not on purpose, but he pressured her to meet with him that day even if she wasn’t fully recovered. That’s why she took the painkiller. The pill had something in it, some kind of blood thinner and she wasn’t supposed to,” I cleared my throat, feeling more uncomfortable than when Grazia’s mother talked to me about condoms, “have anyromanticcontact. She started bleeding, Fabiano called an ambulance a couple of hours after that, but by the time she got to the hospital, her blood pressure was through the roof, she was bleeding internally, it was a mess. The medical report said that she lost over sixty percent of her blood volume.”
Grazia fell back on the couch and covered her face with her hands. Her chest was rising rapidly and she was biting her lip, and I knew she was trying to control her tears. This was exactly why I didn’t want to tell her a damn thing. I didn’t want to see her like this.
“She wouldn’t have died.” She whispered to no one in particular. “If she didn’t meet Father that day, she’d still be alive. Adrian… why didn’t he kill him?”
