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“You have no reason to feel embarrassed.”
The family remained together for the moment, all reeling from the blow they’d been delivered. But there was one amongst them who didn’t have the same aversive response. Gabriel smiled on the inside while displaying the appropriate level of disgust and discontent on the outside.
“Excuse me,” Alessandro uttered. The pained silence only added to his frustration. He didn’t sulk away. Rather, he walked slowly, intently, until he was no longer in his parent’s view. Alessandro was beside himself. He was angry, possibly disappointed, but certainly angry. He saw red. Not because he was in love with Valentina, and she broke his heart. It was nothing like that. She had embarrassed him in front of the world – those people that influenced the world.
Valentina had to pay. Her family had to pay.
Gabriel was there for his brother, pausing a moment before leaving after him. He sought his brother out and found Alessandro standing on the balcony, looking out into the darkness. Gabriel was there for his brother, strategically moving between empathy and egging him on, asking questions and making comments he knew would make his older brother squirm.
“I wonder who she gave the goods to?” Gabriel mused as he stood next to his brother, out of arms reach, on purpose.
“Does it even matter?” Alessandro barked, closing the distance between himself and his brother and grabbing Gabriel up in the collar before he had a chance to react.
“Does it even fuckin’ matter who she fucked? She fucked somebody, and it wasn’t me!”
Alessandro’s eyes bore into his brother’s, his thick brow barely cloaking Alessandro’s disdain. He pushed his brother off and then refocused his attention out into the darkness.
“I’m going to kill that bitch.”
Gabriel’s eyes widened, but he quickly cloaked his response, the duplicity of his position momentarily weighing on him.
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” Gabriel didn’t wait for a response as he had more rational questions to ask his presumably irrational brother. “What if you get caught? You’ll ruin your life, big bro. She’s not worth it.”
His comment was diminishing to Valentina, but Gabriel felt it necessary to try to bring reason to the situation. But Alessandro’s response could not have been anticipated. It was as if everything Gabriel said didn’t even penetrate his psyche.
“I’m going to kill that bitch.”
Tempers continued to flare in the Conti house. Francesco couldn’t let it go. Celestina understood her husband’s frustration as she felt it, too. She also loved her daughter despite how infuriating Valentina could be. There was also a part of Celestina that understood her daughter’s ill-advised actions. She’d never openly admit it, but Celestina did grapple with it. Celestina endured a predetermined arrangement. She didn’t fight it. She didn’t speak up for herself. Celestina let life happen to her instead of determining her own fate. That part of Celestina, the part that understood Valentina, couldn’t be spoken aloud. Celestina had to side with her husband against her own child.
That love, that understanding from a mother to a daughter, was put on the back burner.
Costanza had been quiet. Whether they admitted it or not, each family member looked to her for guidance in the matter of the final word.
Secretly, Valentina hoped her grandmother would be on her side – choosing family over money.
Costanza’s response couldn’t be rushed. She would speak when she was ready and not a second before. Constanza felt mixed emotions. She could relate to Valentina as the same thing happened to her – pre-arrangement. That’s how family business was done. It was not about the desires of the individual. It was about duty to the familia.
The silence awaiting Costanza’s response was deafening. Valentina tried to be poised as if she didn’t care. She did, though, not about the family’s financial gain but about Costanza’s position and her grandmother’s feelings.
“When you’ve been comforted by familial wealth, you have no knowledge, no experience with the negotiations, contracts, and sacrifices required to sustain it. You have no idea of the depths of sacrifice because you’ve had to give up nothing.”
Costanza paused, shifting in her chair before resuming her soliloquy.
“The absence of personal sacrifice makes one oblivious to the consequences of either compliance or defiance. When it has never cost you anything to maintain the lifestyle you were privileged to be born into, you can’t weigh the cost. Decisions were made on your behalf for the benefit of the whole.
That offends you.
I understand the offense.”
Costanza leveled her gaze squarely on Valentina. She saw the hopeful look in her granddaughter’s eyes. Whether that affected Costanza or not was difficult to determine. After an effective pause, she continued.
“I also understand that the greatest struggles, the most significant challenges, are carried on the backs of women. Not because we are insignificant but because we are the most significant. We are the heavy load carriers because we are built to withstand and sustain.”
That doesn’t make it right,” Valentina dared to utter aloud.
Isotta gasped and then quickly covered her mouth. She had been lurking on the outskirts of the room, not visible to those inside the space, but from her position, Isotta heard everything.
“Right?” Francesco interjected. “Did you even think about the rest of us? What did you cost us? How you humiliated us?” Francesco demanded. His daughter’s insolence was completely unacceptable to him. But Valentina didn’t have to respond. As soon as Francesco opened his mouth, he knew it was a mistake. Celestina tried to silence him discretely, but then she failed in her attempt. The look Constanza gave Francesco impacted Celestina as well. Constanza didn’t pitch her brow or part her lips enough to silence her only son completely.
