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“Ma, are you ready to—?”
“You didn’t take communion.”
He sighed. He’d planned to ask if she was ready to head back to Sunny Oaks, but it was senseless now. She wouldn’t go until she had said everything she wanted to say. “I couldn’t.”
Gia smiled. “I’m proud of you.”
He stood frozen as those words sunk through his thickened skin. Never in his life had he heard them from her. She must be demented. “You’re proud of me?”
She nodded. “You see it now, don’t you? After all these years, you understand.”
“Understand what?”
“That you were living in sin. Your marriage wasn’t recognized by the church.”
Vincent’s smile fell. Not demented, just evil. “It was recognized.”
“You were young, Vincenzo. And she was Irish! She wasn’t even like us!”
Celia responded before Vincent could. “Maura was Catholic, Mom. It was sanctified. Father Alberto was the one to marry them.”
Gia glared at her daughter before waving her hand dismissively. “How was I supposed to know? I didn’t even get invited.”
She’d been invited, of course, but she had shunned the service. Antonio had shown up out of respect for his son, but Gia refused. In her mind, if she didn’t see the wedding, she could go on acting as if the marriage didn’t exist.
“You were invited,” Vincent said. “You chose not to come.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Gia said. “I didn’t know anything about it until it was over.”
“If that’s true, Ma, how did Dad know to come?”
“What does that have to do with anything? Your father always snuck around, never told me anything. What makes this any different?”
Vincent tried to keep his anger at bay. “Because I handed you the invitation. You took one look at it and tossed it in the trash.”
Gia scoffed. “And the quacks say I have memory problems. That never happened.”
Corrado strolled over, his hands in his pockets. “What are we arguing about now?”
“Vincent marrying Maura,” Celia said. “Again.”
“Ah,” Corrado said. “I regret I wasn’t there.”
Gia laughed. “They didn’t invite you, either?”
“Oh, I was invited. I just didn’t think it was appropriate for me to attend.”
“See!” Gia looked at Vincent. “I told you it wasn’t a real marriage. Corrado agrees!”
Corrado started to correct her, but Vincent shook his head. Although it stung that his brother-in-law had skipped the wedding, sending Celia to the ceremony alone, Vincent understood. Unlike Gia, Corrado meant well.
“It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks,” Vincent said. “I know it was real.”
o;Anything’s possible,” Corrado said. “FBI, DOJ, CIA . . .”
Vincent shook his head. “What did you do to have the CIA working on a Saturday night?”
“You never know,” Corrado said. “Maybe they’re looking to recruit me.”
