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“Hi, Giovanna. That’s you, Giovanna Athena Callahan.” She kissed her forehead before undoing her robe and pressing the baby to her breast again. She latched on like a little vacuum.
“Father Macrae has cancer, and it’s progressing fast. I think he wanted to do something big. I heard the nuns speaking about it. That’s why he came to Chicago. He wanted to die as the man who condemned Ethan A. Callahan.” She rocked Giovanna. “I didn’t know beforehand, but when I found out I put something in his cup which would irritate his throat and give him a bad cough.”
So that was it. I huffed, annoyed. “How weak. He tried to attack when he thought had nothing left to lose. Meanwhile nuns are selling babies, and the Pope is hiring assassins. Hypocrites…all of them.” I shook my head.
“The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints,” she teased with a grin on her face.
I rolled my eyes at that, still somewhat amazed at how beautiful she looked. How all of this felt.
“Giovanna Callahan…Calliope Callahan.” She froze when I said their names. It wasn’t the first time I had said it, but after what she told me…it meant something different now. Leaning over, I placed my forehead on hers. “Calliope Orsini is just your mask. The person you really are, the one nobody can take or taint, is Calliope Callahan, mother of my daughter and my soon to be wife. You, me, her…we’re a family…a family we choose happily.”
She nodded and smiled. “You know Giovanna means ‘the Lord is gracious’, right? That’s a perfect message for this Sunday.”
She laughed and so did I.
Because I had my family.
La mia anima and il mia Tesoro. My soul and my treasure.
Chapter 12
“I’d stand in the shadows of your heart and tell you I’m not afraid of your dark.”
~Andrea Gibson
ETHAN - AGE 26
Rome, Italy
Friday, April 25th
Something was wrong.
I knew it.
I felt it.
Like the breath of a hungry wolf on the back of my neck, I could feel the danger looming over me. It made the hair on my arms rise and chest tighten. I looked around the café, but only saw my men, as well as few tourists happily talking amongst themselves. My gaze shifted to the street, however it was more of the same tourists taking pictures in front of…everything from the water fountains to the buildings themselves. It was busy, but Rome was always busy, and this wasn’t even peak tourist season. Even still, my people were in the crowds, amongst the tourists, and furthermore this was my country, my mother’s country. No one would dare try anything here. So why? Why did I feel this pit in my stomach? Why did everything feel like it was slowing down, as if I were watching my last few moments of life? What was this feeling of dread?
“Ethan. Ethan?” I looked over to her, the brunette sitting across from me, smiling stupidly. She reached over and put her hand on my mine, and instinctively I pulled it back and sat back in my chair. “No need to be so distant now, not after last night.”
The moment she said that, the memories tried to force their way to the forefront of my mind, but I pushed them back.
“You wanted breakfast, so order breakfast, Klarissa.” I let my disinterest show, lifting my phone from the table.
“I said I wanted to treat you to my favorite breakfast.”
“I’m not hungry.” I focused on the phone in my hands.
“You know the colder you are, the more I like you.” She giggled and lifted her hand, calling over the server who was standing by attentively. He rushed over the moment she did, and she didn’t even let him speak before ordering. “I’ll have a prima colazione, with cappuccino and cornetto, what about you, baby?”
The moment she addressed me, my head snapped up to look at her, to see if maybe she’d lost her mind and sure enough, she stared at me, completely oblivious to how close I was to ripping off her head and throwing it in the street for the birds. Instead, I looked to the server.
“You may go.” I directed, and he nodded, leaving just as quickly as he came. When he did, I turned to her, lifting my hands to warn her carefully. “You will address me as Ethan or Mr. Callahan, am I clear?”
She flinched, pulling back some, and nodded.
“Excellent. When your food comes, eat quickly.” I went back to my phone already dialing…for the third time this morning, since I’d missed her two calls last night. She never called twice. So I knew it was important. However, she was not answering.
