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In the hope of getting rid of our uninvited guests, I went into the kitchen and gingerly picked up Wilbur.
He shot me a look that told me I was interrupting his spoiling session with Adelina.
I carefully carried him into the drawing room, holding him as far from my body as possible and using a firm grip in the hope that he wouldn’t assault me with his claws which looked alarmingly sharp.
Clara had got down to play on the floor, so I went to put Wilbur in Fantasia’s lap.
“Keep that animal away from me,” barked Fantasia.
Swallowing down a sound of exasperation, I dumped him in Anni’s arms instead. “As you can see, the cat is alive and thriving in my household,” I said through clenched teeth.
I had to endure another hour of sitting with Anni’s family before I could get rid of them. Luckily, the men had to be back in New York by evening, so I didn’t have to tolerate an overnight stay.
“People shouldn’t just drop by uninvited,” I grumbled to Anni, as I closed the door on them later.
“It wasn’t so bad. The kids loved seeing Ma.”
“Yeah,” I conceded. “I guess they did. Your ma is good with children, especially Clara. Maybe I’ll put up with a very occasional visit from your ma if it makes Clara happy.”
“And me?”
I smiled at her. “If it makes you happy, I’ll do it for you too. But next time she comes without the baseball bat. Christ, not only is your ma a pathological liar, but she’s also a thug.”
“Thug? Says the Made Man…”
“Come on, how many Mafia moms do you know that carry around their own baseball bat? Although perhaps I should have expected something like that from her after the pepper spray thing on our wedding night.”
“She’s not all bad,” protested Anni. “I get my math talents from her, you know.”
“Your ma is good with numbers?” That surprised me.
“She is. Didn’t you know that she’s been banned from all Upstate New York’s casinos because of counting cards?”
“Your macounts cards?” I was incredulous.
“Yeah, she’s just lousy at hiding it. Papà has even banned her from his casino.”
“I don’t know if that makes my opinion of her better or worse.”
Anni rolled her eyes at me in response.
I gave her a playful swat on her sweet ass. “You know when you roll your eyes at me like that, it makes me want to spank you.”
“Promises, promises.”
I gave her a wicked grin. “Just you wait until I get you alone tonight.”
***
After Aloysius’s death and funeral, the only thing that took my mind off the recent events was spending time with my family.
My relationship with Anni kept going from strength to strength, and for that, I was thankful.
I decided to talk to Anni about what she had found out from Rita’s psychologist.
“The only things I found out,” said Anni, “are what I’ve already told you: that Rita saw a psychologist who specializes in depression and postpartum depression and that she saw the psychologist a total of seven times, including the week before her death.”
“I’d like to see if I can find out more. Patient confidentiality means that the doctor won’t be able to tell me anything, so I’ll have to threaten her. That will make her talk.”
