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Callie
“I have not broken your heart—you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.” —Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Hush, little baby, don’t say a word, Momma’s going to buy you a mocking bird. I heard my mother’s dulcet tone in my head as I lay there on an unfamiliar hard bed, but it was Roberto Marchesi’s face that I saw mouthing the words. He was the epitome of a nightmare, with his garish, ugly, pudgy, and callous features. I could still smell his putrid breath in my nostrils, and I wanted to throw up.
Don Roberto Marchesi was Antonio’s father, but their resemblance ended at their names. A sickly tremor rose in my throat as I thought about the last hour. All I could wonder was how Roberto and Antonio knew my mother, Phillipa, and the song she sang to me when I was young?
“Callie, my little lamb, can you hear me?” Antonio’s deep voice sounded concerned as it echoed in the room he’d carried me into, but I knew that was just wishful thinking. He’d most probably clapped in glee when I’d fainted.
I wanted to open my eyes and shout at him. Tell him that he was a pig. And I wanted to punch him hard in the face for using me. For making me believe he cared. What was it he’d said? My brain ached as I lay there, and suddenly his words hit me hard, like a freight train. “I am Antonio ‘the wolf’ Marchesi. I know everything.” I seized up for a few seconds as I tried to shout out, “What is everything?” But my words wouldn’t come. Instead, I heard a taunting yell reverberating in the room.
“She’ll come around soon,” an older lady said, and I was about to open my eyes when Antonio spoke again.
“How do you know that song, Papa?” There was a quietness to his tone that sent a shiver down my spine. Now I understood what deathly quiet meant. Or did it just mean it was so quiet, it was deathly? My brain was scrambled; I was anxious, and my thoughts were rambling. I just needed to stop.
“What song?” Don Roberto tried to sound confused, but he wasn’t a good actor. His tone was almost cackling. I wouldn’t be shocked if he turned green and transformed into a witch. Maybe he’d start singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” and then transform into Judy Garland.Focus, Callie. My brain was trying to distract me from my nervous anxiety.
“The song Callie’s mother used to sing to her?” Antonio’s voice rose, and I felt agitated. He was asking the question I wanted the answer to. Did that mean he didn’t know the answer? But then, how did he know my mother? None of this made any sense.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Don Roberto’s voice was distant, and I heard a chair pushing back, scratching against the wooden floor. The sound made me tremble. “I need some answers myself. What is this girl doing in my house?”
“I invited her,” Antonio responded coolly. “She’s joining us for dinner.”
“Antonio, is that wise?” The woman’s voice again. Who was she?
“What do you mean, Luisa?” His voice was deceptively calm. I was learning Antonio’s tells now. He was always extremely calm before he got enraged and pounced. They called him a wolf, and he called himself a mole, but I thought of him as a lion: strong, proud, and vicious.
“Tonight is the dinner with Tommasso and Serena and—” she continued softly.
“And what of it?” Antonio laughed, the sound coming from deep in his throat. I couldn’t see, but I could picture the danger. The smell of a cigar suddenly filled the room, and I felt queasy. I wondered if I was going to die. I wondered if this was it for me. A stupid trap that I’d fallen into because I’d wanted a romantic adventure so badly. What a way to go out. At least I wasn’t a virgin anymore. At least I’d experienced passionate lovemaking before I died. Even if it had only been for one night.
“It is important that you follow through with your obligations.” Don Roberto was pissed.
“I never said I would marry Serena and you haven’t answered my question.” Antonio’s voice was raspy. “How do you know the song Phillippa sang to Callie?”
“Or, rather, I could ask you what are you doing with her?” Roberto’s voice was deathly quiet now. “Luisa, please leave the room.”
“But…” Luisa protested. She didn’t want to go. Was she scared Roberto would kill his own son? It certainly didn’t seem as if there was any love lost between father and son. If I’d ever heard hatred in a voice before, it was between the two of them.
“I will not tell you twice.” Roberto’s voice was pure venom. There was silence in the room for a few seconds, and then I heard footsteps and a door opening and closing. All hope left my body. My subconscious had been sure that a matronly woman would never let something happen to me. Women weren’t as cruel as men. At least, that’s what I’d always thought until I met Valentina. Had she had anything to do with this? Exactly what had she known?
“Don’t you ever try and usurp my power in front of anyone ever again.” Roberto’s voice was a hiss. “I will take you down, Antonio.”
“Is that any way to talk to your son?”
“Why is she here?”
“Why do you care, Papa?”
“You bring the daughter of the man that killed your mother into my house.” Roberto’s voice was deadly, and I felt like I’d been slapped. What was he saying? What did he mean? My father… what? He couldn’t have.
“Paul Rowney will pay for what he did,” Antonio responded. “He didn’t even go to jail for what he did to Mama.”
Roberto cackled. “So that’s why she’s here…”
“Why else would she be here?” Antonio asked, his tone slightly confused. “You don’t actually think I care for her…”
