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I wrap my arms around her and kiss her hair, smiling because there are times when I can read her like a book. “Even that,” I say, holding her tightly. “It’s not a hardship for me, Val. We just have to work out how we are going to broach this with Angelo. The rest we can deal with as it comes.”
She squeezes me tight in return. “I’m so lucky to have you.”
I shake my head and look down at her beautiful face, knowing I meant every word of my promise to her. “No, baby girl, I’m lucky to have you.”
We will find a way. We have to.
16
VALENTINA
Seeingmy mother lying there on the floor, unmoving, is something that I can never erase from my memory. I could thankfully see she was conscious, and trying to move, trying to speak, but she could do neither of those things.
I called 911 before calling Marco, who came over from next door within a couple of minutes.
I kept telling Ma it was going to be okay, that help was coming. I had to believe it myself, even though the fear running through my body was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.
I’ve never been in a situation like this in my life, and I never want to be, ever again.
As I sit next to Enzo after he came rushing over to take us to the hospital, I go through in my mind all the scenarios and all the possibilities that could be facing us. I don’t want to, but they are there all the same.
Here I was thinking my biggest problem was getting Enzo onside with our little secret and somehow breaking the news to my family. That suddenly seems so miniscule in the grand scheme of things, even though I know it’s not. But when everything you hold dear suddenly gets turned upside down and is literally standing on its head, you start to revaluate things pretty quickly.
Mom is the backbone of this family; she’s the reason we don’t all kill each other at family dinners, and she keeps us alive with the best food you’ll ever taste. She’s the one who survived so much when she was smuggled over to America illegally in a trafficking ring, that was busted wide open by my father and his men. That’s how they met.
She was strong and fierce, and he fell in love with her. I’m sure my father’s position in the Familia at that time certainly did not call for him to find a peasant girl from Italy who was to be smuggled off somewhere else as a slave.
None of it was supposed to happen, and my mother often recalled to me the story of how my father rescued her and he was her hero. It was love at first sight.
She has survived so much, through having five children and then losing her husband before I was born. I’m not even sure how she survived such a loss. But she never gave up, not ever. My mom is a born fighter, so if there’s anybody who can get through this and come out the other end, it’s her.
The doctor eventually lets us go in two at a time. Marco urges me forward with Angelo while he and the rest of my brothers, Enzo, and Bianca wait outside.
I’m relieved she has been stabilized with medication and from what the doctor said, we got her here in time. I know enough to know that these things can be life-threatening and can result in permanent damage.That’s what scares me the most, despite what he said.
Seeing her lying there with monitors and wires around her constricts at my heart. She looks so small in the bed. I don’t think I’ve seen Angelo look so pale as he stares at her.
“Ma,” he says quietly.
Her eyes move to us, and she smiles when she sees us. She tries to move, but I step forward to her side and place my hand on her arm.
“Don’t try to move, Mama. We’re here now, everything is going to be okay,” I whisper.
She smiles and her eyes flutter closed, as she struggles to stay awake. The medication and the exhaustion from what she’s suffered seem to be taking their toll.
Angelo rounds the bed and stands at her other side. Reaching down to touch her, he takes her hand and reaches down to kiss the top of it.
“Rest, Ma. We’re not going to let anything happen to you,” he whispers.
His eyes flick across to me as I try to holdmyself together. This has been the hardest thing by far that I’ve ever had to do or witness and there doesn’t seem to be a damned thing we can do about it, except let the doctors do their jobs and be here to support her.
She’s always so full of energy and full of life. I don’t know what I’ll do if anything happens to her.
“She’s in the best hands,” Angelo says across the bed to me.
I nod slowly. He’s right; this is the best place for her to be. It’s all just come as such a shock.
We couldn’t have known this was going to happen, but I can’t help but feel a little bit guilty being out with my friends until the wee hours and then Enzo spooning me until dawn.
