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"My father is going to be over the moon. You should call your mother. It will give her something good to think about."
Don Enzo, my wife's father, died of a heart attack a year ago. Giulia spent more time than usual in New York, comforting her mother.
I can still feel the hollowness of his loss. When I spent four years training under Don Enzo in New York, we connected in a way I don't with my own father. Losing him was a blow to all of us.
This baby will bring healing and hope to both of our families.
"I already told her," Giulia says.
Waiting for my father to answer his phone, I nod. My wife's words surprise me, though. Do women tell their mothers before their husbands that they are pregnant?
My father is thrilled by the news. "We'll announce it at the dinner tonight and have a drink to celebrate."
I agree and hang up.
Giulia is looking at me intently. "What did your father say?"
"He wants to announce it at the dinner tonight."
She frowns. "So soon?"
"Why not?"
"I wanted to hold onto it for a little while longer. To keep it just our news before it became all about the next Mancini mafia heir."
"But that is what he, or she, will be." My father has backwards views on women, especially wives, or maybe it's just my mother.
But if I'd had a sister, she would have been trained to help run the business.
Giulia lays her hand on my arm. "Yes, but our baby will beourchild before he, or she, belongs to the family."
It's a sweet sentiment, but not a true one. "You know the mafia comes first."
"Here, more than anywhere else, I think." Her lovely features are cast in sadness.
Is she thinking about her father again?
It's only later, after my wife leaves for her meeting, that I wonder if this was what she wanted to tell me that day she blew up my phone but refused to leave any messages.
Present Day
"Call Giulia," I tell my phone.
She picks up on the second ring.
"Why the hell didn't you text me?" I harshly demand.
Silence greets me. And then, "Hello, to you too, Raff."
My teeth grind. "Don't, Giulia."
"Don't what? Be polite?"
"You should have texted me as soon as you heard about what happened." Hell, she should have called me, but we both know that isn't going to happen.
"Why?"
Did she really just ask me that? "Two women connected to your family were attacked. Why the hell do you think?"
