ARIA
Luca was bound to the Famiglia in a way that I would never be. I was loyal to Luca, but he had to understand that loyalty wasn’t the same as unquestioning obedience. Luca, Romero and Matteo were still busy in New York, and in the afternoon the meeting of the Famiglia would go down. That would keep everyone busy.
I had four guards to avoid. Three of them were in different spots in the garden, only one of them in the mansion with us. I got up at three in the morning, got dressed, packed my bag and slipped out of my room. Gianna and Lily were waiting for me in the dark corridor. “Ready?” I whispered.
Gianna made a noncommittal noise.
“Yes,” Lily whispered. “I will pretend to have a nightmare and scream as loud as I can and when the guards come running, Gianna will barge in and act like a bitch and tell them to be silent because you aren’t feeling well.”
I knew we’d only get rid of two guards that way. One guard would remain near the water because that was the most vulnerable spot on the premises, since there were no gates to overcome. I could only hope that the others would be distracted enough for me to slip out. I had all the necessary safety codes because Luca trusted me.
I hugged my sisters before I moved through the house. One guard always sat in the open living area. I crouched down and waited for Lily’s scream. When it came, the first guard came running out of the living room and up the stairs as expected, and I used the moment to rush downstairs and slip into the east wing. Lily’s screams died away when I entered the code into the lock at our back door and slipped out. I put on my wool cap and ran down the lawn, near the bushes toward the gates. The guard was gone from his spot. The gates were high, topped with barbwire and humming with electricity. It was the least likely spot for intruders to attack so the guards abandoned it first. Smiling, I keyed the second code into the system. The gate blinked once, and I slipped out then reactivated the lock.
These gates were supposed to keep people out, not lock us in. Yet, I’d have to ask Luca to up the protection around the perimeter once I was back in New York. Not wasting any time, I ran down the winding road until I reached the corner where I’d ordered the Uber driver to pick me up. When I spotted the car’s spotlights, I could have laughed with relief. Gianna and Lily would handle the rest. The guards wouldn’t check on me in my room unless prompted, and Luca had no reason to suspect anything, nor had anyone else. They trusted me.
I pushed my guilt aside.
The airplane was barely up in the air when nausea gripped me. I’d never reacted to flying that way. I quickly unbuckled my seat belt and rushed toward the bathroom. Throwing up in a narrow airplane toilet ranked high on my never-to-do list, but I couldn’t keep my food inside. The moment I bent over the grayish-blue toilet my stomach ejected my breakfast. I quickly flushed and washed my hands and face.
I still felt wrong, and slowly a horrible realization crept up on me. I was still overdue for my period. Fabi’s call had distracted me, but now it all came back. The missed pills, my nausea. I was almost two weeks overdue.
I sagged against the wall, trying to remember when that had happened last. In the first few years of me getting my period they had been very erratic, but since I’d started taking the pill shortly before my marriage to Luca that had changed. Two to three days, that still happened sometimes…but almost two weeks?
Things had been so stressful in the last few months because of Lily and Romero. How often had I forgotten to take the pill? I wasn’t sure. I hadn’t counted. I should have counted after my call with Fabi.
A few times definitely, but I had been too busy worrying about my sister, about Luca, my marriage and everything else to pay it much attention.
Perhaps I was drawing the wrong conclusions. It could be that I was coming down with the flu, or that my stomach was reacting to the stress.
Yes, that was it.
With a shaking hand, I slid open the door and returned to my seat. The stewardess sent me a concerned look, but I gave her a quick smile to show I was all right. I didn’t want them to make an emergency landing because they thought I was seriously sick.
Back in my seat, I was overcome with worry. I couldn’t stop wondering. What if I was pregnant? The last time Luca and I had discussed the matter he had been very adamant about not wanting children in the near future. Things were too dangerous to bring a baby into this world. But when would that ever change, especially now that Dante had declared war on us? This war was ridiculous.
It didn’t make sense to work myself up over nothing. Nausea didn’t mean I was pregnant. Once I returned to New York, I could take a pregnancy test and then I’d know more. Until then I needed to focus on the task at hand. I had to get in contact with Val, talk her into arranging a meeting with Fabiano and try to convince him to come with me to New York. The last thing I wouldn’t mention to Val, though.
It was strange to be back in Chicago. The city I’d grown up in felt no longer like my home, and not because there was war between the Famiglia and the Outfit. I wasn’t the same person I’d been more than four years ago when I’d left for New York.
Yet, despite the war, the city didn’t feel any different than it had during any other visit. Everything was peaceful. People were looking forward to the Christmas holidays.
My hair was hidden beneath my wig and a scarf was wrapped around the lower half of my face. Luckily the Chicago winter warranted that kind of outfit, so I wouldn’t catch attention. Even my thick wool coat didn’t keep the cold from biting at my skin.
I walked the streets freely, as I hadn’t in a long time. It was exhilarating to be this free. I’d gotten used to the golden cage that was my life. I loved Luca. I couldn’t live without him, but sometimes I wished I had more freedoms. I knew there were limits to what he could allow me. He had helped me go to college for a while, something very few men in his position had done, but ultimately he and I would always be limited by the rules of mob life.
This was the first time in forever that I didn’t have a bodyguard trailing after me. I watched the passersby, wondering how they spent their days, how it felt to be free of the confines of the mafia I’d never been truly free, nor had my sisters, not even Gianna when she was on the run because it had always been that: running.
I’d never resented mob life as much as Gianna did, but sometimes I longed for moments of freedom. College had given me a taste, but it would always only be that—a short taste. I would never leave my world, not because Luca wouldn’t allow it, though that was true as well, but because it was the only place I truly belonged. It was the world I knew.
I hoped Val hadn’t changed her routine since the last time we talked on the phone. I had timed my entire plan around it.
I waited across from the restaurant where she met with Bibiana for brunch every Wednesday, cradling a coffee-to-go cup in my gloved hands in an attempt to stay warm despite the freezing temperatures. Relief washed over me when a black Mercedes limousine with tinted windows finally pulled up in front of the restaurant and Val got out, as tall and regal as always, her baby bump straining against her coat. She must have been in her ninth month. Would I look like that in eight months? I pushed the thought aside. This wasn’t the time for daydreaming.
Val wasn’t alone. She held the hand of a little girl, her three-year-old daughter, Anna. I couldn’t help but smile, but it died when I realized that I wouldn’t see her grow up despite being her godmother. Two bodyguards followed them into the restaurant. I knew their faces but not their names.
Checking the street for traffic, I quickly crossed over to the other side and headed inside the bistro-like restaurant. I didn’t have a reservation but I hoped they’d be able to squeeze me in. I approached the waiter, taking my wool cap off and hoping my wig would hide my identity, but I had to lower my scarf. I kept my back to the seating area. I knew Val’s bodyguards would be watching me, because I had entered after them.
“For two?” the waiter asked, a good-looking man in his late twenties.
“Just me,” I said then took off my coat, revealing a pair of dark denim jeans and a white blouse, so Val’s bodyguards would see I was a small female nobody without weapons and mark me down as unimportant.
The waiter smiled. “Don’t tell me you don’t have someone who would take you out for brunch? A pretty lady like you shouldn’t have to eat alone.”
I blinked, taking a moment to realize he was flirting with me. In New York nobody ever did. Most people knew my face and even though officially Luca was just a businessman with a dubious background, everyone knew what he really was. Not to mention that I was never anywhere without bodyguards.
“There’s no one,” I said, realizing how long it had been since Luca and I had gone out for dinner. My heart tightened with regret. When I returned, I’d ask him to make a reservation at the Korean restaurant he’d taken me to for our very first date.
“Follow me. I have a table for you.”
I risked a peek over my shoulder, but as I’d expected the bodyguards weren’t paying me any attention anymore. They kept their eyes on Val and her daughter, only occasionally glancing toward a table with men in suits to their right. Made Men always regarded only men as a danger.
I took the seat the waiter offered me and smoothed down my wig, worried it might have shifted because of the wool hat I’d worn outside, but everything seemed to be in place. After I ordered a peppermint tea to soothe my stomach and an omelet with avocado and toast, I pretended to be busy checking my mobile while I risked the occasional glance toward Val. Bibiana joined her about five minutes after I’d sat down with her own daughter. I still marveled at how healthy she looked since her husband had been killed.
The waiter brought me my tea and my food, but kept returning to ask how I was, and flirt more. It was a bit annoying since I had to focus on Val. I needed to gauge the perfect moment. I barely touched my food. I’d always loved avocado, but a small bite had increased my nausea, and only a large gulp of tea had stopped me from making a run for the restrooms.
Val and Bibiana were laughing about something, not paying attention to Anna for a moment, and then it came. Anna spilled a drink all over herself and began crying. I got up quickly and moved into the ladies’ room. Once there I hid in a stall, waiting. My heart pounded in my chest as I listened to the sound of the door being opened and a moment later, steps. Heels.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Val crooned. I smiled at the love in her voice. Soon the crying of her daughter quieted. I flushed the toilet and Val fell silent. When I stepped out of the stall, she looked up from dabbing at her daughter’s dress with a napkin. It took a second glance at my face to recognize me. Her eyes widened, and darted briefly to the stalls behind me, expecting that I wasn’t alone. Did she think this was a trap?
Good God. I was her cousin.
“Hi Val,” I said with a smile.
Slowly she relaxed and smiled in return, but then her brows drew together. “What are you doing here?”
Anna’s forehead puckered in confusion. She was all Val. Brown hair, same facial features, except for Dante’s pale blue eyes. How would Luca’s and my child look? I touched my stomach, wondering, and realizing I would be happy if I found out I was pregnant.
Val followed my hand and I quickly snatched it away. She let go of her daughter and came toward me and pulled me into a hug, but her belly made it difficult. When she pulled back, her eyes were warm. “It’s good to see you again, but you shouldn’t be here. It’s too dangerous.”
“Aunt Aria?” Anna said in her high voice, finally recognizing me despite my wig.
Val turned quickly and put a finger against her lips. “Shh, Anna. Nobody can know Aria is here, okay? She’s playing hide and seek, and we don’t want her to get caught, right?”
“Right,” Anna said with a quick nod as she came toward me. I got down to her eye level and hugged her. “You are getting bigger every day.”
“I’ll be a big sister soon,” she said proudly.
“I know. I’m sure you’ll be a great big sister.” She nodded with even more enthusiasm.
A knock sounded and a deep male voice followed. “Mrs. Cavallaro, everything okay in there?”
“Yes, give me another moment, Enzo. I needed to take off my sweater to clean it. Anna got it dirty as well.”
I grinned, knowing what she’d done. Her bodyguard wouldn’t enter if there was the risk of seeing Dante’s wife half-naked.
When Val turned back to face me, I sobered. “I came to see Fabiano, Val. That’s the only reason why I’m here.”
She gave me an apologetic look. “We don’t have much time until Enzo will get suspicious.”
“I know. How about we meet this evening?”
“It will be difficult to shake off my bodyguards. Since I’m pregnant again, and since war’s been declared, Dante is more cautious.” After a moment, she gave me a resolute look. “But I’m sure I can up with something.”
I nodded. “Can you arrange for Fabi to be there as well?”
Enzo knocked again. “Mrs. Cavalarro?”
Val rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’ll be out in a moment!” She paused. “Aria, I’m not sure I can bring him, but I will see what I can do. Let’s say five p.m. in the Santa Fe?” Val splashed water on her blouse.
“I will be there.”
I gave her and Anna another hug before I slipped back into the stall, and a moment later I heard Val and Anna leave the room. I waited a few minutes until another customer came in before I left the restrooms and returned to my table. Val was talking to Bibiana as if nothing had happened. She had become a good actress in her marriage, but so had I. I paid and left the restaurant before Val’s bodyguards recognized me after all. Chicago’s cold gripped me as I walked the streets. I knew where I wanted to go, to my old home, to see if Fabiano was there, but that was a risk I couldn’t take. If Father recognized me, he’d hand me over without a second thought.
I’d have to find a café where I could wait until my meeting with Val later, but first I’d buy a knife just to be safe.
