AWAKENING (3 page)

Ah, women
…women…women…women. They were beautiful temptresses with such power between their legs that staying with one too long
stripped a man of his ability to reason.
Selange,
had done this to his cousin and thank goodness the man finally came to his senses.
Giuseppe
admitted, before th
e
affair
with Nico he’d become ensnared by her charms, as well. Ah, but like Roberto,
her
traitorous act ruled everything else out.

Giuseppe addressed his brother-in-law
after the lengthy silence.
“Roberto has a lot to gain
. If
Alfonzo
is removed, then
his American family can seize control of
our
businesses
.
Alfonzo ensures
they
flouris
h
without impediment.
His connections are invaluable to me and
m
y associates.
”

“Um, true.”

“I believe
his troubles
have
spill
ed
over to our shores.”

Matteo ‘
humphed
’.
“Italy is not America. We are an ingrained part of society and accepted, albeit reluctantly
,
but we’re part of Italy’s culture.”

“Yes, but there are voices being raised against our practices and the cooperation with other countries threatens
us. We do not want to become like America
.”

“That
’s
why brother-in-law,” Matteo said, rising to his feet, “you must clamp down on the f
amilies insisting on receiving protection money from legal
shop owners
and
stop
these
car parkers
from
running rampant.  Our families can operate without the petty taxes.”

“The petty taxes bring in millions for some.”

“Then they need a new source of revenue
. It’s considered
leeching, no?”

Giuseppe’s eyes narrowed, “You sound like Nico.”

“The
n Nico
ma
kes a valid
point,” Matteo said without backing down, “you want the respect of the good citizens Geo, they can be your strongest allies.”

Giuseppe stood, “I will think on it, but first there’s someone I must visit
. Come,
let’s l
eave together. Hopefully, they cleaned the mess out there.”

                                         
***
*

One heavy eyelid opened,
and then
the other followed
at
the sound of
a familiar wailing
.
  Flat on her stomach, face pressed to the pillow, Selange moaned
before
invisible hands
set her upright.
Reluctantly, her eyes widened. T
he taste of sleep
clung to
her tongue
and she made a face.
The persistent cry escalated and she blinked several
more
times
to
chase the sleep away.

Three hellish nights of sleep deprivation had finally
taken its toll. Angelina Olivia Brown was working her patience. The colicky infant refused to cut her slack. It got so
bad;
Selange often bunked in the nursery to avoid trudging through the hall, bumping into walls at odd hours of the night.

Aaaaaaaaaaah
…please Angie…
stop
fussing…I get it…
you’re hungry!

With leaden limbs she stood, sauntered to the crib, lift the
vocal infant into
her arms
then took up residence
in the rocking chair
facing
the window. There she could look out over the property and see the speckles of light in the distance wishing for one night
of rest
without
a child’s siren as
interruption.

Mechani
cally, Selange undid the bodice tie on the night
gown, repositioned the baby in her arms and reclined as the s
mall mouth clamped down
on her
exposed
breast
then
silence came. Honestly, she wanted to cry from fatigue and loneliness.

She watched the dark, wondering whether Alfonzo was sleeping alone. 
Probably not, she
read
the
society
magazines, s
aw
the pretty women on his arm and grew jealous
at
the thought. He moved on. The notion brought a melancholy ache and a futile sigh. Of course, he wipe
d clean
nearly nine years of
marriage
to seek
affection
from
women eager to appease his enormous ego.
For
years
she
’d been a devoted and loyal wife, fighting in the trenches, holding him down with
love’s
weapon
. He
callously threw aside
those times of
unwavering
loyalty
,
as if history didn’t matter. He didn’t weigh the decision fairly or
make a pro con list
, he didn’t care and gave up when she wanted to fight and save what they had.
She
almost
begged to keep him,
would have
cut her heart out for him to see he was the fourth chamber, done anything to reconcile but his response was a swift divorce.
Generous,
by every legal standard and evidence of h
ow anxious he was to be rid of her.
He came by often for the children a
nd she avoided him
. S
he preferred
civility
and avoidance
.

She glanced at the infant’s bald head with
the
soft dark hairs starting to sprout like new grass. Five weeks today is how old the twins were and it’s how long
it’s been
since
she’d
see
n
Nico. He’d come for their birth then traipsed out into the world with a promise, “I’ll call you and visit the babies as soon as I can.”

These were his words
and t
he
lullabies
whispered in her ear at night
.
He did
keep his promise and
call
ed t
hree weeks
later
,
but the conversation ended abruptly.
He was at a distance, put there by circumstance.
She suspected he tried to avoid a scene with Alfonzo
,
but
unbeknownst to Selange
Nico was summoned
on
assignment
which
took him to Bogota
to eliminate a drug lord moving product into Palermo without authorization,
and then
from there he headed
to Russia
to execute
a human smuggler lur
ing
underage girls into prostitution
.
The trafficker
boldly
opened
a brothel in Calabria
, once again,
without permission from the Italian mob lords. The Italians were
territorial;
they wanted to keep their backyard clean of outside filth, so Nico was sent to
sanitize
it by Alberti.

Selange’s mouth twitched when the
tiny
lips went slack and Angie finally slept. She continued rock
ing
, it relaxed her. It also made her feel old. Yes, she’
d aged in such a short time; her joy was her children and the passionate woman she was prior to
the
infidelity, belonged to a shadow called youth.

Spurts of sadness
grabbed her
;
it
appeared without warning.
There were random
bouts of crying which
ceased
when
her lacrimal glands
failed to
secrete
any
more
fluid
. She
visited the
doctor
about it
and he
suggested she may have
the ‘baby blues’
,
but
if the symptoms persist
ed then he’d order
hormon
al tests and address the possibility of
post-partum depression
.
Anti-depressants were the
recommended
course of treatment i
f
this
was the
case
.
Selange found it amusing. Doctors were funny, they believed medication cure
d
everything.
S
he
scoffed;
t
here were no pills to fix a broken heart. If there were she’d binge on them.
Occasionally,
the
four children
were
overwhelming,
yet she
’d adjusted because she
loved motherhood
. She’d have a baseball team if she could and surround herself with the innocent laughter of children. Being an only child, she’d always longed for siblings. Alfonzo was also an only child and
they planned to have a large family. Six to eight kids they jokingly agreed during passionate love-making. Funny, how things work out, isn’t it? She got one of her wishes and lost her dream.
Sure, she felt
worn down from a fussy infant
,
but it’s loneliness that wore her down most.
Alfonzo was supposed to be
here. They were meant to have a future together and now they traveled on different paths.

She
went on with life,
but dammit who wouldn’t be sad
if
they
were in her shoes?
The h
ormonal swings
,
a divorce
she didn’t want, birthdays, anniversaries and holidays
contributed to
the
gloom.
Okay, she
understood how horrible her actions were. She hurt a lot of people and disappointed
many.
Her intention wasn’t to
injure
anyone
or get Vincent
killed.
It’s just that she needed Nico then, for whatever inexplicable reason, she wanted him like a crackhead needs a fix.
Nico felt like a
n addiction, some kind of
temporary insanity. It gripped her and wouldn’t let go. He warned her of the consequences, he told her
and she didn’t heed his advice. God, she wanted him so much she didn’t care –but
later,
after
sift
ing
through the a
shes
and
seeing the
devastation, she realized
s
he
torched
her en
tire home.
It was
surreal. Almost like she’d
spent
that time
in
a
deep
slumber,
and then
suddenly awakened.
T
he affair was over, her marriage ended and remorse
was
what remained. S
he begged Alfonzo’s
forgiveness
, swore she’d do anything for him to come home
.
Seriously, h
ow pitiful is that? His response
to her infidelity
was
swift and
merciless.
Couples survived these things and worse
. He could’ve agreed to counseling at least, it would’ve helped her transition, softened the split but he acted in haste. In her heart she believed they may have salvaged their marriage because they were Alfonzo and Selange,
a
dynamic
team
!