p; My grandfather was Italian, grandmother was from Iceland, and that’s where they retired. I visited them in Akureyri for a few weeks every summer until I was in my late teens and that’s where I got a glimpse of a normal family life. My ma came from a big family and most of my Icelandic cousins came from stable homes with married parents. My grandparents were married 50 years, my grandmother died peacefully in her sleep and then my grandfather died in his sleep three days later because he just couldn’t live without her. I wanted that kind of love.
I wanted a woman who was spirited, beautiful, who loved to fuck, and who wanted a family as a means of getting more out of life, not out of settling. I wanted a woman who had substance. I didn’t want the Barbie dolls my Pop had around, didn’t want a shell of a woman like my Ma was turned into out of the fear she lived with because of my father. I wanted someone real, spunky, loving, interesting. After Deb fucked me over I closed my heart off. I didn’t see anyone around me who seemed real enough for me to let them in. Maybe I just never gave anyone else a chance.
Pop died after alienating his family. After he died I was taking stock. I’d been doing it a while beforehand, really, watching my brother fall in love and seeing what he was getting. A girl with fight in her, a girl who was awesome with my sisters and our nieces and nephews. And I wanted it all. I wanted success in my work life and I wanted a family. I also didn’t wanna worry about people kidnapping or shooting at my family. I didn’t want my wife and kids to face the risks we’d all faced due to my father’s choices, especially seeing what it did to Contessa who’d been widowed and left with two boys to raise on her own. I was spending time with my nephews, trying to be a male figure for them. So was Eddy, my brother-in-law, but those boys would grow up without their father. Jimmy was a good fuckin’ guy and didn’t deserve to have his life cut short at 26 years old.
And what all the drama had put my brother and Tia through? It was enough to make me do my damnedest to avoid the same thing.
Tia made him better. I wanted a woman who’d make me wanna be better, too. I didn’t know if I’d ever get back to resembling who I was before Deb cheated but after I got back from Tommy’s wedding I decided on a new era. I was gonna clean up my life.
New motto: man whore no more.
From then on I wasn’t gonna waste my time with women who weren’t likeminded. I’d try to thaw my heart but would probably have to settle because if she was wild like Deb she probably wouldn’t want the picket fence. I wanted both but it wasn’t likely so I’d pick picket fences and sensible bikini briefs over the garter belts and thongs if it came right down to it. It’d suck to settle but I’d already had the wild girl and that hadn’t worked out so if I had to settle, I had to.
Not long after we were back from Costa Rica I turned 25. We had a small family dinner with my sisters, my brother-in-law Eddy, my Pop’s widow Lisa, and my nieces and nephews. But the next day I found out what Pop had gotten me for my birthday. He’d arranged it before he died.
I found out that Pop had procured a wife for me. She was almost 23, was a redhead like I’d jokingly requested in memory of my science lab partner who maybe would’ve had a better outcome for me than Deb. This girl was American, and she’d been in captivity for 2 years, trained to be the perfect slave. Part of the deal was that if I wanted, she’d be put in a 30 to 60 day program to take her from slave material to wife material, some value-added transition service the resort that had offered for those who wanted their “possessions” to function flawlessly outside of the bedroom. I got the news via an associate of Pop’s, a lawyer I hadn’t met more than three or four times.
“Dario?” he asked when I answered my secure cell line. It was 6:30 in the fuckin’ morning.
“That’s me. Whoever this is, it’s 6:30 in the fuckin’ morning so this better be good.”
“Stan, Tom’s lawyer in Thailand. I’m at the airport, on my way to you. I need a meet. I’m arriving tomorrow night, your time. Where can we meet?”
“We can’t discuss whatever this is about on the phone when you get here?”
“Absolutely not.”
“It can’t wait until day after tomorrow?”
“If need be but I’d prefer to speak to you sooner if possible.”
“You headin’ here for any other reason?”
“No.”
“Email your flight details to my receptionist. We’ll pick you up.” I gave him the email address.
I had no clue what this was about. Stan and my Pop had a friendship that went back decades. I had shit to do, I was busy, but this sounded like something that needed my attention. Yet another axe about to fall, I could just feel it. But I had no idea how big that axe was until Stan arrived and spilled the beans about my birthday gift.
** ** **
At 9:30 the next night, Dex, a buddy and someone who worked for us doing security and other errands, brought Stan to my place. My place was a condo downtown, just a five minute walk from the Ferrano Enterprises office.
I told him to wait out front and to drive Stan back to his hotel afterwards. I poured Stan a drink and invited him to sit.
“I’m a busy man. I know you are as well. You spent almost a whole day on a plane to come here unannounced for something clearly pretty important. Lay it on me.”
“Your apartment, when was the last time it was swept?”
He was talking about surveillance devices.
“It’s clean,” I told him.
“Guaranteed?” he prodded.
I raised a brow at him, “You don’t know me real well, Stan, but if I say it’s clean, it’s clean. I do not talk out of my ass.”
“Apologies. There are a few matters we need to discuss about business ventures of Tom’s overseas that he had me help him with. I’ll need some direction in a few areas from you and your brother. On top of that and most pressing, your father, rest his soul, my sincere condolences, he bought something for you before he died and paid me handsomely to arrange it. He said it was a birthday gift. Happy belated. The gift is something less than above board so I need to be cautious. Very cautious.”