I had a feeling where this was going and could already feel my hackles rise, but it was worse, much worse. I listened as she recalled the story of what happened that fateful night. How this Felice had befriended Ma, how she’d tricked her that night into thinking they were going someplace else before luring her into the Ricci mansion where a party was being held.
“Felice was besotted with Alonzo back then; she even went on to marry him after this. Anyway, that night she was the one who brought Sofia to Alonzo. They were all waiting, Alonzo, Luna, Antonio, Carlo, Bruno, Michele, Teresa´, and myself.”
“What about the brother? Martin.”
“Oh, he was away at university then. He never hung around with us; he wasn’t much like his brother. He was more of an academic than the rest of us and spent most of his time away at school or traveling to some out-of-the-way place to do research; he’s an anthropologist now.”
“As I said, we were all waiting when Felice came back with Sofia. Are you sure you want me to go on?” I was clenching my teeth so hard I could only nod.
“As soon as Sofia entered the room and saw us standing there, she tried to leave, but Felice and Michele dragged her into the room. They were all laughing… she was screaming to be let go. Her eyes… such terror.”
She shivered as if reliving it while I cautioned myself not to wrap my hands around her neck and squeeze. She was just a kid herself, maybe the twins’ age, I’m guessing from her youthfulness now. She couldn’t be much younger than Ma, but she was younger.
I listened through the ringing in my ears as she told the story of my mother’s rape, how my mother was held down and violated, how the others cheered, how my poor mother had dragged herself across the room, bleeding after the attack. I wanted to kill her, to lash out, and I did.
“And you just stood there. No cry for help. You unconscionable…”
“There was nothing I could do. Don’t you think I’ve wished a thousand times that I’d done something? There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t wish I had done something, anything except covering my ears and eyes and pretending like it never happened.”
“There wasn’t anything I could do. I was just a young girl myself. That night has traumatized me my whole life since then. I’ve never been able to sleep without seeing it. I still hear her screams in my head; that’s why I’m here, to make penance. All I could do… in the end, all I could do for her was get her father out of danger when he came back days later looking for revenge. He was so badly hurt….”
Wait, what? “You know where my grandfather is?” My heart raced and knocked against my chest as that ringing slowly began to clear.
“Yes!”
GABRIEL
“Tell me!” If I were sitting down, I’d be at the edge of my seat. The fact that I’d imagined just this scenario wasn’t lost on me. From the time I found out that she’d disappeared and when I’d tried to triangulate between her disappearance and his, but having nothing to go on, I could only speculate and surmise.
Now I did sit down on the bench as my whole body felt like it was on fire, and I was in danger of passing out any second as the blood rushed from my head. “It was just a few days after the incident. I’m not sure why I kept going around them. I didn’t want to be ostracized, I guess, didn’t want them turning their hatred against me. I’m sorry I wasn’t a better person back then.”
“They all moved on as if nothing happened, even joked about it amongst themselves in the following days. There were whispers around the village, so we knew word had gotten out somehow. Then one night, your grandfather Mr. Antonelli showed up at the place where we were all hanging out. It was bad. He tried confronting Alonzo, but they all ganged up on him.”
“He was taken to a place in the woods where we hung out sometimes, and they beat him unmercifully. I guess he wasn’t expecting it, wasn’t prepared. Had it been Alonzo alone, he would’ve succeeded, but with all the others joining in, he was no match for them. Not even with a pistol.”
“Who was there?”
“The same people that were there the night of the party, they always hung out together and were very rarely apart back then. It was almost impossible to find one without the other.” She seemed to get lost in thought for a second.
“Go on!”
“Once again, I stood around. I didn’t take part, but somehow I was able to convince them that he’d had enough when he was no longer moving.”