“I will make some calls while you are soaking in the tub. When you get out, I will have answers for you.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s my pleasure, Layla. Now, go bathe before your water gets cold.” With that, he left the room, closing the door behind him.
Getting up from the bed, I let the bedsheet fall to the ground as I walked naked to the bathroom. Like he said, there was a giant bathtub filled with water inviting me to join it.
Stepping into the hot tub, I sighed as I sank down into its warm depths. I’d always loved taking baths, but when sharing an apartment with Kitty and my brother, it was faster and more economical to take a quick shower.
I shouldn’t have thought of that because my eyes started to water the second that thought entered my head. I wasn’t good at grieving. I never knew what to do. When my mother died, I watched everyone as they went about stoically saying nothing, or like my Aunt Roxy, who cried into Uncle Moonshines arms. My mother’s death devastated my uncle. His only sister was gone, and though I always thought of him as some big hulking strong man, even he cried.
In a way, my mother’s death helped me endure the last couple of years. I watched as death came over and overtook many people from this world during that time. After a while, it didn’t affect me, and I started treating it like something that happened regularly. But hearing about Kitty death, well that hit too close to home.
Kitty was more than my sister-in-law, my roommate, my best friend. She was the sister I always wanted. From the beginning, we just clicked. Like peas and carrots, we agreed on everything. There wasn’t a single thing we fought about. Even when she learned she was pregnant. I knew she would have a girl, and she smiled brightly when I suggested the name Hailey.
I wondered about my niece. The one family member I had yet to meet. I knew she was in the care of Kitty's mother, but nothing else. Now my niece would have to grow up in a world without her mother, and she would never know what her mother did to ensure that she lived a happy, safe life.
I worried about my brother Dylan. Did he know his wife was dead? All I knew was that he was in a coma. I didn’t know what happened or caused him to be in that state. Only that he was in one.
Dylan never did anything without consulting Kitty. I knew the second he laid eyes on her that he was hopelessly in love. From that moment forward, everything he did he did with the thought of what Kitty would like. Now he was going to have to go through life without her. I wondered if he could, but I already knew the answer deep down.
I wanted so much to turn back time and change the event that led Kitty and me down this path. Knowing what I know now, I would change everything. I would just walk away and try to live my life the best I could. Instead, I allowed my thirst to meet my biological father to thrust me into a world I wasn’t prepared for. I thought I was, but I was sorely wrong.
Now I had to live with the aftermath and keep moving forward because the war Kitty and I created was just getting started, and now that all the players were involved, it was up to me to see everyone through it. I didn’t know how I was going to do that, but I would figure it out, and when I did, I would make sure that what was left of my family came out victorious.
“Your lunch is here,” Gio said, popping his head around the corner. I nodded, standing to my feet. I watched as Giovanni walked forward carrying a plush white towel, and when he wrapped it around me and lifted me out of the tub, I said nothing.
What was there to say.
I was still warring with my actions from last night. I knew we needed to talk about what happened, but he took all the blame when I tried earlier. That and he kept calling memia Amore, my love.
I shocked him when I responded to him in his native language, yet he continued to talk Italian. I didn’t mind if I was being truthful. It was a beautiful language.
Giovanni Valentinetti was a very closed-off man. He rarely got angry and preferred to talk at length about anything that mattered to him. He wasn’t expressive in the least, holding his true self apart from everyone else. Not many people knew who the real man was, only what he allowed them to see. I wondered if his family knew who he truly was?
Sitting me down on my feet before a small table that wasn’t there moments ago, he walked over to the bed and retrieved a white silk robe, and helped me into it. Pulling out one of the chairs, I sat as he pushed the chair forward and then sat opposite me.
“You will be happy to know that your brother has come through surgery well. His heart transplant went as it should. His doctor has decided to keep your brother in a coma for the time being to give his body time to heal. I have spoken directly with Dylan’s doctor and the head nurse who is looking after them. They will call with updates when they have them.”
“Thank you. Why did he need a heart transplant?”
“He was shot by Caroline Doherty. From my understanding, your brother and Caroline both discharged their weapons simultaneously. Caroline thankfully received a bullet to the head while your brother was shot directly in his chest. I had only just arrived when we all heard the shot. My brother Lorenzo was with us and managed to keep Dylan alive until we reached the hospital. It was touch and go for a while.”
I nodded, saying nothing more when I realized something. Looking up at Gio, I asked, “He was in Louisiana, correct?”
“Yes. About forty minutes north of Baton Rouge.”
“Kitty was there too.”
Gio looked away and whispered, “Yes, she was.”
“But she died.”
He nodded, and when he didn’t say anything more, I gasped. “Please tell me Reaper didn’t.”
Gio looked back at me and whispered, “I can’t do that.”
Jumping to my feet, I shouted, “That son of a bitch! He did not put her heart in my brother’s body! He couldn’t have been that fucking stupid!”