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Marie Gabrini sat at the kitchen’s center island bouncing little Tee-Tee on her lap when her half-brother walked in. “Where’s Ma?”

“Still soaking in the tub. And you know what that means,” he added as he lifted his eyebrows as if he was Groucho Marx, and smiled.

Marie looked at him as he plopped down on the stool next to her. “No I don’t know what that means, Lucky. Why don’t you enlighten me.”

“Well if you don’t know,” he said with a grin in his voice, “I can’t enlighten you.”

Marie gave her brother a disgusted look. “Are all teenage boys perverts, or is it just you?”

“I’m a man okay? I can’t help it. Men know these things.”

“Perverts know these things. Daddy told me how you used to hang outside of their bedroom door when you was just a baby trying to catch them engaging with each other. You were a pervert even then.”

Lucky laughed. “ Engaging with each other ? Is that what we’re calling it in your world?

Come on, Marie. Why you acting so matronly with me?

All those boyfriends you got. We both know Daddy put a hurting on Mommy last night and that’s why she’s soaking in that tub this morning like she always does when Daddy put a hurting on her.

This is not my first rodeo with those two.

I’ve had to listen to them going at it all my life.

And I’m telling you Daddy is no gentleman in the bedroom. ”

“And how the fuck would you know that?”

Lucky nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard his father’s booming voice. He turned around to see Sal, in his bathrobe, walking into the kitchen. “I was just playing around, Daddy,” he said nervously, his face turning red.

“No he wasn’t,” said Marie. “He was telling on you and Ma.”

“I know his ass was,” Sal said as he shoved Lucky out of his seat. “Get me some coffee. Talking about your mother like that, what’s wrong with you? If I ever hear you saying shit like that again I’ll knock you through that wall, Lucci.”

“I was just . . . Yes, sir,” Lucky said instead, embarrassed, as Sal gave him that look that chilled him. And he hurried behind the island to make his father a cup of coffee.

“Da-Da.”

Sal smiled when he heard his little girl’s voice. “Hey baby,” he said and squeezed her cheeks, causing her to laugh. “There’s my baby.”

And that was when his mother walked in. She was in a bathrobe too.

“Good morning,” she said as she picked up Tee-Tee, kissed her, and then handed her back to Marie.

She still felt sluggish as she made her way behind the island to the coffee cup.

“Move boy,” she said to Lucky, moving him with her hip, and he gladly relinquished his role.

But he grabbed the cup of coffee he had just made for his father and handed it to him.

“You look refreshed this morning, Ma, and tired at the same time,” Marie said. “How did you sleep?”

“After the day I had yesterday? I slept like a baby. Well. Mostly,” she added as she and Sal exchanged a glance.

Lucky grinned and whispered in Marie’s ear. “Told you so,” he said too low for their parents to hear him. He sat down on the other side of Marie and Tee, putting his sisters between him and his old man. Sal’s phone beeped and he immediately pulled out to check all of his text messages.

Gemma, who still had the bonnet on her always perfectly done short, stylish haircut, yawned.

“You have court today?” Marie asked her.

“No. Thank God. I would have been ill-prepared for any court proceedings. But I do have to work on my client’s appeal. He got convicted yesterday.”

“Yeah I heard it on the news last night. Sorry. I know you wanted a different outcome.”

“He wanted a different outcome for sure. I’ll probably go visit him in the county jail before they ship him off to prison. What about you? What do you have going on today?”

“Just work,” said Marie. “Jimmy hired me as his assistant, and I know that’s a big deal in a massive company like that, but I want to move on up. I talked to Uncle Tommy about it.”

Sal frowned. “Why didn’t you go talk to Jimmy?

Do you realize how powerful he is in that organization?

You don’t go bothering Tommy about something like that.

You’re the assistant going to the CEO and Founder of the company.

What kind of privileged crap is that, Marie?

And you should be grateful you even have a job in a placed like that.

Do you realize Uncle Mick made his children work as assistants in his organization before they moved on up? ”

“The twins work for Uncle Mick?”

“I’m not talking about the twins. I’m talking about Gloria, and even Joey before he died. Jimmy will promote you if you’re doing a good job. He’s the one to talk to, not my brother.”

“But I talked to Jimmy about it three times already, Daddy. Three times.”

Gemma looked at her daughter. She was young and restless. She wanted to go fast, but she still didn’t know where she was going. “What did he say?” Gemma asked her.

“What he always says. Once I show him what he needs to see then he’ll be happy to promote me.”

“That sounds reasonable,” said Sal.

“That sounds like Jimmy,” said Lucky. “He’s getting more and more like Uncle Reno every single day. He don’t play.”

“What did Tommy say?” Gemma asked her.

Marie shook her head. “He asked me what did Jimmy say. I told him. He said what Jimmy says goes. But I don’t know, Ma. It’s like I’m going from job to job to job.”

“That’s because you are,” said Lucky.

But Marie ignored him. She was still looking at their mother. “Maybe I should just go back and work for you.”

“You could do that,” said Gemma. She co-owned a chain of clothing boutiques along with Reno’s wife Trina.

“Will you move up the ranks faster with me? Probably. But being an executive in my company and being an executive in Tommy’s Fortune 500 mega-corporation is night and day. We’re small potatoes compared to him.”

“So you’re saying I should keep working for Jimmy?”

“If you’ve got any sense at all you would,” said Sal. “And since you came from stock like Gemma, I know for a fact you got plenty sense.”

Marie laughed. “Yes sir.”

“But your ass need to settle down. Stop playing the field and get out there and find yourself a husband. Jimmy’s doing the same thing. Y’all both want a taste of everybody.”

“Ooh gross, Daddy,” Marie said disgustedly and Lucky laughed.

“You and Jimmy are so much alike it’s eerie,” Sal added.

Gemma’s phone could be heard beeping.

“I am so not like my cousin Jimmy, Daddy, and you know that,” Marie said as Gemma pulled her phone out of her bathrobe pocket. “He’s so rigid now.”

“That’s what all that responsibility will do for you,” said Sal. “He’s Tommy’s number two. That’s a burden.”

While Gemma was reading the text message, her look was intense. And then her phone beeped again with another text message. And then another one. And another one.

Sal frowned. “Who’s blowing up your phone like that this time of morning?”

But Gemma was reading all of the texts as they came in. She was hyper-focused on every single one.

“ He tells you he’s faithful, but he’s not .”

“ So many different women .”

“ A woman in every town .”

“ Chicago.Jersey City.L.A .”

I should know, because I’m one of them .”

“ He doesn’t love you. He doesn’t even like you .”

“ He’s my man. You’re just a placeholder .”

“ That kind of dick is too much for one woman to handle .”

Sal, now worried because of that look on Gemma’s face, got up and went behind the island too. “Give it to me,” he said as he was taking it from her.

And he began to read those texts. “What the fuck ?” he said with intensity in his voice.

“What is it, Daddy?” Marie asked. She and Lucky were staring at their parents.

But Sal was too busy reading the texts too, and they were still coming in. Then he looked at Gemma. “Gem, it’s all lies.”

When Marie and Lucky heard that excuse, they glanced at each other with that not again look on their faces. Marie even shook her head.

And Gemma, feeling the way they were looking, left the kitchen.

“Daddy, what were those texts about?”

“None of your damn business,” Sal said, taking his anger out on Lucky, as he hurried behind Gemma. “Gem wait!”

“What did I do?” Lucky asked his big sister.

“Absolutely nothing,” Marie said. “This is definitely not about anything you did. Trust and believe.”

Lucky nodded. “And I was just about to say how glad I was that they weren’t fighting anymore.”

Marie smiled, and then she laughed.

But in the living room, where Sal stopped Gemma’s progression and turned her around to face him, it was no laughing matter. “Gem, listen to me.”

“I’m not saying I believe those texts. I’m just saying I’m tired of going through this, Sal. I’m tired of it!”

Sal held her by both of her arms. “It’s all lies, Gemmi.”

“But who would send me texts like that? Who’s sending them? We can’t blame it on Alice.”

“I know that.”

“Then who is it?”

“How should I know? Some psycho bitch somewhere. I’ll have Forensics scrub it for clues, but that’s all I can do. Maybe they can tell us something.”

“They get more and more graphic about what you were doing to her and all the others too.”

“There are no others. And I don’t know who the hell she is either.”

More texts kept coming in. Sal quickly turned the phone off. “Dammit!” he said angrily.

Gemma, feeling drained, sat down on the sofa. “We can’t go on like this, Sal. We just can’t.”

“But it’s not my fault. What do you want me to do about it? I don’t know anybody that would pull some shit like that.”

“I need a break, Sal.”

Sal’s heart sank. “A break? What do you mean a break? A break from me?”

“A break from your lifestyle. From all of this drama. We just got out of a bad situation about you and these women. Now we’re right back in another one?”

“There are no women, Gemmi. I’m telling you there are no women!”

Gemma looked him dead in his eyes. “I need a break.”