Page 29

Valencia

I shook my head and said, “I cannot change what happened in the past. And that’s exactly what I told Julie.

She doesn’t have to pay for what happened.

We make ourselves what we are. She has made herself a successful attorney and now she will go on to marry…

” I laughed. “Her Romeo. She doesn’t need to have all that ruined and sidetracked because of what our mother did all those years ago.

” I shook my head. “Also, that's why I will never excuse the things I did when I was so full of vengeance. I admit they were wrong and I was in the wrong. I’m not going to lay it off on what my mother did. I will keep trying to make amends and be a better person.”

“Well, you will never hear our uncle saying anything like that.” Tito chuckled. “The man is not sorry or remorseful for any of the things he has done.”

“Yeah, and hence the dark part of the legend.” Rocky shook his head. “Like he knew what it would take when he joined the mafia, right? Mama says he’s different now. After Aunt Bella passed away, he joined the mob and became obsessed with what she called the Thug Life.”

“Thug Life?” Tito scoffed. “Where does she get this shit?”

“Youtube?” Rocky suggested.

We all laughed.

Rocky went on, “I mean I only saw him kill three times, but I could see it never phased him.” He glanced at Tito and then gave me a nod.

“Your man and I both had to take a few days off after we had to…we had a shootout a few years back and we killed a few guys. I suppose we weren’t prepared for how it would make us feel. ”

Tito nodded. “Then it happened to be Uncle Stephano that cleared it up for us.”

“Yeah, who woulda thought that?” Rocky nodded.

I felt curious as we all went back into the house, so I asked Tito, “What did he say?”

“He told us that those men chose to kill that day. When they did that they chose death. His actual words were… You boys did your jobs, which is to protect. So you chose life. It’s all in the choice a person makes, you see ? Man, I have to admit I did not see and I felt so confused.”

“Me too,” Rocky agreed.

“Then one day, I was watching an old movie,” Tito explained. “And there was a line in it.”

“The Godfather?” Rocky asked Tito with a grin.

“No, it was Star Wars. Yoda in fact.”

“What?” Rocky laughed. “How could Uncle Stephano be equated with freakin’ Yoda?”

Tito shrugged. “ It’s only what you see…

it is . That’s the line. There I was binge-watching all the Star Wars I could find and when I heard this, I had a sudden epiphany.

It really blew me away. What he meant was…

It is all in how you look at it. Uncle Stephano saw it as something we had to do; we had no choice.

Those men chose to aim their weapons at us and they chose wrongly.

They caused their own demise by their choices. ”

I nodded as I concluded, “So in essence, you did not kill them, they did it to themselves.”

“Exactly,” Tito said. “And I finally understood Uncle Stephano’s take on it.”

Rocky laughed. “Yoda and Uncle Stephano? Nahhh.”

We all laughed.

“He coulda been Jabba The Hutt though,” Tito joked.

We all paused as we pictured the ugly creature with all the belly roll fat and the long, large tongue.

“Nah, can you imagine Jabba in Armani or Louis Vuitton?” I suggested.

“That suit would need a helluva lot of material,” Rocky concluded. “And lots of buttons, holy shit!”

Again, we broke into laughter…Then we all shook our heads.

“Darth Vader,” I suggested. “Dark suit, non emotional, deadly.”

Rocky looked over at me. “Wow, you watch old films too?”

“Heck, yeah.” I nodded.

Tito looked proud as he said, “Like Uncle Stephano said… I chose correctly.” He raised my hand up and kissed my knuckles as we walked along the hall.

I bit at my lip as I admitted, “But it was because of Deacon. He loved watching the 80’s and 90’s films. Well, whenever he was home. So I would sit next to him and we would have like movie nights.”

Tito actually slowed down and stopped in the hallway. Keeping a hold of my hand he said, “Babe, he is your brother. He has been there since you were five years old. You cannot keep apologizing for that. You said it yourself. It was never something you chose.”

“So, how am I gonna feel when…” I choked up a bit and did not say it aloud. When or if Stephano killed him.

He let out a heavy breath and took me into his arms. “I know this is hard.”

“Yes and it’s harder because I know for sure that I am a Walker now too. And the whole Walker family hates Deacon with a passion. From what they told me, he has terrorized them. Threatened them, kidnapped some of them. Then you know what happened when I asked Stephano if he would just let him go.”

“I bet that went over well,” Rocky said with an eye roll.

“Surprisingly, Uncle Stephano remained calm,” Tito explained. “But he practically told her fat chance.”

“I’m hoping…” My voice fell away. I wanted to say that I hoped Deacon had been able to leave the country.

Yet, it would be disloyal to him if I told anyone here about his plans.

Even Tito. Dang, this was hard. Julianna wasn’t even loyal to him as she never knew him.

She met him a couple of times but that wasn’t a sibling attachment. Like who do I be loyal to?

Tito rubbed my back with his hands. Then he pulled back to ask me, “Babe, you wanna just go to my room? Skip visiting my uncle?”

I looked into his eyes. “No, you had questions for him, right?”

“None that he would like,” Tito replied with a shrug. “I’m not sure he would know why your parents are so afraid of him.

“Oh, I bet he knows,” Rocky said.

“Mr. Descalia is in his study presently.”

We all turned around.

Max stood in the hall a couple of feet away from us. “If you would like, I can serve espresso?”

“That would be great, Max,” Tito told him. “We could use a caffeine pickup right about now.”

Max gave us that famous formal bow. Then he stiffly turned and headed back down the hallway.

I kept staring after him even when he went into the kitchen hall. I blinked my eyes and asked, “How did he know that we…”

“We what…?” Tito asked.

“That we were going to see your uncle?”

“We’re standing in the hall in front of the study door,” Rocky said. “And there are two places you can find Uncle Stephano, the study or the golf course. Besides, he’s Max.”

I looked over at Rocky.

He shrugged. “He’s a phenom,” he explained. “Tito and I have spent years trying to figure him out.”

I shook my head.

Tito took my hand. “Well, since Max believes he’s in the study. Then he is in the study.” He gave his brother a nod. “See you later, Rock.”

“I’ll be at home if you need me. Melainie is thrilled about the lockdown.” He paused, then said, “I mean—”

“Yes, bro. It’s ok,” Tito told him.

Rocky waved at us and headed down the hall.

We both turned as we heard a squeaking sound.

“The trolley,” Tito told me.

I wondered what he meant by trolley. That was when I saw him.

Max, coming along the hallway as he pushed a tray trolley…silverware clinked and cups rattled a bit.

The butler must have had it ready. No one could move that fast. Like Rocky said though. He was Max.

Tito kept a hold of my hand and tugged me to the study door.

As per usual, Max’s expression looked blank and he made no comment as he stepped forward to give the study door a good, solid knock.

“Yes,” Stephano called out.

Max opened the door and said, “Sir, Tito and Valencia are here to see you.”

“Si, si. Come in.”

Max stepped aside and motioned us in. His expression looked as impassive as ever.

We went by him and made our way over to the chairs in front of the large desk. I noted the room looked different now from when I had been here before when it was a sort of war room.

Max followed us with the trolley cart.

“Bene, bene,” Stephano said. “I was needing caffeine and Maria’s espresso sounds really good about now.” He looked over at us and motioned to the chairs. “Have a seat.”

Max then served us the shot of caffeine as Tito called it. Then he gave us a bow and went out.

I stared at him again as he left the study. Something seemed off. I just couldn’t pinpoint it. Then again, Max had always given me like that heebie-jeebies kind of feeling.

“Valencia?”

Looking up, I saw Stephano smiling at me. “Oh, I’m sorry,” I told him while feeling embarrassed about my staring. “Did you say something?”

“I did indeed.” Stephano nodded. “I asked if you were feeling well.”

“Oh yes, I am.” I raised the tiny espresso cup. “I think Tito was right. I needed a shot of this.” I tipped it and downed the small shot-like cup, all in one gulp.

Stephano stared at me and then blinked rapidly. “You should have sipped that, mia cara.”

Tito chuckled. “Yeah, sweetness. You are gonna have like a bad case of the jitters in a few minutes.”

I placed the cup down and then put my hand over my mouth. “Oh, wow. I don’t know why I did that.”

Tito chuckled as he reached over to pat my arm.

Stephano took a small sip of his and then sighed. “You can always tell when my sister makes it, versus anyone else. It is just like they serve in the ole Tuscany Taproom.”

I did start to feel a bit of energy, but I knew I could handle it. Wow, that was fast caffeine. “Is that in Italy?” I asked him.

Nodding, he said, “Anytime I go back there, I have to visit that cafe. The best cannoli and espresso in the world.”

Tito cleared his throat and said, “We just spoke to Valen’s parents last night on Zoom. They were in Italy.”

Stephano set his tiny cup down and said, “So you know then.”

I glanced at Tito then turned my head to stare at Stephano.

“Know what?” Tito asked him. “There were several things we found out.”

“You said Valen’s parents. So I assume you found out who they are.” Stephano stared back at him.

I wondered if he even knew the correlation of Tommy knowing Angelo Bruno. He saw the birth certificate as he had been the one to give us the real ones printed out.

“Si Tito. Tommaso and Bianca.” Although their last name changed, hasn't it?”

“So do you know why they changed it?” Tito questioned him.

“I assumed it was so they could avoid me.”

I sucked in a breath and glanced at Tito.

He kept staring at his uncle. “And why would they do that?”

“They did not tell you?”

Tito sat forward and replied, “They told us a few shocking things, but then when we mentioned you, they looked terrified.”

“But they didn’t tell you why,” Stephano surmised.

“What’s the big secret?” I asked outright.

He looked over at me. “Tommaso saw something he should not have.”

“Something you did?” Tito asked him.

Stephano got up from his chair and turned to look out through the window. “A lot of bad things were happening at the time.”

“Which things?” Tito asked. “My dad’s murder? Or his hitter being offed? Or maybe when you and Rocky were busy burying my dad’s killer? Who happened to be my Uncle Marco by the way.”

Stephano slowly turned around to look at him. “Seems they filled you in on a lot.”

Tito shook his head. “No, I only learned about it being a killing from Tommy. Not the rest but they sure looked scared when we mentioned you.”

Stephano looked him right in the eye and said, “No, I’m afraid it was a different circumstance they were witness to.”

“There’s more than that?” Tito asked.

I got the feeling that we had more shocks coming for sure.

Stephano clasped his hands behind his back.” It’s too painful for me to talk about. So, if we could just—”

I stood from my chair. I don’t know if it was the espresso of courage or if I was just being stupid, but I was about to call bullshit on his avoidance of the truth.

“This involves me and Julie’s parents, Mr. Descalia.

As you are aware. So if they are frightened enough of you to go into hiding, then they cannot come to visit us, here at your estate, now can they? ”

He stared at me then he said, “The bravery, mia cara. You truly are Italiana, si?” He shook his head and let out a breath. “Very well, but you will see it is… a bad subject.”

“None of this has been good, Uncle,” Tito commented.

I slowly sat back down in the chair. Maybe we shouldn’t have come and asked Stephano about this. Then again, it was correct. If they were afraid of Stephano then that would make weddings and holidays impossible at best.

“First of all, I am breaking my rule by sharing any of this.” Stephano again turned to look out the window. “It could get me a life or even a death sentence.”

Tito and I both seemed to stiffen up as we got nervous. Instinctively, I reached over and took his hand in mine. I had to wonder if this secret would make or break us this time.

The study door opened.

We all looked over.

Max came into the room. “Sir, Tony says that Amadeo has landed his copter and Luca is with him.”

Stephano stared at him then he turned to his desk and tapped his keyboard while staring at his PC screen. “Damn, they did it! Luca has brought me the prize.”

Tito and I stood from our chairs and came around the desk.

I leaned in to stare at the screen, then I gasped. “Is that…”