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Enjoy!
Erik
Chapter 65
The Necklace
The Wolves came for the second-to-last time when I was sixteen; when Luciana was a month away from her due date.
The news of her pregnancy hadn't shocked me. But it did cause something to rupture. It wasn't grief I felt - it was resignation. There was no hope - no hope anymore - of her and me ever being anything more than friends. She was carrying Vincenzo's child. And I? I would never even find love. Luciana, I think, was the only girl who'd ever look at me with any kind of affection.
I still loved her. Even if I accepted she would never love me, I still did. I would do so from afar. I would have to be content with that.
The entire family, of course, was ecstatic at the announcement of her pregnancy.
The wolves, upon finding out, were interested by it.
The last time they'd visited had been just before Luciana's and Vincenzo's announcement. And now that they'd come again, we hid Luciana upstairs in the bedroom she shared with Vincenzo. She was compliant about the affair; passive. That was one of a few things that I didn't care for when it came to her marriage - she'd changed. No longer the willful girl she'd been, she'd become, instead, his pretty little wife. Not that, it seemed, he asked for that. It appeared to be something she decided on herself.
It wasn't my business, really, but...I missed her. I missed her spitfire nature. I hoped her personality would return after a while, and that this was merely a post-wedding phase.
But I couldn't think about that now.
Mario sat in his chair, facing all five of us - Giovanni, Vincenzo, Carmelo, Salvatore, and me. Four of his men were behind him, a row of stone gargoyles, cold and grimacing. Signor Cardacci, a fair-skinned man with a sharp nose, smiled crookedly.
"So," he said to Giovanni, voice slithering through the air, "I hear that your brat is with child. You must have kept it to yourself quite well, as I am only just now hearing of it. Why keep it so secret?"
"I merely figured it was no one's concern but ours," he said nonchalantly. To this day, I wasn't sure if he was actually frightened of Mario - he cloaked his emotions quite well. "How did you find out?"
"I have eyes and ears everywhere - you should know that by now." He raked his eyes slowly across us, lingering momentarily on each face. "Who's the father? Hopefully not the African or the demon-faced monstrosity. I'd say that I know it isn't her brother, but knowing your ilk, I can't be certain-"
"It's me," said Vincenzo as Carmelo twisted his face in revulsion - I felt a bit ill as well. "No point lying about it now, is there?"
Mario set his features into an expression of disgust. "Letting your daughter fuck a Gypsy-"
"We can discuss my family's affairs another time, if you please," said Giovanni, as I saw Vincenzo's emotions whet themselves upon Mario's words, sharpen into something feral. "How much are you asking for today?"
"We are at least fortunate to have you," muttered Vincenzo, as we walked our way back from the plaza. Carmelo had his head down, listening, on the other side of him. Vincenzo looked at me. "Your skills as a thief may have actually saved one or two of us from a beating. Somehow - by the grace of God - we actually had enough for Mario today."
And we'd certainly replenished some of what we'd lost tonight.
"Thank you," I said in response. The darkened summer sky enveloped us, giving us safety and cover. No one suspected us; but it gave us relief regardless.
"No," said Vincenzo. He stopped walking. "Thank you."
I stopped walking as well and turned to look at him; Carmelo followed suit. Vincenzo's eyes mirrored the stars and moon above us as he lifted his head and regarded me with a gentle intensity. "Erik, I don't say it enough. You are an asset to us; valuable, yes, but we - I - see you as family. You're a little brother to me." He stopped and pushed his tongue into his cheek. "And - and I wish I was as good a thief as you."
I had to take a step back in my surprise. Cocky Vincenzo - envious of my skills.
"If I was as good a thief as you..." he continued, as Carmelo tapped his fingers on his legs - I could see he was becoming antsy and wanted to continue walking. "Erik, if I was as good a thief as you, I would feel confident enough to break into Mario's home and retrieve the necklace he stole from Giovanni's wife."
Carmelo did look up at that. "That would be the gift," he said with a slight smile, "that would ensure Luciana loves you for the rest of her life. She wants that necklace more than anything."
"I didn't know that," I said, feeling unreasonably jealous that there were desires she'd kept from me.
But when Vincenzo said he didn't know either, I felt a bit better.
Carmelo blushed. "Maybe I wasn't meant to say anything...but...yes. She says it's the last piece of our mother left, and she wants it." He stopped, thoughts crossing his eyes. "To be honest, I want it too. So does our father. But it's with Mario, and we are never getting it back."
Vincenzo didn't attempt to retrieve the necklace. But Luciana did love him the rest of her life. Her very short life. She left us on her due date.
Gone in an instant. Just like that.
No forewarning. Gone. So fast I didn't process it; so fast that it didn't seem real. It seemed to be a dream, one that I'd surely wake from.
But I didn't wake. And neither did she. She was dead by morning.
She took her daughter with her.
And for a moment - just a moment - I thought about joining them.
But Giovanni's words rang in my ears, the words he'd said four years ago:
"If you are going to choose to die, die for something bigger than yourself."
My family was grieving. All of us. Our grief was a battlefield, and we were soldiers in it. We had to fight it. We couldn't let it win.
I couldn't let it win.
I had to march on.
And I had to defeat those that had caused it. I had to.
But though I couldn't defeat death, there was someone else who had caused us pain - caused Luciana pain.
And I could take back what he stole.
