They’re still outside at the table. Chelsey is sitting next to Ailee and Rain, and the men are drinking cognac and smoking at the other end of the table.
When I catch her attention, I ask, “You ready to go? Sal said I must drive you.”
She nods and gives her friend a hug. The baby is getting big and her belly looks uncomfortable. I don’t like looking at it. That’s my father’s child and it makes me ill thinking about him with her.
“Ciao Nonna, Rain, Zio.” I greet them all as she gets her bag and kisses the old lady on the cheek. Saying goodbye to the family can take ages, so I try to hurry past most of them.
She is quiet on the way home. She looks out of the window like I’m not in the car at all; her mind isn’t here today.
Her long, blonde hair, is curled and hangs loose. Her makeup is slightly faded after the long day and the setting sun shines golden on her fair skin. The black shirt clings to her now bigger boobs and her long legs are crossed, feet on the floor.
When I look at her today, all the color and sparkle of the girl I met is gone. There is just a shell beside me, an empty vessel.
“Want to talk about it?” I ask.
“About what, Rat? About the fact that I’m stuck married to a man who can’t even talk to me at Sunday lunch, that all I think about is you. Or the fact that I am weeks away from giving birth to your brother? Talking doesn’t help any of it. Nothing helps. The only time I’m not drowning in a sea of mixed emotions is at work, when I can focus on something else. So no, I don’t want to talk, I want to go home, have a bath and go to bed.” She snaps her last words out. Something has infuriated her today. I put my hand on her leg and she violently shoves it off again. “Just drive me home, we cannot keep doing this. It’s fucking killing me.”
“Fine,” I answer, and gun the car a little.
When we pull into the driveway she gets out faster than me and bolts up the steps. I am still putting my phone in my pocket and closing the door, when her screams pierce my eardrums, ringing loudly through the quiet of Sunday evening, making the neighborhood dogs bark. The deafening shrieks keep coming as I slam my car closed and run to the front door.
“You need to come home, right fucking now,” I say into the phone, holding Chelsey in the other arm. “Just come, please. No, we are fine, they just left a message. A very clear one.”
I look at the two dead rabbits on the welcome mat, a mother and baby bunny. It’s a threat, and I know it was meant for Sal, but she knows exactly what message they intended to convey.
“Dad, just come home. Chelsey needs you. You, not me.”
I want to add that this is his mess, but he hangs up without saying if he’s coming or not. I let her go, so we can go inside. Her yelling has caught the attention of some of our neighbors.
“Come, let’s go inside Chel’s. Just ignore it, okay. Sal will sort it out, this is his mess.”
Lifting her up I carry her, carefully stepping over the two fluffy bodies. She is shaking, her whole body quivering uncontrollably.
I put her down and she just takes off, straight upstairs without a word. I want to go and hold her, comfort her and tell her this is all going to be fine, but it’s not. They want my father and aren’t afraid to use her to get him. They just don’t know that Salvestre couldn’t care less. He is all about self preservation at this point.
I pour myself a drink and sit down. It’s taking everything in me not to go up to her.
I’m coming home.
He eventually texts me about an hour later, but I’m three drinks in and my anger has swelled into rage. I take the steps two at a time up to her. At the door, I stop. Her sobs filter through the shut door. They hit me right in my chest, a punch to the heart I’ve never felt so hard before. I don’t knock, or go in.
I'll fix it for her. For me, for all of us.
Dialing the number I lifted from Rain’s phone a few weeks ago when the threats started, I make a call. On the third ring Yuri answers, but doesn’t say a word.
“If you want Sal, he’s coming home. I won’t stop you. No one will. Leave her and the baby alone, and he’s yours.”
I hang up and go back to wait for my father’s return.
Sacrifices have to be made in life. Sal was a shit father to me, a terrible brother and son, and a horrible person to most. This is the best outcome.
I let the burn of another drink strip my throat as I down it, and slam the empty glass on the table. My family will disown me if they know I did this. They believe in protecting one another, always. But, he didn’t protect us or even think of us when he started doing things behind the family’s back. I hope that no one knows it was me. I didn’t call anyone else about the bunnies.
There is no reason to suspect me.
The engine rumbles while he parks his car outside. The door slams. His footsteps echo on the steps. I hear him stop at the mat. I know he sees their message, that they threatened his wife and child. He takes a long time to open the door.
When he comes into the main room of the house I see the worry, and the fear in his eyes.
“Where is she?”
“Safe,” is the only answer I give him. “Want a drink?” I offer, filling another crystal tumbler at the wet bar and passing it over to him.
“Thanks.” He clasps it into a shaking hand.
“What did you do?” I ask.
“I made a mistake. I thought I had a way to be in charge, to have everything I always wanted. I’m a fucking idiot. I sold them part of our turf. I had no right to sell it. They didn’t know that. Now that Rain is killing their men like flies, they know what I did and they want their money and my head.”
“Where is the money?”
“Gone. I used it to get rid of your mother and on…”
“Drugs, I know. I knew right away. We all know.” They don’t make a noise or a grand entrance, but I can see the two shadows come in through the kitchen. “You are the worst father, you know that. You have done nothing for me, and that poor baby boy is going to have to fight to fucking survive you just like I did. You will never change, Sal.”
They make a signal for me to move out the way, so I step around the bar and stand behind the counter, putting it between him and me, and me and them.
I say, “I’m sorry, but this time you made a mistake you can’t undo. And the thing is, I love Chelsey and my brother more than I love you.”
His glass falls when the harsh truth of my words settles on him. His lower lip shakes and small teardrops roll down his aged cheeks.
I just betrayed my own father, so I could take his wife. That’s what I did.
The bullet hits the back of his skull with precision and I see the moment his life is over. The terror in his eyes turn to glass and his body wilts to a slump on the floor.
Holstering the silenced gun they come into the room. No words are spoken, and I stand and watch them roll my father’s body up in a plastic tarp. All that remains is a pool of blood on the white marble floor.
“We will send notice to the family. No one will know it was you.” Yuri pulls off the black full-face balaclava. “You did right, Rat.”
I know I did. But watching your father die, no matter how much of an asshole he was, isn’t easy.