Epilogue
Leo
Naples, Italy 2018
I was driving back from work, stuck in traffic and cursing under my breath, while two men fought a minor collision out in front of me. The radio was playing in the car. It was the start of Spring which meant that it was beginning to get warm. I was anxious with the delay, joining my fellow drivers in honking loudly until the two men finally split up. It had been a year since I had fallen into a mundane routine, and I still wasn’t used to it. I was still looking over my shoulder, always in a hurry, worried if Isabella and Sofia were safe.
I was driving back to our house. Isabella had wanted us to live in the house that she had grown up in, the one where she remembered her mother best. We bought the house soon after returning from Amalfi, a few months before our wedding.
I wasn’t too happy with the neighborhood, but Isabella insisted that we just needed time, that we could fix up the neighborhood again, bring it back to its formal glory…to how she remembered it from her childhood.
After Marco was arrested and a court case was charged against him, sentencing him to prison for the next sixty years, all his possessions and money were seized from him, and whatever the government believed they were owed, they took and the rest came to Isabella.
My wife had spent weeks of sleepless nights, worried about the money. She didn’t want it, she knew the history behind where all that money came from and she didn’t want the blood on her hands. Then, she was struck with the idea…the perfect way to kill two birds with one stone.
Isabella used the money to buy several buildings around the neighborhood we were living in, and she used more money to build charitable foundations there. She employed people, creating jobs, and used the buildings to provide a safe haven for children of all ages. Within a few weeks, our neighborhood went from being deserted and rundown to being busy and bursting with energy and good intentions.
I was proud of my wife, of her good heart and her ideas. The foundations kept Isabella busy and happy and nothing pleased me more.
As for me, I was never going back to the mafia in any form; even though Gino was insistent on working with me. He had told me that if I wanted, I would always have a place in the Cavallini family but I politely declined. Isabella and I had both worked very hard to wash the blood stains off our hands and to bring up Sofia in a safe and comfortable home, and that would be completely destroyed if I started working with the Mafia again.
Instead, I used whatever money I had saved to open my own security firm. Business was new but it was already going well. I had a long list of clients and I was providing them with a service that Naples was desperately in need of.
Now, as I drove my car into the driveway, I could see that Isabella’s car was missing. I thought she would have been home by now. With my brow furrowed, I jumped out and rushed to the door. I could see Sofia inside, in the living room, dancing about. Who was she with?
“Sofia?” I barked, running into the house. I immediately thought the worst. That something had happened to Isabella, that Sofia was in danger. Instead, when I rushed into the living room, I found Gino on the carpet, brushing a doll’s hair. He threw the doll to the ground and looked up embarrassedly at me.
“Sofia forced me,” he said and my daughter burst out laughing.
“Uncle Gino loves brushing her hair, he told me!” Sofia giggled and Gino’s face turned red and he hauled himself up on the chair.
I was grinning as I sat down, too. Sofia came running to me, throwing her arms around my neck.
“You sure you don’t want a change of career?” I asked and Gino waved a hand in the air dismissively.
“Where’s Isabella? I thought she was going to be home by now,” I said, rocking Sofia on my lap as she talked absentmindedly to her favorite doll. Gino shrugged his shoulders.
“She called me up and told me to watch Sofia for an hour, she said she had an urgent matter to attend to. That girl is working too hard these days,” Gino said just when I heard the front door open.
“Mama!” Sofia squealed and rushed to greet her mother.
I could hear the clicking of Isabella’s heels on the marble floor and then her voice as she lifted Sofia up in her arms.
“Daddy’s home too!” I heard Sofia exclaim.
Isabella entered the room, smiling widely at me. I could see her cheeks were flushed, her eyes shining bright.
“Hi, you,” she said huskily and came over to kiss my lips.
“Where have you been?” I asked and she wriggled away from me, hopping on one foot as she took off her heels.
“Oh, I just had a meeting with one of my employees. Nothing important. Gino, you staying for dinner?” Isabella asked. Gino said he was and Isabella disappeared into the kitchen with Sofia in tow and I watched her go, watched how her ass moved in the tight pencil skirt she was wearing.
“Wow, Leo, show some respect. That’s my sister!” Gino exclaimed. He’d caught me staring at Isabella’s ass. Gino chuckled when I threw a cushion at him.
I went over to the bar and opened up a bottle of wine and poured it into two glasses.
“You know what night this is?” Gino asked when I brought the glass over to him. I knew exactly what he was talking about. Exactly a year ago, I had escaped death by a car crusher and Gino had dragged Marco to his friends who had each taken turns in beating him bloody.
We clinked our glasses together as a toast before we drank heavily from it in celebration.