LIAM
“She’s not all right,” Mina whispered to me when I got to the door of her office. “I tried to tell her to stay in the hospital but she wouldn’t.”
“I got it, go home,” I said, opening the door. She sat on the floor of her office, her heels off to the side, the blinds closed, a bottle of red wine in her hands.
“He’s lying,” she said, as she drank from the bottle. The wine spilled over the corner of her mouth but she didn’t care. She drank until she needed to breathe and then wiped the side of her mouth before adding, “That’s what I first told myself. He was lying or he has to be insane. But then I thought to myself, Melody, why were you so shaken when you looked at him? What was wrong? I realized it’s because he looks like Orlando. His eyes, he has my father’s eyes. And when I realized that, I thought to myself, how stupid am I? Of course, my father could have another kid. It wasn’t like he was celibate. I clearly remember women coming in and out of his room. I forgot that men like to fuck multiple women because everyone in the Callahan clan is so passionately in love with their spouses. How did I forget that? It is the number one thing you learn as a female. And just as I am kicking myself, I start to laugh, Liam. I’m laughing my ass off because guess what?”
I said nothing and she lifted the bottle to drink again.
“I have a brother and he is trying to kill me.” She snorted, laughing again. “Think about it. First my mother, who should have been dead, came out of nowhere and tried to kill me. Then my grandfather, who was the head of the FBI, tried to kill me. Now I have a half-brother, who is the mayor, also trying to kill me. Liam, I’m a living breathing telenovela!” She laughed harder. “I’ve even come up with a name for my life: ‘Las pasiones de Melody!’ I am currently casting for the next season where we are going to introduce you to my evil twin sister who is going to murder me and try to live my life. But!” She held her hands up. “I won’t be dead. I’ll come back in some dramatic way to kill her but, oh no, she’s pregnant. And even though you feel betrayed by evil twin Melody, you can’t let me kill your child! It’s soap opera gold!”
“Are you done?” I asked, hoping we could fast-forward through her crazy talk. She had an imagination, no doubt, and it only came out when she was either far too drunk or pregnant.
She took a deep breath and relaxed back against her desk, lifting up a piece of paper. “He sent me this a letter Orlando apparently gave him years ago. The handwriting is my father’s, that is for sure.”
Walking over to her, I took it, once again proud that I had taken the time to learn how to read and write in Italian.
Emilio,
If you are reading this letter, it means your mother has told you who you are: a Giovanni, the son of Orlando Giovanni, a man who came to this country from the small town of Bosa with nothing except my grandfather’s pocket watch and a new pair of shoes I stole from my neighbor’s son. Of all the questions you have for me, the most important one to you would be why I am not in your life. It’s very simple: our name is ‘Giovanni’, the one shown favor, but it is actually a lie. Nothing ever comes easy for us, nothing is given, we must take everything we want and defend it until there is no air in our lungs. My whole life I fought for my name. I will not just give it to you. You will fight and only if you survive can you stand as my son. Can you rule as I have ruled, as the head of the Italians? With our people, respect is earned, so earn your name. Fight for your name. Until you can do that, you can never be my son.
This is the lesson, the training I’m giving you. One day, maybe, if I’m lucky, I’ll get to see you, get to see my legacy and the family name continue.
Orlando Giovanni
“It was a lie,” she whispered when I was done reading. “All the times he pushed me and tortured me, he said it was so no one would doubt me when I took over. It was a lie. He wasn’t counting on me. He was bored or maybe he just set me up as the final obstacle for his son. Either way, the one person I thought was always proud of me, always saw the best in me, is the same person who planned to backstab me. My own father. I can feel the knife in my spine, Liam. I got played.”
“Melody, get up.”
“Liam, I’m not in the mood—”
“Get your ass off the ground!” I snapped at her.
Sighing, she pushed herself off the floor, wobbling slightly as she stood in front of me. Grabbing her, I spun her around. “I’m not sure who this woman standing in front of me right now is, but I do know she is not my wife.”
Pushing her hair to the side, I zipped down the back of her dress.
“Liam—”
“Shh.” I kissed the back of her neck, my hand slipping into her dress. “I’m taking the knife out.”
I could feel myself getting harder as she relaxed against my chest, breathing in slowly. I wanted her…badly…but I couldn’t, not yet. She was already pushing herself, the last thing I needed to do was add any more stress on her heart, whether it was positive or not. Instead, I just held her close to me, leaving kisses up and down her neck and shoulder.
“You aren’t just a Giovanni. You are a Callahan. I am proud of you. I see the best in you. That’s all that matters to me. When your father died, he entrusted you to me. I don’t give a fuck what the piece of paper says and you shouldn’t either. So, have you returned from crazy land or am I going to have to keep listening to the plot of ‘Las pasiones de Melody?’” I smirked.
“I’m telling you, we’d make a killing on that show.” A smile spread across her face. “But yes, I’m back. A little tipsy, but back.”
“We are going to have to kill Emilio, you know this right?” I knew she knew it, but it needed to be said.
“I’ve killed everyone else in my family already, why not him?” she muttered. When she tried to move away, I held her tighter to me.
“It is not the same. He started this. The whole reason he became mayor was just so he could publicly announce he was your brother, and in doing so getting the Italians’ attention. You are going to have to go personally to remind them who you are.”
She didn’t reply. We just stood there quietly until her phone rang and I let her go. Walking around her desk, she put the phone on speaker.
“What is it?”
“They are throwing him a get-together. He’s here now with most of the families,” Fedel replied as she sat in her chair. “What do you want me to do?”
“Nothing,” she said, spinning around. “Do nothing but watch and listen. That’s all.”
“Yes, ma’am.” With that, he hung up, and she slowly spun around.
“Mel—”
“Liam, what do you think I should do?” She paused, asking me honestly. She seemed like a different person right then, and I hoped to God it was still the wine talking. “Should we kill him now and be done with it? Or should we wait and see who’s going to follow him and cut them all down together?”
Thank God. She’s still herself.
Reaching to the floor, I grabbed her bottle of wine. “This could be another Italian-Irish war, which could lead to blood feuds and more death down the road.”
“So?”
“So, we are going to see what happens tonight. You don’t know for sure if anyone really will follow him.”
“And if they bite the hand that feeds them?” she asked.
“We are going to send the kids away in the morning,” I stated before drinking. “And not just to a safe house in the city, because it will be a bloodbath.”
She wanted to argue, but I was glad she didn’t. She just placed her hand over her mouth. “Okay.”
“Okay.”
FEDEL
The traitors.
They couldn’t even wait twenty-four hours before sucking up to this clown. In true Italian fashion, a full spread was out and wine was flowing from bottle to glass over and over again as we all stood in the backyard of Uncle Vinnie’s home. I had been there for an hour, one full fucking hour, and still all this motherfucker did was drink and listen as Uncle Vinnie and everyone told him about Orlando in his glory days.
“Your father was one of the strongest men I ever knew.” Uncle Vinnie placed his hand on his shoulder, speaking in Italian. “He put the fear in men even though he had no idea what fear was. There is no man better than an Italian man! There are no people like the Italian people. We took over the world. In every country you can find us; there is always a little Italy somewhere, he would say.”
“It is true,” Emilio replied, drinking.
“So I don’t understand.” Big Tony stepped into the yard, cigar in one hand and a glass of red wine in the other. “You knew all this time, you were a Giovanni and stayed away? Orlando knew about you and left you with some Mexican woman?”
“My mother was the sister of Marcos Felipe Carrasco, the drug lord known as El Rojo. He probably figured if anything could harden me fastest it would be a Latina with nothing and a bounty on her head.” He smiled about it, but I had worked for Melody long enough to know it was a fake sort of smile. He was bitter and pissed off, but masking it with grins, nods, and booze.
“What are you going to do now?” Big Tony pushed.
Uncle Vinnie glared at him as if he were about to smack him. “Tony—”
“No, it’s fine. Honestly, I’m just here to get to know my roots.”
Let me just call bullshit now.
“See. Nothing wrong here.” Vinnie nodded. “But this Chinese you are married—”
“We aren’t married. She was just…a very special friend.” He winked at them and they laughed; the joke must have gone over my head.
I was about to say something when Big Tony spoke up again. “Let us not pretend we don’t know what is going on here. After all, his friend shot Orlando’s daughter…and his grandchildren. Quite honestly I don’t give a fuck who he is, I just don’t want to see him. He isn’t one of us.”
“Miserabili pezzi di merda!” Uncle Vinnie hollered, facing him. “Must there be anything wrong? You are speaking to the one and only son of Orlando Giovanni. He is one of us. More so than that bitch spawning Irish babies with Irish names.”
“This is a dangerous road you are walking down my old friend. The devil we know is Melody. She has worked for us all, she has provided for us all; not once have I heard of an issue she has not addressed on our behalf. No Irishman is better off than us. We have peace. I’m not watching children get half their faces blown off all because you and everyone else here wants more!”
“The devil you know doesn’t care about you.” Emilio handed his glass to someone else and everything was now silent. “The devil you know only wants power for herself.”
“Everyone wants power for themselves.” I finally spoke up and for the first time since I’d arrived, it seemed like they noticed me. “That isn’t the issue. What is the problem is what happens when said people get that power. As we have stated, the boss has never once used that power to tear down her own.”
“The boss.” He snickered at that. “The boss of what? She’s the governor, a mommy. She handed over everything to Liam Callahan years ago. You know that. Isn’t it him you meet with now? She has you crawling to the man whose family nearly destroyed all of yours, a man whose only loyalty is to his own. If you want the truth, fine, have it: Melody Callahan will either step away from us peacefully, or I’m going to take power from her piece by piece.”
“How many good people are going to die in that process?” Big Tony asked him.
“Right now, just one.” He turned to face me and before I could move, he had already pulled out his gun.
BANG.
MELODY
“Oh, I’ve missed you all!” I wrapped my arms around my children, all of them now on my bed with me. Liam leaned on the bedpost, his arms crossed but a small grin on his face as he watched us.
“Mommy, they said we are leaving, why?” Dona played with my hair, twisting it. “I don’t wanna go again.”
“Me either,” Wyatt grumbled, crossing his hands. “I’m going to stay right here with you.”
“But Mommy and Daddy have work to do.” I poked his nose.
“You guys always have work, why is this different?” Ethan asked, of course, looking between Liam and me. Liam put his hand on his head before sitting down beside me.
“It’s…very complicated Ethan. But right now it’s not safe—”
“You said we are always safe in the city.” He pushed back, annoyed. “Is it the person that hurt Mom? I want to stay, Dad. Send Dona and Wyatt away.”
“HEY!” Dona and Wyatt yelled at him.
“If you stay I’m really staying!” Wyatt pushed his arm.
“You’re a kid!” Ethan pushed him back.
“So you are you.” Dona frowned.
He shook his head. “I’m a preteen.”
At that I rolled my eyes, laughing as I kissed his forehead. “You are also a kid, Ethan, a kid who has to go and look out for his siblings.”
“I want to stay,” Ethan said again.
“Ethan,” Liam spoke in his dad voice.
He got up. “Whatever—”
“Excuse you,” I snapped at him and he froze. “I know you are upset, but you do not disrespect us, am I clear? We said you are leaving for a while, that means you are leaving. This is not a democracy. You don’t get a vote. Sit down.”
They were all silent when there was a knock at the door. Liam rose to open it and I kissed their cheeks, one by one.
“Go to bed, I’ll be in later,” I said when Liam glanced back at me.
Quietly they jumped off our bed and left through the second door. I rose from the bed and saw that neither Declan nor Liam had wanted to fill me in on whatever it was. Instead, I walked to the front of the house and it seemed every maid and butler was inside. Cora stood at the door, rocking baby Darcy in her hands.
“What is going on?” I asked Liam. He didn’t say anything, and he didn’t have to. Once we got outside, I saw him.
Fedel. His body was right outside the family gates, a bullet right between his eyes. He wasn’t even pale yet.
“Melody.” Liam stepped beside me and yet I didn’t move or speak. I was frozen. He was just there, dead. Gone. Like that. Killed by the very people he protected, my people, our people; they’d murdered him.
They’d never stood behind me either. All right, then.
“This is the boy that brought him,” Neal stated. I glanced up to the twenty-something-year-old with short hair and glasses. He was so skinny he looked like the wind could blow him away at any second.
“Who are you?” I wanted to ask, but I couldn’t speak, so Liam asked for me.
“Frankie sir….uh, Frankie Severino, Fedel…he umm…he was training me. I mean I was his backup driver, but he was training me in other stuff too. He said I could come in handy some day…”
Him? Come in handy? For what? Comic-Con?
“I’m the best biochemist on this coast. Anything you want, I can make….uh I guess this isn’t the time. Just, yeah. That’s what I do. And you should know not all the Italians are with this new guy, ma’am. A lot of people are shocked and confused but mostly everyone is split. I know all the people who are still loyal. He shot Big Tony too, but he’s still alive. Some other guys took him to the hospital. But—”
“But?” I finally spoke.
He lifted up a bloody phone. “Fedel’s last recording. Emilio left a message for you, ma’am.”
Taking the phone from his hands, I pressed play.
“Little sis!” he yelled. “God, you have no idea how long I’ve waited to call you that. Anyway, sorry about your dog. I let his puppy live, he looks like a real Chihuahua, though. Remember that conversation we had earlier…I hope you take it a lot more seriously now. Who knew so many of our people hated your guts?”
I didn’t want to hear anymore so I just let it slip from my hand and turned around.
“Liam, looks like we got our answer,” I said to him.
The Irish and the Italians were out for blood again. There was nothing left to say, no words to describe this. For the moment, I would focus on my children. I knew Emilio well enough to know he would be after them, that he would try to take them from me, and I wouldn’t give him a chance.
“Mel…” Cora started to speak to me but I walked right past her. I had nothing to say to her. When I got to Ethan’s room, I paused, realizing my hands were shaking. From anger? Or grief? I wasn’t sure.
Fedel…
No. I couldn’t. Not now.
“Knock knock.” I poked my head inside, knowing he was upset with me, and of course, he flipped onto his side, playing with his video games. Sighing deeply and loudly as I walked toward him, I sat down hard on the edge of his bed. He bounced but still didn’t look at me.
“Mio bel leoncino.” Falling back onto his pillows, I glanced up at the canopy of his bed. “Are you upset with me?”
No answer. Instead, I heard the engine of the race car in the game speed up.
“It’s okay if you are, I’m not changing my mind. You can’t stay—”
“Mom!” He groaned, sitting up and glaring at me.
“Yes?” I asked softly, trying not to smile.
“Why? I’m older—”
“Because I love you,” I said. He froze, a frown on his lips.
“You can’t just say that, it’s not fair.” He pouted, lying back down next to me, and I brushed my hands through his soft hair.
“I can say it because it’s true,” I whispered, my heart hurting again. “I love you so much Ethan, even I can’t put it into words. You are my son, my first child, and the thought of anything happening to you…it scares me so much Ethan that I sometimes can’t sleep at night. You know Mom and Dad do things other people think are bad right?”
He nodded, his head beside me as he wrapped his arms around me. “But Dad says sometimes we need to do bad things to get good results. If he doesn’t do it, someone else would, and we could get hurt.”
Sounds like a completely Liam answer.
“He’s right.” I would have told him the same thing. “And for the most part, Dad and I have things under control. But sometimes people hate us for it and they want to hurt us the only way they can, and that is to hurt the people we love the most. People like you.”
“So you’re sending us away.”
I nodded. “I’m sending you away so Dad and I can do what we need to do and not worry that you aren’t safe. Grow older and be stronger, and no one will make you hide again.”
“Fine. But when I’m older, I’m going to fight them for doing this to you.” He jumped up, happily staring me down.
“Deal.” I extended my hand, rising from the bed. He shook it tightly before crawling under the sheets. “Do you want me to tuck you in?”
“No, Mom,” he said, and it felt like he was going to add a “duh” to the end of it. Leaning over, I kissed his forehead.
“Love you, mio bel leoncino.”
“Love you too.” He yawned, rolling onto his side and forgetting about his video game. Reaching over, I grabbed it, turned it off, and put it on his bedside table.
Leaving his room, I entered Donatella and Wyatt’s. Dona was fighting sleep as their nanny brushed her hair. Her head bobbed back and forth.
“I got her,” I told the maid, who said nothing, just placed the brush down and left the room.
“Mommy.” Dona grinned, reaching up for me. She was so cute sometimes. When I picked her up, her legs and arms wrapped around me as I carried her to her bed. I noticed how heavy she now was in my arms. I remembered when she was so tiny, much smaller than both Ethan and Wyatt, and I was worried I was going to hurt her.
“Mommy. I can swim more now,” she whispered.
“That a girl,” I whispered as Wyatt lifted her sheets for her before I laid her down. “So you will be faster than me.”
She giggled, “Not possible, Mommy, you are like a fish. Daddy says you drink the water as you go.”
“Not true and don’t try it, you will get sick.” I brushed the side of her face. “Do you want anything?”
She yawned, rubbing her nose. “For Ethan and Wyatt to stop fighting.”
“Hey!” Wyatt grumbled behind me.
I twisted my hands in front of her face over and over before blowing into her eyes. “There, I’m giving you the power to step in and stop them any way you can.”
“I’m going to kick them.” She grinned and I laughed, kissing her head.
“Do what you gotta do.”
“Mommy, no, she really will kick us!” Wyatt groaned as I moved to his bed.
“Or you and your brother won’t fight and she won’t have to.” He didn’t say anything, just crossed his arms and lay on his back. “It’s not my fault.”
“Oh really?”
He twisted his lip to his side.
“Wyatt.”
“It’s kinda both of our faults,” he conceded.
Leaning in close to him, I whispered, “I’m going to tell you a secret and you can never tell your sister or brother.”
His eyes went wide and he flipped over to stare me in the eyes. “What?”
“Of all my children, you, Wyatt, are my favorite.”
His mouth opened and then closed again before a slow smile spread across his lips. “Really?”
“You want to know why?” I asked, and he nodded, moving closer. “Because of all my children, I understand you the most. Ethan is very much like your dad and has everyone backing him. Dona is surrounded by people who always defend her. But you, Wyatt, are like me; you see everything and ask, ‘Where do I fit?’ When you figure it out, there is going to be no stopping you.”
He didn’t seem to understand but was just proud that he was my favorite. It was true; I loved him because he was so much like me. Soon his breathing relaxed, and so did mine; before I realized it, I was falling asleep too.
LIAM
By the time I got back to our bedroom, Fedel’s body had been removed; Declan and Neal wanted to personally handle everything else. None of us had ever said it because we had never felt the need to…until now…but Fedel was as close as family. Never once had he taken a sick day. Never once had he not been there when we needed him. His loyalty was unquestionable and he’d paid the price for it with a bullet. If we were upset, I had no idea how Melody must have felt. Every last person she’d come to this house with had left in a coffin.
“Mel?” I called out when I got to our room, but the lights were off and she wasn’t back. I checked the bathroom before moving to the Dona and Wyatt’s room.
“Mel…” My voice trailed off when I saw her asleep next to Wyatt, who was curled up next to her. I would have left them, but I was selfish.
Moving over to her, I tucked my arm under her back before tilting her to me and lifting her up.
“Liam?” she said softly, her eyes opening slightly.
“Shh. I got you,” I said when her head rested on my chest.
“If …if I have a plan that would guarantee no one would ever mess with us ever again, would you forgive me for the pain it would cause?”
Melody…asking for forgiveness? I knew all of this was hurting her. She would never admit it, but her father, Emilio, Fedel…it hurt her.
“We’ll talk in the morning,” I replied, laying her down.
She shook her head. “Answer me.”
“Melody, you have always said not to ask you questions I know the answer to. Now I’m going to say the same.”
“Just this once then.” She smiled though it didn’t reflect in her eyes.
Lying beside her, I kissed her hands. “I’m obsessed with you Melody. No matter what you do, I’ll always forgive you. Even if you were to kill me, I’d forgive you.”
She didn’t reply, just closed her eyes. “Fedel…he was more than a soldier…he was like my only brother.”
“I know.”