Chapter Two
At First Sight
Victoria
“You two are a piece of work,” Matt grumbled, as he walked us up the hall to our lockers. He looked beyond irritated.
It was the end of the school year and we had our first dress down Friday of the season. I was so excited because my father had agreed to let me wear straight hair for the weekend. He was also allowing me to go to the mall after school with my cousins, Angela and Matthew.
Angie, Matt, and I have been close since kindergarten. Angela is my father’s sister, Joann’s, daughter, Angie and I are the same age. Matthew is my father’s brother, Frankie’s, son. Matt has us by four years.
With Aunt Joann, it has always been pretty much anything goes, she’s in her own world. For Aunt Joann, it just needs to be name brand and Angie could have it. She spends money faster than her husband, Terry, makes it.
My dad has often played cash cow with Aunt Joann as well. Uncle Frankie would chastise her about spending so much, so she still doesn’t even bother with him. He wouldn’t blink twice in telling her no.
To Aunt Joann’s family, I’m as much family as anybody else. Aunt Joann knew that taking me places pissed Mad Maria off. So, she made sure that I spent as much time with her as my father would allow.
Buying me things was just icing on the cake. I swear you could see the fumes coming out of Mad Maria’s ears when we would show up at the restaurant with bags upon bags of new things for me. Aunt Joann thought it hilarious.
Uncle Frankie on the other hand stayed away from me, but couldn’t help himself with Toni. Uncle Frankie loves Toni like his own son. Somehow, he forgave my father for Toni, but was not ready to forgive him for me, I guess. That didn’t bother me much. Uncle Frankie has a temper and I never wanted to be the one he was mad at.
“Get over it, Matt,” Angie and I always have a ball ganging up on Matt, but this time I was leaving it up to her.
Matt graduated a few years ago, but he was a star around here. No one ever says anything about him showing up here all the time to keep an eye on Angie and me. It’s normal to see him roaming the halls around here.
This was my first time going to the mall without supervision. I didn’t really expect to do anything more than shop without having to ask if I could have what I wanted to purchase. I had my own credit cards that my father gave me, but he and my mother always had an opinion and final say on what I purchased.
I was finally being treated like a sixteen-year-old, and not like I’m nine. It had taken my mother weeks to get my father to agree with the plans. I think he only agreed because my mother agreed to a trip to Jamaica this summer, just the two of them.
That’s something my mom tried to avoid because it was always so obvious that they were both gone. During those times, Mad Maria would treat Toni and I like the villains the whole time. My father promised to send us to Disney with Aunt Joann this time.
Things had worked out great, I was getting what I wanted and a trip to Disney with my favorite aunt and cousin. Bonus, that Friday I was so excited to get to wear the new skinny stretch jeans I bought the week before, on one of Aunt Joann’s scheduled shopping sprees. I paired it with a skintight shirt, I talked Angie into trading me for.
I looked five years older with my hair bouncing down my back almost to my waist. My jeans were showing off every curve held inside them. I wasn’t allowed to wear makeup, but I really didn’t need it. As my aunt would say, I could stop traffic on a rainy day.
My mother would let me put cover up on the birthmark under my ear every now and then, but that was more her thing. She hates the birthmark we have in common. Me, it doesn’t bother me at all.
Matt flipped his lid the moment Angie and I walked out of our last class to find him posted against the lockers. Angie had on matching jeans in black instead of dark blue and a tight black button down shirt, with a white cami underneath. Yeah…neither of us helped his mood.
Matt has always felt like he has had to make sure we’re looked after. No one should be thinking of his cousins in the wrong way. I love him for it, but he can be over the top. I mean he is here more than he is at his own school.
“I’ll get over it all right. You two better hope I don’t have to do anything that keeps me from graduation or gets me put in jail,” he warned. “I’m not going to the mall with you two looking like that.”
“So, does this mean you’re not driving us to the mall?” I teased. “Should I go catch Uncle Louie?” Matt was so mad.
“What up, Angie, Vic, you guys still going to the mall?” Peter asked with a shy grin, as he walked up beside Matt.
“Yup, just trying to see if we need to change plans for our ride,” I sang. Irritation was painted all over Matt’s face.
“Cool, a group of us decided to go hang too. So, I guess we’ll see you guys there. Matt, dude you still going, right?”
I had my answer right there. There was no way Matt wasn’t following us to the mall now. Peter and the other guys are younger than Matt and all look up to him, but it doesn’t mean Matt wasn’t going to be there to make sure none of them forgot who we were.
Angie is gorgeous, we look a lot alike. She is just olive skinned and she wears her jet-black hair to her shoulders. Her eyes are an oval shape too, just not the deep-set almond shape, almost cat like, that mine are. Her lips are much thinner than mine. If you ask me she took after Uncle Terry there. Angie is a few inches shorter than me, maybe five feet. I am about five-four, five-five.
“Fine, let’s go,” Matt grunted at us. “Yeah, Peter I’ll see you guys there.”
Matt tried his best to hide his annoyance. He rolled his eyes as he pushed away from the lockers he was pressed up against. Angie and I just snickered a little as we followed him towards the exit.
I’d spent the night at Aunt Joann’s the night before and she took us to school in the morning. My father and mother had no clue what I looked like that day, or so I thought. I would learn just how many eyes my father had in my near future.
A few of the teachers eyed me during the day, but I really paid it no mind, there were girls dressed in way less than what I had on. A few were even sent home. It wasn’t until we stepped into the mall that I took time to seriously think about my choice of clothing.
There had been so much more in store for me than I was expecting. There were kids everywhere. Boys I’ve never seen before. Given my father’s tight grip I was sure they’d never seen me either. Girls that I didn’t know turned their heads to see their new competition.
Angie and I left Matt behind to meet up with some girls from our class. On our way to the food court, where they were waiting I couldn’t help but notice a group of guys that were making a bunch of noise and clowning around by the bowling alley.
They looked like they were older. I was sure they were not from our school, though a couple did look a little familiar. As I stared in their direction, giggling at their jokes, I noticed one of them in particular.
He wasn’t really paying his friends much attention. He had been looking down toward the lower level, looking disinterested in the whole scene. One of his friends made a comment in our direction that called his attention.
He stood up off the kiddie ride he was propped against, watching us make our way to the food court. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. I noticed a smile press at the corners of his mouth.
Angie had to practically drag me along with her. He finally broke eye contact with me, once one of his friends slapped him in the back of the neck. They began to horse around and I needed my attention to find my friends.
I was a little disappointed, as I started to focus on what Angie was gabbing about. We were almost at the table where our friends were waiting, when I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder. I turned around, surprised by the tapping, and there he was. Oh, my goodness he was gorgeous.
Dark black hair that was crop shorter around the sides with the front gelled up about an inch high, creating a neat blowout. He had smoke grey eyes that seemed to look straight through me. Placed under thick black, but well-groomed eyebrows.
His smooth and clear face had the most pleasant mocha olive skin I’d ever seen. He was wearing a white button down shirt that looked like he had just picked it up from the cleaners. The shirt was paired with light blue jeans that were a perfect fit and a pair of. He was taller than me; I had to look up at him. He was slim, but built like an athlete.
All I could do was smile. I was beside myself with excitement. “Hi, may I ask your name?” he started off saying.
“Victoria,” I answered.
His face looked as if he was absorbing the name. As if it had some familiarity to him. I turned and tilted my head to the side so that my hair would hide my face, as I addressed Angie, speaking in Italian.
“Bello occhi.”
Angie just looked on in part amusement, part disgust and replied in English. “There okay.”
“You think my eyes are nice?” He smirked down at me.
My mouth fell open. I should have known better, but he didn’t give me a chance to reply. Hearing me speak in Italian sparked a session of 21 questions.
“Where are you from?” He continued.
“English Town,” I shrugged.
“Where did you learn Italian. You have a beautiful accent,” he purred down at me.
“Everyone I grew up around speaks Italian. It’s natural to me,” I smiled.
His brows knit for a moment. His grey eyes scanned my face. “What are you doing in the mall today. Here to hang with your friends?” He asks with a half smile on his lips.
“Yeah, just here to do some shopping and hang out a little,” I replied politely.
I watched him take in the answers with a cool grin on his face, as if he was staring at something that pleased him. He seemed to take well to the answers I gave him. His eyes never leaving me.
“My name is Lorenzo; may I ask how old you are?” he asked with a smile.
I smiled at his name. “I am sixteen, but I’ll be seventeen next month,” I replied.
At the answer to my age, he looked very disappointed. So, I decided to push the hair back off of my face, in hopes he would overlook my age if he thought I was pretty enough. I mean the age thing didn’t have to be that much of a problem. However, as soon as I pulled my hair back into a ponytail, he looked as if he saw a ghost or had some bad taste in his mouth.
He shook his head, looking even more disappointed. “Sorry for bothering you two young ladies, enjoy the mall,” he said and practically ran off to meet his friends again.
I looked at Angie puzzled. “Give me your mirror. Is there something on my face?” I demanded. I was almost embarrassed by the way he acted. I was sure something was out of place.
“No,” she replied, “you look great.”
As I looked in the mirror, she pulled from her bag, I realized I didn’t cover my birthmark today, but it’s not like it is hideous. I think it’s rather cute. I blinked in the mirror. I did look fine.
I was wearing my 3 Karat ruby earrings, with the diamond centers. With my hair pulled back, I still looked older than sixteen. I couldn’t see anything wrong.
I just shrugged it off and continued to walk to meet our friends. Once we got to them, they were eager to know what had just happened. Honestly, I was ready to forget it all together.
“Who was that? What just happened?” Lisa asked.
“He was cute,” Melanie chimed.
“Mind your own business,” Angie told them. That was Angie for you. We were a team.
We were off to the next subject in no time. I was having a great time hanging with my friends, when Aunt Joann texted Angie to say she was coming to pick us up early. We hadn’t been in the mall long at that point. It was okay though, I was disappointed that things turned out so poorly with the gorgeous mystery guy.
Once Aunt Joann picked us up, the trip to the restaurant was a little too quiet. Aunt Joann looked as if she were about to do something she really didn’t want to. Angie had looked guilty from the time her mom had text her.
I just thought she felt bad I had to leave early with her. I was too busy trying to figure out what was wrong with the guy that never said his age. Was my being sixteen that bad?
How old was he? He looked older, but not that much older. Why did he look so upset when I pulled back my hair? Did it make me look younger than I thought?
I put these questions on pause, because when we arrived at the restaurant I could see my father, through the glass, pacing back and forth. It was like I could see smoke coming out of his ears. I’ve never seen my father look so angry, not even on an ice cream and movie day.
Aunt Joann pulled up to the curb and let me out in front of the restaurant. Angie looked at me with a sad face and mouthed, call me. A sinking feeling started to settle in my belly.
I was a little confused at this point, as I turned to the restaurant with its large glass windows draped with heavy red curtains on the inside. The front door framed in wood, with a large glass panel in the center. Two large ferns flanking the outside of the door. The tables outside the restaurant were empty, though the red umbrellas were up to invite occupancy.
I walked into the restaurant, but before I could put my foot down on the black and white checkered floor inside, my father slapped me so hard, I flew backwards. If the door had closed a little faster, I would have flown through the glass. I looked over to my mother at the bar and all she could do was hold her head down with those sorry tears running down her cheeks.
In that very moment, I hated her for all the secrets and the lies I had to live through. She wasn’t even going to make a sound about this. Not because she didn’t want to, but because she couldn’t. She couldn’t because Mad Maria was standing there, watching to see what would come of this confrontation.
I looked up past my father to see Mad Maria beaming from ear to ear. She was so enjoying the moment. Then in just a few words, everything would change forever. My father started to shout and scream.
“I give you a break, let you go out with friends, and you embarrass me. What is this, what are you wearing?”
At this point the restaurant was full, but everyone knew to mind their own business. You could tell they were listening and trying to get the scoop, but no one had stopped their dining. My father at this juncture seemed to not care who was there, he was so hot.
“Get up and act like you have some self-respect and pride. Act like the La Marcello you are,” he bellowed through the restaurant.
With the last three words of his sentence, you could hear a pin drop. Everything in the room stopped. Mad Maria’s face seemed to melt with pain and fury.
My father went to charge at me again, the moment I stood up. I throw my hands up over my face to block the blow. I didn’t feel the strike when I thought I should have. When I peeked from around my hands, to my surprise, it was Mad Maria that had jumped in front of him and grabbed his arm.
“Don’t you dare!” she shrilled, “Victoria come.” Mad Maria grabbed me by the hand and stormed toward the backroom.
Everyone cleared out, as we entered the large room. For once, I couldn’t find comfort in the room with the red and gold brocade patterned wallpaper. Large tables anchored in the center of the room, and a large semicircle of tables wrapped the back wall.
I could see Uncle Sal, as he stood by the door waiting for everyone to exit, looking sorry that he didn’t interfere. Toni stood with Uncle Sal, looking like they were about to go on a movie and ice cream trip. Only this time, I wasn’t going to make it.
Maria went to the freezer behind the bar and got some ice out for my face. I’d gone to sit at the back tables that spanned the entire room. Maria came and sat down beside me, handing me a towel with ice. In that instant, we both began to cry.
I was crying because I couldn’t understand what I had done wrong. Maria’s tears were from somewhere deeper than that. Some place I would learn to understand sooner than I should’ve.
It was one thing to think you know the truth, and have the man you love tell you something totally different. Tell you that you were being paranoid and he would never hurt you in such a horrible way. It’s a whole other thing to have the truth called out in your face. In front of everyone you know. The neighborhood you grew up in, the people you see every day.
Even if the restaurant only had two people in it at the time, it would have been like having everyone you know shown your dirty laundry, because those two were sure to tell your business. Her tears came from years of knowing something she would often try to deny. Something that was clearly true, but too hard to admit.
They looked to burn her cheeks as they rolled down to the table, staining the tablecloth with the truth. Like ink from a pen writing each word out. Real pain oozed from every pore of the woman.
I sat wondering what in the world just happened. My father had never hit me. He rarely lost his patience with me.
What had I done wrong? How had I ‘embarrassed” him? I couldn’t believe what had just happened. It was Mad Maria that had just saved me from my dad, not my own mother?
What was going on? Before I could find my answers, my father entered the room. The look on his face revealed he’d just realized what he had done and said.
He looked in Maria’s direction with pain in his face. Then his eyes flickered over to me, noticing the ice I held to my cheek. The pain on his face twisted and turned even deeper.
He looked like a man that had awakened to find his family slaughtered and realized he was the one holding the knife. He went to speak, but Maria held up her hand to stop him as she began.
“Venncesso, I have been your wife for sixteen years. I know about the other women, the gambling and all the other things you are involved in. I told you in the beginning, I could take it. I just always wanted the…truth and I never wanted to see it happen. But you, you…,” she took a long pause, long enough for me to really look at her.
Maria wasn’t unpleasant to look at, at all. She’s a tall woman, not thin, but not fat either. Her skin sun tanned and hair dyed blonde with brown highlights. Her eyes light blue, almost grey, with mascara assisted eyelashes.
Maria always wore a lot of makeup, but I’d bet she was pretty even without it. At that moment, though, the wrinkles at her eyes looked more pronounced than usual.
It was then that I saw Maria so differently. I felt bad for her, no matter what she had done in the past. I realized she was human. She deserved better than what was happening to her. She started to speak again, once she had control of the sobbing.
“You have been dancing your other life in front of my face for almost as long as we have been married. I’ve held this one as a baby. I cried as I held her, because I couldn’t give you children of our own, not knowing she was your very own.
“I wasn’t sure at first, but as the years passed by and she became older, I could see you all in her face. Yet…you still denied the truth and…I believed you…I needed to believe you,” she just trailed off into thought.
I watched and listened to the side of the other woman, the wife. Maria stood up and tossed the glass vase from the center of the table at my father’s head. She just missed.
The glass mashed against the wall next to the door. The water from the vase slapped against my father’s back. The flowers that were in it fell to the floor. He stepped forward to grab her, but she pushed him away.
“You will fix this, you will fix this! Just like I watched Lakeisha be a mother when I couldn’t, she will know that pain. I see the way you two look at each other and the way you two are with your children.
“Yes, I know the boy is yours too. She will watch, as her daughter becomes mine. I will no longer be robbed of my motherhood, not by you, not by anyone anymore,” she said that and turned to me in silence. Her words made this all sound deeper than what was happening at the moment.
The tears were flowing like a river. We just looked in each other’s eyes. For the first time, I felt like I understood the way Maria saw me. She wasn’t mad at all, at least, not the way I thought.
When she looked at me she not only saw the truth, but what she wanted for her own. What she did not have. It hurt to think of someone having so much pain.
Maria meant every word she spoke that day. She motioned for me to follow her, as she pushed her way past my father. My father looked as if he’d just been read a death sentence. I watched him raise his hand to reach for me, but then it dropped back to his side.
We walked pass the diners and right out the front door of the restaurant, never looked back for a second. I could feel my mother watch me walk out the door. My wish was that her heart was hurting, the way my face did.
She could have stopped my father somehow. Said something to make what he thought happened not be so. She could have gotten him to talk to me first, anything.
Maria and I walked to the back parking lot for the staff and customers. We got into her brand new red Range Rover. Another one of my father’s typical guilt gifts.
At this point, it looks like she was on her way to a brand new Bentley. Maria was silent for a bit as we pulled off. She grabbed the cigarettes from the dash and lit one. She held the cigarette in my direction.
“You smoke yet?” she asked.
I made a disgusted face and replied, “No!”
I couldn’t believe she even offered. Maria pulled the cigarette back her way and looked at it. Without another thought she put down her window and plucked it out.
“I guess I have all the answers I was trying to get from these now,” she said, as she tossed the rest of the pack out of the window as well.
After that we just rode in silence. I tried to wrap my mind around all that had happened. Then I began to think about how I was on my way to someplace I have only dreamed about. I had never been to my father’s house before that day. I have always dreamed of what it would be like.
Wondering things like, was it as big as the one he bought us? Was there a room there just for me that my father hoped to see me in? Where exactly did he live in the first place?
These were all answers I was sure to receive soon. I was excited and uneasy. I didn’t know what to do with myself.
After an hour, we pulled up to an enormous iron gate. It was adorned with gold dipped iron Ls surrounded by black iron spokes. In that instant, I knew his house was much nicer than the one I lived in and that is saying a whole lot.
Our house was far from some tiny shack or just some mini mansion for that matter. The house my father bought my mother was in a gated community. However, the home he lived in was on gated property all to itself.
I watched as Maria pushed a button by the visor and the gates swung open. We started up through a row of trees on a stone paved road. After about a half a mile the trees opened up to the most beautiful home, an estate like I had never seen before. Four large white marble columns held up the thick slab triangle covering.
Under the covering, sat a double doorway the size of four single doorways. The doors were frosted glass panels that looked seamless. The double doors were flanked with more glass panels that held large Ls, inlaid in an intricate frosted design.
There was a huge fountain in the center of the driveway, in front of the house. The fountain had a woman that looked like some type of goddess, holding up a pot on her right shoulder. Water spilled out of the pot, down her right side. It was so beautiful. I tried counting the windows, but gave up quickly. There were way too many just on the first floor of the house.
Maria cut the engine taking a deep breath, before looking over at me. “Victoria, I want you to make this your home as much as it is mine. We won’t be spending much of our time at the restaurant anymore.”
I looked at her, not sure what I felt about what had happened or what she was saying. “Okay,” I just replied.
Maria continued. “I wanted to adopt for years and your father refused. I’ve watched you grow up wanting to be your mother, knowing deep in my heart who you were. Now, I don’t need to adopt and I don’t need to want to be your mother, because I am.”
She paused and turned to look out of the windshield. She sucked in a long breath. “I’m sorry about all the things I’ve said and done in the past. It was very wrong of me to take my anger out on yous children. I do want you to forgive me, and from now on, I want you to call me your mother. I know you’re old enough to know what is going on here.”
She dropped her head into her hands and sobbed for a little while. I could feel the tears burn down my own cheeks as well. I had wanted my mother to hurt, but I knew this was way more than I wanted.
Maria meant to destroy. She knew how much my mother loved me. We were very close to one and other, everyone could see that.
Maria also knew Venny would do anything to make her happy at that point, he was sure to grant her this. I had the feeling he had no choice. As if Maria could end life as he knew it, if she really wanted to.
Beyond his secret family, beyond the money, Maria held cards that I didn’t understand yet, but I knew she held them. He would have to watch his precious part time family be torn apart. As I sat and truly grasped Maria’s intentions, I swallowed hard.
My own tears made swallowing very hard to do. Just then, I realized my life had changed forever. I was no longer a secret.
I had turned into something else. A pawn in a game that I didn’t say I wanted to play. One thing was for sure, I had no idea at that time I was a pawn in a larger game, for far longer than Maria or I had known.