What We Value
No sooner were the vows completed that Vodingo swept Sidonia up his arms and kissed her far more passionately than Icaro kissed Zorah.
Zorah looked away, burying her face in Icaro’s chest as her cheeks turned red while her uncle protested the man’s hands on Sidonia’s buttocks at the altar. Sidonia’s mother let out a piercing cry of sorrow as if she’d suddenly come to her senses. When Sidonia was carried from the church her legs wrapped around Vodingo’s waist as he never broke the kiss, Zorah was horrified.
“What is he doing?”
“Pretty sure he’s going to consummate his marriage right now.” Icaro laughed. “The man has zero chill. He’s the most intense man in our family. I bet she’s pregnant before we reach the chopper.”
“What if she doesn’t want –”
“Did you see the way she was grinding on him? She wants to.” He tugged her hand and kissed her fingers. “Some of us were raised to be more controlled and thoughtful.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Also, I have reading material for you in the limo and then we’re getting in the helicopter to take us back to New York.”
“New York?”
“Yes. We’re going to spend tonight in a hotel suite in New York and then tomorrow we’ll fly to Italy. My family wants to meet you however, we’ll also spend some time on the coast in a villa just the two of us.” He paused, “well, we’ll be in our own villa, but Vod and Sidonia will be next door as will a huge security team.”
“We’re going to Italy. I don’t have a passport.”
“You do.” He walked with her down the aisle towards the exit. “I know you packed some of your clothing but now with Sidonia coming with us, we’ll pack up your entire apartment and you two can sort out what you want to keep or leave.”
“I bet none of the things in our apartment would be to the standard of your home.”
“Not true.” He shook his head. “Back home, in Sicily, we live very simply. We still eat dinner on a table my great-grandfather crafted himself with his hands. While we enjoy the finer things in life, home is meant to be where you relax and unwind. Yes, we have a jacuzzi bath with jets and the like, but we also have a root cellar where my grandmother and mother’s preserves and tomato sauces get stored. We have a large television, but my grandfather watches it from a recliner he bought when he was first married decades ago. I sleep on a mattress worth more than this building with sheets so incredibly soft you’d think it was made of the tears of a lamb, yet I stay warm with a quilt my Mama made for me when I was a mere boy. There are things in life which don’t need to be expensive to be valuable.”
His views were surprising her as they reached the car waiting for them. “You really sleep with your mother’s handmade quilt?”
“I do when I am in the family home. Yes.”
“You have homes all over the world.”
“I do. We’ll live for the most part in New York. It is where I conduct the bulk of my business. It is a large estate, and we’ll have our own wing of the house. Vodingo and Sidonia will occupy their own wing. My parents have a part of the house, which is their own when they come to stay, and they usually like to be near me. My guards and security and the staff also have their own spot because nobody likes their bosses watching them when they relax. It is big enough we could have twenty families living there peacefully.” He leaned down and bit her ear, “in case you were wondering if the others would hear you screaming when I make you orgasm.”
Her face heated up at his comment. “Icaro!”
Whatever he was going to say next was interrupted as her mother came scurrying behind them. “Zorah Maria, you are going to leave without saying goodbye?”
She felt Icaro’s hand on her waist and she turned to give her mother her full attention, “goodbye, Mama.”
Her mother appeared confused, “you are not remotely sad to be leaving us?”
“Mama, what do you want from me? This morning you told me when I go, I am not to bring shame on my uncle. You reminded me I was marrying someone he didn’t approve of and for this, I should not show my face at mass any longer. Do you want me to stay and embarrass him or leave to spare him? I’m confused.”
Her mother reached out to slap her cheek, but Icaro caught her hand and shoved it aside.
“You will never put your hand to my wife, am I clear?” his voice was flintlike, and Zorah wondered if a single spark would burn her mother to nothing but ash where she stood.
“She is breaking commandments by not honoring her mother.”
“You dishonor yours every single day by behaving like a sycophant to a man who preaches as if he himself were the Lord,” Icaro shot back. “I knew your mother and my mother speaks highly of the woman your mother was. She was a true saintly being with a heart so pure and loving she would have given her own clothing off her body to cover another who had none. She smothered you and your brother in unconditional love and affection. She made sure you knew there was nothing you could ever do which would turn her emotions from you. I bet she watches you from where she sits and shakes her head in sadness.”
Zipporah stepped back in shock at the blunt words, “you!”
“Go back inside and tell your big brother you have seen us off and I have made it clear your work in raising Zorah is done.” He looked to Zorah, “say goodbye.”
“Goodbye, Mama.” She swallowed the lump in her throat as she lifted the hem of her dress and slid into the backseat of the car without a backwards glance.
Icaro took her hand as the car pulled away leaving her mother standing on the sidewalk, “has she raised her hand to you like this in the past?”
She shrugged, “only if I spoke out of turn. I rarely ever do. I know when to keep quiet with her and when she’s feeling vulnerable.”
“She’s feeling vulnerable?” he echoed her comment.
“When my uncle is displeased with her for one reason or another, she worries he’ll cast her aside and leave her alone in the world. He is all she has left now. He’s the only connection to her parents. She lives to get his approval.”
“By striking you?”
“No. By making me perfect in his eyes.”
“In God’s eyes?”
“No.” She didn’t elaborate and turned her head to look out the window.
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