Privacy Violation
“You’re angry. I thought this time with us would soften your anger, but it seems to have made it worse.”
“It’s been just over a week since I’ve been married, just over two weeks since I met Icaro. My entire life has been turned upside down and flipped inside out. The people who work here, talk about me like I’m a pathetic embarrassment. Your family all think I should be this doormat who forgives Icaro for the fact I needed to demand a STD screening on the day of my wedding. You call me weak for being frightened and reacting with tears to a woman being shot in the forehead, yet you call me unbending because I won’t forgive the same man who murdered her for turning my world on its axis.” She gave an exasperated punch to the bed. “I have known Icaro barely two weeks and yet you expect me to fall in love with him as if none of this craziness has happened. Where is all the patience and forgiveness which you’re demanding I give Icaro afforded to me?”
Avaline took a long breath, “you are right, Zorah. We have failed you as a family. Take all the time you need, Zorah.” She rose from the bed and squeezed Zorah’s shoulder. “I care very much for you Zorah.”
“I know you do. I simply don’t want to fall in love with this family and be unable to leave a husband I don’t love because I’m wanting parents and grandparents who are giving me the affection the child in me is craving.”
A strangled cough from the doorway made both women turn their gazes to the door. Icaro was standing there with his hand clenching the frame. He cleared his throat, and a cool mask covered the pain of hearing Zorah’s words, “I saw Benita and she said you weren’t quite done packing. The car is loaded up with everything but your bags. Can I help?”
She shook her head refusing to give in to the desire in her to comfort him, “if you can all simply give me five minutes on my own, I can pack up what is left.”
“Of course, Mom, let’s give Zorah some privacy.” He waved his hand at his mother. “Vodingo and Sidonia will be traveling with us in our vehicle if this is okay with you.”
“Sounds good,” she nodded.
He turned around and followed his mother’s quiet footsteps away from the room. She finished packing up the few remaining items by shoving them carelessly into the suitcases laid out for her and then took one last look around the room. Picking her phone off the nightstand she tucked it into the back pocket of her jeans and gave a sigh.
At the five-minute mark, Icaro came back with two men who grabbed her bags and began carrying them away.
“All set?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me Benita was pressuring you to accept me?” He asked bluntly.
“She means well, and I knew I wouldn’t be bringing her with us to Catania, so I thought I’d let it ride.”
“Okay. I have some information for you before we head out.”
“I thought we were in a hurry.” She twiddled her fingers.
“Yes, except Vodingo let information slip in front of Sidonia which I don’t think is fair she knows, and you don’t. More importantly I want you to hear it from me and not her.”
“Is it bad?”
“It’s not bad but it does concern you and your family.”
“Okay.”
“When The Walrus was at the vineyard last week, he tried to negotiate a twenty-five percent discount in exchange for information. We declined of course because despite him thinking he has an edge on us in terms of intelligence and information, I knew we could gather the details without his input.”
“Okay.”
“Your families, both Grasso and Esposito, understood when your grandparents immigrated to America, they were pregnant with Ippocrate.”
“Right. I know this.”
“They were not.”
“What?”
“As you know, Ippocrate is much older than Zipporah.”
“Fifteen years.”
“Your grandparents immigrated to America at the same time as several other families. They befriended many families. One of those families included a teen daughter who they were relocating to America from Milan because she’d gotten herself into trouble. At seventeen she was embroiled in an affair with a local politician and found herself pregnant. The girl gave birth to a boy and your grandparents adopted the child because your grandmother was under the impression she could not have children of her own. We obtained her medical records from here in Sicily. Her old doctor didn’t destroy anything. She was diagnosed with infertility, but she hid it from the family. Your mother was a surprise, a miracle in their eyes, fifteen years later.”
“How did you find this out?”
“Your uncle is in communication with a younger half-sister who sought him out when he was in his early twenties. We missed it in his emails because he was addressing his emails to ‘Sister’ and we all presumed this meant another nun he was dealing with. In fact, it is his biological half-sister. His parents confessed when he confronted them years ago, but they assured him it didn’t change their love of him. They felt the two families met out of divine providence because your grandmother couldn’t have children. We found out part of the reason your grandmother was so against your grandfather communicating with family back here was because she wanted to keep the fact, he was adopted in a closed adoption, incredibly quiet. She wanted everyone to believe she had him on her own.”
“So, he’s not really my uncle.”
“No.”
“He always knew he wasn’t my uncle.”
“Yes.”
“Does my mother know?”
“Not to my knowledge. She would have only been four or five when he found out. There is more.”
“What else?”
“We figured it out and I’m dealing with it, but Walrus paid one of our drivers, not a Lucchesi born man, a significant amount of money once he saw you on the balcony. The Walrus bribed him with a lump sum he’d never see again in his life. He was the driver for Vodingo and Sidonia the morning we flew to Rome from New York. He knew of your abuse because he heard them discussing it in the car. When the Walrus asked him if he knew any inside information, he shared the details.”
“The Walrus knows my uncle who is not my uncle, and my mother were beating me.”
“I’m sorry, Zorah. Yes. He knows. It is a horrible violation of your privacy. Sidonia and Vodingo both have been reprimanded for discussing you in the proximity of people who should never know such things. Sidonia feels terrible as does Vod, but she is quite upset to have inadvertently shared your secret.”
“I’ll talk to her,” Zorah sighed and then looked to Icaro, “how much did my privacy get sold for?”
“Ten million euros. We figured it out when we caught him trying to leave town on a one-way ticket back to America. He was going to try to disappear from there.”
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