My fingers fumble as I open the news app; my heart is already pounding, and my breath feels caught in my throat. The knot gets only worse when I read:
Marcello Orsi Shot in Parking Garage — Currently in Critical Condition at St. Raphael’s ICU.
The screen blurs, and I read the headline again. And again.
It doesn’t change.
My brother.
The only person left in this world who loves me without needing something in return. The only one who everreally saw me.Shot.Like an animal. In a parking garage. I can’t breathe.
A sob tries to break free, but I swallow it back down. I’ve learned how to bury sounds, to choke back screams, to silence grief the way I silence everything else.
But this? This is different. This is Marcello.
He might be dying. That thought hits harder than any punch to the gut that Roberto has ever given me. I crumble over myself as tears slide down my face before I can stop them. Silent. Salt on a wound that will never close.
It takes me a moment before I'm able to read the rest of the article. My eyes burn from focusing so hard through the tears, as I devour every single word.
Mob Ties: Marcello Orsi Shot in Midtown Parking Garage
By: Angela Donati
Marcello Orsi, son of alleged Mafia kingpin Carlos Orsi, was shot late Wednesday afternoon in a Midtown parking garage located beneath Parkway One Tower at 420 East 58th Street.
Eyewitnesses reported hearing multiple gunshots around 4:45 PM. Surveillance footage shows Orsi exiting the elevator in the garage with two as-yet-unidentified subjects moments before the attack.
Sources close to law enforcement confirm that Orsi sustained multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the head.
I gasp, my hand flies to my mouth as I stare at the screen. My chest tightens, and my vision blurs once again. Shot in the head.That's bad. That's really, really bad. I will the tears back, because I want to read the rest of the article, which feels like a lifeline to my brother.
Orsi was rushed to St. Raphael’s Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit. Doctors have stated he is not expected to survive the night.
Marcello Orsi, 30, is the son of Carlos Orsi, the controversial patriarch of the Orsi crime family, currently on trial for federal racketeering and embezzlement. While Marcello has no official criminal record, he has been suspected of involvement in the family’s business operations overseas.
I stop reading, and my eyes fall on the last text exchange between Marcello and me, from yesterday afternoon. Roberto had retreated to his office, leaving me with fresh bruises and orders to cancel the dinner he’d just had me schedule. I had typed out the message with a shaking hand, but my words were steady. I'd been daydreaming of Marcello being my knight in shining armor, but in reality, it could never happen. The moment he found out, Roberto would be dead, and Marcello would be sodeep in trouble I can't even imagine it. I can't do that to him. I just can't.
So I cancelled dinner.
Marcello:
I'll come by your house now
Me:
No, don't. I'm not home.
Marcello:
Where are you?
Me:
Let's meet tomorrow.
Tomorrow. Today.
Tomorrow, a word I've taken for granted for too long. A word I of all people should know not to take for granted. He must have been shot right after our texts. The phone slips from my hand to the bed. The sob escapes before I can stop it, a raw, shaking sound torn from somewhere deep inside.
