“Can I see her now?”
“Yes. She’s still in the ER, Jérôme didn’t want to move her.”
“Is he sure there’s nothing they can do for her?”
“They did all the tests and scans. Jérôme told her what was going on. They could take her into surgery. But there’s only a ten percent chance that she’ll come out of it, so she said no. She wanted to spend her time with Giancarlo and with you.”
As I get up to follow Giovanna, I feel sick. I have a son, and his mother is dying.
“Does the family know about this?”
“No. I wanted to talk to you first, we both know how our family is, and I didn’t want to overwhelm you or Giancarlo. I figured after you talk to Faith, we can call everyone.”
“Good idea.” I nod, and as we head down to the ER, Giovanna takes my hand.
Today started off so differently. And now I don’t know what I’m going to do. Jérôme comes up to us as we’re walking into the ER.
“I had Faith moved to the ICU. I wanted her to be able to spend whatever time she has left with Giancarlo without other people poking their heads in and all the noise in the ER.”
“How is she doing?” I ask him.
“She’s not in pain right now, but she’s still in the same state as when she came in. We’ve talked about what will happen?—”
“How long do you think she has?”
“Hours. Maybe. I can’t be certain. But it won’t be longer than the morning. We’ve given her medication to try and help. But I don’t think it’ll work. She’s asked that we tell her the truth, no matter how hard it’ll be to hear it. I’ll show you to her room.”
“Thank you, Jérôme. I appreciate you taking care of Faith and Giancarlo.”
“Of course. After Giovanna told me who she was, it’s the least I could do. Giancarlo really does look like you.”
Jérôme is the head of the ER department at Lucciola Memorial. His papa is the head of the Springfield Mafia and our history with the Laurents is long and not always pleasant. His papa, Dorian, kidnapped Giovanna and her twin brother, Lorenzo, when they were two. He raised them with his sons for twenty-three years. My zio Enea chose to let him live because that’s what the twins asked him for. And now we all work together. Dorian doesn’t come around unless he’s called upon. I don’t know how my zio refrains from killing him, but somehow he’s done it.
“Are you ready?” Gia asks me softly.
“I think so.”
I follow her into the room and see Faith propped up in the bed. Giancarlo is sitting with her and she’s reading to him. When we were together, she was the only one I thought of having a relationship with.
“Hi,” I say I walk over to stand next to her bed.
“Hi,” she says softly.
“I’ll leave you three alone. But if you need me, text me and I’ll come back down.”
“Thanks, Gia.”
“Giancarlo, I want you to meet someone,” Faith says as to him as she closes the book. “This is Gianluca. He’s your daddy.”
“Hewwo,” Giancarlo says as he looks up at me.
“I know you’re not sure he’s yours. But I promise you he is. Could we call Giovanna back? I need to tell you some things and I don’t want Carlo to hear.”
I nod and text Gia.
“She said she’ll be right down.”
I stare at Giancarlo, he looks just like me. He has my eyes and my nose.
