Page 20 of Trina Gabrini: Bring Him Back Home to Me

Jimmy and Dom looked at each other. “What the fuck?” was the look on both of their faces.

Then they looked at Trina. She looked even more bewildered than they did.

But upstairs, Sal Gabrini remained chill even when he walked into the master bedroom and found Reno packing his suitcase. He unbuttoned his double-breasted suit and watched as Reno haphazardly grabbed twenty-thousand-dollar suits and were throwing them in a garment bag as if they were off the rack from Walmart.

He crossed his shoes and folded his arms. “What’s going on, Reno?”

But Reno kept on packing.

“You’re beginning to worry me, pal. Tell me what happened? Did you find her? What’s going on?”

“Nothing’s going on,” Reno shot back snappishly as he stopped packing to look at Sal.

But that look in his eyes was a mile away from nothing. “I heard you had drinks with a blonde. Was it Lydia? Does she know?”

How would he know about that? “No. It’s nothing like that.”

“Bullshit!”

Reno continued packing.

“If it’s nothing, why are you packing like some wild banshee?”

“I’ve gotta get away for a minute.”

“Get away? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means what I said Sal.”

“Why you gotta get away? You got a family here.”

“That’s why I gotta get away.”

Reno zipped up his suitcase and garment bag, grabbed them, and began heading for the exit.

But Sal was in the way. “I’m going to ask you again: Why?”

Reno stared into Sal’s eyes. And he couldn’t hold it in any longer. “It’s here, Sal. And I’ve got to contain it before it destroy us all.”

Sal could feel his heart drop. “Let me help,” he said.

“What help?” Reno looked anguished. “Nobody can help. This is all on me, and I’ve got to handle it my way.” Then a determined look flickered in Reno’s eyes. “And I will.”

Sal stepped aside, and Reno began to leave. But he stopped momentarily and looked back at Sal. “Take care of Tree and my children,” he said. Sal nodded. And then Reno took off.

But when he got downstairs, Trina and his children were waiting. When they saw the suitcase, they all hurried to him.

“Reno, what are you doing?” Trina asked him.

“What’s with the suitcase, Pop?” Jimmy asked him.

“Daddy, what’s wrong?” asked Sophia.

But Reno didn’t say a word. He couldn’t even look them in their eyes. He kept hurrying for the front door.

But Trina wasn’t about to just let him go. She grabbed him by the arm and turned him around to her. But when she saw that dark, void look in his eyes, her heart sank. “Reno, what’s wrong?”

His now glassy blue eyes didn’t blink. He was staring at her as if he was staring through her. As if he was staring at a stranger. Then he snatched away from her and kept moving.