Page 103 of Heartache & Playdates
Shit.I’d been so laser focused on coming to make sure Peyton was okay, I hadn’t thought that us being here would upset Nonna. But of course it would. The woman just had a heart attack and I brought her long-lost great granddaughter to meet her.
What the fuck was I thinking?
“Nonna, what’s wrong?” Peyton rushed to her side.
“Get my bag,” she instructed.
“Your bag?”
“My bag! My bag with my things, with the things I wear!”
“Oh, okay.” Peyton walked to a cabinet and pulled out the white plastic bag that contained the clothes Nonna was wearing when she was admitted.
Peyton opened it and looked inside. “What do you need?”
“My bag! Give me bag!”
Peyton handed it to her, and she dug through it for a minute or so, before pulling out a gold bracelet. She handed the bracelet to Lina. “You read. You read on inside.”
Lina looked at both myself and Peyton, like she wasn’t sure what to do. We both smiled with encouragement.
“Read!” Nonna demanded.
Lina took the bracelet and looked at the inside. She tilted it up and down before slowly reading, “Angelina four…twelve…something I can’t rea—"
“Yes, yes. Angelina, I have her on April 12th. That was the name that I gave my baby before they take her.”
I looked at Peyton to see if she knew what she was talking about. There were tears in her eyes so I figured she did. I wondered if it was a baby Nonna had lost.
“Okay, Mrs. Russo.” A nurse came in and flipped on the florescent overhead lights. “Oh, I see you have a full house. “I’m going to need to ask you to wait outside while I take her vitals. Then we’re going to be taking her down for more tests.”
Peyton walked over to the bed and placed her hand over Nonna’s. “Are you going to be okay? Do you want me to stay?”
“I’m fine. I’m fine.” Nonna shooed her away. “Always so worried.”
“We’ll have her back in about an hour if you wanted to go get something to eat,” the nurse explained.
The three of us all walked out of the room silently. When we reached the end of the hall, Peyton, who looked like she’d seen a ghost, pressed the elevator button.
“Did you want us to take you home so you can get your car and charger?”
“Yeah, that would be great.” She nodded.
We stepped in and Lina handed the bracelet back to Peyton. “Who is she talking about?”
Peyton took it and looked down at the bracelet. “When I told Nonna about you, she told me that she’d had a baby when she was sixteen, in Italy. Her parents sent her to a nunnery and then she was sent to America. I guess when she gave birth, she named her daughter Angelina and then had this bracelet made to remember her.” Peyton held up the bracelet.
“Are you kidding me?” Lina’s eyes were as wide as saucers. “That’s crazy.”
It was crazy.
“Whoa! Nice ring!” Lina exclaimed as she lifted up Peyton’s left hand that had a very large diamond sitting on her ring finger.
Seeing the ring hit me like a punch in the gut. It knocked the wind out of me.
“Oh, no! This is…it’s not what you…” Peyton’s eyes darted to mine and I could see the panic in them. “I couldn’t get it off. This morning, because I was drinking last night and…and…”
“Is it from the guy in New York?” Lina asked.
