Page 18 of Urgent Vows
He had looked so proud and happy. All the while he had been hurting her and I had not realized it.
Then I think about how easily Catalina had slipped on the mask of shy, but happy bride while in pain and feeling anything but joy. Which of them should I believe?
"I wonder how many of your guests were fooled by my performance on the way out of the ballroom," she says as if she is reading my thoughts.
"I would say all of them."
"Your mother is much better at lying than I am, but I can pretend almost any emotion."
Her comment about my mother gives me pause, but she is right. Mamma has learned to lie to protect her position, my father, and even me. She is very good at it, as evidenced today.
"You are saying you get that ability from your father."
Revulsion crossed her lovely features already drawn with weariness. "I don't like to think so, but I cannot deny that he is a good actor and so am I. I definitely learned the skill because of him. Both as protection and to deprive him of his power. I stopped letting him see my fear the year after I finished at boarding school."
I am not a good man. I do not hesitate to kill for the good ofla famiglia. I torture my enemies without remorse. I do not have nightmares or regrets. Cruelty is just another tool I use to protect and strengthen Genovese interests.
And yet I am sickened to consider what Catalina would have gone through to teach her not to show her pain and fear to her father.
CATALINA
It is my first visit to the hospital used by most ofla famiglia.
It looks like any other building in New York, but when our convoy of cars pull into the parking garage, a steel gate shuts behind us. We stop by a bank of elevators and hospital staff are waiting there with a gurney already.
Severu insists on lifting me out of the car and onto the gurney while his bevy of bodyguards surround us. The doctor starts asking questions and I answer, glad that the back of the gurney has been raised so I'm not lying flat on my back. It might feel better on my ribs, but it would have made talking awkward.
I am impressed that Severu is able to stop himself from interrupting. I can tell he wants to speak, but he doesn't.
Not until I've catalogued my injuries on the elevator ride up. Then he informs the doctor he expects a full scan done, regardless of the injuries I have listed and that he wants an orthopedic surgeon on standby in case my hand needs to be repaired.
"Do not worry, we will take good care of your wife." The doctor smiles at Severu as the elevator doors open.
My husband, clearly unimpressed with the assurance, glowers at the doctor.
Although he looks to be in his fifties and has to be used to treating mafia patients since he works at a mafia funded hospital, the doctor shrinks back.
I am wheeled into a corridor that looks more like a high end hotel space than any hospital I have been in. And I have been in a few. Papà took us to hospitals and clinics all over New York and Long Island to prevent an easy record keeping of the abuse injuries my mother and I suffered.
I mean, I assume he did the same for Mamma. I only know about a few of her trips, the ones I remember. I have no idea where he actually took her. I was bluffing when I asked Severu why my father never took my mother to this hospital or the mafia approved clinic on Long Island. His reaction confirmed my guess though.
We reach a set of double white paneled doors that look like they belong in my father's mansion. Both are open and I am wheeled through. The first room we come to is a sitting area, with a sofa and two armchairs, a mini bar and a big screen television. We pass a large desk clearly intended for the businessman who needs to work while waiting on treatment for a loved one.
The doctor looks at Severu. "If you and your men will wait in here."
"I will be staying with my wife," my husband, the don, says in a chilling tone.
"That is fine, but there is not room for your entire security detail in the treatment room. My team needs space to give your wife the best treatment possible."
Severu inclines his head. "Everyone but Aldo will wait here."
We go through another set of double doors and the smell of antiseptic, like any other hospital, hits me first. The walls are painted a soft peach color and the artwork looks like it could be in a museum. But there are all sorts of machines around the high-tech hospital bed in the center of the room and all the usual accoutrements for sanitization.
"We'll take your gown off before we transfer you to the treatment bed, Mrs. De Luca." The doctor nods at one of the nurses.
Severu steps forward before the male nurse can touch me. "I sent instructions for a female medical team. Why weren't they followed?"
"My team were the ones available. If you wish to wait for your wife's care, we can make the change." Apparently, the doctor has gotten over his fear because he eyes Severu coolly.
