Page 86 of Urgent Vows
When I am finished, I let my fingers rest softly on the keys.
"That was beautiful, but I do not recognize it," Aria says from behind me.
Startled, my fingers come down on the keys in a discordant note. I turn to face my mother-in-law. "Um…thank you."
When had she arrived? Had she been standing there very long?
She smiles at me, her green eyes gentle on me. "What is that song called?"
"I call it Peace."
"You call it? Did you write it?"
I've never put the notes onto paper, but that's not really what my mother-in-law is asking.
"I composed it. It's nothing special." Just a song that helps me get my thoughts in order and my emotions under control.
"It's beautiful." Aria smiles. "Do you mind if I sit and listen to you play?"
"Not at all." And I find I am speaking the truth.
I usually prefer to play without an audience, but Aria's presence does not feel like an intrusion. If I'd known she was there while I played Peace, I probably would have stopped, but now that I'm a little calmer, it's fine.
"This is your home," I tell her.
"It is the family home," she agrees. "However, Catalina, this floor belongs to you and my son. If you don't want company, you only have to say so."
Chapter 28
CATALINA
I'm back to feeling out of my depth. It's too much. All of this kindness. The implications that I am important in a way I have not been for all of my twenty-five years of life.
I just shake my head and start playing again.
Out of the periphery of my eye, I see that Aria has taken a seat. Aldo is standing guard somewhere close by. Willing myself to forget them both, I seek solace in the music and allow my brain to process the last two days.
What is happening with Carlotta? Is she alright? How is she surviving on the outside? She has very little money, if any, and that worries me. Though if she uses her credit card to pay for lodging and food, it should make it easier for Severu's men to find her.
My sister is so naïve though. Anything could happen. She doesn't know the first thing about life as an outsider. I hope they find her soon.
Who else, besides Big Sal, thinks the rat might be a part of my father's household? Does Severu suspect me? He says not, but he's wily. He wouldn't let me know if he suspected me.
I change the song I'm playing from a fast-paced folksong keeping time with my whirling thoughts, to a slow, meditative piece as I play through my memories, looking for suspicious activity on the part of my father's men, or the staff. I'm sure I saw more than I was meant to because in my father's house, Ialwaysdid my best not to draw attention.
And most of his men saw me as unimportant. No threat. Which I wasn't, but that doesn't mean I didn't watch and listen. Even the staff would gossip in my presence about things they would never have mentioned in front of my aunt or sister.
There was the time I saw Fausto, the head of father's soldiers, coming out of Papà's study. Not unusual, but this time he'd looked like he didn't want to be seen there, checking the hall before coming out and closing the door softly behind him, before hurrying off. He didn't notice me. He rarely noticed me, and I was glad.
Because the few times he did, he could be as cruel and threatening as my father.
I'd seen staff in parts of the house they had no business being, but that didn't mean they were spying. I know of at least one maid who is in a relationship with one of the soldiers. My father frowned on that kind of fraternization, so they both were sometimes places they wouldn't otherwise be.
Should I tell Severu about the anomalous and sometimes sneaky behavior? I don't want to. I know how the mafia extracts information and I don't want to be responsible for an innocent person being subjected to torture. Not even Fausto. But I'm not living in the mansion any longer. I can't gather further information to make a more educated determination whether someone should be questioned, or not.
Even more than I don't want to have an innocent tortured, I don't want to be party to a rat going free and further harmingla famiglia. I don't want to let Severu down.
With his image playing in my head like a slide reel of all our moments of interaction between our first meeting to our wedding night and then today, my fingers slide into a different tune. It's soft jazz, a song that always makes me feel longing for something.
