I took the cigarette from him. It had gotten short and hot, like my temper.
“I don’t think you can ask while you’re legally married to someone else.”
He smiled ruefully and rubbed his eyes. “What a mess.”
“They’re here,” I said. I rolled down the window a crack, as if I was still in high school getting caught being a bad girl.
Antonio looked up, hand reaching for the key. Otto and Declan Drazen, each carrying an umbrella, walked out the sliding doors. Dad looked no worse for the wear in a sport jacket and sweater. He barely looked both ways when crossing, as if a car wouldn’t dare try to occupy the same space as him because he was entitled to the world at large.
Or at least that was how I saw it. We all saw him differently, and we were all correct. He was an exacting judge, a paymaster, evil incarnate, a master controller, a father whose only concern was the ten people in his family and their legacy. Only Jonathan had failed to disappoint him, and he was the child who hated him the most.
The back door clicked open, and my father slipped in. Otto closed the door behind him, staying outside to watch.
“Hi, Dad,” I said.
“Theresa. Mister Spinelli. Good to see you again.”
Antonio reached over the front seat, and they shook hands. “Sorry about the circumstances.”
“My daughter explained it.” He was talking about Margie, who I’d called first. “Quite involved, this whole situation.” In the window behind my father, Otto’s cigarette smoke drifted by, unaffected by the rain. “Theresa was always the one who caused no trouble at all.” He looked at me. “Guess you were saving it up.”
“How’s Jonathan?” I asked.
“Near death. You might want to stop by.”
“I wish I could.”
“Indeed. Now.” He jerked his head toward where Otto stood outside. “The gentleman tells me you wanted something?”
“There’s a woman inside this hospital,” I said. “She’s probably being discharged right now. She’s being watched by a group of people—”
“The Carloni family?” Dad said.
Antonio twisted around to face my father a little more. Was he regarding him more seriously? That was wise.
“How many?” Antonio asked.
“I haven’t had cause to count, but if you put them together with the family of Paulie Patalano, it’s like an underworld reunion.”
“Dad, this is important. I know you have some pull in this hospital. If you could just put her in a room alone for ten minutes, Antonio and I could go in and walk her out. No problem.”
“How is it you can do that?”
“She and I have the same name,” Antonio said.
I tensed up. We would have to explain.
Antonio, as if sensing that I needed to get it over with, finished the thought. “I’m her husband. They’ll let me take her.”
Why had that felt like a knife in my heart? As if I didn’t know it already. Was it because my father was sitting right there, and my shame was so great, the pain became fresh and raw all over again? Dad seemed to consider all the implications, letting the pause hang.
“They’re going to kill her,” I said.
“So they brought her to the hospital? Please, Theresa, you’ve never been one for dramatics. This is disconcerting. Disheartening, even. Mister Spinelli, I am sure you’re a man of values, but they’re not my family’s. And it seems like in addition to losing my son in the next few days, I’ve already lost my daughter. My goal in life has been keeping this family together, and it’s blown apart.”
“It hasn’t,” I said. “I’m here, and this is a bump in the road.”
I didn’t even believe it, and neither did he.
“Prove it,” he said. “If this is a bump, when it’s done, you stay. You don’t do a Carrie and move away.”
I glanced at Antonio, whose eyes stayed on my father.
“I can’t promise that,” I said.
“Then I can’t promise anything either.”