“Whaddya mean, why not?” she sputtered furiously. “I’m not a putana! What do you think I am? I’m not selling my baby!”
The two looked at each other in the dim light. Gina was breathing hard. Suddenly, the garbage reek and Luca’s cigarette smoke was making her ill. A wave of nausea swept over her.
“I don’t feel so good,” she whispered, her hand on her belly. She attempted to swallow, but felt something stick in her throat.
“Santa Maria,” Luca breathed, and stabbed out his cigarette on the grimy sidewalk. He regarded his sister soberly. “You hear yourself?”
Gina nodded morosely, wondering how far along she was. Suddenly, she felt tremendously tired, and thought longingly of her bed upstairs in the family nest her parents had created for them in the heart of the Roman metropolis.
“I said,” Luca repeated, “do you hear yourself?”
Gina looked at him uncomprehendingly.
“You just called it ‘my baby,’” He stated flatly. His face was emotionless, but his dark eyes were watching her intently.
Gina shook her head. Yes, she had. She knew what her brother was thinking – if she wouldn’t give her baby up for money, then she had to admit that ‘it’ really was a baby.
Her baby. A swell of emotion hit her, along with another wave of weariness.
It was all too much to think about. The tears started to course down her cheeks again.
“I got no right,” she whispered weakly, thinking of how her parents would react to the news. “Who’s gonna take care of it?”
In the end, Luca agreed to keep her secret, “but just for a week,” he added darkly. “You can’t screw around with this.”
CHAPTER 3
The young nun swept down the hallway in a state of high excitement. The summons to the Mother Prior’s office had not been unexpected.
Rumors had been flying around the Boston convent for about a week of a new establishment, a ‘daughter house’ to be founded in Italy.
This would be the Sisters’ second European venture. The first, in Scotland, had come at the behest of an embattled bishop there, who had gladly made a huge, 19th century church property in a depressed industrial suburb of Glasgow available to the four American Sisters, members of a newly-established Order dedicated to the ‘support of the family’ just ten years before.
“I’m old enough to remember the Westerns,” he’d announced in his thick Glaswegian accent.
REGINA | 102
Perhaps a couple of weeks there with the children would be a good thing; time with the grandparents would benefit all the generations, and the Roman sunshine would no doubt improve her mood and her health. Perhaps when she returned things would be better with Philip.
Phillip shrugged indifferently when she told him about the idea. He really didn’t have much to say, in fact. The next morning, he was suddenly called away early for a meeting, and so it was that she stumbled upon the horrible video he’d forgotten to erase from the computer’s history.
The thing had morphed far beyond sex, she shuddered, as hooded naked figures inflicted violent debasement on each other.
Shaken to her core, Stacey didn’t trust herself to confront her husband. Instead, she steadied herself by making hasty travel plans; when she called, her parents were delighted that they were coming.
The next day, Philip left for work as usual. She drove herself and the kids to Stanstead Airport, and left the car in long-term parking.
As she settled the excited children into their seats, her mobile rang. It was Philip.
“I found your note,” she heard him say in a flat voice. “I would have liked to have said goodbye to my own children.”
Stacey fought wildly to suppress her biting retort, and managed to whisper a weak, “yes, sorry there was no time” into the phone.
“But this trip will be good for the kids,” he continued, unconcerned.
She wondered if he was trying to be conciliatory.
“Yes it will,” she replied quietly, and waited.
“Any idea when you’ll be back?”
“Not right now,” she said, forcing herself to keep her tone light. “Well, we’re getting ready to take off, so I gotta go now.”
As the Airbus 320 lifted off into the sunny afternoon skies and circled over the green fields surrounding London, she closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. It would be so good to get away from him.
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