Kira
It feels like all I do is fight and sob. I sob into my pillow, but I feel as though my heart is broken. I have put Raphael in direct danger now, and now Miguel knows about him and will want to claim him for himself. I sob until I have nothing left in me, and I fall asleep just as I am.
When I wake up, the room is dark, the sun hasn’t risen yet, so it must still be late. There’s a blanket pulled over me and a weight on my bed. I curl up and look down to see Miguel sitting at the end of my bed.
I sit up and hug my knees, keeping the blanket on. He is staring ahead at the shut door. He looks disheveled and haggard, as though he’s been up all night. I didn’t think the idea of having a son would have that much of an impact on him. Not with him being so cold and ruthless.
“Tell me about my son.”
His voice is low but not mean, not horrid. He is simply talking now.
I remain quiet because I don’t know what I can say to him that wouldn’t put Raphael in danger. I’ve already said too much. I don’t want Raphael to get to know Miguel. I wanted him to choose his own path.
“Tell me about my son,” he says again. This time it’s a command and the threat, although veiled, is there. He is out of patience and won’t be jerked around on this topic.
I swallow hard, and my voice is raspy as I speak, “He’s twelve. Last month was his birthday. He speaks Italian and English, and he is obsessed with ninjas. He wants to be a samurai when he is older.”
“A samurai is not a ninja,” Miguel says. “It’s completely different.”
I sit there for a moment before he speaks again. “What happened,
Kira? How did they find out?”
“I don’t know, Miguel. You were away with your family for two days, and that’s when they came for me.” My voice is quiet now.
Thirteen Years Earlier
I miss Miguel so much. He’s only gone for today and tomorrow, so I’ll see him tomorrow night, but dammit, I miss his face. I also can’t wait to give him the news. I know he’s going to be as excited as me.
I took the test twice and then went to the clinic to confirm. Now that I have the confirmation, I have an elaborate plan to announce that he will be a father.
I don’t know what we’re going to do about our families, but maybe they will accept us together now that I’m pregnant. I touch my belly softly before I pick up my book bag and head out of the dorm room. I have two classes, and then I’m free for the rest of the afternoon. I can go to the frat house and set everything up in his room to surprise him.
As I exit the dorm room and turn to walk toward class, I hear someone shout, “Kira! Hey Kira!”
I recognize the voice instantly. It’s my brother Joey. I smile and whip around, and I run toward him. He’s walking up the walkway toward the dorm room. I launch myself into his arms, hugging him tightly.
“Hey, baby sister,” he says affectionately.
“Why didn’t you call and let me know you were coming?” I ask, smiling.
“Well, I wish I could say it was because I wanted to surprise you, but Pa sent me. He needs you at home today. It’s urgent.’
“Is everything okay?” I ask as he takes my book bag. “Do I need anything?”
“I don’t know. He just asked me to come and get you.” He shifts his gaze, and I frown. “You’re lying; you can never look at me when you lie.” “Let’s just get home,” he says quietly, taking me by the arm.
“Is Mama okay?” I ask desperately.
“Yeah, she’s fine. Listen, don’t worry. I’m sure everything is fine.”
I walk with him, but I can’t help but worry. I want to ask him if it’s about Miguel, but if they don’t know about him, and if I ask, then they will learn about him, and that will make whatever situation this is worse.
I get into the car with him. Two guards sit in front of me, facing us. They sent the family car. That’s probably a good thing.
I look at Joey, and he gives me a hesitant smile.
I smile back and settle back. I hate waiting. I’ve never been a patient person, to begin with. I get that from my mother.
We pull into my father’s driveway, and the door is opened for me. I walk up the stairs and into the house. Joey comes in behind me as we approach my other brother, Gustavo. I hug him, but he’s very stiff with me.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“You should know,” he says coldly, “Father wants to see you in the study now.”
I nervously follow him, Joey behind me, and I walk into my father’s study. My father is sitting at his desk, a cigar in one hand and a drink in the other. He sets the cigar down and looks at me gravely.
“Bella, my child. How could you?” he stands up, setting his drink down. I stand there awkwardly and want to ask what he means, but he doesn’t give me a chance.
“I let you go to the school of your choosing, outside of our territory, and you fraternize with a fucking Rossi child,” he raises his voice as he speaks. “Have you no loyalty to your family?”
“Pa,” I begin to say, “I can explain.”
“Explain? Explain to Gustavo why he saw you with the boy all over you on campus, kissing you and touching you like some common troia.”
I swallow hard, tears forming in my eyes. “Pa, he isn’t a bad person. He is kind to me, and he treats me well. Please, if you would just meet him.”
“Meet him? Meet an enemy of our family because you couldn’t keep your legs closed. No, this ends now, Kira Gabriella Sorvino. You will not be going back to that school. My security will collect your things, and I will decide where you will finish your education if I decide you can be trusted to have one.”
“My grades haven’t fallen; we study together and work hard to support each other. Please, Pa, I’m in love with him. Please don’t do this.”
“You love him? You love this, bastardo? This piece of shit that would wipe your cousin’s face in dog shit? No, you are never to see anyone from the Rossi family again. You’d be lucky if I don’t move you out of New
York.”
“Pa, no, please.” I start to sob. It might be the hormones; I don’t know. “Please, we’re planning a family together.”
The room goes silent, and my father’s voice is barely a whisper,
“You’re pregnant with this filth’s child?”
“Yes, please, he will be a good father and provide for our family,” I plead.
“You are a disgrace. You speak as though my brother, the Don of the Sorvino family, would not provide for you. As though he would cast us aside. Who are you? If it were not against my catholic faith, I would have you abort the child.” “Pa!” I gasp.
“I will not spit in God’s face like you spit in ours. But I will be dead before I see you raising a child in the Rossi family. You will leave for Italy immediately. You will be accompanied and someone will make sure you are settled with your aunts there. You are to have no contact with New York. No one is to know why you have left or that you have left at all.”
I sob, “Please, Pa, I’m a grown woman.”
“While you are in this family, you will abide by our rules,” he screams. “Gustavo, take her. She can buy whatever she needs there.”
I sob as the securtiy takes my book bag from me, and then my upper arm, dragging me out of the room. My father turns his back on me as I call for him.
Present Day
Miguel stands up from the bed without a word and walks out.
Miguel
This.
This changes everything.
I have a son! I didn’t even ask her what his name is. I was too absorbed in the story of how she was forcibly taken away from me. Gustavo was the reason she was taken to Italy to be hidden away. It makes me so angry. All this time we could have been a family, all this time I spent hating her for leaving me, that I thought she found someone else.
God, the way I’ve treated her these last few days.
I’m ashamed.
An old part of me has awakened, and it feels the shame heavily. I’m that college boy again who wants to sit under the stars and talk about poetry.
I walk out of her room and to the office, shutting the door behind me. I want to be alone right now because now everything is difficult.
I have a duty to be loyal to my family. The objective of taking Kira, well, the goal was to take Arianna. But the reason we have kept her is to further our family’s gains. To give my family better territories and money.
But she’s the mother of my child. My child is in the hands of the Sorvinos right now. I want to meet him, but at the same time, I’m terrified to do so.
I need advice right now, and I know it’s late, but he’s the only person I can think of calling with something on this scale.
“Pa,” I say when he answers the phone, “I need your advice.”
“It must be serious if you’re phoning at this hour. Let me get to my office, and I’ll call you back. I don’t want to disturb your mama.”
I hang up and wait, sitting at my desk and staring at my phone, willing it to ring. I don’t even know what to tell him at this point. Do I tell him about my son? What will he think about me sleeping with a Sorvino woman?
Kira’s father had reacted badly because there’s always been tension between our families. The Sorvinos always had the bigger stick.
My phone buzzes, and I pick it up, “Pa.”
“Miguel, what is it? What has happened?” he asks, and I can hear he’s tired.
“I’m sorry to worry you so late at night,” I say, “but I need your advice. I’ve run into a big problem, and I need to tell you something before
I can tell you what the problem is.”
“Ah, story time at midnight. My favorite,” he chuckles. “I joke. Tell me.”
“Pa, I fell in love with a girl when I was in college. We were together for a couple of months before she disappeared off the face of the planet.” I take a deep breath. “I thought she had left me because she found someone else, but it turns out she was forced to leave because she was pregnant with my son.”
“So you’re calling me to tell me you have an illegitimate child running around? Marry the mother, and we’ll smooth everything over. No matter how old the child is. A Rossi is a Rossi.” “It was Kira Sorvino, Pa.” I say quietly.
I wait, and a long moment of silence passes between us before my father growls, “You betrayed your family for some pussy?”
“I loved her,” I retaliate. “We had something special, Pa. We belonged together.”
“Well, Sonny Sorvino didn’t think so, or he wouldn’t have sent her away, now would he? Now you’re telling me I have a grandchild with Sorvino blood? A child that is the first in line to take over from you? This is bullshit. Negotiate her return, deny the parentage and move on with life,
Miguel. This is not worth the trouble.”
“She very much is.”
“She’s gotten to you,” he accuses me. “Did you ever think maybe it’s not your child? That she’s trying to escape.”
I hadn’t, but something in me told me she was being honest.
“He’s mine, Pa. And I want to claim him as my own.”
“You cannot be Don of this family if you’re going to disrespect the name our family has built,” He growls. “Your ancestors, including me, put blood, sweat, and tears into making sure this family can hold its own, and now you want to toss it all for some chick who claims she birthed your heir.”
“I am Don,” I responded coldly. “I will decide what the future of this family is. You are retired, and the men respect me as a businessman.”
“Then think like a businessman, Miguel. Disown the boy.”
“I can’t do that,” there is no emotion in my voice as I speak. “I will claim him and do it while strengthening our family.” “You are weak,” my father snaps at me.
I hang up and set my phone down. There’s no point speaking to him when he’s that angry.
I get up and walk to the decanter to the side. I pour myself a drink and sip it, sitting back at my desk. I need to work out how I’m going to strengthen our position while still being able to be involved in my son’s life.
My phone buzzes with my father’s number, but I don’t answer. When my brother calls me after that, I don’t answer that either.
My brothers start shooting me text message after text message, saying they’re going to come over so we can talk.
I message them back to let them know I’m busy making an important decision and cannot be disturbed. I will summon them when I’m ready.
More texts, but I ignore those. I open my office door and ask Harry to go tell the guards not to let any of my family members in until I say so, and he marches off to do as he’s told.
I look down the corridor where Jarred is standing guard.
I walk over there slowly and open the door. I’m silent as I go over to the bed where Kira is sleeping. I tuck the blanket around her once again and sit on the edge of the bed. I stroke the hair out of her face, and I remember how well I slept in her arms. She said we fit perfectly together like a puzzle piece.
I stopped sleeping the day she left.
Insomnia is what my doctors called it, but it was a broken heart, and I’ve held onto that for thirteen years. I wish I’d known. I would have traveled the world to be with her, no matter the cost-even if it meant losing my family.
But I can’t think like that now because people rely on me, and I need to do what’s right. Kira and my son are also my family, though. I need to incorporate the Sorvinos and Rossi into one unit so we can coexist peacefully.
I don’t know if my family will go for it, but Alessandro, I can at least speak to Don to Don.
I walk out of the room and stand near a vase with roses. I pluck one out and step back into the room, laying the rose on the pillow beside Kira before I kiss her head and leave.
I go downstairs, feeling weary.
“Lyle?” I call. “Where are you lurking?”
Lyle comes out from the kitchen. “Yes, Don Rossi?”
“Get word to Alessandro Sorvino, I want to negotiate to hand over
Kira, and I want to do it where we met in Central Park. Two hours.”
Lyle nods and shoves what looks like the last bite of a sandwich into his mouth. He dusts off his hands and walks toward the front door. He pauses there and turns around. “What about us? What will happen to our family?”
“We’ll be stronger than we ever have been,” I say, smiling.
Lyle nods. “I trust we will.”
He leaves, and I go back upstairs to shower and get changed for my meeting with Alessandro.
I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to say, but I know I need to get the ball rolling, or my world will always be a complete imbalance between what I have to do and what I want to do.
And I always do what I want to.