La Diavolessa

Part 1: Chapter 1

Chapter 1

When I watch a movie where the good guys fight the bad guys, I find myself always rooting for the villains. I know they'll never win, but they are my favorite characters, they are the ones who make the story interesting. I find myself holding my breath, cheering on whenever they do something bad, laughing, a sound my mother always said sounded molto malvagio.

I'm not sure why I have this tendency to cheer on the bad guys. Maybe because of where I grew up. Maybe because of my mysterious parentage. I never knew who my father was and my mother wouldn't speak of him. But I heard the rumors that were whispered around town. My father was a young criminal who my mother fell in love with when she was fifteen and ended pregnant with me, and criminals are rife in our region, especially in Trevi.

I am what they call a bastarda. Not said to my face, unless I was arguing with some and they'd snarl it at me intending to hurt my feelings. It never affected me. I never really cared. I had a happy childhood. My mother made up for my missing father, gave me a stable home, love and I never found myself in want or need for anything.

Summer was my favorite season. I love the heat seeping under my skin. I love the way my skin browns with little effort because it is so used to the sun. I love spending hours in our olive fields pruning trees and harvesting them by the end of the season. We owned the best second farm in the region of Trevi. The town was only few minutes' drive from our farm an old structure which had seen few generations of Molini's before I was born.

Back to the movies, especially the mafioso movies which Hollywood love to romanticize the big bad family. I watched most of them growing up, the American movies and the Italian ones. They were so entertaining and intriguing, particularly when I can compare them first hand to what we have here in Italy and in Trevi where the Rassi Family resides.

Unlike in America, where the mob was brought down in the eighties, because they were up in the face of the authorities, the mafioso in Italy live an unobtrusive life and try their best not to draw much attention to themselves. Most of their businesses, particularly the major ones are legitimized businesses. The illegal ones are conducted in the bigger cities where they are in control, but they have other groups working for them, like the Russian mafia and the African mafia. They do the dirty job while the Italians sit looking good in their tailored suits drinking limoncello under the shade.

At least that's my impression of it. I don't delve in it. I just know what I've observed over the years.

In Trevi, the beautiful town where I grew up and went to school, you find the soldiers standing in packs on corner streets. Eyeing whoever pass by them with suspicious eyes. Keeping the peace as they like to claim. But every now and then the younger ones like to flex their muscle, impose their authority and there will be some kind of racketeering going on and when that happens, you walk the other way and never interfere.

Don Antonello Rassi is well liked and respected in general. He moved to the area some twenty years ago and bought the old Palazo which is now called the Rassi Villa and with it came a vast land of olive groves. He revived the industry, building alongside an olive oil press factory which produced the finest olive oil in the world. Our farm was one of the smaller farms which sold its harvest to Don Antonello.

After I graduated from Florence Business School, I returned to Trevi for the summer. One morning, I drove to Trevi to pick up Allegra, Signora D'Addio's ten-year-old daughter who I babysat when she was a tiny little thing, with beautiful golden curls and big blue eyes. She's my favorite kid in the whole world. So sweet and considerate compared to the other brats I babysat.

Signora D'Addio was also a dear old friend of my mother. They knew each other for years, and she's going through the hardest time of her life. About a year ago she discovered she had breast cancer and her SOB husband ran off on her and their two daughters after she told him the horrifying news. I was to pick up Allegra and bring her to our farm because her mother and her eldest sister were going to Perugia for chemo treatment.

My mother told me this morning that Don Antonello was taking care of Signora D'Addio's medical bills and travels since the poor old dear had nothing left for her or her daughters after the husband ran off.

It is kind of Don Antonello, I thought begrudgingly as I walked down the street from where I parked my car. The man is rich, he particularly rules over the region of Umbria. I doubt it put a dent in his pockets.

My steps falter and I stop as my eyes widen. I see Santino Pasqualini. How can I not know him when he had been one of the horrors of my high school years? He was standing with his pack of delinquents in front of Signora D'Addio's home. In front of him stood Allegra, looking scared, not daring to be rude to him as he leaned with a lollipop in his hand. I can see that he was beckoning her to come to him.

The blood in my veins went cold. My little tiny Allegra whom I held in my arms and changed her diapers. Every protective instinct in me shot out as I launched forward trying to get to her.

Holding my breath, I reach her and grabbed her by the arm yanking her away and far from Santino.

"We're late!" I snap focusing my gaze on her and not daring to look at Santino.

Allegra looks at me with frightened eyes. I've never spoken to her in that tone before. The last thing I wanted is her getting near that perv. We walk away from Santino and his pack, I glance back briefly, and I found him glaring at me with such hatred, it made my blood run cold.

"I'm sorry Clara." She whines on the verge of tears.

We pass through the door of their home and I close it firmly behind us. I heave a breath, my body covered in sweat and not from the heat of the day. He didn't follow me. He wouldn't dare. I know that. But with such a volatile temper he had, I wouldn't know. Allegra grabs my skirt and buries her face into my hip, her blond hair curled at the end sticky with sweat. I put my hand on her head and caress her in reassurance.

"It's ok darling. Remember what I told you before. You don't talk to strangers." I whisper to her.

"Are you going to tell mama?"

"No. Your mother has enough to worry about." I sighed and moved into their little home. It was an old stone building like most buildings in Trevi. Signora D'Addio worked part time at a bakery, and worked as dressmaker whenever she had people wanting to make a dress or two.

My mother helped out as much as she can. She'd order textiles online and bring brand name designs and asks Signora D'Addio to make them for her. It was the only way to give the woman the dignity she deserved.

"Come, let's get your things and be on our way."

I hoped Santino isn't still lurking outside. I was still angry he attempted to lure Allegra to him. Why is Don Antonello isn't doing anything about him? Everyone knew about Santino and his preference to younger girls. It frustrated and sickened me.

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Hey Guys. Hope you enjoyed the first chapter. 

Please comment, vote and spread the word about this story. 

It is completed and I'll try to update regularly while I'm working on minor edits. 

Love. DAFY