La Donna

Seven

Arrangements had been made for Michelangelo and me to return to New York on a private flight. That was thanks to Rick and his connections with one of the airlines. I hadn't relayed the news of my pregnancy to anybody in the States because I didn't know what to say. There was no real way for me to contact anyone due to the danger Ludovico had previously posed.

I stepped out of the car with my husband once we arrived at the compound. I was completely wiped out from traveling for so long and the time change messed with my body. I'm certain it messed with the baby as well.

Mama rushed out with open arms to greet me as my cousin, Alessandro unpacked the car. Turns out Carlo had been shot dead in a movie theatre.

"Mama, this is my husband, Michelangelo." I introduced Michele to my mother and she flung her arms around him. She wept tears of joy into his blazer as if he had saved me from bandits and criminals. My mother showered him in kisses and songs praise simply for being beside me. Mama's joy then went from him straight down to my ballooned torso.
"Il mio nipote!" She held my stomach in her hands and pulled me in for a kiss on my forehead.
A figure emerged from the front door, slowly hobbling along to come see what the fuss was all about.
Daddy.
I looked up to see my father using a cane with a shaky gait while he moved over to meet me. I left Mama there with my husband and nearly flew into my father's arms.
Tears immediately began to stream all over my face as I held him as close as I could.
"Benedetta," He muttered into my ear.
"Daddy, I missed you so much. I was so worried about you the entire time I was in Vicari. Not a day went by that I didn't think of you." I pulled away.
"You," He looked me over. "You've been kept busy," Daddy touched my large stomach.
I glanced over at my husband while he was continuously loved on by my mother.
"Michelangelo," I called out his name. "Come meet my father!" I waved him over to where I stood and speedily, he complied.
"Daddy, this is my husband, Michelangelo DiNicosia." I introduced my husband to my father. Something withing Daddy caused a memory to stir and sure enough, it came to him. He dropped his cane on the courtyard driveway and threw his arms around Michele.
"Il mio figlio." Daddy spoke with a rasp coated in a pure sense of happiness. My husband embraced my father in return knowing all the history between our families was communicated through this heart-to-heart embrace. Needless to say, both the marriage and pregnancy were accepted completely by both of my parents.

[...]

I sat with my feet up in the garden whilst I read a book in the sunshine. It had been two months since Michelangelo and I arrived in America and life couldn't be better. At seven months pregnant, everything was done for me. Alessandro drove me to where I needed to go, Mama had constantly been shoveling food in my face, Daddy never let me or my husband worry about money, so it was fair to say that life was good.
Filomena and I kept up a correspondence and she promised to come out to New York once I got closer to my due date. She desperately wanted to be there for the birth. She wanted to be the first one to hold my baby. Even before Michelangelo would get the chance to see me in the hospital room. I told her I'd be giving birth on the family grounds with a midwife present to have a sense of Sicilia as I brought my child into the world. She was completely delighted by the idea.

A pair of hands covered my eyes and then a familiar voice cooed my name.
"Bennie,"

Adam.

I removed my former flame's palms from my face as it hit him that I was fully pregnant.
"Adam, what're you doing here? I thought you were in Baltimore."
"I was, but I kept hearing rumours about you being home." He was uncomfortable at the sight of my swollen front. "Bennie," Heartbreak coated my name.
"Please don't say my name like that." An equal, yet overwhelming sense of heartbreak washed over me.
"You," His tone was now low and shaky. "You moved on." He shook his head. "I heard something about you being married to somebody else, but I never believed it because I was waiting. I was waiting for you! We had a future planned out together!" Adam tried to make sense of me moving on without him in Vicari.
"We did and I am so sorry for hurting you this way, Adam. I truly am! I need you to understand that I hadn't heard anything for months about what was going on. I had no choice other than to move on with my life." I explained.
"No choice! You had no choice! That's what you said when you left me over a year ago." He spoke with venom on his tongue.
"Fuck you! I am happy! I am so happy with my life! I got married to a man who thinks the world of me and I am pregnant with our first child and I refuse to be shamed for it! Especially by a person who chose to wait and never experience his own life." I retorted through a stream of tears.
"At least I had a choice! I had a choice and I used it! I chose to wait for you because I love you, Bennie! You gave yourself to me the night we got engaged! You promised me that you'd marry me!" Adam fought back.