“It was meant to be.”
“Of course, I’m going to be selfish and expect you to be ready on a moment’s notice.”
“Are you really?”
“Yes … I’m a demanding Italian husband …who feels as married to you as I’ll ever be.”
“Thank you, Mr. Rossi, but if you research it out, you’ll find bigamy is an offense that could get you twenty years.”
“I know, Miss Lang, but not if it’s mental bigamy. There isn’t a court in the land that would convict me.”
“I rest my case, Mr. Rossi.” Their special waiter was standing by.
“What do you feel like having?”
“You do the ordering.”
“Alright… Louie, we’ll have scampi… tortellini … veal piccata, and the wine you know.”
“Grazie, Dominic.”
Dominic said, “Do you know how long I’ve known Louie?”
“No, how long?”
“We were raised in North Beach together. It’s hard to believe we’ve been friends that many years … where did they go?” Dominic said, as though the sight was yesterday, so fresh and vivid. “God, those were wonderful days. We were all so poor and we didn’t even know it. Talk about food, you never smell anything like Columbus Avenue about 1920.”
Victoria smiled. “Do you know what I adore so much about you, Dominic?”
“My tremendous charm?”
“No, I’m trying to be serious. For all the achievements there’s still that little boy in you from North Beach with the enormous pride in your origins. I always see that little boy going after school to visit his nonna. There’s not an arrogant thing about you. I’ve never heard you drop a name or talk about the accomplishments—”
“Some people would say I’m damned ambitious—”
“It’s not true … you just have the greatest drive of anyone I know … but more important, you never forgot where you came from.”
“Wait a minute, Miss Lang … let that rumor get out and you’ve ruined my whole image.”
For a moment Victoria wasn’t sure if he was kidding or not. “Then I wish more people knew you as I do … as you really are.”
Dominic looked at her. I’m the same man I always was, but I look different to a hundred different people … strange.
“What are you thinking, Dominic?”
“That I’ll gladly settle for you seeing me the way you do … I feel as though it’s my birthday … Now, darling, here’s to you.”
Louie had just placed the veal piccata in front of Victoria at the very moment Catherine drove up in front of DeLucci’s. When Giuseppe, the doorman, saw her, he didn’t know whether to run inside and try and get word to Dominic that his wife was obviously hunting him down, but between the thought and the deed, Catherine was out of the car and swinging open the door inside of the restaurant. Giuseppe wasn’t the only one shocked and nervous when seeing Catherine. Adolfo, the maître d’, thought he’d faint. Oh, Mama mia! This was all they needed with a room full of people and a jealous wife.
“Where is he?” Catherine said, as Adolfo took her hand and tried calmly to say, “Who do you mean, my dear Mrs. Rossi…?”
“Don’t pretend to be so innocent, you know goddamned well who,” she said, abruptly pulling her hand from Adolfo’s sweating palm. She scanned the dimly lit room, trying to adjust to the light, then, suddenly, she saw Hank Woods, sitting at the bar. He pointed to the place where Victoria and Dominic were sitting. Catherine walked rapidly, weaving in and out between the tables, then she stood in front of the lovers who held in their hands the wineglasses, ready to drink to each other, but the toast was never begun as Catherine began with her tirade of obscenities. “You goddamned son of a bitch,” she screamed in the now silent, stunned room with the other diners looking and listening. “If I had a gun, I’d kill you, and you … you dirty whore, takin’ my husband away from me.” She rambled on, incoherently, as she reached for Victoria’s hair and began to pull, then she slapped her across the face, so hard the imprint of her fingers remained. It had all happened so quickly that before Dominic could stand, she threw a glass of wine in his face, tipped over the table as everything came crashing to the floor. She kicked at Dominic, scratched him, and he couldn’t control her because the wine had temporarily blinded him. The waiters tried to hold her back, but she struggled loose, kicking one in the groin, then took off her shoe and threw it at Dominic, hitting him on the forehead. In all the confusion Adolfo led a devastated Victoria out through the kitchen, hailed a taxi and helped her in. “Miss Lang, are you able to go alone?”
She didn’t hear him. Again he offered his assistance, but this time she shook her head, yes.
“Where to, lady?” the driver said.
“Clay and Jones.”
They drove off while Adolfo returned to the bedlam that was still going on inside. By now, Dominic had wiped his eyes and rallied himself. He grabbed Catherine by the arm and said, “We’re getting out of here.”
“No, I want the world to know what a bastard, a bastardo you are.”
He clamped his hand over her mouth and pinned her arm back, then dragged her through the kitchen as he said to Adolfo to have her car brought around to the side. Obeying Dominic’s command, Adolfo first picked up Catherine’s shoe and slipped it onto her foot as she struggled, then ran out to Giuseppe.
Once out in the street, Dominic said, “How could you do such a thing, washing our dirty linen in public, coming in like a madwoman.”
“Keep your goddamn mouth shut, I’ve known every time you slept with that slut. What do you think I am … stupid? I shouldn’t air our dirty linen in public? I’m gonna do more than that, darlin’. Everyone is gonna know what a whorin’ bitch she is. I’m gonna blacken her name and yours too, then we’ll see who’s …”
“Catherine, for God’s sake, you’ve gone crazy.”
Getting into the car behind the wheel, she answered, screaming, “By the time I get through with you, we’ll see who’s crazy.”
“Catherine, please, let me talk to you.”
“Talk to me? I’ll see you in hell first.”
“Please, Catherine, listen, will you?” He tried talking above her.
As he tried to get into the car, she slammed the door in his face and locked it, saying, “Go talk to your amante! and turned on the ignition. There was the sound of screeching brakes as she wheeled around the corner, leaving Dominic watching, his suit wine soaked, torn, and the scratches on his face red and bleeding and the welt on his forehead swollen, but for a very, very long moment he was unaware of how he looked. All he could feel was an empty hollow void … it was as though the world had shattered and splintered into a thousand fragments. It was the throbbing in his head that brought him back to the reality of what had happened. The worst of his hell, at this moment, was the humiliation of what Victoria had been subjected to. He turned immediately and went back into the kitchen where Louie waited.
“Dominic, come with me. You look terrible, like after the rumbles we used to have on Filbert Street.”
Dominic followed Louie to the lavatory in the corner where he offered Dominic his shirt and tie hanging on a hook. Dominic bathed his face, changed, thanked Louie, then left the way he had come in, walked to his car, and drove to Victoria’s apartment.
When he let himself in, he found her sitting silently. Vaguely, she looked up. Without a word, he took her in his arms and held her like a broken child. Finally, he took her face between his hands and said, “How can I ever make this up to you?”
“Please, Dominic, don’t talk … not right now.”
He remained silent and placed her head against his shoulder. After a long silence, Victoria said, “Dominic, what’s going to happen to us?”
“I haven’t had time to think about much of anything … but one thing I know is, I’m not going to give you up.”
“Oh, Dominic, let’s be realistic, how can we go on?”
She started to cry softly. “I feel that
all the beauty we had between us has been made to look so sordid and distorted. I feel dirty and cheap. There were so many people in the place tonight that must have thought I was a whore… Oh, God, I can’t stand the sound of that word. It keeps ringing in my mind.”
“I know … I know … that’s the thing that hurts more than even her finding out.”
Getting up, Victoria said, “Please, darling, I have to be alone … forgive me, but I simply must.”
“Let me stay for a just a little while … I can’t leave you like this.”
“No, really, I must be alone to think this out.”
With that, reluctantly, he got up, kissed her, then said, “Forgive me for bringing you this pain.”
Clinging to him, she answered, “Forgive you? Darling, you’ve brought more happiness into my life than I can ever say … but somehow, down deep, I always knew something like this had to happen. I just never let myself think about it … but this evening is something that’s going to take a long time to recover from.”
He had tears in his eyes as he held her. “My God, if only you could have been spared this—”
“Please … dearest, go home. Maybe something can be salvaged … try for your children’s sake.”
“You sound so final.”
“I don’t know how I sound. It’s like a nightmare.”
“I love you beyond words.”
“And I do, too. What a pity that something like the thing we had was …” She couldn’t finish for fear of becoming hysterical. “Go home, darling … please.”
“All right, but I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yes, all right… tomorrow.”
Dominic put his latchkey into the lock, but the door would not open. He tried and tried again, finally realizing it was bolted from the inside. Going to the back door, he tried, but with the same results. He broke a window in the basement. Climbing in, he scratched his hand on a jagged piece of glass. Taking out his handkerchief, he wrapped it around to stop the bleeding and went up the stairs which led to the kitchen, then into the central foyer and up the stairs to his room. Catherine was in bed. When she saw him, she jumped out of bed and everything she had felt earlier was aroused. “How dare you come into my house you bastard … you’re not fit to be the father of my children, you patrone to a whore.”
He grabbed Catherine by the wrist and said, through clenched teeth, “Don’t you ever call her that again.”
“Let go of me … I should kill you.”
“You did that a long time ago. You killed everything that I ever felt for you. If I turned to another woman, it’s because you drove me away.”
“I drove you away? You lyin’ bastard … what did she do, give you a few thrills you couldn’t get from me?”
“What kind of mind do you have … you’re vile.”
“Vile, am I?” She bit him on the wrist and grabbed the bedside clock, then threw it, but it grazed past him, crashing to the floor.
He rushed to her and threw her on the bed, holding her down. “I blame you for this … I came home to try and talk, to explain how and why this happened … but who can talk to you with your violence, your impossible temper.”
Looking up at Dominic, she said, “I’m warnin’ you, let go of me. You wanted to explain how and why this happened. Let me tell you how it happened. When you had no more need for me after I gave you your children, you had everythin’ from me you needed. You used me and on top of it, you had an ally. Stella knew, everyone else must have known. You’ve made a fool of me and nobody does that… you hear … I’m throwin’ you out the way I threw Stella out into the streets where she belonged.”
He stood up and looked at Catherine, disbelieving, “You threw Stella out?”
“Yes, and without a quarter … the ungrateful bitch … after all I’d done for her … as good as I was to her, she betrayed me just like you did.”
Dominic stood stunned, shaking his head. Finally, he said quietly, “You’re ruthless… I had no idea how ruthless until now.”
Catherine laughed, “And what are you … a whoremaster, a …”
But Dominic had heard enough. He drove around the city aimlessly. What had happened to his life? Victoria … Victoria … He had to see her. It was one o’clock when he rang the bell. This evening, he could not let himself in. When she answered the door, he stood before her. “Vicky, forgive me, but I had to come … I had to.”
“Oh, God, Dominic,” she cried, “how much I wanted you.” He closed the door behind him, and took her in his arms …
After Dominic left, Catherine picked up the phone and called her mother. She needed an ally too. This was one thing she couldn’t endure alone. “Mama,” Catherine cried, “you’ve got to come. Dominic’s left me.”
Mama took the early morning flight and arrived at the San Francisco airport at five the next day, where a very subdued Catherine met her. They embraced amid tears and kisses. “Mama, what would I do without you?”
“My heart breaks to think anythin’ like this should have happened.”
“You don’t know what I’ve been through.”
“I know … we’ll talk later.”
And later that evening, Catherine told her mother the whole story. “Mama, how could Dominic have done such a thing to me, disgracin’ me like this … havin’ no respect for his children. I’ve given him my life … always tryin’ to make him happy … entertainin’ his friends … devotin’ myself to his needs … his wants … everythin’ I did was for him.”
“I know how hard this is for a woman—”
“Yes … but Mama, he even tried to make it seem that I was the one at fault … when I found out he had a mistress, I went crazy …what woman wouldn’t? Then he said he wanted to try and talk … imagine, to talk! How does a wife talk about her husband’s love affairs?”
“Listen to me, Catherine … please.”
“What are you gonna say, Mama … that I shouldn’t have gotten angry?”
“No … but there are things a woman has to learn to live with.”
Catherine looked at her mother, “Do you think any woman could endure that kind of embarrassment?”
“Yes …”
“I’m stunned, hearin’ you say that… of all people, I thought you would understand.”
“I do, cara mia, I do.”
“Mama … I just got through tellin’ you, Dominic’s got a mistress.”
“I know… now, let me tell you something I never thought I’d ever tell you.” She hesitated, then quietly said, “Your father had a mistress too … for a little while.”
“Daddy? I don’t believe it.”
“I know, but believe it.”
“And you knew?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“From almost the very beginnin’.”
“And you did nothin’?”
“No.”
“I loved my Daddy … but how could you accept that?”
“Because I loved your father … but above that, I knew he loved me.”
“None of this makes any sense, Mama.”
“It makes a great deal of sense. Do you think because a man sleeps with another woman, he stops lovin’ his wife … no. Because a wife is a wife and that’s more important than bein’ his mistress. She has his name … his children and no mistress in the world can take that away.”
“I’m shocked … simply shocked at your attitude, Mama.”
“Catherine, Italian men, especially Sicilian men, don’t take their mistresses too seriously and if a woman is smart, she’ll look the other way because nothin’ that isn’t sacred can last forever.”
“But suppose he really loves another woman … truly loves her, then what?”
“An affair can’t last indefinitely … impossible. I don’t care how it is in the beginnin’. It can’t last because it can only go one place … and that’s to bed. When it’s all over, he comes home and eventually, the other woman stays just that… the other woman.”
“Mama, you sound positively depraved.”
“Maybe … but think about it, Catherine. Women, especially that kind, become possessive, then they begin to make demands and when they do, a man grows tired and says to himself, what does he need that for, and it’s the other woman who, eventually, sends him back to the arms of his wife, and if she’s smart, she’ll forget because it’s only growin’ pains he had in the first place.”
“I can’t believe I’m hearin’ my own Mama sayin’ she believes in adultery.”
“You’re not listenin’ to me, Catherine … I’m not sayin’ I believe in it, I’m sayin’ it’s a fact of life a woman has to learn to accept and if she loves her man, she realizes it’s just like so much candy.”
“And you’d be willin’ for me to take Dominic back after what happened?”
“I don’t understand you … I swear, I don’t.”
“Maybe in a few months you will when the hot anger’s gone and the loneliness sets in.”
“Never … never … never. I’ll never forgive Dominic for the way he humiliated me.”
“Well, never is a very long time and after livin’ with a man for twenty years, she’s got a big investment. No, siree, I wouldn’t … not without a battle to win him back.”
“Well, Mama, you don’t know your little Catherine if you think I’m gonna do that. I’ve humbled myself to Dominic enough times in our marriage and I’m not about to do that again, not if he came back crawlin’. In fact, I’m not gonna even allow him to see the children … especially, Gina Maria.”
“Catherine, let your Mama say one more thing to you because it’s gettin’ late and I’m gettin’ tired.”
“What’s that, Mama?”
“You’re real mad now … and I don’t say you’re wrong, but what husbands and wives say in moments of anger can be forgotten when they begin to think of all the good things they had between them and as time goes by, it’s only human nature to forget the bad … now, take my advice and don’t try and turn the children against Dominic because if you do, they’re just liable to turn out hatin’ you … especially Gina Maria. Now you just digest that, Catherine, my baby and maybe you’ll just find out your Mama’s right.”
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