by Serena Light
"Yes, boss," Serafina mocked through gritted teeth, getting up from her place and marching up the stairs and into her room, overhearing her brother's last order before disappearing behind a corner.
"Keep an eye on her,"
Standing on the balcony, Serafina watched 5 SUVs and 2 trucks loaded with men and weapons drive down the hill and towards the main road, bracing themselves for the 4-hour drive to Milan and then the bloodbath waiting for them there.
Sighing, she went back inside, and retreated to her room, knowing that her brother was out there, risking his life for her despite everything she had done.
Deciding that she needed a bath, Serafina filled her bathtub with warm water before stripping out of her clothes and getting submerged in the tub. A relaxed exhale escaped her as the warmth soothed her aching muscles and muddled thoughts. Cupping a handful, she poured it over her head, allowing it to cleanse her mind and relax her soul, even if it was for just a little while.
Afterward, she felt a lot calmer and got changed into an olive green hoodie with black denim jeans. Brushing the tangles out of her hair, she blowdried them before allowing them to flow over her shoulders.
Serafina pulled open her side table drawer, looking for her phone when she stumbled across an old picture.
A picture she didn't even remember that she had.
As she looked at it, a thought occurred to her, and that thought morphed into a decision.
Pulling on her coat and boots, Serafina wriggled her fingers into her woolen gloves before stepping out of her room, nodding to the guards to let them know she was heading out.
On her way downstairs, she didn't encounter anyone of her family members. Getting into the car, she told the guards her destination as they glanced at each other in momentary silence before driving.
She sat quietly with a bouquet beside her and watched the passing scenery, the drive being almost an hour-long but feeling like an eternity as Serafina's stomach continued to twist and churn in unease as they entered the city, nearing her destination.
What would she do? She thought to herself. What would she say?
Should she say anything?
She was jolted out of her thoughts by her phone buzzing in her pocket. Taking it out, she saw it to be a message from Marco, telling her that Salvatore had arrived at Milan and asking where she was.
Exhaling heavily, she slowly typed back a response, sending it just as the car came to a halt.
Looking up, Serafina stared at the gated compound, the fence no taller than her knees and a rickety old gate leading inside.
"Stay here," She instructed the guards before stepping out, the two following and watching her make her way inside.
Serafina couldn't bring herself to breathe as she entered, her fingers clutching the bouquet and standing between rows after row of gravestones. She knew where it was, just she had never been there. Taking a gulp of air, she forced her feet to move, feeling rooted in place.
Right.
Left.
Once step turned into two, two into four, four into ten.
Pushing back the urge to turn back and run, Serafina momentarily stopped, closed her eyes and took a deep inhale before resuming on her way.
His grave resided beneath the branches of an aged oak tree whose leaves had long been lost and stood bare to the cold. Even though it was hardly 4 in the evening, the graveyard felt strangely haunting. A part of her felt the dead were judging her.
Ahead the path glistens like white quartz, yet ice crystals on weary concrete are all it is. All this beauty over everything dead. And here she was adding to it with a bunch of pink roses in her gloved hand. Serafina pause, her breath rising in visible puffs, then she remembers why she came. She needed to talk to him and this is the only way. She was not here for him, not really. She was here for her. The proximity to his frigid bones and the gift of flowers will close the gap between them for a moment, and in that brief window of time, she would feel him again.
Stopping before the grave, she read the headstone.
"Here lies Paolo Valente Costa, beloved son, and friend,"
He was never her husband, they never said 'I do', he was just a demon forcing her to cling to her past, and she knew it was time to let go.
"I know what you were going to do," Serafina murmured, crouching down to brush away the snow before putting the bouquet on the cold ground. "I didn't want to believe it, but a part of me knew it was true,"
What a strange sight she might have been if people hadn't talked to the dead since the beginning of time.
"We never killed your father, you know that, Paolo?" She tilted her head, looking at his name and seeing his face.
The tuft of dark brown hair she used to run her fingers through, his wide forehead which always creased whenever he was in thought, his dark chocolate brown eyes that used to look at her with adoration once upon a time, then hatred and then indifference. His pink plump lips which she had tasted numerous times, again and again; his slender neck where she used to place her fingertips just to feel his heartbeat, believing that the organ beat for her.
In a manner, it had beat for her.
It just beat for her demise rather than for her being.
"You know, if you had just asked, you would have found out we had nothing to do with it," She resumed. "But who knows, maybe you knew we had nothing to do with it, but didn't want to believe it since your mind was set on killing us. Maybe it was never about your father and was simply about you gaining power,"
"Sometimes, I wonder what would have happened if dad hadn't overheard your conversation and told Salvatore who had you killed. Sometimes I think that I might have been dead, but then other times I think I might have been alive, but you would have made me lose my will to live.
"That's worse than death, isn't it? Losing your will to live?"
"Gia knows it was Salvatore who killed you. And now we know it was Gia who tried to kill me. And Salvatore is gone to kill her," She sighed, her legs aching due to her crouching. "You know, I gave him multiple concussions because of you? Because of you, I went against my own family? But you wouldn't care, right? You're dead. Not like you cared about me when you were alive."
"Although a part of me believes you did care," Serafina stood from her crouching position and rubbed her thighs. "You cared a long time ago, at the very beginning of our relationship. You loved me for me. But then, later on, you just saw my name and not the girl behind the name."
"I loved you, Paolo," She wiped the stray tears, knowing she had cried enough over men. "I loved you with all my heart and you took that love and threw it into the ocean to be lost and never to be found."
Serafina stood above his grave a moment longer, her heart aching but her being feeling like the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders as she threw her head back and exhaled into the air, releasing all the past she had held onto with that white puff she let out.
Running a hand through her hair, she turned towards the way she had arrived, but her breath caught in her throat to see the woman before her. Her peppering hair falling down to her shoulders with her face looking older than the last time Serafina had seen her.
"This is the last place I thought to see you, Serafina,"
Her eyes devoid of any emotions and her voice just as dead as the state of her heart.
She stared in silence, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to formulate a sentence, but instead let out garbled sounds as it felt like a rock had lodged itself into her throat. Only one word escaping her.
"Gia..."
Chapter XXXVII: Graveyard
The graveyard was so neat. Row upon row of white marble tombstones all rising from the thick blanket of snow. Each one was perfect, polished and exactly the same as all of the others, except the name it bore. They were lined up perfectly with those in front and behind, a city block for the dead.
Life is but a roaming shadow, a pitiable thespian. Who struts and frets his few moments upon the stage, and then is
heard no more. It is a tale imparted by a foolish wit, full of noise and fury... yet meaningless nonetheless.
A beautiful lie.
A depressing truth.
And beyond the hedgerows and white picket fence, a new grave would arrive...
Serafina stood with her hands in her coat pockets, staring at the expressionless face of the woman whom she once had lovingly called "mom", but what sort of a mother would want her own child dead?
The younger girl took a step back as Gia walked forward, not even giving her a second's glance as she crouched before the grave of her son, she placed a hand on the limestone and lowered her head, sending a silent prayer before looking at the headstone to her left, the grave of Ricardo.
"You weren't at the funeral," She stated with her head bowed in prayer. "You ran away to Brazil,"
"I did," Serafina did not deny it, she did run, she ran at the very first opportunity that presented itself and didn't look back.
"A lot of people came, your family did too," Gia resumed emotionlessly, caressing Paolo's name. "They gave their condolences. Your twin was a pallbearer despite having been the one to kill my baby,"
"He did what he had to do,"
"Oh, I know. My Paolo did the exact same; he did what had to be done."
Serafina stumbled back in surprise when Gia swung a small dagger in an upward arc, missing her chin by an inch. Stumbling, she slipped on the snow, nearly falling to her knees but steadying herself.
"And now I will do what has to be done," Gia seethed, her emotionless eyes burning with rage. "You kill my husband and then my son!" She shrieked, hurtling towards Serafina again with the dagger, the younger girl sidestepping and sending her collapsing in the snow.
"We had nothing to do with Ricardo's death," Serafina told her, not wanting to hurt her as she watched Gia jump to her feet.
"You killed Paolo," She slashed with the dagger, Serafina stepping back, until she grabbed her wrist, painfully twisting her arm behind her back as Gia cried out in pain, releasing her hold on the dagger and letting it clatter to the floor as the taller girl kicked it into the snow.
"I don't want to hurt you, Gia," Serafina revealed, still gripping her arm. "Can't we talk through this?"
"We're long past the talking phase, chid," Gia cackled, slamming her head back into Serafina's chin, sending jolts of electricity through her as she stumbled back.
Letting out a shriek when Gia tackled her to the ground straddling her waist and punching her face once, twice, busting her lip.
She raised her fist for another blow, but Serafina pushed her palm beneath her chin, tilting her head back as Gia struggled against her hold. A gasp escaping her when the taller girl, turned them over, the older woman's hands restrained to her sides as she struggled beneath her, blood trickling from Serafina's lip.
"I loved your son,"
"Bullshit!"
"I had no idea Salvatore killed him!"
"Don't lie to my face, you ungrateful wench!" Gia yelled at her in anger, wrapping her legs around Serafina's rib cage and squeezing, sending them both toppling to their sides as her hold tightened.
In an act of self-defense, the taller girl swung her elbow back, hitting Gia straight in the face as she held her nose with a cry, Serafina scrambling away from her and stumbling to her feet and coddling her sides.
"I swear to my nieces, I had no idea Salvatore killed Paolo," She groaned, watching as the older woman struggled to her feet with blood oozed from her nose and she wiped it with the back of her sleeve, both of them circling one another, until Gia's back was to the large oak tree.
"I don't care if you knew or not," Gia trembled in her rage. "You are just as guilty as your brother!"
She took out a gun from inside her coat pocket, aiming it at her and pulling the trigger, Serafina falling to her knees just in time as the bullet flew through the empty air. Before she could shoot again, the younger girl ran towards her, wrapping her arms around her midriff and tackling her to the ground.
Grabbing hold of the hand clutching the gun, Serafina slammed it against the pavement, again and again, hoping that Gia would let go. Instead, she pulled the trigger, releasing two more shots into the empty air and the Regnante knew that her guards would be rushing to her by now, but feared that one of them might be dead by the time they arrived.
With sudden strength she did not know Gia possessed, she hit the end of the gun against Serafina's head, sending her sprawling over the pavement, dazed as her vision doubled before the last Costa stood over her, clutching her gun in trembling fingers and pointing it at Serafina.
"I wish it didn't need to be like this," Gia seethed, spittle flying from her mouth. "Believe me, I do, but it has to be done. You Regnantes' can't go on unchecked."
Before she could pull the trigger, Serafina kicked her leg, forcing her to drop the gun as she instantly reached for it. Just as she had grabbed the end of the gun, Gia slammed her boots onto her hand, sending pain through her as she crunched her hand beneath her feet, a scream escaping her at the excruciating pain that coursed through her.
"This is for Ricardo!" She screamed at Serafina, applying more pressure onto her hand as tears blurred her vision, the glint of the forgotten dagger catching her eye. "This is for Paolo!" Gia continued, jumping onto her palm as a scream stuck in her throat, the bones broken, pain engulfing her senses like fire as her free hand trembled to grasp the dagger.
"Die!" Gia shrieked like a vulture when she grabbed the gun, ready to empty the mag into the back of her head.
Just as she pulled the trigger Serafina moved her head out of the way and plunged the dagger into her thigh, a scream escaping Gia as she twisted it into the flesh, blood oozing down her pant leg and onto the pavement as the gun went clattering once more.
Without missing a beat, she lunged for the weapon, holding it up and pointing it at Gia, but taken aback when she fell on top of her, grabbing hold of the hands clutching the gun and trying to make her let go by squeezing her broken hand and turning the barrel of the gun away, trying to twist it in her grasp to point it at her and end it once and for all.
Both of them grunted as Serafina was pinned beneath her, the gun between them as they struggled with one another.
Just then, three gunshots rang through the falling snow of the cold January evening.
"It's over, now,"
Chapter XXXVIII: Dismissal
Alessio stood in a black button-up with denim jeans, his foot up on the bed as he struggled to tie the laces on his high ankle sneakers. With a puff of air, he stood from the bed, a hand against his wound as it still ached in protest of the movement. Going about the room, he slowly put everything in the brown leather overnight bag that lay on the mattress, having insisted that he could do it and sent his mother and brother away before they could try and pack for him.
Despite his wound not having completely healed yet and his grey complexion, he was finally getting discharged today and the doctors had done some tests before handing him a list of medicines which his brother went to get, his mother back at the cottage with his future-sister-in-law.
A knock on the glass panel had him look up from his packing, his mouth slightly falling open at the sight before him.
"I hope I'm not too late," She asked with a gentle smile, a bandage covering the area above her eyebrow with her lower lip busted but healing and her right hand in a cast,
"Serafina," Alessio exhaled as he walked towards her, ignoring the pulsating pain in his abdomen as he pulled her into his arms, holding her close as she clutched back just as tightly, her fingers clutching the back of his shirt as she rested her forehead against his shoulder. "Thank God you're okay,"
She didn't say anything as she allowed his warmth to envelop her, the familiarity of his hold having her heart jump in her throat as she closed her eyes and allowed the safety of his presence to protect her.
"Serafina," He pulled back, cupping her face into his hands as he looked over at the bandage and the wound on her lips. "
She's dead? What happened?"
"Three bullet shots," Serafina nodded, walking over to Alessio's bed as she sat down. "Well, we were fighting and she was hell-bent on trying to kill me, she had a dagger and gun and towards the end, it looked like I was going to be in a coffin. She was on top of me and she tried to twist the gun in a way it would shoot me, but somehow between all this twisting and turning I managed to pull the trigger and shoot her in the stomach, and by then my guards had arrived and they shot her in the back, ensuring she was dead."
Alessio heaved a breath of relief, running a hand through his hair before shaking his head at all that he heard. Letting out a shaky breath, Serafina looked at the bag which was half packed with half the things still laid outside. "Glad to be going home?"
"You bet," Alessio walked back to the bag, resuming his packing. "Niccolo is gone to get my medicine and mom is at home with Carina,"
She nodded and placed her hands into her lap as she watched him pack in silence.
"So what's your plan?" She asked curiously, looking up at his green eyes, feeling a sense of familiarity wash over her.
"Well, I won't be returning to work for another month or so, neither mom nor Salvatore would allow it," He chuckled half-heartedly. "Then...I guess I'd continue working for your parents,"
"So you won't come back to me?"
Alessio's movements faltered and he halted in his packing, putting the shirt down as he looked at Serafina, gauging her expression to try and figure out what she was attempting to do.
"We saw how well that turned out," He muttered with a shrug. "I think it's best for both of us if I went to work with your parents,"
"So you've decided on Tatiana?"
"No..." Alessio trailed uncomfortably. "No, we concluded that we're better off as friends."
"I see..." Serafina nodded with a thoughtful expression. "So you're single,"
He looked at her in confusion, not understanding what she was attempting to do as the smile on her face only bewildered him more.
"You know the answer to that question, Serafina." He murmured, feeling uncharacteristically embarrassed and began to play with the zip of his back.