I grabbed the paperweight on the desk, to my grandmother’s horror, as I aimed at his head.
“Ethan!”
CRASH!
The glass ball grazed right past his head into the wall and shattered, but not before putting a dent in the hardwood. Wyatt nearly fell over as he turned to look at me.
“You may be my brother…brother. But that does not mean I will keep letting your fucking disrespect slide! Watch your tone.”
Silence.
All of them.
Wyatt took a deep breath before sitting his wounded ass down. He tapped his cane into the floor. “Ethan, I am not trying to be disrespectful. I am trying to understand, because right now it looks like the mother of your child, who poisoned us all last night, happens to be related to the same people who harmed our grandmother and set out to kill us.”
“The Orsini family worked for the Giovanni family,” I said slowly for them. “They worked for mother and grandfather Orlando. They committed crimes against the Callahans. The Callahans committed crimes back. We are half Giovanni and half Callahan. To become that, we told them to drop the feuds. They listened. Have any of you been hurt by the Affini or the Orsini family since?”
None of them spoke.
“Then what is the problem?” I questioned, looking at my grandmother. “What happened to you in the past cannot dictate my future. Let it go, Nana.”
“Isn’t the fact that I let Fiorello Orsini into this house proof that I am? The man that killed your aunt and tried to kill me and your father is now sleeping in this house. His family is now my family…and proof I’ve lived too damn long,” my grandmother nearly spat out, rising from her seat. “You lead this family, Ethan, so it is your choice, as always. I do not know this Calliope well; however, you have claimed her as yours, so she’s yours.”
“But?”
“Until my dying day, even when I am ash in a grave, I will never trust any Orsini…living or dead, name changed or not,” she said as she took her leave.
And this was why the blood feuds never ended.
“Umm…” Uncle Neal spoke up. “This might seem…like the plot of a bad movie but, what if…this was all a trap. Like maybe Fiorello, Calliope’s grandfather, is using her to get the revenge her father failed to get?”
I stared at him for a long time before speaking coldly. “Wow. Thank you, Uncle, for that insight. That never crossed my mind.”
“All kidding aside, what if he is right?” Wyatt asked. He lifted his hands up in defense. “I mean, isn’t she an assassin?”
“If he’s right, I’m an idiot. We all die. The end.”
Once more they all just stared, and part of me…a very small, private part of me wanted to laugh at the look on their faces.
But I didn’t. I just stared back.
6
“You inherit your environment just as much as your genes.”
~ Johnny Rich
CALLIOPE
One bath and a new outfit later and I finally felt human again.
Mrs. Calliope Seraphina Orsini Callahan…my name was growing. I snickered at the thought as I sat out on the patio, staring out at the lawn…a very familiar lawn.
The lawn that started it all.
The past came rushing to my mind again just as the cool breeze blew across my face and the smell of fresh-cut grass came to my nose. But I pushed it back, turning my head when I heard O’Phelan come closer to me.
“These are yours, ma’am,” O’Phelan said, placing two phones, a tablet, as well as three blank black debit cards in my hand. “They are temporary; for now, anything else you may need, please let me know, until you’ve chosen your guards.”