The Life - Rebirth (The Life 4)

I think I like being a couple, new as it is to me. There’s a huge difference between the kids we were just a few short years ago and the people we are now. For her, she’s had years first of pregnancy and then once they were born, of being a parent. I am now starting from scratch, so we’re at two different stages, and I’m trying to catch up.

Of course, everything isn’t going to happen in a day, and we both have to learn how to navigate this new normal together. But the one thing I won’t compromise on is their safety. Annie Oakley, with her outback stories, seems to think she’s now Teflon, me, it’s going to take me a minute to get the abused young girl who I’d further traumatized by sending her away while pregnant out of my head.

I have a lot to make up for with her and my children, and I’m going to do it whether she thinks I’m an asshole or not. She doesn’t know I heard her call me that under her breath, but whatever. It seems the tables have turned. She’s no longer the calm, sweet girl I fell in love with but a feisty little hellion who tries to thwart me at every turn.

I doubt she even realizes that she’s punishing me in her own way for abandoning her, something I fully accept, I’m just waiting for the blowup so she can get it out of her system, and we can move on. If I approach her with my know-it-all theories, she’s bound to push back, so I’m letting her get there on her own, but my patience seems to rub her the wrong way.

I think she might be hormonal, but I’m not about to say that shit out loud because all of my martial arts training is useless against her five foot nothing ass, because if she throws something at my head as she not too long ago threatened to do when she couldn’t have her way, I won’t be able to retaliate, because well, she’s my girl and I’m not a monster. So even when she’s huffing and puffing and calling me names, she’s still the safest person in the world when it comes to me.

She’s gone, and I’m still sitting here thinking about her instead of getting down to business. I fired up the unregistered computer that I use to do most of my hacking and which I have exclusively used for my dealings in Sicily. In just one day, a lot had happened due to the things I’d already set in motion before getting the message that she was back.

First was the news about the charges that were finally brought against Teresa. Because of my anonymous calls to the cops and giving them the name of the poison, it had made it easier for them to track it down. They found traces in some of the wines in her home, which I’d added for good measure, and because the last bottle that I’d taken from her home had left a mark where it had sat for the past six months, they rightly deduced that that bottle had held the murder weapon.

The fact that the poison was found in her blood only solidified her place in a cell for at least the next twenty years. Since that particular poison serves only one purpose, which is for the female to kill through sex, there was no way for her to escape the trap I’d set for her. I made sure that all purchases on the black market led back to her in a maze of deceit that she knew nothing about.

Some people should pay closer attention to their bank statements or, at the very least, read the fine print. It wouldn’t have helped since I’d been controlling her computer remotely for quite some time, along with the others that were involved. Their phones had been cloned as well, so I had at my fingertips all the evidence needed if any one of them should slip through my hands.

It didn’t help that the rumors about her and her husband’s actions were running rampant, which only added to the public outcry against her, and the threats kept on coming. The last little tidbit on her was that she was under twenty-four-hour watch. I expect her to be dead by hour twenty-five.

The news coverage of the triple murder-suicide that took place in the fancy hotel on the beach didn’t say much, but Uncle Guy had more of an inside track. Since I’d had time to set up the meet between Carlo, Michele, and Bruno before getting the message that Gianna had been found, I hadn’t missed the opportunity to let them know why they were dying.

It was a bit tedious trying to come up with ways to make it happen. As far as I know, it was Bruno and Michele who heard it first while they were in their favorite lover’s hideaway, committing adultery and betrayal. As soon as Carlo was spotted making his way to the little hotel by the sea, a call was made to the room where the lovers were no doubt enjoying themselves.