Tia gasped.
“She had all this guilt. She decided to give things another go with him. Your father made her get rid of my kid. I’ve always hated him for that. I’m Catholic, you know; we don’t believe in that. When he made her have that abortion, I believe it destroyed her. He was the reason she died.” Pop poured another glass of scotch.
“I saw you a few months ago,” Pop said, “Saw you all grown up one day on the street with your friends and it was like looking at her all young and happy again and I, I … I decided to give my son what I should’ve had.
I’ve been married a lot. But if I’d married Lita, that would’ve been forever. I won’t deny I wanted to take Gregory’s child the way he took my child from me, the child I never got to know.” He shrugged and downed the drink, “So I hate your father. Sorry but that’s how it is. Tommy cleared his debt and it’s done. I’ve wanted to knock him out for years and saw his smug face when he left here today and so I just closed the chapter with my fists, that’s all. I’m done.” Pop looked at me and raised his hands defensively, “I’m done, my boy. I know what you said when you cleared the debt but I just needed to knock the smug look off his face. I’m done now.”
Tia had stopped shuddering and hiccupping. She was dabbing her eyes.
Pop got to his feet, “You wanna have him at your wedding, I’ll keep my mouth shut and I’ll be nice. As nice as I can be under the circumstances. You two have kids and he has to come to the baptism and so forth, I’ll be on my best behavior. But don’t expect me to be friends with him and unless it’s important don’t expect me to be under the same roof.”
“C’mon Pop.” I said and signaled for him to follow me. I leaned over and kissed her on the forehead and whispered, “Back in a few.”
Pop and I stepped outside. His driver was standing by the gate talking to Nino and Jimmy and they halted conversation when they saw us come out. I shot a dirty look their way. They looked like a couple of gossiping old ladies.
“What brought you by today?” I asked.
“Just wanted to say Hello,” he answered and shrugged but he was looking me right in the eye, the way he always did when he was feeding me bullshit.
It was obvious that he knew O’Connor was here. Someone told him that my guys were picking the guy up. Who?
“Come by the office tomorrow morning, we gotta talk more about the Fete plan. Unfortunately, Denarda’s back in. People flying in tomorrow. I’ll fill you in later.”
“Right,” I said, jaw tight. Leo Denarda. Great.
“When ya getting married?” Pop asked.
I shook my head, “Not sure.”
“What’s the problem? You not sure about her now?”
I shook my head, “I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life.”
He frowned at me.
“I want it to be right. We’re almost there. It won’t be long.”
“You’re keeping me from my Valhalla,” he waggled a finger at me.
“Naw, Pop. You go. We’ll be good. We’ll get married soon.”
“Maybe. The new house is still bein’ built so not a major rush. We’ll talk more later,” he slapped me on the back and then headed down the front stairs toward his car. His driver jogged over from the gate and opened the car door for Pop. I followed the car out and stared at the sewer in front of my house. My mother’s necklace was gone. No way I’d get it back. Just as well, maybe. I needed to learn to control myself without it, anyhow. I heard Nino call out, “T?” I looked over my shoulder to see that suddenly Tia was beside me, staring at the sewer.
I gave her a sad look. She grasped the cameo necklace around her neck and yanked hard, breaking the chain. She looked at the necklace in her hand for a second and then she dropped it over the sewer grate, it caught for a second and then slid down between the slats. She turned on her heel, and walked back toward the house. I let out a slow breath and followed her.
Tia
I walked up to the bedroom and kicked off my shoes and crawled into bed, the soft gray cashmere throw Tommy had put over my shoulders still wrapped around me.
The shit my father had pulled in my life all pointed to him being a weak and broken man. But what I saw today was like an addict swindling to get his fix. He was looking for an in with this family and thought I was it. And he turned on me. Tommy had said he was still using drugs. Was he imagining working for this family and getting wealthy and having access to all the sins he wanted? Drugs, gambling? Notoriety? Was he that out of touch with reality?
Tommy came into the bedroom a few minutes after I did, looking stressed. He took the navy blue suit jacket he was wearing off and climbed in beside me and pulled me to his chest. I was going to cry again. It couldn’t be helped. So much for my tough hardened self that I thought I was after my conversation with my Dad.
“Your necklace,” I whispered, rubbing my hand up his chest.
“I know,” he sighed.
“That was really fucked up,” I said.