The Beginning (The Life 1)

“Okay-okay, Mussolini. It’s not like you like her or anything, plus we weren’t trying to hook her up. They’re our friends, so we didn’t think it would be a big deal.”

“Now that we’re on the topic. You two have been talking to Gianna; who do you think she’d most like to see right now?”

“Ah, her grandma and the aunts, she’s always talking about them.”

“Why don’t you invite them to your party?”

“What about kids her age? She mention anyone that she’s close to?”

“She didn’t, but we did some digging. There’re two girls in her class that hasn’t been mean to her and have no dealings with Victoria, the snake.”

“Did you ask her about them?”

“Not yet; we’re still working on her family background.”

“Really, what have you found so far?”

I moved further into the room and dragged the chair over.

“It’s like this, Gia’s mom comes from money, like real money. Not Russo coin, but not far from. She moved to our town after getting married; I think the story goes that she went to college here and fell in love with the place. Her family’s from Virginia horse country originally.

Anyway, after she moved here with her husband, she’s the one who got the women in the neighborhood together. The mothers of the girls, who are now Victoria’s lackeys, were her friends when she was alive. She used to host parties, organize playdates, and have fundraisers for charity and stuff like that.”

“In other words, Gia’s mom was at the helm of whatever went on in the neighborhood as far as anything to do with the kids and most of the social events.” Anna broke off, and Rosa picked up from there.

“Back then, Gia was like the crown princess. Everyone loved her mom, and it looks like her house was the place to be. Most importantly, these girls who now bully her were once her friends. After her mom passed...”

“What’s her name?”

“Her mother? Adrienne. Anyway, after Adrienne died, Becky moved in and married Gia’s dad less than a year later.”

“Skank used to be Adrienne’s friend. Anyway, she tried stepping into Adrienne’s spot, but the other women didn’t like her apparently, so that was a bust, but somehow Victoria got their idiot daughters to dislike Gia in favor of her. We’re still working on figuring that one out, but quite frankly, it’s not that important any longer.”

“Why do you say that, Rosa?”

“We’ve talked it over and decided that we don’t want to interact with them directly for now, if ever. We don’t need them for what we have planned. Besides, we don’t want Gia to be the type of person to eat her own vomit. She can do better than going back to people who treated her like that in the first place. Let Victoria keep them; it’s only fair that they get to reap what they sewed together.”

My smile of approval got them both going, and they let me in on what else they’d learned and what the next step in their plan was going to be.

“So, we’re gonna let Ma handle it.” Huh? What? I think I zoned out for a second when my mind went to what I needed to do for her next.

There’s something I want to get her before we leave tomorrow, but I’ve been worrying that it might send the wrong damn message. As if everything else I’ve done so far hasn’t done that already. I know the only reason the twins are going all out like this is because they have certain expectations. Now they’re bringing Ma in on it too.

“Let Ma handle what?”

“This is the plan; Ma is going to throw one of her tea parties a week after our party and invite the mothers to the house. She’s on board.”

I didn’t need to ask what the purpose of that was. My sisters, with their vicious intent, were going for the jugular, just the way I taught them. I’m sure these women would climb all over each other to get an invite from Ma. What they plan to do after they get them there, I guess I’ll wait and see. No doubt it’s going to be epic.

“Does she know why you’re doing this?”

“Nope, and she didn’t ask, just said, okay. But there’s one problem.”

“What’s that?”

“How do we get around Pop?”

“I’ll take care of it, don’t worry.” I took the list with the women’s names from Anna. I knew what they meant by getting around Pop; it meant the women would have to be vetted.

It’s something he always does when it comes to Ma; he’s excessively overprotective of her, and though the others joke about it since they don’t know the reasons why I do. It’s because of this because I’ve watched over the years the way he is with her that I understand how deeply he feels for her.