Ruthless Mafia 42

Sidonia shrugged and rolled onto her back. “Ask him.”
“What?”
“Ask him. Vodingo said Icaro is not one to shy away from any conversation. If you want to know something, ask him. Ask
him how it was he was thinking of you as his wife from the time you were an infant.”
“I guess.”
“I know he’s not what you wanted, Zorah. If there was a way out of this, I’d be encouraging you to take it, but I don’t
think there is and really, I don’t believe we’re in danger. I can’t help but believe the prayers we prayed the night we
stayed really late in church and prayed for love, have come true.”
“Sidonia, I don’t think it works so fast.”
“Says who? Miracles happen all the time. Maybe it needed to happen this way because you were going to be in more
danger with your uncle. He was getting braver. In the past he would never have called you to his office when there were
others still in the church and last Sunday, he came for you before mass even started and told you to get to his office
immediately following mass. He didn’t care who knew he was bringing you into his offices alone without a chaperone.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean some of the choir ladies were talking about how it was inappropriate and maybe they were right.”
“He used to beat me,” Zorah admitted. Now she’d told Icaro, she felt she must tell Sidonia.
“I know.”
“No. I mean the way Mom did. Over his lap.”
Sidonia blanched, “no. When?”
“Um, several times over the years. Not for the last little while though. Not since I moved out.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was embarrassed and ashamed.”
“Did your mother know?”
She shook her head. “I doubt it. He made sure nobody was around, and I don’t think she’d believe me anyway. Who would? He preached chastity so much, yet he would use a paddle over my bare bum.”
“I believe you,” Sidonia gripped her hands tightly, “I believe you Zorah and –”
When Zorah broke down and began crying heartbrokenly. Sidonia hugged her tightly, rocking her in her arms.
The humiliation of her life poured out of her as she cried in Sidonia’s arms. She wasn’t sure how long she cried but when
she finally stopped, her throat was raw, her eyes were swollen and puffy and her sinuses were aching. Sidonia slipped off
the bed to grab a box of tissues and then crawled back in to hold her.
“I’m so sorry, Zorah.”
“I never told anyone and then Icaro was pushing me and pushing me, and I spilled it and I didn’t want them to know
what you didn’t know but I’m so ashamed.” She blew her nose loudly.
Sidonia was quiet as she adjusted on the bed and when she spoke, her words stunned Zorah.
“I hope Icaro kills him.”
“Sidonia!”
“I hope he put that oversized jerk over one of the kneelers and beats his bare ass until it bleeds and then I hope he kills
him. All these years standing in the pulpit, preaching to people like my parents about how self-discipline and control are
the keys to the gates of heaven. His spitting and spewing over the congregation about how parents needed to set the
example for their children by living pure and good lives and he was holding you naked from the waist down over his lap?
My mother who would spend hours screaming at me when I would wear a shirt which fit me instead of being oversized
or my father who would call me a tramp if I wanted to wear a skirt which sat at my knees, believed Ippocrate Giannone
was the example. He is a pig.”
“Do not lower yourself to his level.”
“There is nobody on his level. He is the lowest of the low.” She held her trembling hands out, betraying her emotional
state, “hell is here and Giannone,” she lowered her hand, “is here. He is a monster. I want for Icaro to get revenge for
you.”
“Do not lose your humanity over bloodlust,” Zorah whispered softly taking Sidonia’s shaking hands in hers. “I love you
and I do not want us to be what we never were.”
“I’m angry.” Sidonia clenched her jaw.
“I am too but Sidonia, but I don’t want to let the anger consume me. Please. Let’s try to forget.”
“Forgetting isn’t going to happen, Zorah. You need to deal with this. How can you move forward if he’s allowed to go
unpunished.”
“Because for all of his blustering and bloating,” Zorah said quietly, “he is never getting to the heaven he drones on about.
I think there is a space in hell reserved for him because he knows better. He is not going to be held to the same
standards the rest of man will be. He’s supposed to be a man of God. He is supposed to live his life holy and while
nobody would expect him to be sinless, he is expected to set the example. I promise you, he has never once confessed
his sins.”
“How are you so sure? How do you know he didn’t go to the Bishop or another priest and get forgiven?”
“Because he has convinced himself what he has done is what he should do. You know Sunday morning he called me into
his office and gave me his speech on how my mother was a whore parting her legs and how he was so chaste and good.
I sat there and listened to him, and he was puffing his chest up like he’s without sin.”
“He’s going to hell.”
“Yes, and I don’t want to go there with him because we sent death after him.”
“Fine. Icaro doesn’t need to kill him, but can he at least torture him or cause him humiliation on a grand scale? Can’t he
make it so he loses everything and has to live the frugal life we were forced to?”
“Icaro told me his family has been supporting me for years. He paid for my college and my private school, and my
mother got a monthly allowance for my care.”
“Where did it go?”
“I don’t know. I hope Icaro goes back and collects it.”
“Violently,” Sidonia muttered.
Zorah shook her head at her friend’s rage and wondered what was wrong with herself she wasn’t near as angry as
Sidonia was and Zorah was the one who’d been wronged.
Letting the exhaustion of her the morning pull her back against the pillows, she opted to close her eyes and not ponder it
for awhile. There was always time to come to sort it out.