Chapter two



Relieved it was no one other than her son, Cecilia heaved a sigh. “Oh Marco…it’s you,” she said softly. Immediately, she turned the key with one hand, twisted the doorknob with the other and pulled the door to open.
When the door swung open, Fernando, who had been looking forward to seeing his grandmother, found her standing in the doorway. Seeing her towering figure hunched over her walker, his eyes brightened up with joy.
“Grandma!” Fernando exclaimed and immediately, he loosened his grip on his father’s little finger. In excitement, he threw his hands up in the air expecting Cecilia to pick him up as she had done in the past when he was much younger, but she was too frail to do that.
However, his simple gesture combined with the excitement in his voice put a smile on Cecilia’s face. It was the sweetest thing she had heard since her brief moment of terror.
Reaching forward, Cecilia wrapped her arms around Fernando and embraced him. “I have missed you too,” she told him and kissed him on the head. “Now, let’s go inside.” Taking Fernando’s hand, Cecilia led the way into her apartment. “So tell me,” she began with a curious smile. “What is daddy feeding you these days?” she asked. Fernando had put on weight and looked a little plump.
“Candy,” Fernando chimed.
Cecilia’s eyes widened. “Candy?” she quizzed.
“Yes grandma,” replied Fernando. “Here look,” he added reaching into his pocket to provide proof. In that instant, Cecilia turned and looked at Marco. Seeing her look of disapproval, Marco advanced a rehearsed response. “I promised him if he behaved I will reward his good behaviour with a candy. It was the only way to get him to leave the house with me. We left in a hurry.”
“You mean you bribed him to urge him to leave the house with you at this time of the night.”
With no shame, Marco nodded and closed the door shut behind him. Of course, Marco did more than give Fernando candy. He fed him regularly, mostly meals his mother would consider unhealthy.
Marco was a single parent with little time to make proper meal for his son. Although he did not make good food choices for Fernando, he did not always give him candy whenever he wanted. To him, candies were more than just a treat. They served as “reward” for a desired behaviour, which Cecilia liked to call “bribe.” Cecilia did not approve of candies for children just as she despised the intent it purports to serve in Marco’s case. Of course, Marco knew his mother’s position on that.
“He’s only five, Marco—”
“I know,” Marco interjected. He was in no mood to listen to his mother’s speech on how best to raise his son. “I had no time to discuss or share the need for our hasty departure.”
Sensing that Marco might be in some kind of trouble, Cecilia turned to Fernando. “I want to have a little chat with your daddy,” she told him. “So go on and play with Freddie.”
Fernando obeyed. Once Fernando moved out of earshot, Cecilia said to Marco. “I am listening. Keep talking.”
“Aurelio wants leverage for the money he said we still owe him.”
Cecilia frowned. “Leverage,” she quipped.
“What sort of leverage?”
“He wants something that belongs to me that ensured I paid him. He wants Fernando. He had planned on snatching him away from me tonight, but I cannot let that happen and so I brought him here.”
Cecilia thought for a moment. “He’s not safe here.”
“We have nowhere else to go.”
Cecilia heaved a sigh. “If you had listened, Aurelio would no longer be a problem.”
“How about now?” asked Marco.
“It’s too late. Aurelio is now under the protection of Sam Lucci. We had the chance to put Aurelio out of business or force him out of the city a year ago through Bertrand Corbera, Sam’s right hand man.
“But after Aurelio pledged his allegiance to Sam through Corbera, we could no longer make our case. We were not the only ones who wanted him gone.”
Cecilia tightened her grip on her walker. The mere thought of Aurelio griped her.
“I knew Aurelio would insert himself in our lives when I realized you were dating Cinzia,” Cecilia complained. “I told you then that Cinzia was no good for you, this family, or me because she came with a baggage. You did not listen. You married her anyways not realizing Aurelio owned her.”
“But ma—”
“Let me finish,” Cecilia snapped. “Don’t get me wrong. Cinzia is loving, kind, respectful and in my mind, a perfect daughter-in-law. She does not deserve the cards life dealt her but she has made the best of it. Despite her efforts and your efforts and all the money both of you have paid Aurelio so far, the two of you together cannot make him go away.”
Then Cecilia paused to think. “How much did he say you owed?” she asked.
“Hundred thousand,” Marco replied and suddenly the room was pregnant with silence.



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