Gemma's Daughter Page 5

  “What happened on your delivery day?” Sal asked.

  “My mother, like I said, was deadest against me keeping that baby. That’s why she sent me to this school for girls in South Bend before I started showing. Nobody knew that I was pregnant because, as a minor, my name was never mentioned during the trial. But my mother would only agree to let me keep that child if I went to that school for girls. So I went. But as soon as my baby was born, it was taken away from me. And then, within minutes, they said the baby died.”

  Sal looked at her. “Wait a minute. Are you saying they told you it was dead, but it wasn’t?”

  “I don’t think she was, no,” said Gemma. “But that’s what they told me and that’s what I believed. I was devastated. Mom handled all of the funeral arrangements. She tried to shield me from all of it. I was devastated.”

  “But what makes you so sure that baby didn’t die? What happened today?”

  “I was in court and this woman was there. They said how she had connections at that same school for girls I attended. They said how she told the mothers that their babies had died, and then she sold those babies on the black market.”

  “I’ll be damn,” said Sal.

  But then Gemma thought about something. And she looked at Sal. “Mom,” she said.

  Sal looked at her. “What about your mother?” he asked.

  Gemma sat up and pulled out her cell phone.

  “What about your mother?” Sal asked again as Gemma phoned her mother.

  “She wanted me in Indiana today,” Gemma said as the phone rang.

  “Hello?” It was Judge Jones.

  “Is it about my daughter?” Gemma asked her without hesitation.

  There was a pause on her mother’s end, but she eventually spoke up too. “Yes,” she said.

  Sal looked at Gemma. Gotdamn, he thought.

  “The woman was arraigned this morning,” Gemma said.

  “I know. That’s why I wanted you here yesterday. So I could explain.”

  “She didn’t die?” Gemma asked her mother and Sal could hear the nervous quiver in her voice.

  “No,” her mother responded. “She didn’t die.”

  Tears dropped from Gemma’s eyes again. “Where is she?” Gemma asked.

  “Please just come, Gemma. So I can explain.”

  “Is she in Indiana still?” Gemma asked. Her interest was singular.

  “Yes. I think so. But don’t go anywhere near that woman. You’ll expose me.”

  Sal looked at Gemma. How could her own mother be involved in that shit?

  But Gemma remained singularly focused. Her daughter was out there. She had to find her daughter! “I’m on my way,” she said, and ended the call.

  Gemma began getting up. “I’m going to Indiana.”

  “I’m going with you,” Sal said, getting up too.

  Gemma stopped and looked at him. “But you’re supposed to be in Phoenix.”

  “Are you kidding? Fuck that! I’ll get there when I get there. I’m going with you.”

  Gemma stared at Sal. No better husband could she have ever had. She gave him a big bear hug. And then they both got in a hurry.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  She felt vulnerable. That was the only way she could describe herself. Sal spent the entire time on the phone as they flew, on his private plane, to Indiana. He had so much business he had to attend to, but her situation, for Sal, had trumped it all. But she couldn’t seem to leave his side. She stayed snuggled against him, as he sat slouched down on the phone, the entire trip. She was clinging to him and couldn’t help it. She was afraid.

  Sal kept his big arm around her, protectively, which she liked, and he would ask if she was okay between making phone calls and calls coming in. She said she was okay. They both knew she wasn’t.

  And when the plane finally touched down in Indianapolis, and they made their way across the tarmac to the waiting Cadillac, Sal would not release Gemma’s hand, as if he didn’t mind at all that she was so clingy. And even as Sal drove to her parents’ home, Gemma took comfort in knowing he was by her side. There was a time when she would have felt she was being too needy. She wasn’t that girl and didn’t want to be that kind of girl. But in times like these, she was glad to have a man like Sal on her side. She didn’t care how needy she looked!

  Her parents were in the living room when they entered their beautiful home. Her father, Rodney Jones, a man who had rose up the ranks to become the president of the town’s largest bank, was just concluding a phone call with his bank when they walked in. Her mother, Cassie Jones, a lawyer who was elected to the circuit court, was sitting on the sofa looking as frightful as Gemma felt. But instead of hurrying to them and embracing them as she normally did, Gemma stayed beside Sal. She didn’t know what part they played in keeping her daughter a secret from her for all those years, but she knew Sal had nothing to do with it.

  “Hey, baby,” Rodney said as soon as he hung up the phone and made his way toward his daughter. “How are you?” He gave her a peck on the cheek.

  Gemma and her father were always close, but she wasn’t there to be nice. She was there to hear the unvarnished truth, something she used to depend on hearing from him.

  Cassie saw her anguish, too, and motioned for her and Sal to have a seat.

  They sat together, in the oversized chair, and Rodney sat beside his wife.

  “How have you been?” Cassie asked her daughter.

  “Just tell her, Cass,” Rodney said firmly. “Tell her what she needs to hear.”

  “I don’t know what she needs to hear,” Cassie said.

  “My daughter is alive,” Gemma said.

  “I told you that over the phone.”

  “Where is she?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “What’s her name?” Gemma asked.

  “Now? I don’t know,” Cassie said. “You named her Marie.”

  Gemma let out a hard exhale. Sal, his legs crossed, placed his arm around her and squeezed her.

  “What happened?” Gemma asked. “Why did they tell me my child had died when it wasn’t true?”

  “Because that’s what they told girls who went to that school during that particular time, Gemma. It wasn’t a place where girls went to deliver babies. It was a place where girls went to deliver and then leave babies. You were the only one who wanted to keep yours. To keep the child of a rapist. And your father went along with that nonsense.”

  Gemma leaned closer to Sal.

  “Where did they take her?” Gemma asked.

  “I don’t know where,” Cassie responded. “To a good home was all I was told. I really didn’t care. I just wasn’t going to let that child ruin your promising future.”

  “She was my child,” Gemma said to her mother.

  “She was a rapist child.”

  “And my child!” Gemma yelled, angrily leaning forward. Sal pulled her back against him. Gemma did calm back down. “She was my child. Whether she stayed with me or went to live with some strangers was for me to decide. Not you!”

  “You were sixteen years old. In this country, you were still my responsibility. It was my decision to make.”

  “But it was wrong. It was illegal what happened! I didn’t give consent. You couldn’t tell me my baby had died and just take my baby away from me. I was devastated when they claim she was dead. I was devastated, Ma. You saw me. And you let that stand?”

  “What else was I supposed to do? You’re just like your father. As stubborn as a mule when you put your mind to something. I wasn’t about to let you raise a child who would have the genes of that monster. I wasn’t going to let you do that. I had to look out for your best interests, and that’s exactly what I did.”

  “You lied to me. That’s what you did.”

  “You may see it that way,” said Cassie. “But I was protecting you. That’s what I did.”

  “Where do you get off?” It was Sal, who had been quiet up until then. And when he spoke, Gemma’s parents look
ed at him.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” her mother asked.

  “Where do you get off lying to her about something that real? This is her child we’re talking about.”

  “She was raped, Sal,” Cassie said. “That’s okay with you?”

  Sal frowned. “Hell no it’s not okay with me. What the fuck kind of question is that?”

  “Watch your language, Salvatore,” said Rodney. “I may disagree with what she did, but she’s still my wife.”

  “Then your wife needs to come clean and talk. She’s just going around in circles.”

  “If you had a daughter, a beloved daughter, who was raped, would you want her to keep the rapist’s child?” Rodney asked the question and then stared at Sal.

  Sal was no liar. “No,” he said, and Gemma looked at him too.

  Although Sal squeezed her tighter, he couldn’t pretend. “I wouldn’t want that for my daughter, no,” he continued. “But if my daughter said she was keeping that kid, then she was keeping that kid. Period. Your wife was wrong.”

  “Where is she?” Gemma asked her mother. “Just tell me where I can find my daughter.”

  “I told you I don’t know.”

  “Then how did you know that lady had gotten arrested in Vegas?”

  “The police here needed a court order to bring her back for trial. She was a wanted fugitive. One of the mothers had been pursuing what happened to her child for years. She finally figured it out, and that was when Sylvia Pendle went on the run. But you’ve got to help me, Gemma.”

  Gemma looked at her with a confused look on her face. “Help you? Help you how?”

  “You’ve got to tell the authorities that you consented to the adoption. That it wasn’t a theft. That we both thought she was a legitimate adoption organization.”

  But Gemma wanted no parts of that. “Tell me where I can find my child,” she said.

  Her mother became heated. “Aren’t you listening to me? I can be indicted! I can be a co-conspirator in this mess, Gemma. I’ll lose my judgeship. I’ll lose my license to practice law. I’ll lose everything! Aren’t you listening to me?”

  “What about me?” Gemma yelled as she hit her own chest. “What about my daughter?! Where is she? I need to make sure she’s okay. Where is she, mother?”

  But Cassie just shook her head. She was asking a question, over and over, that Cassie just could not answer. Or would not.

  Sal knew it too. That was why he stood up and stood Gemma up with him. Rodney stood up too. “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “Back to Vegas,” Gemma said, “to see if that woman can help me.”

  But Cassie panicked and stood up quickly. “Gemma, you can’t,” she said. “If you go to that jail asking those kind of questions, I’ll be implicated too. Don’t you understand that?”

  “Yes,” Gemma said, looking her mother dead in the eyes. “I understand that.”

  “Then why are you doing it?”

  “The same reason you claim to have done what you did,” Gemma said. “I’m looking out for my child too. She may need me.”

  “After all these years?” Cassie asked. “You don’t even know where she is. It’s been years since that woman placed that baby. She doesn’t know where she is either.”

  “I’ll find her,” Gemma said. “By hook or by crook, I’m going to find her.” And then Gemma began walking out.

  “Sal, talk to her,” Rodney pleaded. “Cassie could lose her license if she’s implicated.”

  “If that child had a rough life, or is in any other kind of trouble,” Sal said, “she’d better hope that’s all she loses,” Sal said, and then hurried behind his wife.

  When they got back in the car, and started heading back to the airport, Sal kept glancing at Gemma. “You okay?”

  Gemma didn’t answer that. “How could my mother go along with that?”

  Sal knew how. “She called herself protecting you,” he said.

  “Or protecting her image,” Gemma said. “Or both,” she added.

  “But regardless,” said Sal, “I want you to stay away from that woman they arrested. I’ve already got my men on the case. They’re tracing everything that woman did prior to her arrest. They’re breaking into her home and searching for documents. Everything. They’re also working with any cop I have on my payroll. I want you to stay out of it.”

  “I can’t stay out of it.”

  “But you have to. I’m ordering you to, Gemma. Let me handle this for you. But as soon as I hear anything, and I mean anything, I’ll let you know.” Then he exhaled. “We have a child. He needs his mother too.”

  Gemma and Sal exchanged a glance. Gemma knew it too.

  Sal took her hand as he drove. “I’ll let you know, babe. As soon as I hear anything at all, I’ll let you know.”

  “You promise?”

  Sal nodded. “I promise,” he said.

  And his promise, like always, was good enough for Gemma.

  But she couldn’t stop thinking about her daughter.

  What did she look like?

  Where did she live?

  Was life treating her kindly?

  Did her adopted family treat her right?

  She had so many questions!

  Just sitting it out on the sidelines, although Sal ordered her to, wasn’t going to happen.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “Mommy! Daddy!”

  Salvatore Luciano Gabrini, Junior, also known as Lucky to some, Lucky Luciano to others, ran toward the front door as soon as his parents entered the penthouse. Gemma smiled and picked him up into her arms.

  “Where were you?” he asked.

  “Hurrying to get back to you,” Gemma said as she kissed him on his pink cheek. But he was a burly kid like his old man. He was getting too heavy for her.

  Sal saw it, too, and pulled him into his arms. “Hello, partner,” Sal said as he kissed him too. “You’ve been giving Uncle Reno and Aunt Trina fits?”

  “What’s a fit?” Lucky asked.

  “You’re a fit,” said Reno with a smile as he walked toward Sal and Gemma too. “You and your cousin Carmine.” Carmine was Reno’s youngest son. “Got me babysitting,” Reno said to Sal. “You know I don’t do that shit.”

  “Where’s Trina?” Gemma asked.

  “At Champagne’s. Another shipment arrived earlier than expected and somebody had to make sure the order was right.”

  “That’s Oprah’s job.”

  “You know Tree,” said Reno. “She micromanages.”

  “As if you know what that means,” said Sal.

  Reno wanted to zig him back, but he was worried about him. “Got a minute?” he asked.

  Sal knew what that meant. He put Lucky down. But Lucky immediately grabbed his suit coat. “I’ll be back,” he said, and Lucky quickly went to Gemma. Sal and Reno disappeared into Reno’s home office.

  Once inside, and the door shut, Reno looked at his first cousin. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing’s going on,” Sal said. “Why would something be going on?”

  “I heard your guys have been asking around.”

  Sal ran his hand across his face. “Yeah, maybe.”

  “Gonna tell me what it’s about?” Reno asked.

  Sal hesitated. “Let me get more information first,” he said.

  “You don’t need my help?”

  “Not yet, no. My guys can handle it. But I’ll let you know.”

  Reno nodded, but he kept staring at Sal. “I don’t know what the shit’s about,” he said. “But by that worried look on your face, I know the shit’s about Gemma.”

  Sal stared at Reno. They fought about everything, but they respected each other to the utmost. “It’s about Gemma,” Sal confessed. “Which is why I hate it.”

  Reno slapped Sal on the back. “Know what you mean,” he said. He always felt the same way when it was Trina in some sort of situation. They always wanted their families clear of the drama. “Let me know if I can help,” he sa
id.

  Later that night at home, Sal was in bed holding a still-worried Gemma, hoping she would finally get some sleep. While he held her, she was holding Lucky. It was as if she couldn’t let him go either. It was as if knowing that he was safe helped her from worrying too desperately if her daughter was safe.

  But Sal’s persistence ultimately worked, and Gemma eventually fell asleep.

  While Sal and Gemma, and Lucky in the middle, had all fallen asleep, one of Sal’s safe houses, the one where Sal’s old acquaintance Kamill and her kids were being kept, was breached.

  In stark contrast to the peacefulness that encapsulated Sal Gabrini’s quiet home, all hell broke loose at that safe house, and the carnage began.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Sal’s Bugatti Chiron flew into the driveway of the safe house just as the electronic garage door lifted up. After he drove inside, and the garage door went down, he saw Robby Yale waiting for him inside the garage. Robby walked over to the car and opened the driver side door for Sal.

  “What the hell happened?” Sal asked as he was getting out.

  “I just got here myself. I don’t know what happened, Boss.”

  “They took out everybody?” Sal asked.

  “Everybody except Kamill herself. But she was shot up pretty badly too. Doc’s with her now.”

  “What about her kids?” Sal asked.

  Robby’s handsome face frowned. And he shook his head. “Like I said, they took out. Kamill still breathing, but barely.”

  Sal couldn’t believe it. “What sick, perverted fucker would take out kids?”

  “They meant business. They meant to kill every human being breathing in this house.”

  “From the front it looks perfectly normal,” Sal said. “Like any other house on this block. That’s why we chose this place. I figured I was just helping an old acquaintance steer clear of some sick stalker. I thought I told you to check it out.”

  “We did check it out,” said Robby. “When we checked into her story, it checked out. Everything checked out. That’s why we only had a couple guys here with her and her kids. That’s why we didn’t see the danger on the level it became. We fucked up, what can I say?”