PawPaw #23, Vanilla Custard #1, Sea Salt #10 + rainbow sprinkles + gummy bunnies
Story: Blaze Mafia Family
Title: Family Troubles
Prompts: PawPaw #23: that's the signal, Vanilla Custard #1: I'm sorry. I'm so sorry., Sea Salt #10: steam + rainbow sprinkles + gummy bunnies (500themes #56: harsh revelation)
Rating: R for mentions of spousal/child abuse, bilingual cursing.
Words: 1438
Characters: Angelo Calabrese, Anna Martino, David Martino
Summary: This takes place a year before Rat and The Triumphant Return. Angelo's sister calls with a problem. Lots of Italian in this one, I apologize in advance for any Google Translate related errors.
"'Gelo, phone." Nikita called from the front room.
Angelo's eyebrows rose but he pushed himself out of his chair at the poker table and went to the front to the bar phone. "Pronto?"
"Angelo?"
It was a woman's voice but he didn't recognize it. "Who is this?"
There was a pregnant pause then the woman responded in a small voice, "It's Anna."
Angelo nearly dropped the phone. Out of all the possible people to call him, his sister was damn near at the bottom of the list. They hadn't talked in...oh, two years now. Ever since she had refused to let him come to his niece's baptism. "Anna. What is it?"
Just like that Anna sobbed sharply. "Oh, Angelo, I didn't know who else to call. Non so cosa fare! David sta per tornare presto e-" She cut herself off and just cried.
Angelo didn't know what Anna's husband, David, had done but it was enough to make Anna breach the previously impenetrable wall of silence between Angelo and his family. There was no question of what he'd do. "Anna. Are you at your house?"
"Si."
"I'll be there in twenty minutes. Lock the door and don't answer it until you see me. Capito?"
Anna swallowed back her tears. "Si. Grazi."
- - - - -
- - - - -
Anna and David lived in a solid middle class home outside of the Italian neighborhoods. Angelo could never remember what his brother-in-law did for a living but it was something that required a tie and no sense of humor. David fit the bill perfectly.
He pulled up in front of their house and cut through the manicured lawn to the door. When he knocked on the door, he saw a little girl peek through the curtains of the front window. That would be his niece, Sofia. He hadn't seen her since before she could walk. As soon as they made eye contact, Sofia disappeared, only the slight ruffle of curtains evidence that she'd been there at all.
Finally he heard the distinct rattle of the locks turning and then Anna opened the door. Angelo blinked. Or at least, he thought it was Anna. She looked so different from how he remembered her. She was thin, too thin, all of her curves shaved down to nothing. Her hair was dyed blonde and pressed into fat waves that didn't flatter her oval-shaped face. Her dress was a conservative dark blue that matched the dark circles under her haunted eyes. He knew that look: she was scared and had been for a long time.
Angelo reined in his calvacade of questions and put on the kid gloves. He'd never seen his sister looked so...fragile. "Let me in, Anna."
Anna nodded once and stepped back. He came into the house and immediately got a creepy feeling. It was clean. Angelo expected no less from his sister, who had learned from their Italian mother that a housewife was judged by the cleanliness of her windows, but this was different. This was sterile. Nothing was out of place. There were no knick-knacks, no personal touches that made it a home. This looked like an upscale hotel lobby. The little girl that Angelo had seen was nowhere to be found.
"Let's go in the kitchen," he said, acting on a hunch. Anna had always loved to cook; she'd met David while she was in culinary school but she'd quit soon after they'd married so she could be a housewife. If Anna had laid claim to any room in the house it would be the kitchen.
Anna led the way through the sterile showrooms and into a kitchen that looked like something out of a magazine. Steel appliances, granite countertops, dark cabinets. There were no kids drawings on the refrigerator, nothing cooking on the spotless stove, no trace that this place had ever been used.
"Oh sore," Angelo said softly, "What's happened in this house?"
Anna froze. She looked like she would shatter at any moment. Her hand trembled as she reached up and pulled the collar of her dress down. Her skin was a blossom of colors: angry blue, ugly green, and sickly yellow. Bruises upon bruises.
Angelo saw red. He didn't speak until he had enough control to ask in a quiet voice, "David did that?"
She pulled her dress back up suddenly, and went over to a laundry basket full of clean kids clothes. Once her hands were busy, the words came out.
"It's my fault really. I made him so angry when I filled out Paolo's birth certificate without him."
Angelo had heard she'd had a second baby recently; a boy this time. "Why?"
"You remember when we were little I would always tell Papa I would name my baby boy after him? Well, David didn't want to. He doesn't like Italian names-"
"Che cosa?" Angelo interrupted, then felt like an ass when she flinched from his sharp tone. "David is a Martino. He married the daughter of Italian immigrants. What's wrong with nomi italiani?"
Anna shrugged and concentrated on perfecting the folds in a little onesie. "David doesn't like Italians."
"What? Why?" That didn't make any sense. Granted, the last time Angelo saw his brother-in-law was years ago just after David had married into the family, but from what he remembered David was just another one of the Italian boys from the old neighborhoods. A stuffy one, yes, but Anna had liked the security David offered.
"He hates us. He thinks we're too emotional and irresponsible." Anna shook her head. "He wanted to name the baby Jonathan but I...I promised Papa. So while David was in a different room, I filled out the birth certificate myself and named him Paolo."
"David didn't like that."
She shook her head. "He was furious. He could barely stand to look at the baby. And it...he just couldn't stand my mistake any longer."
"So he hit you," he said flatly.
"No, well yes but that's..." she took a deep breath. "He's done that before. But this time..." Anna's hands clenched in the pink little girl's shirt she was folding. "He tried to hit Paolo, Angelo."
It took a moment for Angelo to comprehend what his sister was saying. "He hurt the baby?"
"No. No, I stopped him before he could do it. That's why...he doesn't usually leave marks on me."
Angelo shook his head. "Anna, why didn't you call someone sooner? Not even me, I understand why you wouldn't call me, but anyone. You shouldn't live with a cazzo like that."
"I don't have any money of my own." Anna said baldly, "David takes care of everything for us. I could take it when he was just angry at me, but the baby, Angelo. Not when he'd hurt my children."
"He hasn't...hurt Sofia, has he?"
Anna shook her head. "No, thank goodness. He barely notices she exists. She's not pretty enough for him to pay any attention to."
"Cazzo," Angelo growled. "I'm going to kill him."
"No," Anna said softly. "I don't want you to get in trouble for this."
Angelo didn't tell her that he wouldn't be allowed to call himself a Blaze if he left bodies where they could be found. It wasn't the time or place to air his problems with the family out. Instead he asked, "Sore, what do you want me to do?"
Anna made eye contact with him for the first time in years. "Fix it, 'Gelo. Per favore, just make it stop."
- - - - -
- - - - -
It didn't take much to persuade Anna to take the kids to a hotel for the night. She'd already made up her mind when she'd called him; now she just wanted him to get her out of this horror show. The little girl, Sofia, wouldn't even look at him when Anna brought her out of her bedroom. She just shrunk into her mother's legs and skirted around him as they walked out the door.
Angelo got them situated in a place that was Family-friendly then returned to Anna's house. He parked on the next block over and let himself in the backdoor. There was David's beer in the fridge, Angelo took one, turned the television on low, sat back and waited.
It was closing in on one a.m. when Angelo finally heard David's car pull into the driveway. Angelo waited just inside the living room by the front door, hidden in the shadows.
"Anna," David thundered as soon as he shut the front door. "Why the fuck didn't you leave the porch light on for me?"
David walked past the living room and Angelo struck. One fist into David's kidney, swiftly followed by another at his diaphragm. David fell on the spotless wood floor with a gasp.
"Ciao, cognato. I hear you like beating on people that are weaker than you." Angelo grabbed David's collar and dragged the dazed man up until he was on his tiptoes. "What a coincidence. So do I."
Non so cosa fare! David sta per tornare presto e - I don't know what to do! David will be home soon and-
Capito? - Understand?
Sore - affectionate term for sister
Che cosa? - What?
Cognato - brother-in-law