Chapter 53

**Lily**

Matteo was set on joining me to meet Jelena. According to his logic, he wanted to protect me if I was going to a situation where I didn’t know what was going to happen. Nevertheless, I was happy that he was joining me because I was nervous.

Matteo smiled when he looked over at me, and squeezed the hand he grabbed in a gesture to support me. I felt happy and excited in that moment. Finally, we were on our way to getting some answers. Answers that I have been searching for some time already.

It was quite a drive out to where Jelena lived, so I had plenty of time to get even more nervous. However, nothing was comparable to how nervous I got when we finally parked in front of her house. My heart jumped in my throat at the idea of having to ring the doorbell. I checked for the tenth time to see if the picture of my mom and Mario was still in my bag. Matteo chuckled at the sight of me.

He walked over to my side of the car and grabbed my hand to pull me out of the car. He shook his head at just how pathetic I must have looked. Playfully he pushed me towards the front door.

“You can do this.”, he whispered in my ear, and I squeezed his hand even harder. I took a deep breath, and looked over at him before I rang the doorbell. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, someone opened.

“Lily?”, she asked, and I nodded. She stepped aside and signaled for me to enter her home. But when she took a good look at Matteo, she froze. The look on her face went from friendly to hostile.

“You! Out!”, she yelled at him. I was confused to what was going on.

“Jelena, it’s okay. He is with me.”, I tried to calm her down, but she wouldn’t listen to me. Her body shook all over.

“He needs to leave.”, she yelled again. I grabbed Matteo’s hand.

“It’s fine, we’ll come back another time if today is not a good day.”, I said, feeling defeated and disappointed. I had already turned around, and guided Matteo back out of the house.

“No wait! I’m okay talking to you, Lily. But the man needs to leave.”, she said firmly. I looked at Matteo. I had prepared several scenarios in my head, but none of them went like this. Matteo took my hand, and let it go.

“It’s alright, Lily. You go and talk. I’ll wait in the car until you are ready to go home.”, he said.

“You sure?”, I asked him softly, but he nodded and walked out. Jelena quickly shut the door behind him and ushered me to the living room.

“Right. Coffee or tea?”, Jelena asked me, as she pointed to where I could take a seat.

“Coffee, please.”, I answered, and I sat down, taking in the room. I didn’t see anything familiar yet.

A few minutes later, Jelena came out with two cups of coffee. One she put down in front of me, the other she held in her hands as she sat down.

“Good, you mentioned you had some questions?”, she asked. I nodded and grabbed the picture out of my bag.

“After my mom passed away, I found a box of letters, documents, and a few pictures in her closet. I’m hoping that you can provide some background information to it, because I have never heard mom talk about any of it.”, I tried to be as neutral as I could be. Jelena chuckled.

“Your mom and I have been friends since we were about 4 or 5 years old, back in Belgrade. She lived down the street from me, and our parents had been working together for a long time.”, Jelena started.

“Wait a second, Belgrade? You mean that mom wasn’t born here?”, I asked bewildered. Jelena looked shocked.

“Yes, your mom was born in Belgrade as Marija Petrovic.”, Jelena clarified, and she took out a photo album so she could share a picture with me. It was a picture of two young girls, one looking like my mom.

“She said that you didn’t know much, but if you don’t know this…”, she muttered. “Anyway, we went everywhere together. So, when we turned 20, we wanted to discover the world together. Our dads were not too happy about letting us go, but we managed to convince them somehow.”, Jelena chuckled at the memory.

“We had been raised rather sheltered, but enough was enough. And at 20, you think you are all that and you can take care of yourself. We just wanted to get away from our parents.”, Jelena took a sip of her coffee. The woman looked lost in her memories, but I didn’t want to disturb her.

“Her dad arranged for us to go on a holiday to Italy, where we could stay with friends of her family. It was still protected, but we didn’t care about that. We were happy to go to Italy. We went there and stayed with Ricardo and Maria Bruno, and their sons, Nero and Mario. Cookie?”, Jelena offered.

“No, thank you. When was this?”, I asked. Jelena was counting to herself.

“It must have been about 29 years ago. It was a different time back then. I remember that we went by boat the first time, and we stayed about 4 weeks or so. Anyway, Nero and Mario were very kind to us, and showed us around Sicily. We loved the beaches there, especially the one in Cefalu. It was a magic time we had together. Somewhere in those weeks, Marija and Mario fell in love with each other, but Maria was a strict catholic. So, there was no sleeping together as the kids do nowadays.”, Jelena smiled and shook her head.

“After the 4 weeks, Marija was gutted that she had to leave Mario to go back to Belgrade. I think everyone thought that their love would die down with the long distance between them, but they kept writing letters to each other. She was set on going back to Sicily the next year to spend more time with Mario. However, Ricardo and Mario came to visit Marija and her parents the year after in May. Mario came to ask for her hand in marriage.”, Jelena’s face scrunched at the memory.

“Marija wasn’t too happy about getting married, but her dad and Ricardo had agreed on some deal, and her marrying Mario was part of it, so her dad didn’t really give her a choice. So, in June we went over there for their marriage. It was a lavish ordeal, very beautiful, but not the way your mom wanted it. I remember she had some fights with her dad, but if her dad wanted something then that was going to happen. He was a very dominant and powerful man.”, Jelena shared. I just had to chuckle to myself when she mentioned dominant. I guess that must be skipping a few generations then.

“But your mom married Mario, and I think she was very happy for a bit. He even gifted her a piece of land in Cefalu on the beach where we used to go.”, Jelena smiled. Well, that explained one of the property deeds!

“Then something happened that set her off, and she asked if I could come and visit her for moral support. Of course, I went. She was depressed and crying the full day when I arrived, but she wouldn’t tell me what was going on. Just that when I was there, she got stronger. Then, the day I was leaving she came to me that she needed to tell me something.”, Jelena had tears in her eyes as she was telling the story.

“Marija told me that she was pregnant, but she didn’t want to give birth here in this family for reasons she didn’t share with me. So, she said that she was going to drop me off and step on a plane herself to bring herself and her unborn child to safety. I tried to talk her out of it, because being a single mom was a big shame back then. Plus, Ricardo and her dad were going to be livid at her running away, and they would find her. Marija just kept saying over and over that she didn’t want this life for her kid. In the evening, she dropped me off at the airport on her own. And I remember that she only had a small suitcase with her, and she stepped on a plane.”, Jelena concluded the story.

“I don’t know where she went, or where she ended up for years. Her dad was absolutely furious, and Ricardo was as well. I don’t know how Mario felt about it, I always figured that he must have been mad as well.”, Jelena said as she shook her head.

“It wasn’t until years after that I received a phone call from Salvatore. Salvatore was the bodyguard that was assigned to her by Ricardo. He was 15 or 20 years older than Marija, but they got along so well. Salvatore saw her as the daughter he never had and had a huge soft spot for her. Marija knew how to use that soft spot, of course, but she saw a loving father figure in him that helped her.”

“Anyway, Salvatore called me to say that he found Marija. After Marija ran away, Salvatore was considered to have failed, so he also ran for his life. He told me to pack my bags and move to the US. There I reached out to your mom again. She wouldn’t talk to me for the longest time because she didn’t think it was safe. Only after I had been able to convince her, we met again.”, Jelena smiled.

“She had changed her name from Marija Bruno to Mary Brown, which is obvious, but at the same time the most common name ever.”, Jelena chuckled.

“Wow… Did her dad or Ricardo ever find her?”, I asked. This story was beyond what I was expecting. I didn’t even know where to start looking.

“Her dad didn’t because I remember hearing that he got shot by Ricardo over some dispute. Not sure whether that was about Marija in the first place. I don’t know about Ricardo, but I doubt it as well. He got killed in an explosion about 5 years after I left.”, she answered. Well, I didn’t expect those reasons.

“Do you know whether Mario ever searched for her?”, I asked. Jelena shook her head.

“I know he didn’t. He married some other woman not too long after, and they had a son. I believe that they also moved to the US later on.”, Jelena mentioned. “I stopped paying attention to that world after some time, because I wasn’t considered part of it, being a woman.”, she explained.

“That world?”, I asked. Jelena laughed loudly.

“I thought you would know, considering the Esposito outside. Your granddad was the head of the Serbian mafia back then, while the Brunos were a big family of mafioso on Sicily. We were women, and never really a part of it unless they could marry us of for deals.”, Jelena shared like she was sharing the weather. I was just shocked. So, I came from a family of mafioso myself? No wonder mom never told me anything about them.

“You must be in shock by now. You know what? You take time to process, and we can meet afterwards if you want. Or you can call me if you have any questions, you think I can answer.”, Jelena said, as she stood. I followed her lead and walked with her to the front door. She opened the door, and I stepped outside, saying my thanks and goodbyes.

“Wait! What happened to the child?”, I asked Jelena. Her face turned sad.

“Your mom always told me that she lost the child, and she met a soldier not too much later with whom she had you.”, Jelena answered. I shook my head.

“That doesn’t sound like my mom.”, I whispered. Jelena smiled sadly.

“I agree.”, she said, and practically pushed me out the door.

“Lily? You better stay away from the Esposito. Your mom really wouldn’t want you to be involved with a criminal.”, Jelena said and shut the door.