Gabriella's Return

By Patricia I I Catuto

Gabriella’s Return is a story about Gabriella Verducci and Marco Marino who were childhood sweethearts, Gabriella met Marco when she was twelve and made a bread delivery to his parent’s Restaurant from her parent’s Bakery. They became very good friends working in the same neighborhood called “Little Italy” where both their parent’s owned their businesses. This was an area in Connecticut of a two mile strip of Italian Businesses where Generations of Italians had settled in the 1800’s and families continued for generations after. These were all families who took care of one another so their children all grew up in a loving family community. Gabriella and Marco went all through school together and planned to get married after Marco finished Law School. Gabriella and Marco had been planning their wedding almost since they had met, and the night of their rehearsal dinner had finally arrived. Marco was driving in from New York where he had just gotten a job as an attorney at a Law Firm there. The weather was terribly foggy and rainy but Marco had driven this road many times before over the years. This time Marco would not make it home to his rehearsal dinner, so the marriage that they both had been waiting for since they were very young would never happen. Someone was making sure Marco never made it off that road, his car was hit from behind and driven off the road into the ravine. Now Gabriella and Marco would not get the life together that they had planned and Marco would never get to see his unborn daughter Gia. Gabriella would now have to raise their daughter alone, knowing someone had killed Marco on purpose, She may never know who or why. Did that mean that Gabriella and her child were in danger from this person? At this time all Gabriella could think about was getting away from the tragedy and memories. Everything in Gabriella’s life as she had known it had changed and not for the better.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 11, 2016
• ISBN: 9781682138885

Book preview

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Copyright © 2015 Patricia I. Catuto

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2015

ISBN 978-1-68213-887-8 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-68213-888-5 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Chapter 1

THE CALL FROM HOME

Chapter 2

THE DRIVE BACK HOME

Chapter 3

THE WAITING GAME

Chapter 4

THE NEW EVIDENCE

Chapter 5

THE DECISION

Chapter 6

THE NEW RELATIONSHIP

Chapter 7

THE REVELATION

Chapter 8

THE MYSTERY TO SOLVE

Chapter 9

THE PROPOSAL

Chapter 10

THE NEW START

Chapter 11

THE SEARCH

Chapter 12

THE NEW RESIDENCE

Chapter 13

THE MOVE FORWARD

Chapter 14

The Resolution

This book is a work of fiction, names, characters,

places and incidents either are products of the author’s

imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance

to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead are entirely coincidental.

I dedicate this book to my wonderful husband Raymond Catuto of fourty-four years who when I said I thought I would like to write a book, went out and ordered me a new laptop. We have been best friends since we met, when we were seventeen and nineteen, and it seems like yesterday. We have lived more of our lives together than apart. Out of our love came two wonderful sons, Raymond Jr. and Michael, who have been our lives since they took their first breath. I am very proud of the men they have become. And to my two amazing grandchildren who our my heart, Carlee and Anthony I am thankful God has given me the two of you to make growing older just a joy every day I get to spend with the two of you.

Chapter 1

THE CALL FROM HOME

She awoke from the same nightmare every night for over two years. This time a phone was ringing in the distance. She struggled to get the phone before it woke Gia. It was way after midnight, and Gia would want to be up for the night and playing. In the room next to hers sleeping was the most precious gift she had ever been given. She had black curly hair and eyes the color of the ocean. Gabriella didn’t know how she had survived life before her. Gia was her whole world now that Marco was no longer in it. She was his mirror image. When she looked at Gia, she saw Marco, the man she was supposed to marry and had loved since they were teenagers. The person she was supposed to grow old with.

She reached for the phone and heard her sister weeping uncontrollably. Hello, Nina, what is wrong? It was several minutes before Gabriella could calm her sister down enough to tell her what was wrong. Her father had had a massive heart attack and was in critical condition. Her mother was going to need her, and she needed to go home. She hadn’t been home since Marco’s death and was anxious to see everyone but scared to go back. She and Gia had their quiet little lives, and now she felt she was going back into a fishbowl with all the people she left behind and all the questions that would come with going home. This choice was being made for her. There was no way she would not go home, with her father being so ill and probably looking at bypass surgery. She knew eventually she would go back, this was never meant to be a permanent home for her and Gia, but every time she thought about going back, she chickened out and said not yet. She knew she would always do what was right for her dad, that was what he would have done for her and had done for their family forever. Her parents had done nothing but sacrifice since they were little for their daughters and still worked nonstop, which was probably how her father was in this condition now. It really didn’t matter. She had to go back home and deal with her father’s health, and Marco’s death would still be there to haunt her thoughts, and she would deal with all of it the best she could.

They had investigated and had never found who had run Marco off the road into the ravine on that rainy, foggy night before their wedding. She had to leave, she couldn’t face seeing all the people every day who had come for the wedding that would never be. It was just too hard to face. The looks of sympathy were just too much to bear every time someone said, Oh you poor little thing, how are you doing? She knew they meant well, but it didn’t matter. It tore at her on a daily basis. She needed to go somewhere where she could make a life for her and her baby. She and Marco had known she was pregnant, they couldn’t wait to meet their baby girl. They had just found out the sex of their baby and had already picked out her name (Gia). They loved her name and also agreed it was too short for anyone to give her a nickname. It still broke her heart that Gia’s dad would never know the beautiful child they had created together out of their love for each other. Still, after two years, it still ripped at her heart to think about what had happened that night, and no one was being punished for snuffing out the life of the most wonderful man she had ever known. Every now and then Detective Bianco in charge of Marco’s case would call to check on her, but he never had any new evidence and always wanted to know more about what she was doing. Rather than talk about finding Marco’s killer, he often asked if she was dating. Which seemed weird to Gabriella because that was the last thing on her mind. She spent all her waking hours with Gia and her nights thinking about Marco. The only evidence that had ever been found was the second set of tire tracks on the road where Marco had been forced over the edge of the road into the ravine. After almost a year of no leads or information from Detective Bianco, she stopped taking his calls. She would let the answering machine pick up, and if he had anything important, she was sure he would leave a message. He made her very uncomfortable from the very beginning, and she didn’t know why. She couldn’t take the stress of the disappointment after each of his calls, and she had to be strong for Gia. When Gia was born, her whole world changed, and she was able to focus on something far more beautiful than she had ever seen, and now she was Gabriella’s whole world.

It was about time Gia had visited her grandparents and the rest of her family. She just hoped that she was ready, meaning herself. Gia had not met a person she hadn’t liked in her short two years of life. She was the most precious possession in Gabriella’s life, and she would do anything to protect her. In two short years, she wondered what she had ever done before Gia. Her life would be perfect had Marco not been killed on that fatal rainy night. But it never did her any good to cry over what could have been, she had done enough of that before Gia was born. Now her days were filled with watching a curly, dark-haired, and blue-eyed angel run her ragged all day. While Gia slept at night and during her naps, Gabriella wrote her columns for the syndicated paper she worked for. It was a perfect setup, she had promised herself before Gia was born she would not have a daycare raising her child. Hers and Marco’s that is, which he would never get to know. She had to get some sleep before Gia woke her up at the crack of daylight. She swore she had some kind of an alarm in her that said the sun was up. She had promised to call her sister in the morning with her plans of when she would be leaving, and Nina would update her on her dad’s condition.

The next morning, Gabriella was dragging. She had only gotten a couple of hours’ sleep when a not-so-sleepy little princess came bouncing into her bedroom, wanting to play. That child was a ball of boundless energy. She had to get up and get moving, if she would make it to the hospital before dark. Once she settled Gia down with her breakfast and explained to her that they would be going on a trip today, she was so excited she wasn’t sure she would eat a bite. With a promise to Gia that she could help her pack some of her favorite toys. She dialed the phone to call her sister to get the update on her dad’s condition. She hadn’t realized she was holding her breath until her sister answered. Hello, Nina, how is Dad doing? Did his condition improve at all overnight? Yes, a little, but they still think he will need a quadruple bypass. The doctor said they are waiting a day or so for him to get a little more stable. Oh thank God. I couldn’t sleep thinking I might not make it home to see him again and Gia would never know her Papa. I just wanted to tell you we are leaving in a couple of hours and should hopefully make it there before dark. I don’t want to be on the roads with Gia after dark. So I will call you when we stop for a gas break or something to let you know how we are doing. Give Mom and Dad our love and tell them we are on our way. Nina said, Dad has been asking for you, so I went out on a limb and told him you would be here sometime today, and predictably it boosted his spirits. I’m so glad I don’t have to crush him by telling him you won’t be coming. Well, I will let you go so you can get ready to leave and get on the road. We are all so excited to see you guys, we can’t stand it.

While driving the four-hour ride to her childhood home, so many things went through her mind. Gia had thankfully fallen asleep after the first hour of nonstop questions about their trip. Her family had a hard time with her leaving, but eventually they understood how staying was tearing her apart. They wanted her to stay until Gia was born, but Gabriella knew that if she did that, she would never leave because the attachments Gia would form with her family and they would form with Gia would be another kind of heartbreak she just couldn’t take. They had tried many times over the last two years to get her to come home, so they could help her with Gia and maybe she could get out with her friends and even maybe date. But Gabriella had no interest in either, Gia was everything she needed right now. The only thing that would make her happy would be if Detective Bianco would call and say they found something that would solve the mystery of who had run Marco off the road that rainy night. Maybe then her nightmares would end, or maybe they would be replaced by the question of why the person who did this could have done it to such a wonderful, kind man. She didn’t have the answers, that was the problem, and no one else had them either. So what she needed to do was to shut her mind off and get her and her daughter safely back home.

Marco was driving in from his office in New York for their rehearsal dinner, his wedding to Gabriella was tomorrow, and he couldn’t be happier. He had planned to leave a few hours earlier, but in tying up a few loose ends, it didn’t happen. He left an hour later than he wanted to, his meetings had ran longer than he planned, but it couldn’t be helped. Everything had to be designated to a different attorney before he left for his two-week honeymoon with Gabriella to St. John’s in the Eastern Caribbean. A place he had picked after searching thoroughly for some place warm to take Gabriella, that was her only request. This resort had no phone service, no computers, or televisions in the rooms. He couldn’t think of a more perfect place to spend with his new bride. The road he was on was very windy and narrow, and in the rain it was becoming impossible to see a few feet ahead of him. But the headlights behind him made him feel like at least he wasn’t alone in the nasty weather. His mind wandered back to the meeting he had had this afternoon about the case he was working on, for bank fraud. With all the evidence against his client, there was no way he was going to be able to keep him out of jail. His boss was a very close friend of his client’s father, so he was putting pressure on Marco to keep him out of jail. But the evidence was there, and how do you argue with that? He could try to get his sentence reduced to a lesser term, but that was about all he could do. While deep in thought, he noticed the fog was getting a lot thicker than it had been. All at once the car behind him tapped his bumper, maybe he couldn’t see how close he was to him in the dense fog. He was all right, so maybe his foot just slipped on the gas pedal. But before he got a chance to have another thought, the car rammed into his bumper and sent him flying over the ravine, and in the dense fog all he could think about was Gabriella and the baby they were so excited to be having. He didn’t know if he would ever see Gabriella’s beautiful face again.

She didn’t need to work, she did it because she enjoyed writing. Marco had been thinking ahead before he had been killed and changed his insurance policy to include Gabriella and his unborn daughter Gia. She had not wanted to accept the money from the insurance, but his parents had insisted that she do it for her sake and her baby’s. So she had honored Marco’s wishes and put Gia’s inheritance in a trust for her, and she lived on her writing but knew they had her share of the insurance money to fall back on should they need it sometime. She sometimes wondered if Marco knew something was going to happen to him or had a premonition of some kind that made him take care of these changes. She knew Marco was a stickler for taking care of paperwork, so maybe that’s all it was.

Gabriella had a feeling this would not be a quick little visit, so she had taken care to let her neighbor know where she was going and why. She trusted this woman with her daughter to babysit once or twice while she had a doctor’s appointment, and Gia loved Mamie. Her name was Mary but of course at Gia’s age she was limited to the amount of words she could actually say, so she had her own language. But Mary loved the name that Gia had given her, so Mamie it was. She would check the mail for Gabriella and let her known if anything important came for her. In this day of Internet, most all her bills were paid online anyway. The good thing about her job was she could write her columns anywhere. But she had called her editors and told them she would be taking a break from writing her columns because of her father’s illness. She didn’t think she could handle the bakery, Gia, and her father’s illness and wanted to be there for her mom. Gia slept most of their trip, looking in the rearview mirror at her sleeping angel. She didn’t know how she got to deserve this beautiful child but was grateful every day to have her. Raising a child alone wasn’t easy, but she believed having Gia is what had let her keep her sanity and kept her going. Without Gia, there would not have been any joy in her life at all. Gia was the reason Gabriella had made it through the last couple of years. She had left days after Marco’s death. When she discovered that she now had to raise Gia on her own, she knew what she needed was to go somewhere and find a quiet place for her and Gia to spend some time together before and after her pregnancy. There had been no answers for her about how Marco had died and who the second set of tire tracks belonged to. So what she needed to do to keep her sanity and not be stressed while carrying her baby girl was to go somewhere where it was more peaceful and her baby girl could listen to peaceful thoughts from her mom for a while. Instead of being part of a police investigation where the subject of murder was always being talked about. Her child was innocent and needed to be protected from all that before and after she was born. Gabriella was going to make sure that it happened. She got together with her family, they had been wonderful through all of this, so many plans had to be cancelled and so many people had to be called. Her mom and Nina took care of everything for her, after all Maria, Mario’s mom, was so deeply steeped in her grief no one wanted to disturb her with these things, not after what had happened, and she would never see her son Marco again. That was the worst thing that any mother needed to deal with. Gabriella’s heart ached for Maria and Mario who would have been her in-laws but were already more like family. Gabriella knew at some point she would make sure Gia was a big part of their lives, but for now, they all needed time to heal. She talked to her mom, dad, and Nina about leaving at least for a little while. She really needed to get away from all this sadness she was drowning in. She had a friend who had an apartment that she could stay in, in a little town in upstate New York that she could rent for a while and write her columns and have a place where she could hopefully find some peace with what had happened. She loved her family, she wasn’t leaving them as much as the stress that was her life right now, and she hoped she could find some peace somewhere else until her daughter was born. Her family told her they would miss her terribly, but they totally understood. She promised she would be in touch with them all the time.

Gabriella slowly settled into her new surroundings, she loved all the natural beauty she could see just outside her windows. She was in the suburbs now, not a big city. The sounds were different, the birds were more colorful and talkative than she had ever heard. She loved the peace she felt here. She knew she was right to leave her home, this was exactly what she needed. The serenity and calmness that she felt from the minute she had gotten there was so amazing. She was getting bigger and bigger every day with her growing pregnancy, and she loved every minute of it. She tried to make herself eat well and to take walks for exercise every day for her sake and her baby’s. Her doctor in Connecticut had recommended a doctor for her to see here, and she had made an appointment soon after she had arrived. He said she and her baby girl were doing very well. So Gabriella had gotten into her routine of writing and exercising and keeping her mom and sister Nina up on all her progress. They Skyped once in a while, so they could see how big she was getting and not miss out on this while she was gone. She missed her family especially her niece and nephew, but she got to Skype with them now and then so they wouldn’t forget her. She had said that to Nina, and she told her not to be silly they could never forget her. She got a bout of homesickness once in a while, but all in all she was glad she made her decision to come there for a while. Her thoughts of Marco were with her all the time, but she tried to remember all the good times they had had since they were in their early teen years. She still had trouble believing what had happened, but it was a reality they all had to live with. She had eventually made a friend with her elderly neighbor Mary, a widow that lived alone. Gabriella watched to see if she had children that came to visit her, but she never saw any people younger than Mary come to her apartment. Which she was sure were Mary’s friends from Church. Mary had tried to get her to go to Church with her a couple of times, but Gabriella had declined. Gabriella did not want to tell Mary that she was kind of mad at God right now for taking Marco, she knew in time she would get over it. She had a very strong Catholic upbringing and would not stay away from the Church forever, she just needed to wrap her head around all that had happened and make her peace with God. She liked having Mary to talk to, she was a sweet lady and had learned that she had been a widow for some time. She knew she would confide in Mary eventually, but for now she just wanted someone to talk to once in a while but mostly to keep her company. Other than her writing and morning and evening walks, she had a lot of time to herself. She had taken a lot of books with her to catch up on her reading, where she could lose herself and not have to think about anything, which was her goal.

The drive was going well, they had stopped for lunch and Gabriella had put the Frozen movie on for Gia and knew she would watch it until she fell asleep again. There was something about kids riding in a car that lulled them to sleep after a short time. It looked like Gia