Blood on My Hands

We separated. I looked at the girl, she looked very much like her mother, and her grandmother, that gene pool was very deep. "Hello father, I have heard how wonderful and handsome you are. I didn't believe it possible, but it is true. My name is Maria." She was such a polite young person.

"I am somewhat surprised at this news, but I am extremely pleased to meet you, at last." I looked at Lucianna. "Is this true?"

"Yes my love, it is true. I have held back nothing from Maria. She has known for years that Mario was not her father, and that her father was a much better man than him. She has waited years to meet you, and at last she has." She kissed me again and I felt a pair of arms around my waist. We were a family at last. "I have waited also, to be with you again, to be in your arms again, and to ask your forgiveness."

"You have done nothing to ask forgiveness for."

"But I have. I have had a lot of time to think of how my selfishness has caused you so much pain. I was thinking only of myself when I came to you that first time. I had known boys before, but you were different, but at first I was only interested in using you. I didn't mean to fall in love with you, or for you to fall for me, and then when we went to Papa for permission to marry, I wasn't thinking that he would refuse me. I thought that he would give in to me as he had all of my life. I know that my father was responsible for the death of your parents, and your sisters. He made sure that I knew, I was there when he gave the orders. I was there with him when he ordered your wife killed, and I have to admit that I was not so sad at that. Don't get me wrong, I was sad for her, but I lived in the hope that you would come back to me, to save me from the disaster that was my marriage. He did all this to place the guilt of your misfortune on me, to distance himself, just as he always did, from blame. I was with my father when he found out that my husband, the son of his friend, was homosexual. I have never seen him so angry, not even when we told him we wanted to get married. I was with him when he ordered Mario's death, and that gave me hope, briefly. He turned on me. "You have caused me great sorrow," he said to me, "you have placed a wedge between me and a trusted friend. If you had given in to him when he wanted you, he would not have turned out to be as he is." He was blaming me for Mario being gay! "Do not think that now your husband is dead to me that you can seek out that man. I told him that he will never be welcome in my house and never means never."

"I am partly to blame for all of this. That day that you came to me for the first time, I thought that it would be fun to fuck the daughter of the man who my family despised. At first that was all that it was, but then I fell in love with you. I didn't care that we were going against his wishes, in fact I was glad. He had insulted me, when he made it perfectly clear after your accident that my visit was a courtesy visit, and that I would never again be welcome in his house. I wasn't thinking of the consequences of pursuing our love. As the years went by I grew even more angry with him, I knew that he ordered my family and friends killed, and I knew that somehow I had to find a way to get back at him, I feel that I should tell you that it was me that made sure that your father found out about Mario being gay. For years I have looked for a way to hurt him, and it wasn't until I discovered Mario's little secret, his gay club and that he was an active participant in the action, that I realised that I had a chance to get revenge on him, to really hurt him. I knew that your father had very strong Catholic views on homosexuality, and that this was my way to really hurt him. I asked a friend to arrange that he should see the photos that the detective I hired took in the club. I didn't really want Mario to die, but your father was so angry that he slipped up, and did it himself, instead of using one of his thugs. We had the evidence that we needed to have him convicted of murder."

"In a way I am responsible for this."

"What do you mean?"

"A friend from my school, who knew Mario's secret, told me that there was someone investigating him and his club. I have known about Mario for some time, and I had a lot of evidence that could be used against him, so I gave it to her to pass on to the men I found out later, were hired by you. So you see my darling, I too hated my father and wanted him to suffer as much as he made you suffer. I had never forgotten my love for you, or your love for me. I told Mamma about it, and do you know what she said to me?"

"No."

"She said to me that she would be pleased if we were to get back together, and that she would do everything she could to help. She didn't talk business with my father, but she knew everything that he did. She knew what he ordered those men to do to you when you came with me to ask if we could marry, and she told me that Father was angry with them when their plan didn't work and you weren't killed. All of that is in the past now. What are we going to do?"

"I know what I want to do. I want to marry you, and get to know my daughter better, much better. If that is possible, and if she, and you want that."

"Papa, I know you already, and now I know that I love you." Maria came to me and hugged me. I kissed the top of her head.

"And I want to be with you forever." Lucianna came to me and kissed me. She put her arms around our daughter. "We have missed out on so very much because of this stupid family feud. It is now over, we have a new life to live."

While we had been talking, the older Maria had been busy in my kitchen. She called us and we found coffee, and she had found my stash of chocolate biscuits (cookies). "This is a nice house. It feels nice, so calm." She said as she poured the coffee. "There is sadness here, but no anger, in this house you will be happy here."

"We will be happy here, all of us." I walked around to her and gave her a hug, and a kiss, you know the type, one on each cheek. "You must come and live with us."

"Yes Mamma, you must leave that bad house behind. It is an evil house from which so much evil was done."

"Yes, I have already decided that I will sell that house, and along with the money that your father left to me, it will go some way to make up for the hurt that he has caused you, both of you. I knew years ago that you two loved each other. I could see that you did not love Mario, and he did not love you, but there was nothing that I could do about it. Now I can do something. I will sell all of his businesses to his friends, they have wanted to get control of them for years. You can rebuild your business that he destroyed, and in time we will be able to forget this hurt.

My memories of that first time with my Lucianna were rekindled that night. A couple of kilos had been added to her once slender frame, strategically and beautifully added, her breasts were slightly fuller, more than a handful, and her hips slightly wider, but to me she was a much better package than she was all those years ago. But what I remembered most was the way that we made love. There was nothing frantic about it, we had all the time in the world to express our love in the most tangible way. We were late for breakfast, and the look that we got from both Marias told us that they were pleased at this outcome.

"Mama, will I be getting a new brother or sister?" Our daughter asked.

"I had to tell her what you were doing, she heard you when she walked past your door." The older Maria said, with a smile on her face.

It was then in my heart that I believed that the bad blood that had for decades divided our families was now washed from our lives.