The Twelve Tables Ch. 14

"Well, now that you have brought it up it makes this easier to talk about," Lucia said kindly. "I wanted to talk to you about what happened and tell you about my experiences facing my would be killer in a courtroom."

Peri frowned at first and then her eyes widened as she looked at Lucia and saw the seriousness of her face.

"You see, out of everyone who was in Canberra, I probably was the only one who had an inkling of what you were going through. Of course, my case was different in many ways, but it came down to the same thing. Trying to find the courage to face not only your attacker but their friends and family too," She turned a small, sad smile on Peri. "Fortunately, for me, I never had to see any of them again, you though, need to come to terms with it every day because of Josh."

"It's not easy," Peri admitted cautiously.

"We have a bit of a drive ahead of us," Lucia picked up the manuscript that had some editing comments throughout it that Josh had given her to work on and placed it on the seat between them.

"I've read that," Peri said not making the connection immediately. "It was a very good story and could be a best seller once it is edited properly and Josh works his marketing magic on it."

"I know you read it," Lucia smiled, "Josh asked my permission before giving it to you."

"This is your story? I thought it was fiction, I mean it reads like a fictional account," Peri was shocked.

"It's embellished and stylised, you know names and locations changed to protect the innocent," Lucia laughed." It's meant as fiction, only a handful of people know I have written it though I expect that's about to change." She pulled a face. "I've never had anyone to talk to about what happened to me who would understand how it feels to be that vulnerable. So I thought I would tell you the real story, without the embellishments and name changes. I thought it might help you not to feel so alone, knowing you had someone close by who understood what you were going through." She reached out and took Peri's hand, "It might also show you a different side to our family, the loving and caring one that created Josh."

"I don't know if things can ever go back to how they were with Josh before it all happened. Not just the trial but even over Christmas and the New Year. I feel like I have been sucked into a bizarre world, and I am not sure I can stay with this dark cloud hanging over me for a lifetime, Nik's lifetime." Peri admitted. "I would like to hear your story, though, your right, I do feel like no one can understand how I feel right now."

"Okay well, let me state the obvious and put it out there that we did not have a typical childhood. None of us did, which is why I think the boys are all determined that their kids should be as normal as possible, go to regular schools and have regular hobbies and things," she laughed. "We were spoilt brats and despite this, I think every single one of us rebelled as teenagers. Let's see," she thought about it.

"Angelo being the oldest was the first to start rebelling. He and Ben were close not only in age but personality and love for each other. As soon as Ben graduated from high school, Ang deferred his Uni degree, and they took off without a word to anyone on a surfing safari. Papa cut off their allowances and froze their bank accounts. They came home after realising that they weren't cut out for menial work washing dishes or labouring. Carlo joined the rodeo circuit for a while but came home without any prompting. I don't know what happened there. Dante and Emilio were heavily into the club scene and always in trouble for fighting."

"Seriously," Peri interrupted astounded by that piece of information. I can't imagine Lio getting physically aggressive with anyone."

"Yeah and by all reports he used to start most of the fights and it was D. that went along for the ride," Lucia laughed. "Let's see Izzy got into the band scene, became a groupie for a punk band that was heading over to England, Papa stopped her at the airport and dragged her home again. So the six oldest paved the way for us younger six. We didn't get away with much after all those things. The Valentine brothers were practically perfect in every way. Perfect students, perfect athletes, the perfect sons of the Donati family. They got caught taking tests for other people in a huge cheating racket at the law school. They were always entrepreneurs destined to be rich and famous in their own right. It went against the family code to cheat your way into it though or help others to do that more importantly."

"They still got their law degrees, though," Peri said tilting her head.

"Of course, they did, you are not mistaken about the power our family holds. They can make almost any dumb thing we did as kids go away. Nik had every reason to believe that if they wanted to Mama and Papa could have gotten her out of jail. What she didn't comprehend was that what she had done was so awful that they wouldn't get her out and would conspire to make sure she paid the price for her crimes. I would have liked to be there the morning of the last day of her trial when they finally went to see her and told her that if she didn't plead guilty she was on her own."

"On her own how?" Peri was confused.

"By all accounts prison is a much easier place to be if you have money and visitors to bring you things to trade or just make life more bearable. Let's not worry about Nik right now. Except to say that she and Josh never openly rebelled except that they kept putting off the family expectations. Nik refused to date any suitable husband material, and Josh kept delaying becoming a family man and taking the family name. Maryanne followed Nik's lead, but it was short-lived. It didn't matter what Maryanne did to befriend Nik, it was never good enough, and Nik treated her with barely concealed contempt."

"Poor Maryanne, she seems happy now, though, planning for her engagement," Peri smiled.

"Yeah I am honestly happy for her, it will do her good to get away from all the drama up here, but I will miss her a lot when she finally goes to Melbourne to start her own family," Lucia said softly.

"How come you didn't have to go and live in Canberra if you married into the Battaglia table?" Peri asked curiously.

"One of the perks of marrying a military man, anywhere can be home base while he is on assignment. We have a house in both cities," she smiled. "That brings me to my rebellion, being one of the younger ones you'd think I would have learned from everyone else's mistakes but I was young and dumb."

Lucia went on to talk about how she started out in nursing school and how she had loved to party with her friends. Talked about how she had met the most handsome and charismatic man and they had started to date. His influence over her had started small, and she had swiped a few ampules of pure alcohol from the dispensary at the hospital she worked at for him. They had used it at a party to make a punch that was almost toxic. After a while, she found herself swiping other medications too, particularly those containing pseudoephedrine. It was cold and flu medications mostly, cough syrups and tablets. She was totally naïve about the illegal drug culture and saw nothing wrong with it, until she went home for the holidays and stopped supplying her boyfriend with it.

Her handsome beautiful boyfriend turned nasty and began to threaten not only her but her friends if she didn't keep the steady supply coming. A few weeks later she was caught at work in the dispensary and had to face the disciplinary board. Feeling that there was nothing she could do, she went home to her apartment to hide from everyone. She was too scared to tell her boyfriend, and terrified of what her family would say when they found out that she had to go in front the disciplinary board.

He came for her that night, using his most charming ways, he talked her into letting him into her apartment. When she told him that she had been caught and had to face a disciplinary board, he lost it and hit her for the first time. He then made her pack a bag and forced her down to his car. He had ranted about her not taking him down with her, and he had driven her from there to the drug lab he and his crew ran.

She found out the hard way that she had been supplying an illegal drug lab, not entirely on her own but she had added to it all. She knew that if it ever came out it would be one of those despicable crimes that her parents would never forgive her for even though she had never taken a drug in her life. She had become quickly hysterical and when beating her into submission didn't help she had been drugged.

She had been kept drugged for several days and moved from house to house, as her boyfriend and his crew dismantled the lab, sold most of the drugs they had made and prepared to move interstate. During those three days, she had been beaten and repeatedly raped by her boyfriend and his crew. Despite her inability to fight back or protect herself she was aware of what was happening the whole time. She knew that once they were ready to move the operation interstate, they planned to give her an overdose and leave her behind because even if someone found her, who would believe a prostitute junkie's version of events.

"My family had found me before they had the chance to do that, though, and I was taken to the Battaglia facility," she said unemotionally as she had told the story.

"I can't even begin to imagine what you went through," Peri said quietly. "I feel like a cry baby now."

"Don't be silly," Lucia squeezed the hand she still held. "My ordeal was caused by my stupidity. I was blinded by love to the reality of what was happening to me and who he truly was. You may have been blinded by love, but Josh is very real, and true and loves you with the same blind adoration."

Peri thought about this as Lucia continued her story.

She was given the morning after pill, but it turned out that she had been pregnant longer than anyone had realised and there were complications. She developed a high fever and an infection in the midst of going through withdrawal from the meth she had been injected with. By the time she was well enough to press charges, they had already been sentenced to a variety of drug-related crimes.

The men had turned on each other, and when her day in court came, they had pleaded guilty to the added charges of rape and torture with intent to kill, making a deal with the prosecution for leniency but still receiving hefty sentences added to the ones they were currently serving. She explained that she knew what it was like to sit in a courtroom with someone who wanted you dead, but also that she knew it was worth every excruciating minute.

"It's taken me years to get to this point and still there are only a handful of people who know the real story. Most of the family are happy to believe I had a drug habit, and that's why I was sent to rehab," she said. "I'm fairly happy to let them believe that, I don't need to relive the horror over and over again when they see me. Those that knew treated me like damaged goods and I could bear that about as much as you probably can." She said with understanding. "So you won't get the kid glove treatment from me, or Josh if I have any say about it."

"Thank you," Peri said. "I don't need it nor do I want it."

"That doesn't mean I don't care, I do. It just means that I won't cut your steak for you as a child, but I will suggest the risotto," she laughed and Peri laughed lightly with her.

"Well that made time go quickly," Lucia said as the car pulled up in the main street of the quaint little mountain township. "Do you feel up to a small walk? There is a fudge shop up the road a that Dino loves, and I promised to bring some home for him."

"I could do with stretching my legs," Peri agreed easily and let the driver help her from the car. Did you meet Dino at the facility?" She asked as they walked side by side slowly.

"In a manner of speaking. I didn't have to go to the cells once the drugs were out of my system. There wasn't a self-inflicted habit to break so I stayed in one of the townhouses and met with a psychologist in that room with all the mismatched furniture to help me deal with the trauma. Dino was home on leave from his ship, and he claims to this day that it was love at first sight. He never treated me like damaged goods. He never asked why I was there. I told him myself after a few weeks, so he knew as we got closer, it never mattered to him."

"He sounds wonderful," Peri smiled genuinely happy that Lucia had been able to move on.

"He is! Now come and help me choose some fudge for him," she smiled.

*****

Josh sat at his desk going over the publication scheduled for printing in the next run. He would rather concentrate on novels and biographies but for the moment publications of company reports and mission statements made up the bulk of the company's income. They could be doing more, but the two editors on staff were buckling under the pressure already.

The small staff that came with the company were over worked and under paid and Josh was in the process of headhunting some of the better junior editors he had worked with or heard about from his sources. In the larger firms, it took time and influence to climb through the ranks at anything but a snail's pace; he wouldn't have to twist too many arms to jump ship and come to work with him, getting in on the ground floor of a new and upwardly mobile publishing house. He looked up and smiled coming to his feet with his hand extended in greeting as Rick Donaldson walked into his office.

"Nice digs," Rick said looking around. "It's a little bit more upmarket than I had expected. I was surprised when I heard you bought this place, and curious enough to come and check it out for myself when you called."

"It's good to see you, Rick. So just curious to see the place or would you like to hear more about my offer?" Josh grinned knowing the man wouldn't have come if he wasn't seriously interested in what he had to say. He knew there was no bullshit about Rick, he called a spade a spade and would tell him honestly what he wanted to make the move from his comfortable job in the city.

"Dazzle me," he said raising his hands and shaking then in an imitation of Mario, the senior-edited they had both worked under until Josh left.

"I want you to work with me, not for me," Josh began. "I need someone I can rely on to do things my way. I like your honesty and work ethic. I think together we could make this place great. Let me show you how it's running currently and then dazzle you with my plans."

He spoke in depth about the state of the company and its current overworked staff. Then he talked about his planned changes, particularly in the marketing. He had enough contacts to get certain area's up and running almost immediately what he needed was senior staff that he could trust and rely on to put in one hundred percent to help him make the company everything he believed it could be.

"The company is owned by me alone, no shareholders, no board, no unseen owners to answer to which gives us the freedom to be innovative in the way we approach the old stale relics of the publishing industry. We can take on the old guard and make a dent in their stranglehold the publishing world," Josh spoke with the fervour of a man on a mission.

"Alright, I'm dazzled," he said. "You've told me what I could do for you and your company let's talk about what you're prepared to do for me."

Josh had been preparing for this and slid a folder across the desk to him. "This is somewhat negotiable but I think you will find what you want and need all listed there," he said cautiously sitting back and letting Rick read through the offer he was making.

"I can bring my assistant with me and offer him a raise," Rick nodded, "I'd also like to offer my intern a gig, he'd be a decent copy editor to start with."

"That'd save me an interview," Josh said easily. "I need staff at all levels of the company; these guys are overworked as is and we could be doing a greater volume of work with the addition of a few extra people in each division."

"Who else are you thinking of bringing in?" He asked.

"Does that mean you're in?" Josh asked raising an eyebrow.

"You made it so that I would look like a fool if I turned you down," he said tapping the folder.

"I have a few ideas of who I would like, but I'm open to suggestions," Josh chuckled knowing Rick would have ideas of his own. "When can you start?"

"Give me a few days to feel out a few of the others at work. We don't want an avalanche, but it's better than interviewing the untried and tested versions. Let's say I resign on Friday and threaten to use up all my sick leave owing if they don't allow to me walk out that day free and clear," He considered Josh's momentary surprise and chuckled, "I'm not one for long goodbye's. Considering I am planning to take a few people with me, I doubt they will want me hanging around to steal all of their staff."

"Sounds good, let me show you around," Josh came to his feet feeling good about having Rick on board. It meant that ultimately as she returned to health he could spend more time with Peri and know that his company had reliable people at the helm.

*****

"Get up Peri, we're leaving," Lucia said suddenly coming to her feet. Peri stood with her sensing the urgency and turned toward the door seeing Marisol walking toward them followed by Antonia.

"Antonia showed up this morning as a surprise. She said you asked her to join us," Marisol said with a smile. "How are you, Peri? I am so glad you came up to see us."

"Mama you lied to Marisol?" Lucia hissed. "This is exactly why she doesn't trust any of us anymore. You ambushed her, and she deserves better than that! Haven't we put her through enough? Come on Peri, we'll go somewhere else." Peri stood stunned by Lucia's tirade.

"I only wanted to make sure you were well," Antonia spoke to Peri. "I've been so worried. No one will tell me anything about how you and Josh are doing."

"This is the first time she let anyone from the family see her, and you had to gate crash it? You can't possibly be this clueless, Mama," Lucia seemed close to tears as she turned to Peri. "I didn't know. You have to believe I would never have done this to you."

"Let's just sit down for a moment," Peri whispered feeling every eye in the restaurant on her. She sat back down and waited for the other ladies to take their seats.

"I'm so sorry," Marisol whispered seeing Peri's stricken face.

"Oh it's fine Marisol, see we are all sitting now. We will have a nice lunch, and everything will be fine," Antonia said quite shaken by her daughter's tirade. Her children never spoke to her like that in public and even in private they usually just accepted that she was their mother and had certain privileges.

"No Mama, it's not fine," Lucia said sadly. "I promised no surprises today, and you made me into a liar. How can she ever trust us when you do things like this?"

"I am a mother I worry, and you and Josh are not telling me what has been happening," Antonia complained.

"Please stop," Peri said softly making the three ladies look at her. "I am quite fine as you can see, and I have my own mother who worries enough for everyone thank you. I realise that coming from such large families you can't understand my need for boundaries, but Lucia is right. I didn't want to see you today. I'm not ready for this conversation. Not with you and certainly not with Joseph. I am sorry for what you must be feeling, but I am not sorry for what I did, and I won't apologise for wanting to protect myself from Nik by making sure she was convicted." Peri said woodenly. "Now if you will excuse me I need to go." She went to stand without looking at any of them. "Lucia take your time I will be happy in the car by myself."