Mafia Marriage

XXV

The Next Day

Giuliana was up early the next morning, she had her day to sulk but now it was time to buckle down and start working on the renovations. She put on a black and white striped dress and white sneakers. She had plans to go into the city and look at paint and carpet samples. The 'Tiffany situation' was Gio's doing, so therefore it was Gio's problem to solve.

She had not spoken to Gio since he gave her the flowers yesterday. When she found out that Tiffany was still alive she was livid. How can your wife be run off the road and almost killed, and the person who did it was still living and breathing? Giuliana didn't understand what Giovanni was thinking, and frankly she just needed to keep her distance from him for her own sanity.

She called one of the guards that were stationed at the guardhouse and informed him that she had plans to go into the city. He responded that someone would pull one of the awaiting Cadillac Escalades to the front door and that she'd be able to leave momentarily.

On the drive to Manhattan, Giuliana tried to focus all of her attention on redesigning The Atlantic Quarter. It was a fairly large space with a lot of potential and she had to prove that it wasn't a mistake to entrust her with this project. On the way to the city, Giuliana called her cousin Laura to see if she was able to meet up for lunch, they decided to meet around one o'clock.

The first stop Giuliana made was at a carpet store, the old drab carpet was one of the first things that had to go. She then had the driver take her to a paint store, where she selected various paint samples to compare to the carpet she had selected. 'So far so good,' Giuliana thought to herself as she looked over the samples that she had collected while driving to lunch. She had wanted to do well with this project before, but now after the events of the last few days she wanted to exceed everyone's expectations- especially Gio's. There was no doubt in her mind that everyone had known about Giovanni and Tiffany's relationship, so in a way this was her chance redeem her image. 'They probably all look at me as some pathetic, stupid little girl, who waits for her husband to come home while he's got his own personal whore at his disposal,' she thought to herself bitterly, "Well that's going to change, I'm not anyone's doormat." The driver pulled up in front of the restaurant in Queens, she could see Laura already waiting for her in a booth by the front window.

"Hey," Giuliana greeted when she slid into the seat across from her cousin. "Thanks for meeting me, I know it was short notice."

"It's fine, I get tired of being stuck in the house all day, it's nice to get out. So how are you?" Laura had an sympathetic look on her face.

'She doesn't know, does she? How could she possibly know? Her husband isn't apart of the Graziano Family!' Giuliana panicked, if Laura knew that meant that it was only a matter of time before the rest of her family found out, if they didn't know already. The last thing she wanted was for her father and brothers to find out about her current marital issues, plus Monica would probably be laughing in her face the next time she saw her. 'As if this couldn't be anymore humiliating.'

"How do you know?" Giuliana got right to the point, there wasn't any reason to beat around the bush.

Laura sighed, "Matteo told me that there was an issue with some girl named Tiffany that Giovanni used to fool around with. He said that you and her got into some type of altercation."

"Is that all he told you?" Giuliana asked.

"He said that you broke her nose," Laura tried to stifle a grin.

"How many people know about this?" The mob gossiped like a bunch of high school girls.

"I'm not sure. But Matteo said that you were at one of the Graziano businesses and then you left and the next time the men that were there saw Tiffany, her nose was practically mangled. He also said that Giovanni dragged her out by her hair. But some people don't believe that it happened, they say you don't have it in you."