[ Challenges ] [ Sims 3 Stories ]
[A Visit ]
Well, Don Renzella and Giovanni were gone, and she was left with her baby son Cor and her former husband Eric.
Agnes sold the platinum ingots she had from China. They would have enough to live on for a little while. Eric would calm down and come back, she was sure. Well, she hoped.
Meanwhile, her time was taken up with caring for Cor.
And she was right. Eric did come back. And agreed to stay. "It's not as if I have anywhere else to go. I don't know this town, my parents are long gone. I've been very lonely since you - brought me back. And little Cor is a sweetie."
"Where did you go yesterday?"
"Oh, a bar. And a park - it was warm, I slept on a bench."
"I want you to stay," she said.
He half-smiled and agreed.
For a short time they were content in domesticity. But there were dark clouds on the horizon.
For one thing, Cor had inherited his father's temperament. He threw tantrums, sulked, and although he was a clever little boy, he took a very long time to learn to speak. "It's almost as if you feel you don't have anything to say to us," wondered Agnes, who was sure that he understood her perfectly.
Giovanni turned up at Agnes' house one morning, while Eric was potty-training Cor and Agnes was trying to fix the shower. Eric had actually been out all night at Renee Littler's party, and was still wearing his suit.
Giovanni demanded to see his son. Eric went upstairs to fetch Cor, and came back downstairs to find Agnes and Giovanni screaming at one another.
He put Cor in his pram, mildly told Agnes the man had a right to see his own son, and set off to the gym for a training session he had booked yesterday. All those doughnuts he had eaten in SimHeaven had not shown any effect THERE...
Giovanni looked at Agnes. "Et tu, are you happy with this man? We had - something good. Didn't we?"
Agnes knew she felt much more strongly attracted to Giovanni than she had ever felt to poor Eric. Eric had been the obvious choice, the boy next door, the one her parents had intended her to marry since she was a child. But Giovanni pulled at her heartstrings. She forgot all the times he had been mean to her, or had simply seemed to forget she existed.
"Why, Giovanni, why are you asking me this?"
"My Pappa has been telling me I need to have a son. And a wife. He likes you, and he does not like this blonde wimp you call husband."
"Your Pappa?" Now she felt insulted. "This is all his idea? Not yours?"
"Mio Pappa is always right. Agnes, cara, I know I was not good to you. I used you. But it was so vital to me, to try to save him. And you were kind to me and helped me to get him back, and I took your money. Come, leave this wimp and come and live with me and Pappa in our new house, with MY little boy, who is the most beautiful boy I ever saw."
"I... can't." She frowned. "Eric is my husband. I can't do that to him."
"He was dead, cara. Marriage is broken on death... mio Pappa is no longer married to Aria, though he loved her."
He looked down at her and felt his heart stirring. This woman lookd so vulnerable. he liked vulnerable women. He still found her very attractive, and he thought he could detect the same in her.
"Do you know how desirable you are? Your fine bones, your hair... my beautiful, mia bella, little Agnes..." She felt her legs turn to jelly, as he picked her up and carried her up the stairs.
"This is wrong..." she said weakly. "But you want this," he said as he put her on the bed. She tried again to say "No" - but she couldn't.
When he was finished, he sat for a while, thinking, and then got dressed, quietly collected the baby's things, and put little Cor in the pram.
"I can wind you around my little finger, mia cara, mia bella."
She was suddenly very afraid. "Are you taking Cor? You can't!"
"I can do whatever I want. Nobody tells me what to do. Not even you, rubbish that you are."
"How dare you! Get out!"
"You KNOW you will not say no to me. No-one says no to Giovanni Gotti. And lives. And as for that wimp of a husband, how would you like to see him at the bottom of the river? He has a history of messing about in the water and drowning, hasn't he? Let me get him out of the way for you."
"NOOO!"
"And yes, I am taking little Cor."
"Nooo..."
"I can. He is my son. And you will find I can do anything I want. I just did, didn't I?"
"He is MY son!"
"He is MY son. I can bring him up better than you, give him a good life. You are POOR. Your man is a WIMP."
Right on cue, Eric returned from the gym. Sensing an atmosphere between Giovanni and Agnes, but not understanding the significance of the pram outside the door, he told Giovanni to leave.
"I was just going," he said - and left with Cor.
A day or so later, Giovanni called Agnes. "When is Eric's next appointment at the gym?"
"Tomorrow afternoon," she said.
"I need to see you," he said. "Are your bringing Cor?" she asked, but he had already hung up.
Maybe he would bring Cor... Agnes knew on one level that that was a forlorn hope. But on another level... she looked forward to the visit.
This was to become a pattern. Giovanni visiting while Eric was at the gym.
One afternoon, Giovanni stood outside the house that was now Agnes' and wondered if money was what she wanted. Could he buy her off?
"Why would I want your money? Your dirty money? I want my son back."
Eric arrived. "You here again? Cor isn't even here now. What do you want?"
and then she fainted.
Giovanni, concerned in spite of himself, noticed through the window, and paused out there.
When she recovered, Agnes went outside to talk to him. "I don't want to see you here any more. I don't want to SEE you ANYWHERE unless you are bringing Cor back to me. Now go!"
"Well," thought Giovanni. "The worm has turned."
August 14, 2012