Maria sighed, “He was known to be a problem before they sent him here. That was the reason he was sent and it rather seems that Aria was an excuse. Frankly, he was dumped on us because he was too much of a problem for them to deal with”

She shrugged and glanced towards the door, “Aria? I’m fairly sure she’ll go along with a story we give her if she thinks it’s going to stop a war. She’s not an idiot. She’s sweet and naive and she’s committed to her family but she’s not blindly, I don’t think. She saw what Marco was like in those last few minutes with him. I made sure of that”

Ozzie was looking into the distance, not saying much, letting the conversation happen around him. He stirred and seemed to notice the others were talking.

“Problem or not, you can’t hurt a made man without say so,” he looked to Remi, “I made the choice, blame should end with me. I’ll take the heat.”

“He was not well. In the head, no? Folle?“ The voice was quiet, muffled, the girl herself enveloped to the point of near-invisibility in a borrowed robe and a towel around her hair. No amount of swaddling could hide the streaks of tears on her face, though, or the purplish swelling along her cheek and chin. She stood barefoot in the kitchen door, looking at the others, not really seeing them.

“He was not well,” she repeated. “Whoever that man was…I did not know him. He was not my Marco. I cannot thank you-“ For a moment, her face turned hard and vengeful as she looked at Maria. “Especially you, Judas.”

Then the moment of strength evaporated. “No. I cannot thank you. But…you did what had to be done. Quello che è stato richiesto. He would have hurt me, would have hurt others. Did hurt others. There was a woman in the car with him, when he fled…have you found her?”

Sighing like the ghost she somewhat resembled, she padded the rest of the way into the room and poured herself a cup of coffee, hands shaking.

Maria sighed and looked to Aria, “Given the circumstances… we tried. But as soon as he.. he was set on his course when he killed family”

She looked to Orlando and Ozzie, “Is there any reason we can’t describe this exactly the same way that we did back there? He went for his gun, there was a struggle and it went off? It doesn’t give the folks back in Italy any real room to save face but then I don’t see why we should be inclined to do so given then dumped him on us know full well that we’d be the ones cleaning up their mess. It also makes it clear that we’re pretty certain to know that’s what they did without us stating it outright”

She shook her head, wondering if she should put a second pot of coffee on. Her own mug was nearing empty, “Noone wants trouble inside the family but they also need to know that we’re not at all happy. That we know they dumped him here in full knowledge of what he was”

“I cannot stay.” Aria turned to face the others, the tremor in her hand dwindling as she found something, anything to think about, to do. “I will have to take him home. His things, at least. To my Mama. There will have to be a Mass. When I return…if I return…”

A sip from the coffee cup, and her eyes lit again, her voice firming up. “I cannot come back here. It is for God to judge, and perhaps to forgive. But I am sorry, Uncle Remi. You have tried to be good to me, but I…” She swallowed, and said it.

“I cannot stay in a place with my brother’s killers. It could not be borne.” She almost managed a grin, but it was twisted, and her words were acid. “You see, I too have family responsibilities.”

Ozzie hadn’t looked at Aria, not when she was talking, not since the church. Her words twisted inside him and he knew they were true. God would judge him, God knew what he did, why. Justice was God’s alone. He hadn’t needed to kill Marco, but he’d wanted to, wanted it over without a chance the man could get away with what he’d done.

He didn’t look at her now, and didn’t say anything. It felt like he didn’t have a right to talk to her. He’d made his choice, but he knew that choice had consequences. He only put his hand on Remi’s arm and gave him a quick look, a shake of his head.

They, none of them, could tell her what to do, not now. Her choice was her own.

Aria began to bristle. “And now you have killed the son of your wife’s sister. My brother. Even if it was necessary, do you think all is now right in the world? That we can continue as if nothing has happened?” The odd bit of iron that dwelled in her spirit was heating and swelling- or maybe her grief and fear were getting the better of her again.

“Do you think my mother will weep less than his? Madre del dio- I am not Jesus. I may understand, I may even thank you for protecting me-“ For a moment her eyes turned towards Ozzie, where he sat silent. “- but forgive? To live, eating around a table with the faces of my brother’s killer? No. I am not Christ…”

Abruptly, she caught herself, sighed heavily. Shaking her head, she wiped tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. “You, of all people, I expected to understand, Remi. It is how you live your life, no?”

Padding over to the table, the young woman bent and kissed her uncle’s cheek lightly. “I do not wish to be angry with you, Uncle Remi. Truly, I do not think I am. Sad, yes. And yes, I am young. Perhaps I still believe many things I should not.” From somewhere, she summoned a ghost of a grin. “But do you see- I think I understand you better than you do me.”

Maria hid her smirk. She liked this Aria a great deal more than the one she saw before all this. It was odd what adverse situations did to people and Aria clearly wasn’t the pushover that everyone had assumed that she would be.

“Not all women cave to the dynastic ambitions of their parents, Papa. I think that Aria is probably capable of looking after herself in that regard”

She’d probably have the sense to be a bit more subtle than Maria had been about such matters. She offered the assembled group a rather tight-lipped smiled, “But.. if you will all excuse me. I have an unregistered firearm to swap out for one I legitimately own. I suspect the cops might want to see it at some point and I would like to make sure that I present the right one to them”