Epilogue

Life was wonderful. I never thought I would ever say that again. And to think I had tried to kill myself. What if I had succeeded? Look what I'd be missing.

Angelo and I spent every free minute together. Well, not quite, but if I wasn't with him I was thinking of him. Day dreaming actually. Even when teaching. More than once my happy thoughts were interrupted by a student asking me if everything was all right. I would just smile and say, "Perfect!"

There were stressful times though. After Leia and Joan's disappearances, the police came knocking on my door. After all, I had been "out to get them." That's what everyone heard at the trial. They even brought me to the station several times, bombarding me with questions -- the same questions over and over again. Angelo's attorney put a stop to that. "Charge her or leave her alone," he had yelled. I panicked, thinking I'd be arrested. But the police buckled under the threat.

And the first day back in school for the fall semester found me in an English department meeting. The buzz was all about Professor Rogers. Everyone wanted to know where he was. By the time the school semester started, the police got involved again. They interviewed everyone in the department. When it was my turn they gave me suspicious looks, but simply shrugged when I said I hadn't seen him since the previous semester.

When the fuss about Professor Rogers and the girls settled, everything was wonderful. Angelo and I would go out or stay home. We enjoyed each other's company either way. And we made love every chance we had.

I remember the first time I went to his house. He had a huge house in Paradise Valley. It's an upscale town wedged between Scottsdale and Phoenix. The minimum lot size is one acre and his was several times that. His backyard nestled right up to Camelback Mountain and celebrities such as Alice Cooper lived nearby. I even got used to Angelo's bodyguards. There were times I didn't even notice they were there.

Speaking of Louie and Maxie, I still felt guilty about damaging Louie's Cadillac so I begged Angelo to buy him a brand new one. He gave in only after I agreed to swim naked. The backyard was private enough, but I felt funny with the bodyguards around. I still remembered the lustful looks they had given me in the frat house. But I put my inhibitions aside and Angelo purchased the car. I bought every red ribbon I could find in a party supply store and made a gigantic bow that I placed on the roof of the new black Cadillac. When Louie saw it he actually smiled. It only lasted a fleeting moment, but he knew I had seen it. There was softness in his eyes afterwards that I had never seen before.

So my life was wonderful -- until Maxie burst into my classroom in the middle of a session. His hands and clothes were covered in blood.

"You have to come with me!" he shouted with more emotion than I had ever heard from him.

"What's the matter?" My students were completely silent, most leaning forward.

"Angelo's been..." Maxie looked at the class and stopped.

"What? What happened to Angelo?" I was frantic.

"He's in the hospital. I'll tell you on the way."

I dismissed my confused class and went with Maxie. In the car, he told me there had been an assassination attempt on Angelo and that he was shot up pretty badly.

"The Don too," Maxie said.

"Don who?"

"The Don. The Godfather. Don Castello ... Angelo's father.

He told me that Angelo's father was murdered and so was Angelo's older brother. I didn't even know Angelo had a brother. He kept his crime family separate from me. Unlike him, his brother had decided to be part of his father's organization.

"Is Louie with Angelo?" I asked. My head was spinning. It was too much to digest.

Maxie didn't answer at first. He waited until we were stopped at a red light and turned towards me. "He's dead."

"Dead?! How can you be sure?!"

"The top of his head was blown off and his brains were lying on the floor. Believe me, I know what a dead person looks like."

The first thing I thought of was Louie's smile when he saw my present with the big red bow.

The rest of the ride was in silence.

When we arrived at Angelo's hospital room, I ran to the side of his bed. He was unconscious. He had cuts on his face and his head was bandaged. There was also a bandage around one shoulder. I couldn't see what was under the blanket.

I stood like a zombie, staring at the man I loved. Then the doctor came into the room. I asked him how Angelo was. He looked at Maxie who said I was Angelo's girlfriend.

"He's shot up pretty badly," the doctor said. He lost a lot of blood, but that's not the problem. No vital organs were hit except his kidneys."

"But he has two kidneys," I said hysterically. "People can live with one kidney."

That's true, but both kidneys are damaged. One is already not functioning and the other is failing. I'm sorry, but we haven't found a donor yet and he's going fast. You should expect the worst.

"NO! HE CAN'T DIE! I WON'T LET HIM!"

"There's nothing we can do."

"Take one of mine. Take my kidney." I was hysterical.

"It's not that simple. You have to be compatible or else his body will reject--"