CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Everything and everybody stopped when they saw Mick sling Roz across that table. And a hush of fear came over the room. Although Mick was squeezing Roz’s small arms way too tight, and Roz was wincing because of it, even she seemed afraid she had gone too far. But as Mick and Roz stood there staring into each other’s eyes, they both knew it had nothing to do with the kind of fear the family was worried about. The fear in their eyes was about their marriage. About their relationship. About all the years they scratched and clawed to keep their marriage together.

They were afraid that their marriage, like a ship on its final voyage, had come to the end of the line. And there was no going back from there.

But what struck Mick even more than that was the hatred he saw in Roz’s huge eyes. And that hatred wasn’t for anybody in that room but him. She hated him in that moment. And that spooked him. That scared the shit out of him. So much so that he didn’t even realize he had loosened his grip on her arms.

But as soon as that grip was loosened, her rage replaced her fear and she slapped him repeatedly and then began beating Mick. She thought about those text messages, about how he told that woman he loved her almost in every text when he acted as if it hurt his heart to say that word to her, and she balled up her fists and began hitting him so hard and with such ferociousness that she opened up a cut on the side of his face. And it was Roz that Charles and Tommy had to grab and pull away from Mick least he retaliate, although he never even threatened to beat her back. He just stood there.

For Mick, it wasn’t a question of retaliation. He was still stunned by that look of hatred he saw in Roz’s eyes. And the guilt that overwhelmed him. What had he done to his marriage? What had he done to his wife? He was like the man that was certain he wanted to commit suicide until he was falling off the building. Until the suicide was in full force. And it was way too late to take it all back.

What had he done ?

As Charles and Tommy held Roz back, who was now crying through her rage, and as everybody else had stopped their madness and was watching the two titans, Mick left the room. He couldn’t bear the weight of the blame he carried. He walked out.

And as soon as Mick left that room, it was as if the fight left everybody else too. Even Roz deflated and collapsed down to the floor, with Jenay hurrying over and pulling her sobbing body away from Charles and into her arms.

Then Charles looked around his dining hall. And then at his guests with all the food on their faces and in their hair and the champagne all over their clothes. It was surreal to even him. He knew they had issues in their marriages. He knew they had major league problems. But got damn! It all seemed like the stuff mental institutions were built for. It all seemed so irreparable. He couldn’t handle this!

Since they behaved like children, he was going to treat them like children. “Dinner’s over,” he said angrily, as if that didn’t already go without saying. “Everybody to their rooms!”

Coming from anybody else such a command would have been laughable. Who told these giants of industry and the mob world what to do? But it came from Big Daddy Sinatra. And they all, the men together and the women together, dragged themselves up, dusted themselves off, and made their way out of the dining hall. The ladies helped Roz to her feet, and she went upstairs with them. Jenay looked at Charles. She could do nothing but shake her head in disbelief too.

But Tommy kept his hand in Grace’s hand and wouldn’t let her go with the other ladies. Not that she wanted to. After all the madness, she’d rather be with Tommy. They remained in the dining hall with Charles and Jenay.

“I used to be a worldclass player, Big Daddy,” Tommy said to Charles, and he and Jenay looked at him. “I had more women in a week than most men had in a lifetime. I was that guy.”

Then he turned and looked at Charles. “But I’m not that man anymore. I prefer the company of my wife and children than anybody or anything else. I prefer to travel with my wife and children with me always. You know that.”

Charles nodded. Tommy was a man he’d always respected. “Yes, Tom, I do know that.”

“But when you insisted that we come to this retreat, I allowed the separation, even a week before Christmas, to honor your wishes. So I told my wife we were going. We would leave our children there in Seattle and participate. But not like this. I’m sorry, not like this. Either you give us a room together,” Tommy said, “or we’re leaving. I’m not subjecting my wife to any more of this craziness. We survived crazy before it was cool. We divorced and remarried and came out on the other side. We don’t want to go down those dark roads again. And I know the knock on me. I know what the family thinks of how I handle my family. They’ll say I’m babying Grace. They’ll say I’m smothering her. They can say and will say whatever they want to say. I don’t give a fuck. Our marriage isn’t perfect, it’s nowhere near perfect, but it’s not a trainwreck like what I just witnessed either. And we aren’t going to let anybody convince us that it is.”

“I told him that,” said Jenay. “I told him you and Grace didn’t need to be here. I told his ass. But he’s a Sinatra. He doesn’t listen either.”

Charles exhaled. And he nodded. He admitted defeat. “You’re right, Tommy. You’re right.” He saw something amiss in that button up marriage of theirs, and he knew it was still there, but he also knew Tommy was right. It was nothing like this . “You and Grace can remain on this floor with Jenay and me. But I want you to stay. I need you to stay,” he admitted. “Don’t go.” Then he pulled out his cellphone.

Which baffled Jenay. “Who are you calling at a time like this?”

“Tony,” Charles said as he pressed the number corresponding with the name of his second-oldest son who also happened to have a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.

“Why would you bother Tony? He’s having his own relationship issues with Samantha. Why are you bothering him?”

“Because,” Charles said like a man who was too drained to explain.

But Jenay wanted an explanation. Tony was her beloved stepson. She didn’t want him caught up in this madness too. “Because why, Charlie?”

“Because these bastards and bitches need professional help,” he said bluntly. “That’s why!”

And Jenay, Tommy, and Grace, all caught off guard by the language Big Daddy didn’t normally use, began laughing.

But the levity didn’t last. Because they knew, given the stakes, it was no laughing matter.