Eighty-One

 “Allegra Therese Bongiovi, born to Francis Sophia Bongiovi and Unknown Father on February 19, 1971,” Richie read aloud from the second certificate.  He didn’t have on his reading glasses, but wasn’t having any trouble making out the faded print.

“So what does this mean?  You’re… adopted?”  His eyes flickered back and forth between Allegra’s face and the two birth certificates he held in his hand, silently asking her to confirm his interpretation.

“That’s what all the rest of those papers say, yeah,” she told him in a subdued tone, gesturing toward the disarray behind her.  The hours she’d spent scouring the documents had removed the emotional edge.  It had become someone else’s life shortly after she’d flipped the first pages in the file.

Richie replaced the certificates on top of the nearest pile and pulled her close, with a compassionate murmur.  His arms curled protectively around her torso, and his chin came to rest atop her head.  “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry you found out like this,” he sympathized, rocking her gently.  “Did you have any idea?”

She leaned into him, touched that his first reaction had been to comfort her, rather than ask the glaringly obvious question.   It was just one more stellar example of his character.

“Not a clue.  Never in thirty-nine years did I have any inkling that my parents were anything but that.”  His hands rubbed tenderly across her shoulders, and she glanced up to meet his eyes with incredulity.  “Who could possibly doubt that I’m a blood member of this family?”

“Nobody IS doubting that, and the second birth certificate doesn’t do anything but confirm it.”   He stroked her cheek , asking quietly, “Do you know who Francis Sophia is?”

“Was, actually.  She evidently died during or shortly after my birth, according to this stuff.  No, I don’t know who she is/was, but…” She extracted herself from his embrace momentarily, moving to withdraw the picture from the file on the sofa cushion.  With a rueful smirk, she presented it to him saying, “I have a feeling the story should be interesting.”

Allegra watched the astonishment wash across his features, followed by incredulity.  “My God, this is her?  She looks just like you!  And she was a NUN?”

“Ironic, isn’t it?  I can only assume that’s her since the inscription on the back says ‘Frannie’.”

“Damn.  You know how to make a rock star’s life seem boring, Sunshine.”  He gave her a wink before turning serious again.  “So what are you going to do?  Confront your mother with what you’ve found?”

“I know I should call my parents demanding answers, but I want to find out as much of the truth as I can beforehand.  That’s why I want to talk to Jon.  He was almost nine years old when I was born, so he may have some memory of who Frannie is.”  She shivered.  “Jeez, it’s creepy to call someone else by my name.”

“So you think your mom won’t be completely honest with you?”

“I don’t have any reason to think so, once she realizes I know, but they’ve kept this from me my entire life.  I’d like to make sure I get the WHOLE story now.  No more surprises.”

With a nod of resolution, Richie twined his fingers through hers and pulled her along behind him toward the front door.  “Let’s go do this then.   You can catch him before he crashes, because I know you’re not gonna rest until you have some answers.”

“Whoa, whoa!”  Allegra resisted by planting her feet firmly on the floor.  Her bare feet.  “I need shoes first.”  She laughed as he took in her wiggling toes.  “And…”  Those same toes buried themselves in the carpet as she rose to press a sweet kiss against his lips.  “In case I haven’t told you lately…  I love you.”

A slow, affectionate grin spread across his face and his voice was just as affectionate when he told her,  “I love you too, Sunshine.  Like I said before, you sure keep things interesting.”

Laughing, she dove under the coffee table for her shoes, quickly stuffing her feet into them.  “A little more interesting than I would like!”  Allegra stood and approached him with an extended arm, curling her fingers around his masculine hand and bringing it to her lips for a kiss.  “Richie, I promise this relationship will stop being all about me very soon.  You’ve been incredibly patient with this insanity, but I’m looking forward to taking care of YOU for a change.” 

♫♥♫

Richie squeezed her hand in silent encouragement as the driver expertly guided them from the Tampa airport to the hotel, and she gave him an appreciative smile for his effort.  The smudges under her eyes were physical evidence that she hadn’t slept at all after talking to Jon last night.  This morning.  Whatever.

He hadn’t been all that happy to have them appear on his doorstep at three in the morning, but Jon had tolerated it with a minimum of grumbling.  The grumbling quickly faded to astonishment as Allegra revealed her evening’s activities.  His stunned silence made Richie believe that he truly knew nothing about the adoption.   If he HAD, Jon would’ve been putting some type of spin on it for his cousin, minimizing it as much as possible.  Instead, he just stared at Allegra as though seeing her for the very first time. 

Adoption or no, Jon was in wholehearted agreement that there was no doubt as to her bloodline, even though he wasn’t able to shed any light on the mystery of the elder Frannie. 

Seeing how dejected Allegra became at the lack of information, he had immediately offered the Jovi Jet up for service.  He may not be able to provide the answers she was looking for , but he could provide the means to get them.  Within hours, she would have the opportunity to look her parents in the eye when she received her explanation. 

He was anxious to find out the big family secret as well, but refrained from inviting himself along.  This was something that should be sorted out between Allegra and her parents before the rest of the family started jumping in.  Jon was willing to wait until she was ready to share – or at least until he could pry the information out of Richie.

The car glided to a stop before the hotel her parents were staying, and the driver exited the vehicle.  Richie tipped her chin up and looked directly into her eyes.  “Are you ready for this?”

The rear door opened at the hand of the driver, and she offered up a brave smile.  “Ready or not, here I come.”

They stepped from the car and, her hand held firmly in Richie’s, Allegra strode through the door with far more confidence than she felt inside.  Her life had changed last night, but having confirmation and a full account of all the events would seal the deal.  There was no putting the blinders back on after this.

Not wanting to completely blindside them, Allegra had called to warn Michael and Therese that they were coming this morning.  She hadn’t wanted to corner them in their hotel room unexpectedly, so she’d asked to meet with them in the hotel restaurant.  Just as she hoped, it was that quietly awkward time between breakfast and lunch.  This meant that they should be afforded a fair amount of privacy, even though it was a public place.

Seeking out her parents in the sparse crowd, she could see that Michael & Therese had already established themselves at a table in the far corner.  Upon seeing their daughter, both rose wearing matching looks of concern.  

“Mama.  Daddy,” she greeted them both with a nod before sliding into the chair Richie held for her.  The warmth of his hands seeped through her cotton top when he squeezed her shoulders encouragingly.  When he was settled in the space next to her, his arm snaked around the back of her chair, resting across her shoulders. 

“Allegra, what’s the matter?  Why are you here?” her mother quizzed as she and her husband resumed their respective seats.

“Yes, sweetheart.  What is it that you couldn’t tell us over the phone?”

She studied them both with eyes opened by her newfound knowledge, but was unable to see anything except the same man and woman she’d always known.  Shouldn’t they look different to her now?

“I’m very sorry to disrupt your vacation, but I came across something a little disturbing – and confusing – last night.  Could you please explain this?”  She deposited both birth certificates, the adoption certificate and the photograph in the center of the table.

All of the color drained from Therese’s face more quickly than you could say ‘skeletons in the closet’, and Michael’s eyes cut accusingly to his wife.  A twinge of guilt engulfed Allegra before forcibly steeling her spine.  They didn’t get the luxury of being distraught.  That was reserved for her at the moment.

“How did you get those?” her father asked conversationally, averting his eyes from Therese.

“Richie’s going to Europe soon and asked me to go along, so I’m applying for a passport.  I needed my birth certificate, and found all this.”

“Of course it would be because of HIM.”  It hadn’t taken Therese long to regain her bearings, but Michael quickly threw up a roadblock before she traveled any further down that path.

“Therese, stop it.  We were going to tell her anyway.”  Michael turned to his daughter and reached for her hand, clasping it tightly in his.  “Frannie, you don’t know how sorry I am that it happened this way, but I’ll be glad to have it out in the open.” 

“Have WHAT out in the open, Daddy?  All I’ve been able to figure out is that I’m adopted.  What else is there?”

“Let me start with just that for now.”  Blowing out a pent up breath, he met her eyes with the utmost sincerity as he confessed, “Your mother had always hoped to have a house full of children.  We began trying to fulfill that dream as soon as we were married, but, unfortunately, it turned out to be nothing more than a long road of hope and heartbreak.   I have medical issues that prevented us from making that dream a reality.   Needless to say, we were devastated.  After several long months, we had just begun to consider the possibility of adoption when a blessing in disguise brought you to us – our answered prayer.”

It was consistent to the reason most people chose adoption, and aligned closely with the assumptions Allegra had made.  She didn’t need them to fill in that particular blank.  That wasn’t the information she sought right now. “Who was she, Daddy?  The woman in the photo?  My mother.”

Michael nodded to his wife, effectively passing the torch of accountability for the duration of the story.

“She was my sister.  OUR sister,” she corrected quietly.  ”John’s and mine.  Frannie was the baby in the family – the good child.  A perfect child, really.  Like you, she pursued her calling at an early age.  She was only twenty-two years old when she took the solemn vows to become a nun.”  She inclined her head toward the image staring up from the table.  “That’s when the photograph was taken.”

Therese stared blankly at the picture as she spoke, her voice devoid of emotion.  “She was such a sweet girl.  I loved her very much.  Of course, we were all proud of her, but it was different for me.  She wasn’t just my sister, she was my best friend.”  The pause was poignant, as she was obviously feeling the loss anew.

“When she was eighteen, Frannie left home to serve in an upstate New York convent.  Because of the distance between there and New Jersey, we didn’t see her often, but she and I exchanged letters every week.  She was so happy to have a purpose and feel as though she were part of a bigger picture.”

Allegra watched her mother succumb to the melancholy as she lost herself in the memories.  Her eyes swam with unshed tears while her mind time-traveled into the past.

With a sigh and quiet sniffle, Therese transported herself back to the present and the situation at hand.  “Soon after she took her vows, Frannie began writing to me about a young priest that had been assigned to the parish, whom she was obviously smitten with.  Her letters never spoke of him as anything but Joey.  I could see over the course of just a few weeks, he had turned her head so much that she fancied herself in love with him.  Naturally, I was concerned, considering her innocent nature.  Rightfully so, it turned out.

“It seemed to be no more than a moment after I heard Joey’s name when she called me in tears, having discovered that she was pregnant.”  She flipped her hand in the air with a sniff.  “I was heartbroken, but she was ecstatic.  I thought she had ruined her life and she thought it was just beginning.  Frannie had such big plans for them to be a happy little family.  Unfortunately for her, Joey wanted nothing to do with the child.  He had aspirations within the Church which would only be hampered by the scandal, and encouraged her to get rid of the baby.  Frannie absolutely refused.  She was determined to have the child and raise it.”

Richie and Allegra exchanged a subtle glance.   That kind of determination apparently was a hereditary trait.

“Anyway, he was assigned to another parish not long afterward and just disappeared.  Not knowing what else to do, she kept the pregnancy hidden and stayed in the convent.”  She met Allegra’s eye.  “Back in those days, it was easy to keep a multitude of sins hidden under a nun’s robes, and Frannie never got very big anyway.  Or so she said.  I wouldn’t know since I never saw her.”

“What do you mean you didn’t see her?”  The questions were building inside her and Allegra couldn’t help but interrupt.  

“Frannie asked me to come be with her when you were born, and I’d made plans for the first week of March.  God didn’t quite see it the same way we did, and you made your arrival a couple of weeks prematurely.  There were… complications during delivery, and I wasn’t able to get there in time.”  Her eyes were watery when she said, “She was gone by the time I arrived at the hospital.”

Michael gripped his wife’s hand and put an arm around her in comfort.

“What about the family?  Jonny said he didn’t know I was adopted OR remember a Frannie.  Does anyone else know about the adoption?”

There had to be some rational explanation as to how this had been kept secret for almost forty years.

In deference to his wife’s emotional state, Michael provided the reply.  “Frannie left for the convent when Jonny was very small, maybe four years old.  I doubt that he WOULD remember her.  And as far as the family goes, they knew we went to New York to adopt a baby, but they never knew who your mother was.” 

Allegra’s eyes grew round with surprise.  “How is that possible?  Why wouldn’t you tell them you were raising your sister’s child?”   Her grandparents and uncle weren’t stupid.  Surely they had to have suspected something.

“They knew we had been trying to have a baby and looking at adoption,” Therese explained.  “The timing was just coincidental as far as the family was concerned.  They believed I was as shocked as everyone else about Frannie’s death.  And I was.”  Her blue eyes were remorseful.  “I couldn’t let her memory be tarnished.  She was perfect in my eyes, and she deserved to be remembered that way.”

Allegra’s need for details still had not been fully sated, and she couldn’t rest until it was.  She leaned forward in her seat, pressing herself into the table.  In her absorption, Richie’s warm caress on her back barely pierced her consciousness.

“But how was her death explained?  Surely they didn’t just accept that a perfectly healthy twenty-two year old woman suddenly dropped dead for no reason.”

“I convinced the good Catholic doctor to attribute the official cause of death to a ruptured appendix.  He appreciated the need for discretion, and back in those days, autopsies were rare.”

Complete insanity.   This was a bad made-for-television movie that aired on an opposing channel during the Superbowl.  No one would watch it, because it was totally preposterous.  These things didn’t really happen.

“What about the birth certificates?  Why do I have two different names?”  Her middle name had been changed from Therese to Francis when the adoption had been completed.

“Frannie named you almost the moment she found out she was pregnant.  She said all along she knew you were a girl, and Allegra sounded so beautifully feminine to her.  Your middle name was a tribute to her love for me, she said.”  Therese smiled wistfully.

“After her death, the nurses asked if you had a name, or if they should just put Baby Girl on the birth certificate.  I promptly advised them that your name was Allegra Therese.  Well, when we began the adoption proceedings afterward, I couldn’t leave you with my name.  You deserved your mother’s name.  The strong, courageous woman who determinedly brought you into this world.  Her name deserved to live on, so you became Frannie.  My parents knew how close we had been.  It didn’t strike them as unusual that I’d chosen to name you after her.”

Therese appeared to have been drained of all life at this point.  Her mother was not her usual vibrant, outspoken self, but a frail and fragile woman and her voice reflected it.

“When she died, I promised my sister and God that you would walk in her footsteps – without making the same mistakes that she did.  I wouldn’t allow it to happen a second time.  Couldn’t allow it.”  She closed her eyes with a soft sigh.  “And yet here we are.”

Allegra’s heart went out to her mother.  Because, yes, Francis gave her life, but Therese had preserved it.  She found it much easier to overlook her mother’s idiosyncrasies now that she realized the source of them.  Guilt and absolution for her sister’s death had caused her seemingly irrational behavior.  Allegra was well aware that love could make you do some strange things.

She rose from her chair and circled to her mother’s side and knelt.  Placing a reassuring palm on her forearm, she assured her, “Mama, it’s okay.  I’M okay.  I’m following the footsteps she WANTED to leave.  She wanted love and a family of her own,  just like I’ve discovered that I do.”  Planting both knees on the floor, she engulfed her mother in a tight hug.  “From what I’ve heard, Frannie would be pleased with how you’ve raised me.  Very pleased.”