The rest of the weekend, Moira secretly scrutinised the goings on at CHANCES orphanage, particularly how Angelo and Sister Gustav related with the children. It was almost unbelievable to her that the two were genuinely into helping the kids with no hidden agenda.
However, reality seemed to be proving her wrong. All she saw throughout the weekend was a bunch of happy kids who were genuinely thrilled to see a man they seemed to adore; and a nun whom they respected for taking good care of them daily. But above all, Moira fell in love with the kids and the orphanage itself, so much that when Sunday finally came and it was time to return to Angelo’s mansion, it was difficult for her to leave.
“Why don’t you just stay there full time?” Moira asked as they pulled into the driveway back at the mansion.
“I can’t. I have work demands during the week and I don’t want them to interfere with
Moira’s special treats completely transformed the weekends at CHANCES. By the third weekend of her mouth-watering pastry treats, not only the kids were looking forwards to her and Angelo’s arrival on Friday afternoon, even sister Gustav was counting down hours and minutes to their arrival. Moira became the new darling; loved by all at CHANCES not just for her pastries but for her many other little surprises that she kept rolling out for the kids.“I always knew there was something missing in Angelo’s life. There is a lot he has been holding back until now. Thank you for making him a better man.” Sister Gustav said as she helped Moira prepare a special Sunday lunch.“Don’t you think you’re giving me a little too much credit? You know Angelo does exactly what Angelo wants to do. He is who he is at any particular time because that’s who he wants to be; I’ll not take credit or responsib
It’s sometimes easy to conceal and suppress infant feelings that develop within the heart. But when a third party, or the one for whom the feelings are developing, notices what’s supposed to be hidden deep within the heart, that’s exactly when the proverbial cat is said to be out of the bag.For Moira Viscoli, this little situation affected her on both sides of the coin. Though she was shocked to learn that there were such clear signs of Angelo’s interest in her, she also became worried that her own secret feelings would also come to the fore soon. To her, entertaining even remote admiration thoughts of Angelo was like selling out her own soul. She preferred to believe that her admiration was only temporary; emanating from the shock of finding out about a few of his good deeds.But as they say, feelings have a mind of their own. And Moira, despite her dogmatic dislike for the ill-reputed Angelo Manzini, was about to f
Despite how much she tried avoiding it, Moira had to admit that she had misjudged Angelo’s character based on hear-say. The wisdom in Sister Gustav’s words of advice suddenly became apparent upon that admission.… remove those blinkers from your eyes so you can start seeing him for who he really is…, Moira realised that indeed, she had had blinkers on her eyes; and they were only just starting to fall off.Moira had witnessed something that, perhaps, nobody else in the city had ever witnessed; or would even believe possible. She had seen Angelo crying. And surprisingly for Moira, Angelo was getting emotional about a matter that a man of his supposed ruthless character would have been expected not to even flinch over. Perhaps Angelo really isn’t the monster I thought he was, after all; Moira wondered.After about fifteen minutes, Angelo finally returned to Moira’s ro
For the days that followed Angelo’s shock opening up about how he violently lost his family, Moira could hardly concentrate on anything. On one hand, she could not get herself to fully comprehend how Angelo could carry on with an almost normal life after such a loss; and on the other, she struggled to understand how he could have just let those evil men go free. For a man of his reputation and resources, surely Angelo couldn’t have just let it slide just like that; Moira imagined.But one thing about Angelo’s story still didn’t make sense to Moira.“I asked you a question the other day; and you just brushed me off without an answer.” Moira said as she and Angelo walked up the stairs to their bedrooms after dinner.“What was the question? You sure ask a lot of questions, in case you haven’t noticed; I struggle to keep up sometimes.” Angelo grinned.“The kids and everything you do for all those people you told me about.. why do you keep it secret when you can use it to clean up your rep
Lying awake in bed, confusion reigned in Moira’s mind. Recent discoveries that the man she’d considered a social misfit all her life was in fact somewhat of a hero wouldn’t sit well in her psych.For as long as she could remember, stories of the Manzinis’ evil deeds were told as crude advice to wayward youths wherever there were adults with a semblance of social decency. Growing up, it was impossible not to believe that Manzini was actually the devil’s surname. As an adult, those beliefs had been cemented in Moira’s head by what she kept hearing about the notorious Angelo Manzini. And the day Angelo invaded and hijacked her wedding to the love of her life was only a more personalised confirmation of an age old legend of Angelo’s notoriety.Over the months she had stayed in Angelo’s home, Moira had noticed nothing but even more confirmation of the shadiness of the mafia boss’ dealings. The
Just when Moira was starting to think that she’d seen the last of Angelo Manzini’s surprises; little did she realise that the secretive crime boss was just getting started dropping bombshells on her. Following her early morning apology, things seemed to have continued on a quiet and normal path. It was during that period of ‘normalcy’ that Moira came up with an idea to advance her career and life passion. But little did she know what she was actually setting in motion…It all started on Friday afternoon as she and Angelo were on their usual drive to CHANCES for yet another weekend with the kids.“Did I tell you that I’m studying to be a social worker?” Moira remarked.“I remember that, yes. Why?” Angelo turned to face Moira.“I was thinking, you could give me a job at CHANCES after I graduate, what do you think? The kids already know me, they are used to me and they now trust me. I believe I can help them a great deal once I start working full time with them.” Moira’s eyes shone brigh
This particular weekend at CHANCES was somewhat special; in more ways than one, as it turned out for Moira; though she didn’t quite realizes it at the time.By some stroke of coincidence, two kids happened to share a birthday when CHANCES took in the first group of orphaned kids. Further coincidence had it that two more kids who shared the exact same birthday were taken in over the following year. And by yet another coincidence, a fifth child born on that same date had just come to CHANCES. Even Sr Gustav initially thought Angelo was looking for kids born on that specific date; until she realised that not even Angelo had anything to do with it.“Perhaps it’s a sign that we should make this day a special one for all the kids at CHANCES.” Angelo had said to Sr Gustav back when the second set of ‘twins’ arrived. “We will commemorate it monthly and make it a special occasion for all the kids. So the day became extra special and was unanimously declared The Special Life Day. Everyone at CH
If anyone had suggested that she would one day be willingly having dinner with Angelo Manzini and actually enjoying his company, Moira would have cursed that person to their face. Even she couldn’t believe it when Angelo asked her out for dinner and she said ‘Yes’. Though she made a half-hearted attempt to banish the word ‘date’ from the conversation, she knew in her heart that it was, in fact, a date.That Sunday evening, Moira couldn’t even relax after agreeing to go out with Angelo. She couldn’t wait to get back to her room. And when she finally did, she locked herself inside and tried all her clothes; looking for that one dress that would knock the handsome mafia boss out of his socks. Still, none of all her expensive fancy dresses seemed good enough for such an occasion.For hours, Moira had flipped through online shop pages, looking for that dress and the right accessories to go with it. Her mind was fully occupied with thoughts about what she would order at dinner, and she imag