In 1969 a wedding should have cost no more than $100,000, and that is for royalty!  Yet this one topped that and more.

They closed the wedding shop where she picked her “final offering” garb.  She called it the final offering because her virginity was finally being offered.   She stood close to the window of the boutique, which according to her mother-in-law, was as bad luck as if her fiancé’ were to see her.

Her mother-in-law to be, Rosalie, was given to old world ideas, and Lily knew this was going to be her life so just get used to it. Mrs. Giancana would often tell relatives of this capricious girl given to whimsey was too good for her James.

“Leelee” Rosalie spat out in her quick staccato accent “are you sure you don’t want a dress in an off white color”

Lily knew where she was going with this, but she chose to ignore it. Lily had initially been very welcomed by the overprotective mother as she mistook her for family with her dark skin and eyes, but soon found out Lily was, in fact Cuban.

The wedding went off without a hitch and they were on a plane to Monoco.  Tourism in the “native states” as James family refers to Mexico and even Hawaii, was prolific, James and Lily chose a place of more solitude, and history. 

They would go to Barcelona for a little gambling, where they were to stay at a Hotel MonteCarlo.   

The first few nights would be close to the casinos. 

When they got to the hotel, Lily wanted to nap so James said he was going to take a walk, get to know the area.  Lily gave him admonishments, but only in the most blithe heart, ran her bath and bade him a temporary farewell.   Their wedding night at the airport hotel did not go off as planned and she still held on to her maidenhood.  She was annoyed and hurt James didn’t want to stay to make her his wife in the most physical sense.

James left through the side door of the residence and snuck down to the metropolitan center of the city.  It was getting late and he had lost 8 hours forgetting that daytime in Chicago was almost dusk in Europe.   He turned and headed back to the apartments, but found himself lost, the sun had set, the sky was moonless and he was lost with no sense of direction.     

The prideful Sicilian gave the impression he knew where he was headed as he walked; jingling the change in his pocket, head high.  He was only 20 years old and not quite the man of the world he wanted others to perceive.  It shouldn’t be a surprise the locals thought this dark, handsome, brooding man was one of their own and before he could step off the curb adjacent to a stone alley, an arm reached out and grabbed him. 

A tall man of around 30 greeted him in the local language astounding and scaring young James as he tried to pull loose.    The man begged apologies, swaying his right arm in a more inviting fashion,  sweeping toward a door, showing him where he was being led. 

A door opened without provocation as a man and a woman exited, both dressed in a fashion not familiar to the young man. The music inside was loud, and jazzy one couldn’t expect in this area, and James being the Buddy Rich fan he was, was compelled and curious, walking ahead of his host.  

He was handed a drink.  It didn’t smell familiar, but James wouldn’t know, he had only drank for the first time at the wedding and that was the sweet lively champagne.  His host expressed through his body language to drink.  James took a sip, his host dared him on and James slung back the entire brew only to have the Absinthe replenished.  

Soon he was hallucinating and the next minute he was waking up to writhing naked bodies all around him.  His own clothes were anywhere but on him.   He motioned for several of the guests to help him but they were all far too busy.  He finally found a woman who spoke broken English. She raised and fluttered her eyes

“Oh de beeg Amedicon boy", as she reached down.

James was disgusted, but with whom he didn’t know, more at himself, as he pulled shirt, pants and shoes from various pieces of furniture, under rugs and his underwear in someone else’s pocket.   He still had on his watch, a surprise considering…. The time was 8pm.  He was at once relieved and then he did the calculation and realized he had plenty of explaining to do.  It was actually 4am.  

He put his wasted pride aside, asked for a cab.

"Hotel Barcelona" he seemed to beg as he continued to tuck in his shirt. 

The cabbie snickered at his disaaray, then laughed “Oh, I see you have someone waiting and you need to have them think you have been far away”

James didn’t like the sound of that, and really, couldn’t make sense as the cabbie rounded the first corner and stopped the car.

“I have the money” James seemed to cry

“Honest,  M’Sueir we are here."

And sure enough there they were at the apartments.

Not even twenty steps. 

He could see her silhouette against the bright lights of the city and knew he had better liven up his explanatory skills.  

Instead, he said nothing, took her hand and pulled her to the bed.  And all was well.  She was surprised it went as well as it did, girlfriends and even her mother had warned her, but their advice was out of place in the din of this most exquisite perfection of love and life.

He was an amorous lover, much different than the inexperienced young man who fumbled with buttons and made apologies the night before.    

“You smell strange”

“How do you mean?” he demurred but knew.  He still felt light headed yet invigorated.  “bad?”

“No, not bad, maybe, I don’t know, maybe when you were out, and I am not used to the smells here”

He jumped up and took a shower, secretly disgusted with himself for defiling the young woman's body after being in a place she could never conceive, or possibly, forgive.  

Lily went to hang up his coat, finding a book of matches in his pocket  ‘Rousee di Emilia'  She decided to keep the matches as a souvenir.  

8 months later

Lily lay on the couch barely able to move.  The news bittersweet, twins.  James was delighted.  Lily, more apprehensive than anything.  How were they going to afford this?  James and both her mother and Rosa her mother-in-law were delighted.  

And two days later she gave birth. 

They were a little early, seemingly healthy.  The boy, who they named James, a robust 7 pounds, large for three weeks early and being a twin.  His sister Rosa was a tiny little thing, 4 pounds, and struggling.  The doctor said she had a few health problems but she should be able to overcome these.

     The boy was dark skinned, dark eyes just like his father and mother.  The girl had a skin color, not quite dark, not white and blue eyed.  Her eyes had an Asian look and Lily was concerned about Downs Syndrome, as were the family and doctors. They tested the child and she had all the credible genes and Downs Syndrome was not a factor…still.   Lily was certain she would gain pigment with health and really, aren’t all babies blue eyed at birth?

She had knitted two tiny sweaters for the infants.  Jamie, as they came to call James Jr. was already too big for his.  The little sweater swallowed Rosie as she swam in hers.  The difference was troubling.  

James did not seem to accept the girl, though his mother, Rosalie, admonished him often, which was an unexpected delight.  He found something troubling when he looked in his daughter's eyes.  A familiarity and a feeling of abject disbelief at what he knew could be a truth. 

“It skips a generation” His mother delighted "This is something from one of our relatives.”  

A throwback.

The years went on; Jamie grew to be a handsome toddler, young boy and young man. 

His sister, always petite with stick straight black hair and those haunting almond shaped blue eyes, was the joy of her grandparents and brother, but her father never seemed to warm to the child.  She spent years in bed, an unhealthy child.  All the medications given her had done their damage and the doctors said one day she will need a kidney transplant and probably a liver.  

Lily put this out of her mind “I’ll think about it when the day comes” her famous Scarlett O’Hara attitude.  

And the day came in 1996 when the child was 26.  She needed a kidney.   And now was a time of miraculous research. 

She had an unusual blood type,  B-.     

When the girl cried the news to her mother handing her the test, Lily lost the ability to speak.  B-.  She didn’t have B-, nor did her husband.  

“Rosie” Lilly regained her ability to communicate “Who is the doctor?  I need his phone”  

Rosie obediently wrote the number down.

“Mommy, everyone needs to be tested so we can see if they are a match.”

Lily choked “Rosie, please, wait for me to talk to the doctor.”

Which she did that very afternoon, and he confirmed the results;

“Yes Mrs. Giancana, we have run these tests several times, this is a predominantly Asian blood type.  We recognized Rosie has certain features that affirmed this."  He kept talking, but Lily heard no more.

Lily hung up the phone in shock.  What happened?  She had not been as alert as girls are today at the birth of their children, and things were pretty cavalier.  They must have switched the babies.  She needed to research; she called the doctor back and confessed her concerns.  

“I tell you what Mrs. Giancana; it is highly unusual that it happens.  I am not saying it doesn’t, but it is highly usual.  Did you perhaps… " 

“No, NO!  I have been with one man, my husband.”  

“Mrs. Giancana, do you know the damage this can do to your daughter?  Right or wrong.  Either way, she will feel unwanted.”  

“What about my husband?”

For Rosie’s case the Doctor agreed to keep this confidential, he would play along with genetic testing of the father.  though the doctor was convinced Lily had more of a story to tell.

He first did the gene testing on mother and daughter and as he expected, Lily was Rosie’s true mother.  Lily was relieved.  She loved her children with every part of her soul and even had those tests come back declaring her not being the parent, it wouldn’t have made a difference.   But this was too much.  She spent hours, days weeks thinking back, could she have been raped?  What happened?  It was sickening.  

“Mama, I am going to Barcelona, they have a higher rate of genetic links there, the laws are not as stringent as here and most people that have donated blood, have blood conditions or have made it into the penal system, their genetic makeup are easier to retrieve."   Rosie was both excited and scared.

“Oh, Rosie, your father and I went there for our honeymoon.  Perhaps we can stay at the same hotel”

Lily finally had something to look forward to.  Her life was a mess; everything that seemed impossible was possible.  Perhaps this trip would bring her daughter the time she needed.  And maybe Lily can recall what happened.  

They arrived in Barcelona, making it to the hotel of her honeymoon and all the memories of that glorious holiday came flooding back.  But nothing to  dissuade her from the fact that her husband was her only paramour. After two days, only two, a potential donor came back.  Good news.  Bad news, he was a convict.  He was in prison in Barcelona for soliciting and racketeering.  His profile read that he owned the  "Rousee di Emilia”.  

Where had Lily heard of that? 

The next morning she called the researchists involved and asked if she could meet with this donor.  They begged her not to, but she wouldn’t let up and finally they relented, giving her the directions to La Modelo Prison in Barcelona.   

She begged Rosie to rest and found a cab to take her to the destination.  On the way she remembered, the matches with the name  the‘Rousee di Emilia”.    

The prison was not a wonderful place, but it wasn’t as bad as she expected.   After being stripped and searched she was led to a long table with several small ports on top, a slice of glass down the middle.  Each port had a phone and she made her way to booth 4 where a young man with Asian features and unusual blue eyes stared out.  Peinia.    

“Mr. Peinia, without telling you too much, my daughter, she is very sick and she needs your help”    

“Yes, Ms. Giancana, please call me Peinia, not Mr. Peinia.” He continued “I met your daughter yesterday.  She is quite lovely, she looks like my sister.”    

And then he just stared at her “Mrs. Giancana, I do not know you, but I think I should”   

  “Yes Mr... I mean Peinia, this is all so troubling.  I don’t know you, all I have to associate you is a book of matches from my honeymoon in 1969.    

“Why would a nice lady have matches like that?”   Peinia explained it was a house of ill repute and they do not often see honeymooners of her caliber. 

She showed him a picture of her husband and after a seemingly long pause, he recognized him.    

“Oh the BIG AMERICAN!” 

He told her of leading her husband into the palace as he regarded it and how her husband enjoyed the libations but quickly blacked out.    

“There was a lot of, well you know, people did not worry about things such as condoms and the like, are you sure you weren’t there?  Could this be my daughter???”    

Lily ran out of the building.  She sat on the roadway and cried.  Her husband, her sweet loyal husband had betrayed her before he even found her.  And from how it sounds, he walked out of one place and into her bed.   And the doctors affirmed the allegation the next day.  Sperm lives outside the body from only minutes….to hours.