victims, aren’t we all?

marina also has lingering grief over losing her son, it is obvious in the way his portraits stay centered in her home in vegas. his room remains untouched, and one of the family’s rituals includes several visits to the graveyard. she is not scared of showing emotion, and is something she gradually teaches flora.

one of the most depressing phases of her life had russell’s death at the center of it — fausto isolated himself and worked offshore, while marina focused on her home, her stability, achieving higher corporate ranks at work while seeking therapy.

she doesn’t know why she agreed so quickly in taking flora; but doesn’t regret the decision at all. it has not only improved her family life, but filled a gap she had been feeling in her heart for years.

she’s a natural host, pleasant company, and an easy talker, marina likes people. she sees flora as a second chance, but also is very careful with the implications of her adoption: she is scared of losing another child, has deep hatred towards the giovanni, and is aware that fausto may have hidden a few things from her to protect his family.

marina is the reason flora adjusted to a incredibly well to a normal life in las vegas, and the reason she became the confident and independent person she is today. she likes social events, traveling, quality family time — school events, birthdays, trips, cultural and family events helped shape flora’s childhood and teenage years.

— DEATH

before flora, fausto had a son. russell was older than flora by a couple of years, died during a camping accident in nevada, and although there was a suspicion on foul play in the beginning, after the body was recovered several months later, nothing suggested the accident had been deliberate or caused by an external party. this accident took a heavy emotional toll on him and marina’s relationship while both tried to handle grief and pain the best way they could: avoidance, silence, and work. marina sought help, fausto choose avoidance. their marriage almost didn’t survive, fausto worked himself to exhaustion, trying to forget what had happened to the light of his eyes — his little boy.

— THE GIOVANNI

it all inevitably happened after the loss of his son. fausto became emotionally numb and dedicated himself to offshore work with longer rotations, extended time away, and taking dangerous contracts. he didn’t even need the money that much, but the traveling and the problem solving at work helped with the problem solving he couldn’t do at home. it was during this tumultuous period he worked logistic and maintenance contracts for private mediterranean shipping routes, assisted in offshore fuel operations connected to elite european investors. he knew the languages, understood the culture, he was discreet and efficient. the wealthy love men like fausto.

italy. after spotting a serious problem involving a privately owned vessel tied to giovanni financiers, fausto was invited to an exclusive gathering for associates as a gesture of gratitude. they knew fausto did not belong there — but his pain, his history, his effectiveness, turned him into a person the giovanni would love to work with. he not only had the expertise, the work ethic, but he also had power and a haunted look about him. the giovanni try to charm him in lake como, suggesting more contracts, more business, showing him how he is surrounded by politicians, collectors, aristocrats, benefactors.

he hates the environment, but appreciates the giovanni’s kindness in offering business opportunities, expensive hospitality, and exclusive invitations.

— FLORA

fausto notices young flora — she is around 7, maybe 8. she is not smiling, nor playing. flora is overdressed in black, silent, serving people with poise and a strict posture, she is performing for the attendees, flinching when adults touch her, but performing anyways. like someone without a way out. like someone inside a personal hell.

he finds her alone in a corner of the room, staring at a grotesque painting. fausto innocently asks, ‘where are your parents?’

the sadness in her gaze is impossible to measure while her face remains composed and controlled. ‘I don’t know. I don’t think I have any parents.’ her eyes are still locked in the painting. ‘suffering must be beautiful to be in paintings all the time…’

the interaction marks him in such a way, he keeps returning to it even after the event.

he brings it up with his giovanni contact. he finds his observations strange, disregards flora’s possible upbringing, states she is living in the Hollywood Hills, is cared for and is surrounded by the best people. time passes, and the giovanni call in favors constantly — deals, financial routing — and when the time comes to ask for offshore transport assistance on a branch of the business. fausto reads about the giovanni, focusing on their strict upbringing and how children are treated like little adults and conditioned since early to be vessels for the adults. the more he reads, the more it terrifies him to imagine flora in an environment as hostile, as terrifying, as… unsettling, as the giovanni branch in Hollywood.

— THE PROPOSAL

fausto asks about flora. her parents. her life inside the giovanni. a senior giovanni figure calls her ‘lost’, ‘asking too many questions’, ‘difficult’. the giovanni asks if he would like to take her to his household, as if discussing relocation of an inconvenient asset. fausto smiles — he is delighted with the adoption offer — he feels deep inside he will be saving flora from the monsters he does business with. but not without discussing everything with marina first.

fausto takes a picture with him back to vegas, and marina notices the inconsistencies immediately. the subject — adoption — isn’t strange for them. attending therapy brought the subject forward a long time ago: never to replace; but rather to channel love in a house that now feels too empty. for the longest time, it remained as an hypothesis, but upon seeing flora’s picture at the como event, marina tells him to ‘bring her home’. ‘the family is wealthy and connected’ fausto explains with care, ‘the situation is complicated, legally it may be—‘

‘that’s fine’