Rebecca Winters: The Magnate's Holiday Proposal

In less than a year of being married, it was over and she’d filed for divorce. Once again she’d started looking for another job.

When the position with Edda had opened up, Gabi had grabbed at it, sensing it would be a healing kind of work. Edda’s whole purpose was to make children happy. Still mourning the baby she’d lost at five weeks, Gabi could pour out her love on other people’s children.

The foundation business filled three floors of the neoclassic building, depending on the department where you were assigned. To Gabi’s mind, she had the best position. She, along with four other women, had the exciting opportunity of opening and reading the letters. When they’d made their group decision about each child’s letter, they took it to Edda in the suite next door to make the final decisions about what to do.

Once Gabi had gone inside the rear entrance and had grabbed a cup of coffee in the open reception room, she walked upstairs to the conference room on the second floor to get started for the day. She and her coworkers sat around a big oval table. Three of them were married, one was single and Gabi was divorced.

Stefania, the woman Edda had put in charge of their group, received the mail from the mail room and passed around the new letters that came in every day. Gabi marveled that so many children needed special help and praised Edda for the service she rendered on a continual basis. Such goodness put her in the category of a saint.

“Buongiorno,” she said to Angelina and Clara, who’d already arrived. In a minute Stefania came in with Luisa, the one who still wasn’t married and had become a good friend of Gabi’s. They smiled at each other before Luisa sat down next to her. “How was your weekend?” she whispered to her friend.

“I spent it with my cousin. We did a lot of early Christmas shopping. What about you, Gabi?”

“My mother and I drove to Venice for the fun of it.” Gabi had done a little sketching.

“How wonderful!”

Pretty soon everyone had settled down. Stefania opened the mailbag and distributed a bundle to each of them. Gabi opened her envelopes and pulled out the letters. Then they each took a turn to read a letter. In the afternoon they would form a consensus of what to turn over to Edda for final consideration. All the letters came from children who were deserving of blessings.

Just before lunch Gabi picked up her last letter. Most of them had been written in cursive by an adult. This one had been printed by a youngster and there was no greeting.

“My name is Dino Berettini.” She didn’t know of another Berettini except the international Berettini plastics conglomerate near Venice. The billion-dollar business helped keep the country afloat financially.

“I am seven years old. Every night I tell God I am afraid to have an operation because my mamma died and won’t be with me. But if it will take away my headaches and make my papà happy again, I will do it. He is never happy and I love him more than anyone in the entire world.”

The words make my papà happy again swam before Gabi’s eyes. They took her back to her childhood when at the age of seven, her adored father was dying. She’d gone to the priest after Mass and begged him to ask God to make him better. The priest smiled kindly and told her she should ask God herself.

Hurt that he hadn’t said he would do it, she still went home and said her prayers, begging God to save her papà. Within two days he rallied and got better. In Gabi’s mind a miracle had happened.

Touched by the sweet, prayer-like missive from this boy, she was moved to tears.

“Gabi?”

She looked up. Everyone was staring at her, so she read them the letter.

“What else does the letter say?” Stefania asked her.

“There isn’t anything else. This child wrote what was in his heart. Obviously an adult had to address the envelope and mail it to us, but I’m convinced no one helped him with the wording.”

“I agree. Read it to us again.”

Gabi looked at Stefania. “I don’t think I can without breaking down.”

“I’ll do it.” Luisa reached for it and read it aloud. After she’d finished, she said, “What a sweet little boy. But he hasn’t asked for anything.”

“Yes he has,” Gabi murmured. “He wants the foundation to grant his wish not to be afraid for the operation that will help him feel better and make his father happy.”

“But we can’t do that,” Clara exclaimed.

Stefania shook her head. “No. It’s beyond our power, but this is one letter Edda has to read. Enjoy your lunch. I’ll see you back here at one thirty.”

They all got up and left the building. Luisa and Gabi walked around the corner to the trattoria where they usually ate. While they ate pasta and salad, Luisa asked her why the letter had touched her so deeply.

“I don’t know exactly. A combination of things made me tear up. He mentioned losing his mother, and it reminded me of my miscarriage and how I would never raise my child. As I told you, Santos and I got pregnant on our honeymoon. But I lost it after carrying it five weeks, and nothing could comfort me.”

Luisa eyed her compassionately. “I can only imagine how painful that would have been for you.”

“That was over two years ago. But when I read Dino’s words today, some of those feelings returned. Now he’s the one suffering so terribly.”

“The poor little thing has lost his mother. The pathos in that one line squeezed my heart.”

“I know,” Gabi murmured. “Especially the last line that said his father was never happy.”

Luisa shook her head. “In the six months I’ve been working here, we’ve never had a letter like this one.”

“I agree. Today I found myself wishing a miracle would happen for that boy. He wrote that letter as an act of faith because of Edda’s program. The trouble is, she can give any child a tangible gift, but she can’t move mountains.”

“No.” Luisa shook her head. “It needs a miracle.”

“Do you remember me telling you about the time I wanted a miracle so my father wouldn’t die? That did happen and he lived until three years ago when he finally passed away from heart failure. If only one could happen again for Dino...”

On that solemn note they left to walk back to work. A half hour later Stefania told Gabi to go in Edda’s office. Since Gabi had been the one who’d opened the letter and had been affected by it, their boss wanted to talk it over with her.

Gabi and Luisa exchanged surprised glances before she walked down the hall and entered Edda’s private domain. The trim, classily dressed philanthropist with titian-colored hair smiled at Gabi and asked her to sit down opposite her desk. She held the letter in her hand.

“Stefania told me about your reaction while you were reading this. I confess tears welled up in my throat, too. That adorable child’s simple plea for help leaves us with a dilemma.”

“Luisa and I were talking about that over lunch. How do you move a mountain?”

“Exactly.” She picked up the envelope the letter had come in. “Someone mailed it from Maniago. I did research while you were at lunch. There are two Berettini families living in that town. Does the name Luca Berettini mean anything to you?”

“No, but I immediately thought of the Berettini Plastics Company near Venice.”

She nodded. “It’s the family business. Recently the elder Berettini stepped down as head and now Luca Berettini, his son, has been made CEO. Dino is his boy.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because of a tragedy that happened to that family two years ago. It was all over the media and in the newspaper. You didn’t hear about it or see it on TV?”

Gabi lowered her head. “That was a difficult time for me and I’m afraid I hadn’t been paying much attention to the news.”