It’s a Girl

Antonio insisted in going into the room where the technician was going to perform an ultrasound on his wife, Sofia. He paced anxiously while he waited to find out if the baby was going to be a girl or the longed-for boy.

“It’s a girl,” announced the technician. Antonio’s wife smiled, visions of tiny dresses and baby giggles already filling her mind. Silently Antonio left the room and walked straight out the front door of the hospital to his waiting chauffeur.

On the way back to his office at the family-owned vineyard in Calabria, he placed two calls, the first to his attorney and the second to his florist in Rome, then he settled back in the car and shut his eyes until they reached home.

Five years before, Antonio’s father had called him back to Italy and calmly told his son what he would be required to do in order to inherit the family business. First, he had to move back home and start learning how to run the vineyard. Antonio had majored in marketing at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., then moved to New York City to work at a large, well-known and influential advertising and marketing firm. It was time for him to finish his preparations to take over the business when his father retired. Second, Antonio had to marry and produce a legitimate son to carry on the family tradition.

With the knowledge he had already absorbed while growing up, it took Antonio only about a year to become an expert vintner. It took a bit longer for him to produce a child, and it was a girl.

He immediately divorced his wife and courted another. Eleven months after the wedding, she also gave birth to a girl. Antonio divorced her and courted Sofia, but only after he investigated her family and discovered that they produced a predominance of boys. Sofia had failed him. It wasn’t her family’s fault, it was hers. He felt completely justified in divorcing her immediately.

Antonio’s anger was difficult to contain, but he calmed when he considered his backup plan. Antonio had been spending a lot of time in Rome, ostensibly negotiating to sell his wines on the U.S. market, and had not one but two mistresses comfortably ensconced in apartments for which he paid the rent. Both of them had agreed to bear him a child. Surely at least one would be a boy. As soon as their pregnancies were far enough advanced for an ultrasound, he would marry the mother of the boy. If the child was born less than nine months after the wedding, he might have to claim that it was premature, no matter that the child weighed in excess of eight pounds at birth.

As soon as the divorce from Sofia was final, Antonio told his mistresses that it was time for them to become pregnant, and they both complied with alacrity. Giovanna called Antonio’s private cell phone and told him that she had an appointment for an ultrasound the following Friday morning. He gleefully told her he’d be there with her, to support her. Within the hour, Luisa also called. He told her to make an appointment for an ultrasound on Friday afternoon and he’d be there with her, to support her.

Antonio could hardly wait for Friday. As he drove his Lamborghini from Calabria to Rome Thursday evening, he sang along with Pavarotti and arrived at Giovanna’s apartment happy and full of anticipation. The next morning, they went to the hospital for Giovanna’s ultrasound. He paced anxiously while he waited to find out if the baby was going to be a girl or the longed-for boy.

“It’s a girl,” announced the technician.

Silently Antonio left the room and walked straight out the front door of the hospital and went to Luisa’s apartment. As he drove to the nearby clinic, she wondered why Antonio seemed so subdued, when before he had been excited about the coming infant. He didn’t answer when she asked what had happened that made him change.

A nurse led Luisa into the room where the ultrasound would be performed. Antonio followed. Luisa smiled up at him as the technician made her preparations. Antonio took Luisa’s hand and squeezed it. She thought it was because he wanted to comfort her while she waited. He knew it was because he was anxious and afraid of the outcome.

At last the technician announced, “It’s a girl.” Silently Antonio left the room, walked out the front door of the clinic and drove back to Calabria.

Obviously, he would need a plan C if he was ever to inherit the family business.