Chapter Ten
Aria Bianchi
Jaimie woke me at sunrise and told me I would be going with Enzo for the day.
I had never gotten up and ready so quickly in my life.
I thought everything would be different after the kiss. Maybe he would push me further away, or maybe he would send me off to live somewhere else until the clear feelings between us had faded.
Instead, I sat across from him as a driver brought us deeper into the city.
“Where are we going?” I asked as I crossed my ankles.
“We have a few places to go today. You need to see the people who support us and plan to stand with us if the conflict with your father persists.”
I nodded, mentally cataloging the area as we pulled to our first stop.
“I don’t think my father ever visits places himself. It’s too much of a risk.”
Enzo chuckled. “Even once I become boss, I will never sacrifice a relationship with my people. It’s important that they know and trust the person who gives them protection.”
“I agree with that.”
I followed him from the car and into the first business where the owner immediately came out and welcomed him with open arms. Enzo listened to each of their concerns and collected the photographs of someone who had recently broken into the store and stolen a few things. He promised justice as we made our way down the street to another place.
I carried the folder in my hands as Enzo walked confidently, greeting a handful of other shop employees and pedestrians as if he knew most of them.
“Do you know all of these people?” I asked.
“No.”
The answer surprised me. “How do they know you?”
He stopped and looked down at me. “Aria, your father and I are vastly different. Uncle Giovanni and I walk down these streets often. We talk to the businesses, and we support them in exchange for various things. Some of them provide money, and some provide services. I don’t know every person we deal with, but everyone knows me. Beyond that, I’m a media presence. I’m a known businessman in the area, and people want favors.”
“Did you bring me here today to draw parallels between you and my father? To tell me that you’re infinitely better than he is? Are you going to give me a sob story about how he killed your puppy growing up or something?”
Enzo’s face went cool. “How much do you know about him?
Much, much more than you could imagine.
“I know he’s not a good man, but I don’t have to worry about that anymore. He’s no longer my problem.”
He gave me a knowing look. “Okay,” he conceded. “Come on. We have more places to be.”
I knew his motivations. I knew that Enzo had brought me here to show me my loyalty should lie with him. He wanted me to turn my back on my father, and he had no idea how little convincing that would take if I didn’t have a higher stake in this game.
I didn’t want to be loyal to the man threatening me and my sisters.
I didn’t want to be connected to a liar and a manipulative asshole for my entire life, but there wasn’t a choice. No matter what he showed me today, there wouldn’t be anything more devastating than the truth I had learned months ago. Nothing could convince me to turn my back on him when he held the two people I cared for most.
We approached a blacked-out apartment complex in the center of the business district, and Enzo waltzed inside as if he owned the place. Nobody waited in the reception area, and he made his way toward the stairs, walking up three flights.
“There is an elevator,” I panted as we reached the third-floor landing.
“Not a functioning one.”
His voice had taken a solemn turn. His demeanor shifted to one of remorse, and I watched as his steps slowed at a central apartment.
“What’s here?” I asked as he paused for a second too long outside the door.
“The real reason I brought you.”
He knocked and footsteps pounded through the apartment. Children, lots of them, by the sound of it. A muffled shout came on the other side of the door before it swung open and revealed a young woman in an apron and a tank top. Her skin was greasy from sweat, and sadness danced in her eyes as if it had taken residence there. Through the sadness, though, she offered Enzo a smile.
“I wasn’t expecting you,” she said in heavily-accented English. Her tone had a Middle Eastern lilt, and her dark complexion and hair only validated my assumption. “I have food. Come, both of you.”
She left no room for argument as she swept Enzo and me into her home.
“I made stew. Mushroom and potato. It was all we had left after this week. It is very good.”
I nodded with a forced smile as Enzo pulled her to a halt. “How is everything?”
Her eyes darted around her disorganized kitchen and the mess of toys strewn across her living room floor before she smiled sadly and nodded, tears welling in her eyes. “It is good. We are okay.”
“What can I do to help?”
She shook her head and wiped away the tears on the back of her hand. “Don’t make me cry. Not around the kids. Eitan didn’t like tears.”
“Who is Eitan?” I found myself asking.
Almost as if realizing for the first time I stood there, she stiffened and gave me a less sincere smile. “My husband.”
“He isn’t coming home.”
The little voice that said the words came from the living room of the cramped living space, and I looked over at her. Her eyes held the same sadness as her mother's, and it was far more tragic to see the remorseful expression behind young eyes. Behind innocent ones.
I wanted to ask what happened, but it didn’t feel right when the loss was so recent.
Instead, I said something different. “He must have been a wonderful man to have achieved so much love from both of you.”
Enzo gave me a sidelong glance, and I met his eyes, unable to decipher what it was in his expression. Surprise, but something else too. Something deeper. Interest, maybe?
“Mommy says bad guys sent him to the sky.”
The woman chuckled under her breath and turned her face away as a single tear fell down her cheek. “He is very loved.”
Is .
I didn’t correct her tenses as I nodded.
“A brutal mob attack killed him—one initiated by your father and his men. It was the same night as our wedding, actually. Coordinated, from what I can tell. I woke up to the messages of what happened.”
My mouth fell open. I was internally cursing him for leaving me alone for so long after the wedding, and he’d been… here. He had been taking care of these people and likely the ones who had been killed.
Enzo continued without waiting for a response. “Someone in your family has been spreading lies about our people—about the ways we’ve been targeting you. And it leads to vicious attacks like this. I’m going to make sure that stops.”
I knew exactly what lies he was talking about.
I even knew the man who had likely led this attack.
I had seen him in my father’s office weeks ago, thankful that something would “finally be done” about the loss of his wife.
“How many people?” I asked, my voice breaking with the words.
“Seventeen.”
My heart dropped.
Seventeen lives that shouldn’t have been forfeited.
Enzo dropped the topic and began speaking to the woman again, but I didn’t hear his words as he grabbed a bowl of stew and devoured the entire thing. He washed his own dish and placed it on the drying rack beside the sink before hugging the small woman and offering the child a fist bump. He maintained the same diplomatic look of sadness and support, and I tried to mimic it.
I tried to be a voice of positivity and support, but I knew I had been unsuccessful.
All the way back to the car, I stayed silent, even as Enzo greeted and smiled at people on the streets. As he proved time and time again that I knew nothing real about this man, I followed in silence.
The second the car door closed, I found my voice.
“Why would you bring me there?”
There had to be a reason. He didn’t come across as mercilessly cruel.
“I need you to tell me what you know about your father’s dealings.”
I gasped and straightened my spine as I turned to face him in the back of the car fully. I dug a finger into his chest. “You brought me there to show me that my father is a monster? Do you think I need more proof of that? You didn’t think to ask me what I knew?”
“Would you have told me anything if I had?”
No .
“This was cruel even for you. I didn’t do this, Enzo. I didn’t even know he planned on doing this, or I would have… I would have—”
“What would you have done?”
“I—I—”
“Nothing, Aria. You won’t stand up to your father, so I need you to let me do it.”
I didn’t know what to say. “How dare you?” I shouted.
He kept an even tone, as if the conversation meant nothing to him. “I would do anything to protect my people, and if that means making you uncomfortable to show you what he does to innocent people, I’d do it again.”
“You are playing me for an idiot,” I snarled through my clenched teeth. “I know all about him and his lies. I know what breed of monster he is, and I know to always expect the worst from him. I know about the women being killed, and I know they are being used as a means to his ends. I know more about his methods of torture and brutality than you could fathom, and I know that my father is just as adept at using his fists as he is at using psychological torture. He’s a brute. He’s a liar. He’s everything horrible a man could be, and you don’t need to show me this to tell me that.”
His eyes had turned hard at some point in the conversation. All emotion had fled from them at the same time as a cool, killing calm filled his expression.
I considered the words I had used—the tone I had used. What had sparked this kind of reaction?
“What has he done to you?” he asked after a moment.
The anger from the situation still fueled my words.
“Don’t act like you care about me, Enzo. What he did to me is no concern of yours. You made it clear that you don’t care about me. Especially after this,” I said, gesturing to the building in the distance. I caught only a brief glimpse of regret in his expression as I turned to face the front and crossed my arms fully over my chest. “At least my father doesn’t pretend to be anything but a monster the way you do.”