Chapter 76
Chapter seventy-six
Day Of Reckoning
Marco
I’m exhausted, in pain, and in need of rest. But more than that, I need answers. In a few short hours, my whole damn world shifted on its axis. My dad pulls up a chair and places it by my side, while my mom perches on the edge of the bed, her hand still in his.
“I can give you guys some privacy,” says Sophia, moving to stand.
“Stay,” instructs my mom. “You’re family. But more than that, you’re my son’s soulmate. Without you, his heart doesn’t beat. You’re lucky if you find that kind of love once in your life.”
Then, looking at my dad with reverence shining in her warm brown eyes, she continues, “I was blessed to have found it twice.”
She nods at my dad, giving him the go ahead to try and explain how we got here.
“I always knew the moment of truth would come for us. In some ways, I have held my breath for the last twenty-nine years, never sure of when the day of reckoning would come. And yet, I had no idea it would happen like this. That the revelation would be both a saving grace and shot straight to the heart,” my dad explains, anguish written all over his face.
“I’ve never felt more helpless than I did tonight seeing your body crumple to the floor from selflessly taking a bullet for the woman you love.
” He exhales deeply from his nose. “The irony is not lost on me that the first and last time I saw your biological father, he too was lying in a pool of his own blood. The brutality of that day still haunts me, and after last night, I have another haunting memory to sit right alongside it.” He scrubs a hand down his face before continuing.
“It’s never mattered to me if you were biologically mine.
The moment I made a promise to a young Italian man named Roberto in a hole-in-the-wall espresso bar that I would look after his soulmate and their unborn child, you became mine. You and your mother became my family.”
He continues, “I never had much time for relationships back then anyway. My time was best spent providing private security for elite New York families and their clients and anyone else with the means to pay for the level of security my company offered. My story with your mother may have had a tragic start, but it has bloomed into the most powerful testament of love.”
He places his hand on the one my mom has entwined with mine, desperate for us all to be connected. “You two are the only people who make me feel like an honorable man in a way fortune, prestige, and success never could,” he explains.
I don’t have the words or the energy to ask questions or demand more explanation, so I let my parents unload all the secrets and regrets they’ve carried all these years.
“I’m sorry I failed you as a mother by keeping something this profound from you,” my mother’s small voice begins.
“So many times over the years, I wanted to tell you. But Roberto’s dying wish was that you were kept away from the world he grew up in.
He didn’t want his family name to drag you back into a life he was trying to break free from.
One where life was not valued unless what you had to offer was of value to the family and their soulless business dealings.
Roberto and I were young, just eighteen when I found out I was pregnant with you, but we loved each other deeply.
It was love at first sight when he came into my family’s restaurant where I was waiting tables.
I didn’t know it at the time, but the night I saw him for the first time, he had been sent to rough up my dad.
To be honest, my dad wasn’t a good man. He was obsessed with power and wealth and ruthless in his pursuit of it.
He was a soldier for the opposing mob family to Roberto’s, one that was hated by the other mob families because they had very little regard for playing by the rules that been established across all the families.
They crossed lines everyone knew were off-limits.
And then there was us. Star-crossed lovers, I guess you could say.
That day, he let my dad off the hook, but when my dad found out a few months later I had been seeing Roberto behind his back, he gripped me hard enough to leave marks.
Roberto was furious. He was also disillusioned with life in the Mafia, and we dreamed about running away together to start a new life.
” She swipes the tears away, a faraway look on her face.
It’s clear to me that even though it was cut short, my mom shared a deep love with Roberto.
“When I became pregnant, he was more resolute than ever, especially because my dad’s mean streak was getting worse.
The day Samuel ran into Roberto, he had just dropped me off at an exclusive luxury estate owned by a family who owed him a favor.
The older couple promised to keep me safe.
And the plan was for him to return after he tied up one last loose end. He never made it back.”
My mom’s face takes on a faraway look, like she’s gone back to that day where her entire life changed overnight.
Sophia hasn’t stopped stroking my hair the whole time, her touch tethering me to this life-changing moment for more reasons than one.
What does this new revelation mean for us?
Is it just another challenge stacking up against us?
“Samuel, honey, you should explain what happened next,” my mum murmurs.
“I was in Sicily with Sophia’s family who were staying at the private luxury villas where Roberto had just dropped off Elena.
Of course I didn’t know that, because I was returning from town where I had just been to meet a prospective client who was traveling to New York later that month and required on-the-ground security.
Until a few hours ago, I didn’t know that the client I met that day was Chiara’s uncle and subsequently your dad’s brother. ”
“Fuck, what are the chances,” I whisper, recognizing the heavy hand fate has had in all of this.
“Do you need a moment, son?” my dad asks. “This is a lot to take in.”
“No, no. Please keep going, I need to know.”
“So I was on my way back and decided to stop in for a quiet espresso in this hole-in-the wall bar after stepping off the train. I sat down next to this young man. The first thing I noticed was how well-presented he looked for his age. It was summer, so it was warm out and most people were dressed for the beach. But not him. He was dressed impeccably in slacks, suspenders, a long-sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled, and leather loafers. He had the most piercing green eyes, just like yours, son. You’re so close in those bars your elbows touch, so it felt somewhat rude not to acknowledge his presence.
Once I had ordered my coffee, I turned and greeted him, asking in Italian how his day was.
When he made eye contact to answer me back, the sadness in his eyes was palpable.
Like it had its own heartbeat. We made small talk, and I mentioned I was in security.
He told me he was in the family business.
Then he asked where I was staying, and when I told him, his whole face changed, like he was grappling with a thousand different scenarios of how this was going to go.
He saw something in me that made me a safe bet, because the next thing I knew, he pulled out a wad of cash and took the gold chain off his neck, pressing it into my palm.
I could sense the urgency in his movements, like time was running out. ”
He pulls my mom into his side to comfort her; retelling the story for my benefit means she needs to relive the tragedy of it too.
“He explained he was returning from that very place, that the owners were good people and hiding the love of his life who was pregnant with their first child. He asked me to take the cash and necklace to give to her just in case he never made it back. He told me he had this feeling he’d been followed.
I told him I could help keep him safe too.
He refused my offer, but he made me promise him one thing: that if anything happened to him when he walked out of that coffee shop or he didn’t return to the property within a week, that I would look after you and your mom like you were my own. ”
He pauses and lets me soak in the enormity of what he’s saying and the impact it has on my sense of identity. Did AJ know who I was? How long did Chiara know? All these questions buzz around my already throbbing head.
“He told me his dying wish was to get your mother out of Italy and keep you both away from the mob life. So I looked that man in the eye and shook his hand, pledging to do just that. Then I watched as he walked out of the coffee shop, looking around calmly before he crossed the small piazza. I watched a man approach him, getting in close as though they were having a conversation. On the strike of noon while the bells tolled, I watched as his body crumpled to the cobblestones, blood quickly pooling around him. I told the owner to call for help and ran out to try to save him, but it was a close-range shot. He was gone. I had to figure out a way to keep his dying wish. So I did the only thing I could to guarantee you both safe passage to America. I married your mother that week, and Patrick organized all the legal paperwork for immigration. And within two weeks, we were all back on U.S. soil, Elena and I fumbling our way through marriage and grief and a pregnancy. But through it all, we found unwavering love, only further strengthened when you entered this world nearly six months later.”
Tears stream silently down all the faces gathered around my bed, my own barely in check.
“Marco, you may have never met the man who made you, but you carry that same selflessness in you. Just that small interaction with him proved to me he was an honorable man, and I wanted to do the right thing. That’s the very same thing you did tonight.
I need you to know, even if you’re angry with us right now, I am so damn proud to be the one you call Dad.
Even though Roberto passed the baton to me to guide you through life, you still carry the legacy of the good man who made you.
My only regret is that it took almost losing you for us to find the courage to have a conversation we should have had many years ago. I’m sorry, son. Truly.”
All I can manage is a nod and a weak squeeze of his hand. I’m too medicated and too shocked to give much more.
“Darling, we’re going to leave you to rest. We can talk about this any time you want. I just hope you can forgive us,” my mom pleads.
“I love you, son,” my dad reiterates, squeezing my shoulder. “Get some rest.”
“I love you both too,” I croak.
Once they’re out of the room, I break down, crying for a man I never knew, from sheer relief that I’m alive but mostly out of gratitude.
I understand how it feels to carry a secret around on your back like a cross, and Samuel has done that for me for almost three decades.
Despite the circumstances, perhaps we can all have a fresh start with no more secrets.
I just hope when all is said and done, Sophia will still be the one by my side.