2. Niccolo
Inever wanted to marry, but my father said I had no choice. As the consigliere of the Castiglione family, his sons had a duty to expand the reach of the family. We were bargaining chips to make connections; we were chattels to be traded for safety and capital.
WhenI turned twenty-four, my father sat me down and said, “If you won’t join us, you can at least strengthen us.” A few months later, I walked down the aisle with CaterinaLucatello, a beautiful older woman with a vast fortune inherited from her shitty first husband, who had left her a few years before.
Iloved her as much as a man arranged to wed a woman fifteen years older than him could love a woman. We didn’t have much in common, but she was pleasant to be around. She moved heaven and earth for her daughter, and that kind of love was admirable.
Myfather expected us to pop out kids as soon as possible. He told me repeatedly that the only way to strengthen the alliance between the Terlizzis and Lucatellos was to have a baby. Christine didn”t count because she wasn”t mine, which made it easier for my father to make disgusting comments about her. I tried to ignore him, but he knew what he was doing. He knew that he got under my skin.
Onthe day Caterina and I had been wed for three months, he called me home to ask if she was pregnant. “She’s forty, father,” I told him. “It isn’t as easy to get pregnant the older you get.”
Hekindly suggested I go home, fuck my wife’s brains out, and stop fooling around with the psychology shit. He wanted me to be her loyal stay-at-home husband, not an unemployed college student.
Lessthan two years later, she was dead. It was a pity because I was coming around to love her in the way that a married man and woman should love one another. But before I got to explore all the romance and intimacy we could have had, she passed away, leaving me with an inheritance I never expected: her daughter.
Ididn”t want to parent a teenager at first. Christine was moody and sullen. She had her best friend over a lot, and when Kaye was around, Christine’s mood improved considerably. I did what I could, but I was lost. I never expected to be married at twenty-five and widowed by twenty-seven.
Ihad no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know how to care for a teenage girl. AllI knew was I had to keep her fed and ensure she got to school on time. When her uncles showed up to take her away, it finally hit me that I loved her more than they did.
Giovanniwanted to take her back to KansasCity. He brought Marco as a buffer in case things got ugly. Giovanni said he had three sons and two daughters; Christine would fit in perfectly. I’d grown up in a house with a similar genetic makeup, and I couldn’t bear the thought of forcing an only child to suddenly become kid number six in a large household.
“Over my dead body.” Caterina didn’t plan for what would happen after her death. By law, everything she owned reverted to me, including her daughter. “Christine’s best friend is here. Her entire life is here in Manhattan.” She was in high school, for Christ’s sake. Now wasn’t the time to uproot her and make her start all over again, and I made sure he was aware of that. “This is where her support system is, and I will not let you uproot that.”
“I’m her family, cafone. You’re a little fuck boy that my father bought and paid for. You’re nothing to her,” Giovanni laughed. Marco stood behind him and offered a nervous laugh in agreement.
ThoughGiovanni”s words hurt, he wasn’t wrong. LeonardoLucatello paid my father a fortune for me to wed Caterina. She was older, and everyone knew what happened with her first husband. But despite the tradition of taking a mistress, I never fucked around on Caterina. The day I found out I was arranged to be wed, I ended all my relationships. I never looked at or touched another woman until the day my wife died.
“I’m her stepfather whether you like it or not.” Bought and paid for, just like Giovanni said. “Where were you when your sister was dying? BecauseI was at her bedside every. fucking. night. You know who wasn’t? Her brothers.” I was there when her hair started to fall out. I was there when she couldn’t stop vomiting. I was there when she spiked a fever that led to her final hospital stay. “Do you know who made breakfast for Christine when Caterina was too sick to get up? Me. Who was there for Christine at the funeral? Me. Who’s been there for her every day since? Me. If you’re her support system, you fucking suck.”
Iwas too heated to say more, but it didn’t matter. Christine came out of nowhere and announced that she wanted to stay with me because it was what her mom would have wanted.
Istill didn”t know how to take care of a teenager, but I was willing to learn. I would do whatever it took to keep Christine safe and happy because she was right: it”s what CaterinaLucatello would have wanted.