49
Alessandro Senior
When Alessio told me about his woman troubles earlier, I had a feeling, a suspicion I couldn’t shake.
It couldn’t be the little girl I saved all those years ago.
But the only way to be certain was to see her myself.
I had to be sure before telling Alessio what to do with his new woman.
The second I left Demoni’s , I called Phil.
We keep in touch from time to time, and the last time we spoke, he mentioned Olivia was traveling, seeing what the world has to offer her.
He’s not her biological father, but in my eyes, he’s her dad, and the one responsible for her.
So, I have my jet picking him up from his home in Vancouver and bringing him here to Philly.
Olivia’s older now, but the second I see her in the living room, I know she’s still the same little girl I swore to protect.
There’s no mistaking those green eyes and that fire-red hair.
The five of us walk into my office.
Aside from the guards outside, only my daughters are home, but still, I’m wary of prying eyes and listening ears.
There’s always someone looking for intel.
And what I’m about to tell Olivia needs to stay in this room.
Even Stella doesn’t know the whole story.
Alessio sits on the black leather couch, pulling Olivia down with him.
The way he scoots her closer tells me everything.
He cares about her more than he probably realizes.
Phil sits on the opposite couch beside Stella, while I lean against my desk with my arms crossed.
“I don’t know how much you know—” I start, but Alessio cuts me off.
“Just start from the beginning.” Always the impatient one.
I glance at Liv.
“About fifteen years ago, Phil was an FBI detective out of New Jersey, where you were born. The man was all about the job and nothing else. No wife, no kids, no life outside of work. His main goal was to take down the Commission, and he spent years trying. He worked on a task force for human trafficking.”
“I ran the task force,” Phil interrupts.
“Whatever, he ran it. Happy now? ”
Phil scoffs.
“Want me to just tell it?”
“Be my guest, if you can remember that far back, old man,” I joke, knowing it’ll get under his skin.
“Sit down, Grandpa , and let me tell the story,” Phil fires back.
Before Phil can snap back, Olivia blurts out, “I’m not pregnant.”
I know Phil was joking with me; it’s something we do.
He didn’t mean it literally.
It's a habit from when we were both in the field, but I see the way she tenses up.
“You better not be,” Phil mutters under his breath.
“She’s a fucking adult, and that’s none of your damn business,” Alessio snaps back.
“Olivia is my business, dammit,” Phil fires, pushing up from his seat.
Alessio stands too, towering over him, but Phil doesn’t so much as flinch. The man may be older and smaller, but he has too much fight to back down. He loves Olivia like a daughter and gave up what little life he had to raise her, and he sure as hell isn’t about to let anyone forget it. This is why he has my respect. He’ll do whatever it takes to protect the ones he loves.
Sure, I send him a little compensation from time to time, it’s my half of the child support for agreeing to help Leah.
Before things can escalate, Olivia steps between them, planting herself right in the middle. “Will you both knock it off? This isn’t about you or your stupid macho competition.”
I didn’t think the little spitfire had it in her. She glares at both of them, crossing her arms. “Now sit down and let him finish telling me why my childhood was taken.”
Alessio and Olivia sit down, and I exhale, shaking my head. “You think I took your childhood and stole your life? Fine. Hate me for it. But the alternative was letting Tito Morano keep you. And that?” I meet her eyes, “I’d put a bullet in my skull before I let that happen.”
Her breath hitches, but she doesn’t look away. “I didn’t mean you took it,” she says. “But you had a part in it.”
“You were never supposed to know,” I continue. “Phil made sure of that. He kept everything from you—what your mother really did, who your father really was.” Her father, Richie, was a real piece of shit.
Her lips press together. I can see she’s fighting the truth that’s clicking into place. She was only ten, but I’m sure she saw things, not realizing what her dad was involved in.
“Phil put Tito behind bars,” I tell her. “Your mother made sure he would go down. She worked with Phil to build a case and bring it all down—his clubs, his men, his whole fucking empire. The only thing she couldn’t take down was Lucky Strikes, even though that place was a fucking brothel. But Leah knew what her involvement meant. She knew Tito would come for her.”
Liv’s hands tremble on her lap. She tries to hide it, but I see it. Alessio puts his large hand over her shaking small hands to comfort her.
Stella sits back, watching the two but not saying a word. She’s always been my observant one.
“Leah didn’t run for herself,” I say. “She ran so Tito couldn’t get his hands on you. And I made sure she didn’t die in vain.”
“Alessandro,” Phil snaps, warning me to shut it, I know damn well he didn’t want me saying that. He stands with a heavy sigh and walks over to the other couch, sitting beside Olivia, opposite Alessio.
Olivia’s eyes flick to him, then she lets go of Alessio’s hands and turns toward Phil.
Phil rubs the back of his neck before he continues. “Livy, your dad took your mom to Lucky Strikes one night. He was a low-grade drug dealer at the time, working under his older brother, your uncle Tito.” He pauses for a second, trying to find the right words. “He was dealing in the back, and your mom wandered around, and she walked in at the wrong time.”
“What did she walk in on?” Olivia asks
Phil’s eyes close for half a second before he forces them open again. “It was an auction, and there were girls, barely teenagers. It was one of Tito’s trafficking nights.”
Olivia sucks in a sharp breath, like it physically knocks the air out of her lungs. Her whole body goes still.
“She freaked out and wanted to leave,” Phil continues, reaching out to hold Olivia’s hands. “Richie tried to smooth things over, playing both sides, but Tito wasn’t having it and told him to get her under control, or he’d do it for him. Tito even sent his men to your house to threaten her, almost daily. Your mom did everything she could to help me get evidence and make the case ironclad, but we ran out of time to get anything solid enough to put him away.
The last time Tito’s men came to your house, they didn’t just threaten her, Livy. They threatened you. They delivered a message from Tito, who said if she ever talked about what she saw, he’d sell you as payback. ”
Liv’s fingers tighten around Phil’s.
“That’s when I came to get you and her,” Phil says. “I put you both in witness protection. But your mom—” He shakes his head. “She kept sneaking around, talking to your dad. That’s how he always found out where we were. I tried to stop her, but I couldn’t. Then one night, you both disappeared.”
He exhales sharply, closing his eyes. He still takes Leah’s death to heart. He promised he’d keep Olivia safe.
“Tito was a slimy fuck,” I say. “And any witnesses Phil had, they always disappeared. I knew he couldn’t have done it without someone on the inside.”
“Who was on the inside?” Alessio asks.
“Me,” I deadpan.
Alessio’s brows draw together. “You ratted him out?”
“Tito wanted to be part of the Commission more than anything. He even had a few of the Dons on his side trying to up our deadly seven to eight , but I saw through his bullshit. He couldn’t be trusted and was into some real dirty shit.” I shake my head, just the thought of him disgusts me.
“I’m no fucking saint, but the Commission has its limits, limits that fucker couldn’t abide by. He had a sick obsession with girls under fifteen.”
I glance at Olivia. “Aly was only fourteen, the age he was going after, and Stella was pregnant with Lexi. Scum like that doesn’t get to walk the streets.” I lift my head, I’m unapologetic for what I did, my daughters are my world, and I’d do it again, if I had to. “I don’t see it as ratting him out. I did what needed to be done.” I meet Alessio’s stare head-on. “I made a deal. A deal I don’t fucking regret.”
“What deal?” Olivia asks.
“I secured Phil the arrest of his career,” I tell her. “And in return, he kept you safe and away from this world. Clearly, he didn’t follow through on his end.” I shoot him a look.
Phil sighs. “I could’ve brought him down on my own, ya know.”
“Yeah? That’s how I knew exactly what rathole undercover op I’d find you in?” I turn to Olivia. “I’m sorry about the bag over your head, but I didn’t want you to see anything you didn’t have to.”
“Who wiped Liv’s information from Leah’s case?” Alessio asks. “It’s like she didn’t exist, but the case was kept open.”
“Only the best hacker in all of Chicago—Elliana Morelli,” I answer.
“Seb’ s mom?” Alessio questions.
I nod. “She died a year later from cancer and took this to the grave with her.”
Olivia exhales shakily, piecing it all together. “So, the three of you are the only ones who knew?”
Phil shakes his head. “Tito knows, too. That’s why I pulled a few strings and made sure even if you ever tried to write to him, the letters were intercepted.”
“That’s why he never answered my letters and why I was never allowed to visit,” Liv says, more to herself than to Phil. “I tried so many times.”
“Why did Mom have Dad come get us if she knew all this?” Olivia asks.
“We recovered some of their correspondence while you two were in witness protection,” Phil tells her. “Your dad lied to her, Livy. He told her it was safe, that Tito had moved past it. At one point, he even said he’d leave with her if she didn’t want to stay in town.” Phil exhales. “She believed him and had him come get both of you. I could have kept her safe, kept you both safe.”
She swallows hard. “What happened to her?”
Phil sighs. “You don’t want to know the details, Livy.”
“I need to know,” she says, fighting the tears welling in her eyes. “I spent too long looking for this, not to know what happened to her. ”
I exhale, debating how much to tell her. “Tito had his men make sure she never spoke again. Drowned her in battery acid to erase her completely.” I leave out the part where they tortured her for hours before killing her. Olivia doesn’t need to know that part.
Olivia’s breath stumbles, and her voice cracks. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
Because we wanted you safe—me, Phil, and your mom. Because I wasn’t supposed to be in your life. Because knowing the truth would’ve pulled you back into the world your mother died trying to keep you out of. But I don’t say any of that either. Instead, I hold her gaze and tell her the only thing that matters.
“Because your mother gave her life to keep you safe. And I wasn’t going to be the one to take that from you.”
Her throat bobs as she swallows. “And what happened to Dad?”
“I killed him,” I tell her. And it’s the truth. “Put a bullet between his fucking eyes.” Another thing I don’t regret.
“I didn’t hear that,” Phil mutters, covering his ears like a child.
“Don’t be a puss, you know why I did what I did,” I tell him.
“Why did you?” Alessio asks .
I don’t hesitate to tell them the truth. “Tito meant what he said about Olivia. That if Leah went to the cops, he’d take Olivia as payback and sell her in his ring. And Richie was going to let him do it.” I shake my head but catch Alessio pulling Olivia closer to him. “As a father myself, he didn’t deserve to live.”
Olivia’s lips part like she wants to say something, but no words come out.
For the first time since she walked in, she looks small and helpless, like the little girl I carried away that night.
She chokes on a sob when she finally speaks.
“Mom was brave, wasn’t she?”
I swallow hard. “Yeah, kid, she was.”
A single tear slips down her cheek, but she doesn’t wipe it away.