Chapter 5
Chapter Five
I fix shit. It’s what I’m good at. It’s the reason all my brothers come to me with their problems. This current problem, though… Yeah, I don’t think even I can fix it. I know Gio wants to just get rid of it. Forget it was ever there. That’s my big brother’s way of dealing with shit.
Most of the time, I’d agree with him. Encourage it even. But this problem is our mother, and despite what Gio says, I know he wants answers. We all do. We all have questions for the woman who left us. And those questions need to be answered.
I just need to find a way to get through to him. We need to have a meeting with her. Just one, long enough for all five of us to interrogate her, so we don’t have to live the rest of our lives wondering why and how a mother—our mother—could walk away from us.
She knew. She was married to the asshole. She had to have known what we were destined to endure growing up under our father’s thumb. Fuck, what Vin had to endure.
Anger courses through me at the thought of what that sick bastard did to my little brother. I slide out of bed, careful not to disturb Daisy, and make my way through the house in the dark until I reach the kitchen.
I don’t know what to do. I always know what to do, and it’s fucking killing me right now that I don’t know how to fucking fix this problem. There’s no manual on what to do when your mother returns from the dead.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” The light flicks on at the sound of my wife’s voice.
“Nothing. I didn’t want to wake you.” My arms wrap around her, and her head falls onto my chest.
“I would rather you wake me than have you sit here in the dark, drowning in whatever bullshit is going through your mind. We are a team, Gabe. That means we work through shit together.” Daisy pulls back and smiles up at me. “Also, I happen to be an excellent listener. I’ve got a framed piece of paper qualifying me in just that.”
I press my lips against hers and wrap my arms tighter around her. “You are the best listener, babe, but I’m not going to burden you with my problems, especially in the middle of the night. Come on, let’s go back to bed.”
“Let’s. But you need to talk to Gio. Tell him what needs to happen for you all to move on. Or do it without him,” Daisy says as I lead her out of the kitchen.
Do it without him?
That’s not an option. We don’t go behind each other’s backs, and we do not go against direct orders from the boss. There is a hierarchy in this family for a reason. And although I don’t get involved in any of the illegal shit anymore, I’m still a made man. I’m still a De Bellis brother. That will never change.
* * *
“You can’t be fucking serious.” Gio’s voice echoes off the walls of his office. I knew he wasn’t going to like what I came here to say. I also knew that this was a conversation for all five of us to have together. Which is why I had everyone meet us here.
Vin was the last one to turn up. He was fifteen minutes late, and even after he arrived, he took his sweet-ass time making sure Cammi was comfortable with El before he’d leave her side. Sometimes I worry about their relationship. Those two are too dependent on each other. Don’t get me wrong… I’d be fucking lost if anything happened to my wife. But we have a son. We have another reason to live if, for some reason, we were torn apart.
Cammi and Vin are each other’s complete world. Anyone can see that. And with Cammi’s heart condition, well, I don’t ever want to have to watch another sibling lose themselves again… if the worst were to happen…
“I’m serious. And this isn’t a business matter, Gio. It’s a family one. This needs to be something we all live with,” I tell my brother, after suggesting we set up a meeting with our mother.
“Mary De Bellis is dead,” Gio states calmly.
“Except she’s not,” Marcel counters.
“I can fix that,” Gio mutters under his breath.
“I have a question for her,” Vin chimes in from where he’s standing by the door.
“What question?” Santo tilts his head in our baby brother’s direction.
Vin lifts a shoulder. “Just a question. Set up the meeting, Gio. As soon as it’s over, you can kill her. Or not. I don’t care. I just have one question for her.”
Gio looks from Vin to me, then over to Santo, and lastly at Marcel. He shakes his head and sighs. “Fine. Get your questions ready because I’m only doing this once. That’s more than the woman fucking deserves.”
“It’s not for her, Gio. It’s for us,” I tell him.
I couldn’t give a fuck if he kills her right in front of us. I just want answers. I want to know what could possibly make a mother leave her children. Because you’d be prying my dead, cold hands away from my son before I’d ever leave him. And I know my wife feels the same way. Daisy would never leave our son. Not for anything. So what made it so fucking easy for our mother to leave all five of us behind, as if we never existed to begin with?