19. Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Nineteen
WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR
Antonio
Sicily
Memento Mori.
Those goddamn words would not leave my head. Its translation, the inevitably of death was very poetic, but that death would not come to the only woman I have ever loved. I will die before Aaliyah leaves this earth before me and whoever was threatening her would leave with me.
As soon as we touched down in Italy, a wave of dread and anger washed over me. This would be the day my mother took her last breath. There was no time to think about it. There was no time to waste. Aaliyah’s life depended on the information she had. Nothing would change. There was no way she could be saved. She killed my father. She helped whoever was trying to get back at my father, by attacking me and my family. There was no way she could live after all that she had done.
Memento Mori—her death was inevitable.
There was no love lost between Aaliyah and my mother. Although Aaliyah always gave my mother respect even when she didn’t deserve it, my mother refused to budge on her opinions on my relationship with my wife.
Working with the enemy to take my wife from me, to destroy me, she deserved everything that was coming to her. And if I didn’t give the go ahead for it to happen, I didn’t deserve to be Don of the Rizzo Famiglia. And I for sure as hell didn’t deserve the title Boss of Bosses. My wife was my everything, and Marianna tried to destroy her. Now, I will destroy her.
The blacked-out Audi we were riding in came to a halt in front of one of the grand estates belonging to the Rizzo family in Sicily. It was the home we had banished Marianna to. A place where we hoped she would stay and never bother us again. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.
Luca opened the door, and I stepped out into the warm sunlight. I buttoned my suit blazer and looked up at the grand stone mansion that my father had constructed for Marianna before I was born.
The building’s grandeur and intricate details were reminiscent of the gothic architecture of old, adding an air of mystery and history. I wasn’t particularly fond of it, but my father absolutely loved it.
Aaliyah stood beside me, and I could feel the warmth of her hand as our fingers intertwined. I couldn’t help but be drawn to her, and with a longing glance, I leaned in and gently kissed her lips. I loved this woman so much and I’d be damned if anyone took her away from me.
Blood or not.
“Are you ready?” she asked.
“I am.”
Luca and Franco came with us on the trip, and Alessandro stayed back in the States. There was no reason for him to be here for this. Even though he knew what needed to be done, he still had a soft spot for Marianna. I didn’t fault him for it. While I harbored nothing but hate for the woman she had become, he still held onto his love for her. Maybe this was the woman she had always been and as her kids, we had blinders on. Well, I knew I did until I saw how she treated my sister.
It took some convincing, but Alessandro agreed to stay behind and ensure that everything ran smoothly at home. The Feds were still breathing down our necks and while this trip would be quick because I didn’t think it would take long for Marianna to cave, someone needed to be there while I was here. And I trusted no one more than my brother.
When we made it to the large double doors, I didn’t waste any time, simply pushing them open without a second thought. The guards at the gate had already made a phone call to inform her of my arrival. And all the staff had been sent home on my orders.
As we entered the foyer, the sound of our shoes clicking on the marble floor echoed through the room. It looked so different from when I was a kid. The family portraits that used to line the creamed color walls in the foyer had been taking down, probably out of spite by my mother, and replaced by black and white photos of Italy’s countryside. Not only did it not look like home anymore, but it also didn’t feel like home anymore. It was cold and sterile. No life.
“Find her,” I said. “Bring her to the study.”
“Yes Don,” Luca and Franco said in unison, their footsteps echoing as they split up to search the house for my mother.
In silence, Aaliyah and I walked towards my father’s study, a sense of melancholy hanging in the air. My study.
It was on the first floor towards the back of the mansion. We passed the grand staircase. Our footsteps echoing off the marble floors were the only sounds throughout the house. Once again walls that used to be covered with family photos, pictures of generations of Rizzo’s were now replaced with generic photos of Italy’s landscapes.
There was a time when this house was filled with laughter, smells of food, songs of joy. Now it had none of that. All that joy definitely died when we grew up.
I pushed open the heavy wooden door, Aaliyah went ahead of me, and I closed the door behind us.
A wave of nostalgia hit me hard transporting me back to a different time. Nothing had changed in here. Much like the study back in the States, the smell of Papa’s cigars wafted through the air.
“It smells like him,” I said as I made my way to the large oak desk, I remembered hiding
under during some of my father’s meetings.
He never said anything, but there was no way he didn’t know I was there, listening to every transaction, every order, and every death sentence. From an early age, I knew this would be my destiny whether I agreed with it or not. And I also understood I would have to make hard decisions. This was one of those decisions.
“It does,” Aaliyah said as she ran her fingers over the books my father had lining the walls. Many of them were first editions. “I can see you hanging out in here with him.”
“What do you think he would say if he knew what I was about to do?” I asked.
Personally, I thought my father would tell me to do what a Don would do, but I needed to hear it from someone else.
“He would be proud of you for making the hard decision.”
As she walked towards me, a heavy sigh escaped her lips, and she embraced me, tightly wrapping her arms around my neck. As we stood inches apart, I knew more than ever that this needed to be done. I couldn’t make it through this world without her. I refused to live this life without her.
“You’ve made the decision, now let me handle it,” she said.
I was shaking my head before she could finish the statement.
“Why not?” she asked. “It is me she has come after. It is me who should deal with it.”
Before I could respond a knock sounded. “Come in!”
Luca was the first to enter, Marianna right behind him, and Franco closed the door with a soft click.
“What is the meaning of this?” Marianna sneered, yanking her arm free of Franco’s grasp.
When she made a move towards me, I waved Franco and Luca off before they grabbed her again. She stood in front of me and didn’t even acknowledge Aaliyah who stood beside me. It pissed me off even more. She was the reason our family suffered so much pain. And today it all ended.
“We had a little chat with Dante,” I said. She flinched at his name but masked it quickly, but not quickly enough. “He had so many things to say.”
I walked to my desk and felt the smooth surface under my fingertips as I sat behind it. Aaliyah stood in front of my mother. She still didn’t acknowledge her, but it was okay. It was all about to end.
“Can you imagine the things he had to say?” Aaliyah asked and my mother brought her attention to my wife.
The intensity of her gaze on Aaliyah filled with nothing but hatred, made it clear that this was her last day on this earth.
Marianna scoffed, her eyes narrowing as she turned her attention to me. Aaliyah grabbed Marianna’s chin, redirecting her gaze back to her instead of me.
“On your knees,” Aaliyah ordered.
Marianna’s eyes widened in surprise, and she made a quick attempt to lock eyes with me once again. Aaliyah’s fingers dug into Marianna’s chin.
“Antonio...” she pleaded.
I couldn’t help her. I wouldn’t help her.
“He can’t help you,” Aaliyah said. Her eyes shot back to Aaliyah’s. “Get on your knees or I will make you.”
When she refused to move, Aaliyah reached behind her back and removed the gun she kept holstered in the waistband of her dress pants. Without warning she shot Marianna in her right foot.
My mother’s piercing screams filled the room as she crumpled to the ground in agony.
“Luca, Franco, get her on her knees,” Aaliyah ordered.
They knew not to question my wife’s authority. Both did what they were told, holding Marianna up, so she was on her knees like Aaliyah wanted.
“Who are you working for? And if you lie to me, Marianna, I swear I will make this long and torturous.”
“I.... I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The smile stretching across my wife’s face as she pulled a syringe out of her blazer’s inside pocket should terrify my mother.
“I’m so glad you’ve decided to drag this out,” she said. “See this?”
Aaliyah held up a syringe filled with clear liquid, and I knew exactly what it was, and Marianna wouldn’t last long once it was administered.
“My father is a very smart man,” she continued. “He’s not a very nice person, but he’s very smart. Even our government comes to him sometimes, asking for weapons they can use in times of war. This is one of those weapons.”
Marianna’s eyes widened in shock as she stared at the syringe, its sharp needle glinting in the light. Tears streamed down my mother’s face, leaving her cheeks flushed and glistening.
“Aww. No time for tears now. I understand you didn’t know who you were dealing with when you decided to come after me, come after my husband. But now you are going to find out firsthand why no one fucks with me or my husband.”
“Antonio! Please, don’t do this,” Marianna pleaded, but there wasn’t anything I could do.
“I’m your mother!”
She did this to herself. She set the wheels in motion for something that wouldn’t end here, even with her death.
“We didn’t do anything, Marianna,” I responded. “You did this to yourself.”
At my signal, Franco wrapped the band around Marianna’s arm, making sure it was snug before tying it securely.
“Son. Please. Don’t let her do this.”
I remained quiet as Aaliyah found a vein in my mother’s arm and pierced her skin, injecting Abasi’s serum into her bloodstream. A blood-curdling scream escaped from Marianna’s lips, filling the room with a sense of terror. She was in pure agony, and I felt nothing but satisfaction at the sound.
“Here is the antidote.” Aaliyah retrieved the second syringe from her blazer pocket and displayed it to my mother. “After you answer my questions, I will give it to you.”
Marianna fought against the firm grip of Luca and Franco, her screams piercing the air, but I tuned them out.
“Who are you working for?” Aaliyah asked.
“I... I can’t tell you. He’ll have me killed.”
My wife’s face lit up with a radiant smile.
“I’m going to kill you, Marianna. So that’s not something you have to worry about. You see, Death and I are very old acquaintances, and He’s come to collect my soul many times. But it’s not my soul He’s after this time. It’s yours.”