1. Isa
ISA
Present Day
I quietly walked downstairs to the dining room table, where Maura had already set out most of the food for breakfast.
We didn’t normally have breakfast this way. Usually, I was happy with a bowl of cereal or whatever Maura was able to quickly cook up for me that day.
It was only like this when Dad was home in the morning. Thankfully, it didn’t happen that often.
I smiled when I noticed Valentino sitting at the breakfast table with Dad. It was even rarer for my older brother to be here in the morning, especially after moving out of our family home when he was twenty-three.
Sometimes— most of the time—I was envious of my brother’s freedom.
He was able to move around as he wished, choose who he hung out with, and even when he was still living at home, he was able to come and go as he pleased.
It was one of the reasons why he had been able to move out, and I was still living here, even at twenty-four.
The only way to move out of this house was to get married, but not just to anyone.
It would have to be someone my family approved of…
and my father seemed to have a bigger opinion on that subject than my brother, who seemed content for me to just stay like this.
I took a seat next to Valentino as Maura set down a plate of breakfast in front of me, smiling sweetly at me. She was the closest thing I had to a mother, since mine died giving birth to me.
She touched my shoulder once before leaving.
I kept my eyes down on my plate when I finally caught on to what my dad and brother were talking about.
My marriage.
Or lack thereof.
Dad was embarrassed that I was twenty-four and still unwed, especially since most women my age in similar families were married off before their twenty-first birthday.
But Dad was essentially powerless right now. In this house, Valentino’s words held more weight. And for that, I was grateful. My brother was always on my side.
“She’s not ready,” Valentino said. I could feel his eyes on me, but I didn’t look up.
“You would say that when she’s thirty. Do you expect your sister to stay single forever?”
I saw Valentino shake his head from the corner of my eye. “No. Not single forever. She’ll get married when I find someone suitable for her.”
Meaning, when I fall in love.
Not that Valentino would ever say that out loud, especially not to our dad. But it was something I was always sure of—that, unlike the other women who came from similar backgrounds as me, I would get a choice in who I wanted to marry. I knew I was lucky—or, at least, lucky enough .
Most marriages were arranged for families who were part of this life.
The life of a made man.
My dad was a made man. He worked as Nevada’s underboss for the De Luca family.
Had been up until about ten years ago when he sustained a near-fatal injury that left him with a permanent limp.
My brother now filled the underboss position.
Even if Dad was still considered the head of this household, we all knew it was for show.
Valentino would always have the final say.
And my brother was nothing if not protective of me. Something I knew my father hated.
“People will start to wonder if there is something wrong with her. She’ll be the laughingstock in our circle. Hell, she already is,” Dad gritted out.
I didn’t look up from my plate, feeling his angry eyes on me. My appetite was already gone, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to get out of this breakfast anytime soon.
“Who is laughing?” Valentino said coldly. I knew it wasn’t directed at me, but I could still feel it down my spine. My brother could be downright scary when he needed to be.
Dad could sense that, too, because he sputtered out something nonsensical.
I stuffed more food in my mouth, hoping I didn’t look like I was rushing, but I also didn’t want to linger, especially since Valentino looked like he was almost done with his meal. The last place I wanted to be was here with my dad when Valentino left for his day.
“Isa will marry when I find someone suitable. I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” Valentino said, interrupting Dad. I moved in a little closer to my brother, wishing so badly that I had even an ounce of his strength. I felt so weak sometimes. So helpless.
What would I do without him?
He could sense my discomfort because he tapped my hand gently to get my attention. I looked up to meet his light-brown eyes. While I was the spitting image of my dead mother, Valentino was a mix of both our parents. He had my mother’s smile and my father’s eyes.
But unlike my dad’s eyes, my brother’s didn’t look hard or mean. They were soft and beautiful, giving me a glimpse of what life could have been like if I’d had a kind father.
He smiled a little at me. “Do you want to go?”
I nodded. I heard Dad coming home late last night and knew he wouldn’t be leaving the house until later, so I had taken the precaution of texting Valentino to take me back to his apartment today. The last thing I wanted was to be stuck in this house alone with Dad.
I pushed my plate away, looking over at my dad before quickly glancing away when I noticed the dark look on his face.
“Let me go get my stuff.”
“And just where are you going?” Dad asked, making me freeze.
Thankfully, Valentino answered for me, his lie coming out much smoother than mine would have. “I’m taking her to Giulia’s.”
Dad didn’t say anything to that.
Giulia De Luca was Elio’s younger sister… and also Massimo De Luca’s, who was the capo dei capi of the De Luca Famiglia. Dad wouldn’t oppose my hanging out with Giulia.
He nodded, and I quickly moved upstairs to grab the backpack that held everything I would need before coming back downstairs. Valentino was already waiting for me by the door. Unfortunately, I had to pass the dining room table on my way out, where Dad was still sitting, clearly fuming.
“Don’t think this is over, girl,” Dad said quietly. I froze in my step and turned toward him. “How long do you think your brother can protect you for?”
Hopefully longer than Dad would be alive. The chances of Dad being killed from his job had drastically decreased since he stepped away from his position as the underboss of Nevada, and Valentino’s had increased. I knew that.
I hated it.
Not just because I needed Valentino here to protect me, but Valentino was the only one in my family whom I truly cared about and loved with everything in me, whereas my dad…
I didn’t think I would be that sad if something were to happen to him.
I didn’t know what that said about me, to not care about my dad anymore, but I truly didn’t.
“Isa,” Valentino called out.
I took that as my excuse and quickly moved away from the dining area, away from Dad, and straight to my brother.
He cupped my shoulder and bent down so that we were eye-to-eye.
My brother was tall.
Taller than most men around, and much taller than my five-foot-three stature by exactly a foot at six-three. He was about as tall as Elio. I shook away the thought. I was trying hard not to think about Elio so much.
He frowned at me. “Are you okay?”
I shot him a small smile I didn’t feel and nodded.
He didn’t look like he believed me, and I didn’t blame him. I never mastered the art of lying, and I knew my face showed too much, something I very much hated about myself.
“Come on,” he said softly. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Okay,” I said, following behind him and straight to his black Mercedes, a more inconspicuous car than the actual love of his life, the cherry-red Corvette that I knew he only drove when I wasn’t around.
That car made him stand out. I wished he wouldn’t drive it at all, but there was no reasoning with Valentino.
I watched the side mirror as Valentino drove away, leaving the huge mansion behind, and letting it get smaller and smaller until he turned, and it disappeared entirely from sight.
Sometimes, I wished that would be true for good and that I would never have to see that house again.
Never have to live in it. Sometimes, I wished I were brave enough to tell Valentino everything so that I could just ask him to let me live with him.
But that was nothing more than a fantasy I imagined in my head at night in my room when no one was around.
I leaned back against the seat and closed my eyes, trying to shut out my reality.
We arrived at Valentino’s apartment quickly. I opened the door but looked back at my brother questioningly when he didn’t turn off the car engine.
“I have somewhere to be, Isa. But you can stay for as long as you want, okay?”
I didn’t say anything. I didn't know what to say. I had thought…
I didn't know what I thought. I spent so much of my time by myself, but I thought I would at least have Valentino as company. It wasn’t like I would have talked much to him, but company was company.
But I knew he had a job to do.
And I was a little jealous that he had a job to go to while I…
I shot him a small smile.
“Okay. Thanks for driving me here.”
He opened his mouth and looked like he wanted to say something, but I got out of the car and closed the door before he could. He didn’t drive away until I was actually inside the building. I headed toward the elevators.
Valentino lived in a more… expensive part of the city. Most of his neighbors were socialites, businessmen with high positions in society, or made men with high-ranking positions in the De Luca Famiglia.
Valentino owned the entire building.
I could have asked for an apartment of my own here, but we ran in a small circle. It would only invite talk. It wasn’t common for unmarried daughters to move out of their family homes.
All it would take was a bored mob wife to say something along the lines of seeing a man coming and going from the apartment or home of an unmarried woman for it to spread like wildfire. It wouldn’t matter if that was true or not.
And I didn’t want Valentino to have to deal with something like that.
The elevator doors opened to the penthouse suite. It was big and spacious and expertly designed, but that wasn’t the best part about Valentino’s apartment.
No, the best part was the kick-ass view. That, and the fact that it was like a fortress. It was the safest place in the world for me to be.
I bypassed everything and went over to the floor-to-ceiling window that showcased the breathtaking view of the Las Vegas desert. I took a deep breath, feeling more at peace now than I had since last night when I heard Dad come home drunk.
I knew living with my father wasn’t a long-term solution either. It was just hard to leave. Valentino’s words might hold more weight, but there was one thing my father had fought hard for: to keep me at home.
While Massimo didn’t exactly run the De Luca empire the same way his father, Amadeo De Luca, did by shredding away a lot of the old traditions, my father and a group of six other men were a part of the traditionalists, who had been in the game since the first day Amadeo took the helm.
That was more than twenty-five years ago.
They had earned a lot of respect from all the made men, which meant some traditions, no matter how archaic, were still being observed.
And there was nothing Massimo could do to eradicate it, no matter how powerful he was.
I imagined they would be around until the last of the seven men died, taking those traditions to the grave with them.
Being the daughter of Joseph Gambino meant I was being watched more carefully than others, which was why the subject of my marriage was such a sore topic for Dad.
I sat down on the floor by the window, pulled out my sketchbook from my backpack, and sketched the scene. I had drawn this landscape so many times that I could probably draw it from memory alone, but there was just something calming about sitting here and drawing it.
I didn’t draw people very often.
People didn’t interest me. They could be too much at times, and I preferred drawing landscapes.
I relaxed further against the wall and took in the scenery, trying to ignore just how loud the silence really was.