CHAPTER 23
Chiara
I caress my stomach, which has gotten really big over the last few weeks. It’s hard to get comfortable, but when I’m in Adriano’s embrace, everything’s better.
We’ve been discussing how we’re going to decorate our house and arrange the furniture. And we’ve bought so many things for our babies that we might need not only an extra room but an extra house.
But as Adriano stares at the ceiling, his smile fades, and I know something’s bothering him. Actually, I think I know exactly what’s up with him.
“You’re thinking about Matteo, aren’t you?” I ask.
“Yeah.” He sighs, turning his gaze to me. “How did you know?”
“Because your eyes always grow darker and a little sad.”
“I thought I could let it go, because as long as he’s not here, everything’s fine. But I also want to know what’s going on with him. If he’s alive or dead. Not knowing is... frustrating.”
“And there haven’t been any sightings of him? No clues about anything?” I’ve been too busy to even ask about Matteo, and maybe something has happened that Adriano doesn’t want to bother me with, but I’d like to know anyway.
“No. Nothing. That’s what worries me. No trace of his men. My men haven’t seen him, and he hasn’t shown up on any cameras. It’s like he disappeared into thin air. Makes me wonder if he’s dead, and if he is and Gennaro wasn’t behind it, then who killed him and why? What if there’s a threat we don’t even know about?”
“But we didn’t find any other suspicious contracts or deals Gennaro made, and all the enemies seem to be the same. If there was someone big enough to threaten us, we would know about them, right?”
“Yeah, but the whole thing is confusing. I just wish I knew. I’m glad he’s not here and attacking us, but I also want to know if something happened to him.”
I catch his hand. “Maybe he decided to leave everything behind and start a life somewhere else.”
“That so wouldn’t be like him, unless there was someone else involved.”
“Does that mean we have to delay our move?”
“No, of course not.” He squeezes my fingers. “Everything’s going according to plan. I’m just on edge because that date is coming closer, and I thought that by now I would know more. That’s all.”
“Okay then.” I can’t wait to move into our new house and return to my neighborhood.
A knock sounds on the door, and Adriano gets to his feet. We’ve been watching TV. When Adriano opens the door, I see Rocco with a letter in his hand. Rocco offers the letter to Adriano, whose eyebrows shoot up.
“What’s this?” Adriano asks.
“Just got it. It’s for you, and the delivery guy said it was very important. I only made sure that it’s safe, so that’s why it’s open. You’ll want to read it right away.” Rocco’s face is serious, so I push myself up so I’m sitting with my back resting against the pillows.
Adriano closes the door and stares at the envelope. It’s actually black. He pulls out a sheet of paper, also black. Incredulity fills his eyes as he reads what’s written on it.
“What is it?” I’m too impatient, and the look on Adriano’s face makes me think it’s something big.
He hands the paper to me. The text is all in white.
“This is the official confirmation that our deal is now fulfilled and your debt repaid.” It’s the first sentence. “You get to keep your territory and everything else, and we keep Matteo. If you ever come looking for him or make a move against us, your precious wife and children will all die and we’ll take everything from you.”
There are two signatures at the bottom. Someone named Petrelli and Matteo.
“Wait, are those the people Gennaro struck that deal with? For that loan?”
Adriano runs his hand over his face. “I guess so, yeah. The money must’ve gone to them, and they took Matteo.”
“The payment in blood that they were talking about.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you know who these Petrellis are?”
Adriano has his phone out. “Nope, not at all. I’ve never even heard of them. I think they’re from across the country. It would make sense. Gennaro would never strike a deal like that with someone close by. He wouldn’t want anyone to know he needed a loan, and taking one from someone who doesn’t operate in this area is the perfect solution.”
“Is that Matteo’s signature?”
“Yeah, it is.”
“So he’s alive.”
“It looks like it. Gennaro taught us to use two different versions of our signature. One was to show something was signed under duress.”
I look down at the signature. “Is that the one he used then?”
“No, it’s the regular one.”
“So whatever this is, he agrees with it?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Or Gennaro told them about the signature. Or Matteo thinks I wouldn’t care anyway.”
I furrow my brow. “But they don’t want us to look for him or for their family, so that means... we’re free. Matteo won’t come after us.”
“It looks like it. They know I won’t just lower my guard because of this letter, so trying to trick us with it would be pointless. It’s real.”
“But what are they going to do with Matteo?”
“I have no idea.”
“As long as they don’t come for us...” I don’t know how Adriano feels about Matteo, but Matteo put us through hell and he was willing to hurt us all.
I can’t help but be glad that he’s gone, if the letter is true.
“I thought he’d want revenge for his father,” Adriano says.
“The same father who basically sold him to another mafia family?” I grimace. “Because if he were my father, I wouldn’t move a finger to avenge him. Not after all that and after what he did to you both.”
“I expected him to blame me for all of it, like always.”
“Well, then nothing changes. Matteo is just less likely to come after us, but if he somehow gets free of the Petrellis, we’ll still be ready for his attack.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“At least now you know he’s alive, and you no longer have to wonder what happened to him.”
He nods. “I suppose Gennaro’s spies followed his orders and turned against Matteo and captured him. Then Gennaro told the Petrellis where to find him to pay his debt. They killed all the men and collected him.” He groans. “Oh fuck!”
“What?”
He rakes his hand through his hair. “It was because of this deal! Gennaro did what he did because he wanted to keep his wealth and power.”
“You mean...”
“He knew he would have to pay in blood, which I guess means with one of his children. He only had Matteo and couldn’t have any more children, so he saw the opportunity and adopted me. Maybe it had nothing to do with my mother being a mafia princess, or maybe it did a little. But he’d been pitting Matteo and me against each other our whole lives just so we would make the choice for him. The one he deemed weaker would lose, and he’d hand him over to repay the debt. He’d keep the winner and have a happy retirement with everything he ever wanted. That asshole!”
“Wait, but how does that make sense? Didn’t he want you to kill Matteo?”
“He said so, but I don’t think he expected it to happen. Remember his men were actually Gennaro’s men, so he knew exactly where Matteo was and when I might be looking for him? He pretended he wanted me to kill Matteo, but he knew Matteo would no longer be at that safe house.”
“Right.” I cross my arms. “But why was Gennaro so afraid of the Petrellis? Wasn’t he powerful enough to fight them off?”
“They’re too far away for a war. He was probably worried about them sending highly trained assassins after us. We didn’t know about the deal, so they could’ve killed either Matteo or me, or both of us. They threatened you and our children in that letter. It must be how they operate.”
“Then how does abandoning you fit in all that? Something could’ve happened to you and he could’ve lost you.”
“If he did it to Matteo, maybe he did it to me too—sent his men to work for me. It would explain Domenico. He was probably acting under Gennaro’s orders, either to test me or to see if I could discover his other spies.”
“Are you saying there might be spies close to us?” I don’t like that idea at all.
“Maybe I weeded them out eventually or they already retired, because no one stopped me from killing Gennaro. Or maybe they weren’t supposed to interfere with something like that. It doesn’t matter because Gennaro’s dead. But I’ll do some additional checks just in case.”
“Wasn’t there still a chance Matteo and you would kill each other? What if he was only left with one of you?” I tilt my head.
“I think he would’ve handed the remaining one over anyway. His retirement would have had to wait, but maybe he’d have found himself a replacement. It would’ve taken work and time, but I don’t think he would’ve protected either of us. But I don’t know what he was thinking. All I know is that he cared about money and power the most, and everything else was meaningless or replaceable to him.”
“That’s so sad.” I can’t imagine a miserable existence like that, with no love or any emotion.
“It is. But if I hadn’t met you, I wouldn’t have known it. I would’ve been just like him.” He sits on the bed, his shoulders slumped.
“You know what? I don’t think so. You’ve always been different from him. You just had to pretend you weren’t to survive in a world like his.”
The corners of his lips tilt up. “Luckily, I met you.”
He reaches out to me and I intertwine my fingers with his. Yeah, we’re lucky. Despite all the things that have happened, we’re lucky to have each other.