Chapter Forty-Five - Rachel
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Rachel
I reach to place the letter on the coffee table, but Ryder takes it from me before I’ve even extended my arm.
I was discharged from the hospital this morning, less than twenty-four hours after my surgery, and Ryder’s been doting on me obsessively. It took a lot of convincing to get him to believe I’m able to be in the living room with everyone else.
Normally, I wouldn’t have fought the doctor who wanted me to stay to ensure my steady recovery, but with everything that’s happened—and everything that still needs to happen—I couldn’t stay cooped up in a hospital room.
The compromise Ryder and I came to was that I’d use a wheelchair to get around and have a nurse on call around the clock.
It’s worth it not to miss this unofficial meeting.
Elli and Moreno take one side of the couch, while the adjacent one is occupied by James and Damon—Elli’s older brothers. Logan—James’s twin and the Consoli family boss—doesn’t sit with them and instead stares out the window to where Dominic and Lyla play on the swing set.
Dom still doesn’t know about his mother’s death, and though it’s not something we can put off much longer, we’re trying to prolong his normalcy by letting him believe he’s having an extended sleepover here, at least until some things are sorted out.
“I still can’t believe it,” Damon mutters. “How is this possible?”
Elli shakes her head. “Mason was convinced the note Mary left was faked by Dad. I wonder if he ever even considered that it was real.”
“I doubt it,” James says. “He was blinded by hatred.”
“What are the odds she would’ve met Rachel by chance?” Damon asks. “That should be almost impossible, right?”
Ryder shrugs. “I’d guess she moved into our territory on purpose. If she knew enough to keep tabs on Mason, she probably knew where he did and didn’t have reach. Sacramento is a big city in Moreno territory. Still, the odds they met are astounding.”
I think back to the days I first met Mary. Back then, it had felt like a breath of fresh air to find a friend—someone I could rant to and share the struggles of single motherhood with. I thought I’d finally had some good luck in the midst of my heartbreak.
I don’t realize I’ve tensed until Ryder gently squeezes my hand.
That’s another thing: ever since I woke up in the recovery room, Ryder has been touching me in one way or another.
I could get used to this.
“She was doing what she thought was best for her child,” Ryder says.
“By stealing us from ours,” I remind him.
“I’d have sacrificed her in a second if I thought it was best for Lyla. Besides, you were never a part of her plan. In her head, she was ridding both kids of mafia influence.”
We all stare at him.
He lifts his hands. “I’m not excusing her actions—just explaining them.”
“He looks just like him,” Logan mutters, eyes still locked on the kids outside.
It’s the first time the Consoli boss has spoken since he got here.
James, Damon, Elli, and Moreno all make their way to the window, watching along with Logan.
“I thought there was something familiar about him,” Elli whispers. “Now that we know he’s Mason’s son, the resemblance is uncanny.”
“He seems like a good kid,” Logan notes.
“He is,” I agree. “A bit of a wild child, but a great kid.”
Logan nods sharply. “I’m sure he’ll adjust to Chicago in no time.”
“Excuse me?”
Logan’s expression is purely diplomatic. “He’s a Consoli, so he’ll come live at the manor.”
The statement inspires fear that leaves me speechless.
“Logan, you can’t just take Dominic back to Chicago with you. You know nothing about kids,” Elli says.
“That’s what nannies are for.”
She shakes her head. “No offense, but you’re not exactly father material.”
“I don’t need to be a father. I’m the family boss, and this is my nephew,” he says the last word like it tastes strange in his mouth. “I need to raise him around the base the same way we all were.”
“Dominic deserves a semi-normal life at the very least,” she insists.
James, who is ranked as Logan’s underboss, shakes his head at his sister. “That’s not how this works.”
“Then he’ll come live with us,” Elli declares.
“What?” Logan and Moreno say in unison—then proceed to glare at each other.
“He’ll have a stable home and still be raised among family.”
“He’s a Consoli—not a Moreno,” Damon states. “That’s not fair to him.”
Elli drops her hands to her side. “Well, I don’t see how moving him across the country and throwing him at nannies is a better solution.”
“He’s not going to Chicago,” Ryder says, drawing every eye to us. “Or anywhere, for that matter.”
“He’s staying here with us,” I finish.
Logan shakes his head. “Absolutely not. Out of the question.”
“With all due respect, Mr. Consoli, I don’t take orders from you. Dominic’s life is here, so he’s staying here,” I tell him.
He glares at me. “I’m not giving orders. I’m stating facts. He has Consoli blood, so he’ll stay with his family.”
“I have Consoli blood, and I’m a Moreno capo,” Elli counters.
“Yes—something else that pisses me the hell off. Thank you, Elise,” Logan practically snarls.
“You’re not his family,” I tell him. “Not in a way that matters. He doesn’t even know that his mother is gone.
You expect a four-year-old to learn his mother is dead, pick up his entire life, and move across the country with men he’s never met just so he can be thrown at nannies and expected to grow into some killer? It’s not happening.”
Logan steps away from the window and toward me. “Raising him ignorant of who he is isn’t a better solution. It’s a dangerous one.”
I plant my hands on either side to stand, but Ryder’s firm palm on my shoulder halts me. I throw a vicious glare at him, but he just shakes his head. “Glare all you want, but you’re not moving unless it’s to get in bed.”
I stop trying to stand and instead turn my glare to Logan. “I’m not saying we never tell him, but moving him now is cruel, and I refuse to let it happen.”
“I don’t remember asking for your permission,” Logan bites out. “If you’re suggesting that I’d have to go through you, you should know I wouldn’t break a sweat.”
Ryder is by my side one second and then fisting Logan’s shirt the next. They’re the same height, but Ryder’s build is bigger—not that it seems to bother the boss in the slightest.
“Threaten her one more time, and it’ll be the last thing you do,” he grates.
Elli pushes herself between them with a look of complete and utter exasperation. “Can we have one conversation where no one is threatening to kill each other?”
I wish I could stand to match their confident stances, but all I can do is lift my chin. “Mr. Consoli, I won’t let you take him. Threaten me, follow through if you must, but I have known that child most of his life, and I will fight for him if it is the last thing that I do.”
It’s the first thing Ryder and I decided last night when we talked over this situation. The idea of Dominic going with people who are strangers to him—or worse, into the foster care system—simply isn’t something we can allow. I already view him as one of my own.
And according to my surgeon, I can’t have any more children due to the damage the knife inflicted on my uterus.
Logan stares me down like he’s waiting for me to crumble beneath his gaze, but I don’t. Mary might’ve hurt me, but her friendship got me through some of the hardest times of my life. In a way, we were a little family, and I don’t take that lightly.
“This is only a temporary solution,” Logan grits through bared teeth. “Hiding him away will make him more vulnerable the older he gets.”
Elli nods. “It’s true. I don’t think he needs to know soon, but hiding it from him forever isn’t going to protect him.”
As much as I hate to admit it, I know they’re right. If the wrong person finds out who Dominic is, he’d never be safe again. Knowing his own identity and how to protect himself isn’t a choice but a necessity.
“Eighteen,” I grant. “We’ll let him live a normal life until he’s eighteen. Then we tell him the truth.”
“Thirteen,” Logan counters.
“Sixteen.” The word feels like spitting up shards of glass.
Logan and I stare unblinkingly at one another for long moments before he finally nods. “Sixteen.”
“We should all get to know him,” James adds. “He doesn’t need to know that we’re blood-related until he’s older, but growing up knowing us as family will make the news a little less traumatic when the time comes.”
Elli nods. “That’s a really great idea. We’ll do holidays together and take trips to visit. Lyla calls the LA capos uncles, right? We’ll introduce ourselves as aunts and uncles, too.”
This is a condition I can easily agree to. The more love and support this boy can have, the better.
“Okay,” I say. “He’ll know you all as family, and when he’s sixteen, we’ll tell him the truth and let him choose if he’d like to stay with us or go to Chicago.”
“That’s not part of the deal,” Logan says with narrowed eyes. “He’s a Consoli, and he has a duty. Not to mention that he’ll need training.”
“I’m not forcing him to join the mafia—regardless of whose blood he is. He’ll stay in martial arts classes, and Ryder can train him beyond that.”
“She’s right. He deserves a choice,” Elli says and comes to sit at my side. “Part of why Mason turned on us was because no one ever gave him one.”
Logan looks like he wants to argue, but his twin puts a hand on his shoulder, and they share a look I can’t decipher.
Logan’s lip curls in frustration, but his argument never comes. “Fine. At sixteen, he’ll choose.”
There’s a silence that settles in the room, one that feels a lot like an understanding.
The sense of victory that buzzes through my veins is almost tangible. I may not be able to protect Dominic from everything—the grief of his mother’s death or the truth about his father’s identity—but I will do whatever I can to protect his innocence.
I reach out for Ryder, but there’s only the cool fabric of the sheets where his warm body usually lays at my side.