Elena #2
"Antonio and your father were close," Dom says, glancing at the children to ensure they're still occupied.
"Umberto respected Antonio's business acumen, and Antonio wanted Luca to learn from the best. Remember, first sons are raised to take over, but they need to prove themselves.
They start at the bottom and work their way up.
Your father was one of the best soldiers and captains in La Corona. Who better to learn from?"
My father was mentoring Luca.
Antoinio entrusted Luca to my father.
Unless Antonio was behind my father’s arrest, it doesn’t make sense that Luca would betray the Vitale family.
"Who do you think was behind my father's arrest, then? If not Luca?"
Dom's expression darkens as he watches the children, now sprawled on the floor playing with a miniature Christmas village.
When he turns back to me, his eyes hold the calculating look of a Don, not my cousin.
"I don't know for certain, but considering all the attention we've been getting from the FBI these last few years, it could be an operation they had going. Just because your father was arrested, doesn’t mean anyone snitched. Could be a good agent who got lucky.”
My mind races back to those terrible days after my father's arrest.
The evidence had seemed so conclusive, so damning. "But there was evidence that Luca was there. Called them. Showed them where to go.”
“True, but funny how he wasn’t put in WITPRO or asked to testify,” he says, referring to Witness Protection.
“Arresting your father was a big deal, Elena. And their main witness isn’t protected?
He’s allowed to leave the country and not called back to testify in your father’s trial? Nah, that’s never made sense to me.”
I feel dizzy.
For years, I've directed my pain at Luca, made him the villain in my story.
Even as I questioned parts of the situation, I couldn’t talk myself out of blaming him.
The only reason I had questions was because of Dom.
He never once acted like Luca had betrayed the family, and I couldn’t figure out why.
"The FBI might have set him up, but they didn't kill him in prison. That has to be someone in the family or in the business,” I say.
Luca was in Italy by then, which was the first inkling I had that something wasn’t right.
But then again, it’s not like there isn’t communication outside the country.
He could have arranged a murder.
Dom looks into his glass, and I get the feeling he wants another drink. “I think you need to look closer to home for that answer.”
It takes me a few moments to connect the dots. "Not your father.” That doesn’t make sense. Why would my uncle, the Don, kill my father?
Dom doesn't confirm or deny immediately. "I don't know for certain. But would I put it past him? No."
I remember back all those years ago just after my father’s death when my uncle asked Dom to research anyone close to Luca.
Why would he do that if he was responsible?
“But he wanted revenge. He hated that he’d had to kowtow to La Corona. He wanted to find another way to make Luca suffer.”
Dom arches a brow. “You knew about that?”
Like him, I don’t confirm or deny.
He lets off a bitter laugh. “If my father were alive, I’d have bet money he was the one fucking with La Corona now, trying to burn it from the inside out.”
Really?
I knew Uncle Aldo to be a cruel, cold man, but to kill his brother?
To want to ruin the life of an innocent man?
To destroy the organization that made them the most powerful men in the state, if not the Eastern Seaboard?
"Why?" I’m truly baffled and horrified by this news.
“Power. Money. Jealousy. Why does anyone kill anyone else?”
I gape. “But his brother?”
“Maybe you didn’t notice, but my father was the center of the universe.
Everyone else around existed only because he allowed it.
Myself included.” He gives me a pointed look.
“You too, Elena.” He glances at the kids, and I realize just how close I came to not having them. Maybe not even being alive.
“My father felt threatened by yours. Umberto was gaining influence within La Corona, especially with Antonio's backing. My father saw it as a challenge to his authority."
I shake my head. “My father didn’t want to lead—”
“Don’t be naive. Everyone wants to lead.
Your father knew he was smarter and had more respect from Vitale men, as well as La Corona.
But my father knew he couldn’t just kill your dad.
So, he could get him arrested and put in prison where any rival family would have access to him.
And frame the son of the man who was supporting your father.
” He holds up two fingers. “Two birds, one stone.”
I feel sick as my memories reshuffle into a new, horrifying pattern.
"It's the kind of strategy he would have employed. Calculated. Efficient,” he finishes.
“Do your men know?” Why do some still want revenge against Luca?
Dom shakes his head. “That’s the most brilliant, or deviant, part of the scheme. There’s only a handful of them left, but they bought my father’s sob story hook, line, and sinker.”
“Why don’t you correct them?”
Dom’s eyes narrow. “It almost sounds like you care about Luca.”
I take a breath before I respond. “I care about justice. For my father. And this lie puts Luca and his family in danger.”
Dom shakes his head. “No. They won’t act against him without my—”
“You just said that the FBI targets disgruntled family members and uses them to hurt La Corona.” I want to throttle him.
It’s not just Luca’s life at stake, it’s my children’s lives if it got out he was their father.
God, what better way to hurt him than to hurt his kids?
“Because I don’t really know. All I have is conjecture. No proof. And because I need their loyalty to protect you and your kids.”
Should I tell him the truth?
That the kids are more at risk if they want to hurt Luca?
I look at my children, innocent and unaware of the dark legacy they've inherited.
What will I tell them someday?
That their grandfather was murdered by their great-uncle?
That I kept them from their father because of a lie?
"Elena," Dom says softly, "the more time passes, the more people will forget or die. This will fade into the past. Right now, we need to focus on the present. Someone is still targeting La Corona, and they're getting bolder."
“It doesn’t seem fair to Luca or his family.”
“Luca and his family are fine. Don’t go making waves in what are currently calm waters between the families. What I’ve told you stays between us.” He gives me a stern stare.
The one that says there’s no questioning him. “I mean it, Elena. I’ve shared more than I should have. I trust you. Don’t tell anyone, not even my men, what I’ve shared with you.”
“I won’t.”
Later that night, once home and after I’ve tucked my children into bed, I pour another glass of wine.
Sitting on the couch, the conversation with Dom replays in my mind. Uncle Aldo may have orchestrated my father's arrest and his death. On the one hand, I’m not surprised.
My uncle was ruthless in business, including killing to get what he wanted.
On the other hand, I’m completely poleaxed.
I take a long sip of wine to settle the nerves when I consider what he would have done if he’d known I was carrying Luca’s children.
It would have been the perfect way to hurt him and Don Monti.
Plus, he’d have seen it as another threat, a Monti-Vitale union outside his control.
I was right to keep them a secret.
I pick up the framed photo from the side table, the triplets at their fourth birthday, chocolate cake smeared across their faces.
I see clear as day how much they resemble Luca. How Dom hasn't seen it is beyond me.
Or perhaps he has and chooses silence. Just like he chooses to keep his suspicions about his father to himself.
I hate that Luca is getting the bad end of the stick in this situation, but as long as Vitale men think Luca killed my father, we’re all in danger.
Didn’t Gio hint at how much he wanted to kill Luca?
How annoyed he was that Dom wouldn’t let them?
What would happen if the truth came out, if men like Gio discovered that Luca's blood runs through my children's veins? In our world, men dominate.
The kids would be seen as Montis first.
This revelation about Uncle Aldo changes everything and nothing regarding Luca.
He may be innocent of my father's downfall, but revealing our connection still puts the triplets at risk.
As long as men like Gio hold power in the Vitale family, as long as someone continues trying to pit La Corona families against each other, my children's parentage remains a dangerous secret.
I put my glass in the dishwasher and head down the hall to go to bed.
I take a quick peek at my children, sleeping peacefully.
I’m so sorry.
I'm not sure who I'm apologizing to, my children for denying them their father or Luca for denying him his children.
But the cold, hard fact is that some truths are too dangerous to speak aloud.