Chapter 12 #2
“I thought you were in danger,” my father said desperately.
“I thought he planned on marrying you so that he could use you for his father’s ends.
Make you his father’s puppet so that your life wouldn’t be your own.
I thought I was freeing you from the mistake I made.
The mistake of forcing you to marry him.
I thought I was saving you from being a slave to the De Lucas. ”
“Enzo has turned his back on all that,” I said, releasing a shaky breath. “Neither of us wants to hurt or use the other. We’re done with this war, once and for all.”
“Warring has brought nothing but pain,” Enzo said. “We can’t keep making the same mistakes. We have to forge a new path. That was the point of the marriage.”
“I remember you two resenting the marriage not too long ago,” my father said.
“We did resent it. But we fell in love and I’ve never been happier.
And yet, knowing that you tried to kill the man I love, Papa, I’ve also never been sadder,” I said.
I loved my father more than anything and always would.
He and Mom were, after all, my oldest and best friends.
The most wonderful parents despite the times they came up short.
But I had spent so much time giving my unquestioning loyalty that I had lost part of myself in the process.
I wouldn’t make that mistake again. From now on, I would question how things were done in my family’s business.
My father looked at me, confusion on his face. “But your husband came out unscathed, didn’t he? After the fire, there weren’t any reports of injury. I thought my hired man had failed. I took it as a sign to think of...less lethal ways to handle Enzo.”
“He was injured. Enzo was in the hospital for weeks recovering. We just didn’t tell anyone,” I explained.
“This life and its secrets,” Enzo said bitterly. “Taking care of me fell on Valentina’s shoulders. She had to plan the wedding, take care of me, all while trying to hunt down the culprit. Do you think that’s fair, Mr. Romano? Do you think those are fair expectations to put on your daughter?”
“No, of course I don’t think it’s fair,” Papa said through gritted teeth. “I’ve spent my life trying to protect my daughter. My family.”
“Enzo is part of this family now,” I said. “That means you have to protect him too.”
“I have nothing against Enzo. I simply did what I thought needed to be done,” Papa said. “Turns out I was wrong about him, but, Valentina, you know better than anyone that these kinds of orders are never personal.”
“Do you hear yourself?” I demanded.
“I think you’ve changed,” my father said, looking at me for several moments. It was clear he remembered how ruthless I had once been. But it didn’t have to be that way now. We didn’t have to be so consumed by hatred that we tried to destroy everything we touched.
“Good,” I said fiercely. “It means I’m my own woman now. Not just some pawn.”
Something like remorse flashed in my father’s eyes. Then it vanished. “Did you come here just to chastise me?”
“I came here for the truth,” I said. “You said that since I loved Enzo, I deserved that at least. So what’s the truth? Who did you send to set that fire?”
Papa’s head jerked back in total surprise. “You’re asking for the identity—”
“Yes. I have the right to know,” I flung out.
“That is not how we do things,” my father said, his voice razor-sharp now.
“The way we do things is what’s gotten us into this mess,” I said. “With a hitman after us and the federal government closing in.”
“Revealing names is completely and totally against our code. Against everything that makes our life possible,” Papa said.
My father wasn’t wrong. Once you made a deal with an assassin and gave the order for a kill, the secret of it would go to everyone’s grave.
Names were never shared. There were names that I myself would never share with anyone—not even my beloved Enzo.
Silence made the mafia run just as much as money, power, and violence.
When my father gave the order for the fire to be set, he had made a pact to never, ever reveal who was behind it.
That silence was of the utmost importance—otherwise no hitman would ever work with us.
Not only that, if a name was revealed that hitman could decide to share everything he knew about my father’s dealings as an act of revenge.
With the name out, Papa would go down as well.
“It’s the only way to stop whoever’s been coming after us,” I insisted.
“You know good and well it would destroy us,” my father reminded me.
“I have a sworn duty to protect that information. It is confidential and both parties will maintain silence to protect the another. What you are asking me is unheard of, Valentina. We don’t even reveal names to the police if we end up getting caught red-handed and need a way out.
I would rather go to prison for the rest of my life than reveal that name to you or anyone else. ”
A lump formed in my throat. Because I knew that not only was my father right, what he was doing was actually fair.
Misguided as he was, my father did have a code of honor.
That code was present when he had decided he’d rather kill Enzo than back out of the marriage deal.
The mafia had its own morality that was now driving me insane, but it had kept us safe all these years.
Without our rules, we had nothing. Only anarchy and death would remain.
Still, knowing that my own father was a dead end hurt more than anything. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was on opposite sides of Papa and the pain of that realization ensured that things would never quite be the same between us.
The chance of me becoming my father’s second had dwindled to almost nothing with my marriage to Enzo. Now, I was sure that I would never achieve that rank. And as much as it hurt to feel that slip away, I felt myself getting stronger.
I was defying my father, the most powerful man on the East Coast. If Enzo and I could face him, we could do anything.
I could do whatever I wanted from here on out.
I was truly free from the obligations of unquestioning loyalty to my father.
I was standing on my own two feet for the first time in my life. Answering to no one but myself.
And what I wanted more than anything, was to have a life with Enzo. A beautiful life where we decided our future for ourselves. Not for our families or because we’d been made responsible for a war we never started. But a life built for us.
“It’s no use,” I said, glancing at my husband. “He won’t tell us who he sent to start that fire.”
Enzo slumped in his seat then, accepting what I was saying.
Suddenly there was a ring from my father’s cell phone and he quickly answered it, his face turning somber as he spoke quietly to whoever was on the other end. When he hung up, Papa looked from me to Enzo and then back again.
Papa heaved out a sigh. “I hate to cut this meeting short, but I must retire. The FBI will be here soon.”
My eyes went side. “What?”
“They’re coming to ask questions,” Papa explained. “They don’t plan on arresting me until they think they have enough. With some luck, they’ll never have enough to use against me.”
I swallowed against the lump in my throat, more tears threatening to fall. “Papa—”
“You and Enzo should go,” my father said. “Go and enjoy your honeymoon. Lena, I will protect you from the FBI. I’ll give them nothing that they can use against you or your mother. And don’t worry about me, the FBI doesn’t have enough to put me away for long.”
Papa was still protecting us. In his misguided way. In a way that meant the burden would be on him and no one else.
My heart ached as Enzo got to his feet and I had no choice but to do the same, standing up on shaky legs.
Enzo offered me his arm then, and I took it, needing to lean on him as I left the library.
Terrible questions filled my mind as we left my family home.
What if I never saw my father in the outside world again?
What if all that remained was to see him through bars or plate glass in a prison somewhere?
Then another thought occurred to me. The inklings of a plan, that would not only save us from the hitman, but save my father from himself.