Chapter One #2
I came straight here afterwards, in the pouring rain and darkness, to find my father locked in a cell.
“You don’t need to know who put me in here,” my father says. “You just need to go.”
“Why won’t you come with me?”
“Because it’s not safe. He’ll just find me again and bring me right back here.
You’ll always be in danger. You have to leave, Aurora.
You have to go. Please, sweetheart. I’m trying to protect you.
You’re my whole world. My everything. I need to know that you’re safe out there.
I never wanted you a part of this life.”
“Mafia life,” I state. “Are you telling me that… you work for the mafia?”
“Just go.”
“No. Not until you tell me why you refuse to leave. I searched for you for four whole days. It was hard finding where your friend lived. I don’t have anyone in my life except for you.
I will not just give up on you, Dad.” I have my co-workers at the café but they’re not my friends.
One of them likes to bully me for not having any money.
She works there because she wants to – not because she needs to.
It ostracized me from the rest of my co-workers.
I don’t have a boyfriend because I never had time to date when I was trying to put food on the table and help my dad out. It’s just me and him and no one else.
“Please, just go. Just go, Aurora. You need to go.”
“Not until you tell me why you refuse to leave this place. I worked hard to find you. I’m not just going to give up.”
“Will that make you leave? If I tell you everything?”
“Yes,” I lie. But I will not leave my father here to rot in this cell. Not when I can save him.
“I once worked for the mafia.”
My body goes cold. We live in Florence, Italy – the heart of the Italian mafia. I’ve always heard stories of organized crime. How some people can live without any rules put on them. But me and my father lived away from that. It never came to our door.
Until now.
“I was a middle man,” he explains. “Not at the top but not at the bottom either. I made great money until… until a business deal went bad and I lost my boss a lot of money. He was angry. I was scared. You were just a baby at home. I knew you would be in danger so I left that life behind. I left without anything. But me and your mom were going to make it work… until she got sick. And then it was just you and me. I had no way of working any sort of job that would draw the attention of my previous boss. I had to work under the table to keep you safe, which meant not making much money. It was fine for a while but then we struggled. We struggled bad.”
“What happened? How did you end up here?”
All the fight leaves his body and he slumps against the wall. “You turned twenty-one and still felt like you had to live at home for me. You were living your entire life for me and I couldn’t let that happen. But I knew you would never go because I was struggling. So I…”
“You what?”
“He stole from me,” a deep man’s voice says from behind me.
With a gasp, I whirl around to see the silhouette of a man. Not the old man who opened the door and closed it on me. A different one. Younger, I can already tell. But by how much, I’m not sure.
“Leave her alone,” Dad hisses. “She just came to help me but she’s going now. I’ll stay here. This is my price to pay.”
“Who are you?” I whisper, my lips barely moving.
The man huffs. “You don’t know who I am? Most people in this area know who I am. Or at least, they’ve heard stories.”
“Well, I haven’t. Who are you?” I have to be brave for my father. For myself.
“My name is Gabriel Romano.” He doesn’t offer anything else.
“I don’t know who you are but please, let my dad go.”
“Did you not hear what I said? He stole from me. He tried to come into my club and steal from me. I can’t let that stand.”
“So you locked him up like a criminal?”
“He committed a crime, didn’t he? He stole from me.” Gabriel still hasn’t come into the light. I can’t make out anything about him other than his deep voice.
“But you’re not the police. You just… locked him up in here. Let him go.”
“Why would I do that? We all know who Andrew Rossi is. That he left the mafia behind for his precious family. That he fucked over his previous boss. That boss was a friend of mine. I’ve heard the stories. I see this as Andrew finally paying for the crimes he has committed.”
All this information is too much. I sink to the floor, trying to wrap my head around everything.
“You’re really going to keep him locked away in here?” I whisper.
“It’s what a man like him deserves.”
A man like him… My father who would make me laugh at night with his silly bedtime stories. My father who would go without food so I could eat. A father who willingly locked himself back into a cell to try and save me.
“My father is a good man,” I state. “I know it.”
“Then you don’t know your father.”
“But I do. And I know he doesn’t deserve to be locked away in here. He’ll die otherwise.” And then I’ll be fully alone.
“That’s not my problem.”
An idea forms in my mind. I have no idea how any of this works. How the world of the mafia works. But I do know that I can’t stand back and let my father rot away in a prison cell.
“Take me instead,” I say the words before I can stop them.
“Aurora, no!” Dad cries.
The man goes quiet for a long moment before speaking. “You would take his place? Pay for his crime?”
“Yes,” I say, lifting my head up. I have to be brave. “I will do anything to help my dad. I’ve been doing it all my life.”
“Do you know what you’re asking?”
Honestly… no. But if it means saving my dad’s life. I don’t give Gabriel an answer. If I speak, I might waver and I can’t waver when it comes to saving my dad.
“You didn’t steal from me,” Gabriel says. “You don’t deserve to be locked away in here.”
“Please,” I say. “I need to save him.”
Gabriel is quiet. I would give anything to know what he’s thinking. Finally, he speaks. “Deal. I’ll let your father go in exchange for you. But you’re my prisoner now. You’ll stay here forever.”
Until I die.
“Aurora, no! Don’t do this. Don’t do this!”
“Let me see you,” I say to Gabriel, ignoring my dad’s cries.
After a beat, Gabriel steps into the light. I can’t stop myself from gasping.
He’s a large, muscular man. Tall. Brown hair and stubble on his face. Handsome… except for the horrible scar across his nose and cheek. But it’s the coldness in his eyes that are terrifying and they’re locked right on me.
“Are you still going to take his place?” Gabriel asks me.
I force myself to my feet. I’m still not fully sure what I’m doing but I do know I will save my dad’s life no matter what. And if this is the way to do it…
“Yes,” I state.
“Then deal,” he growls. “You’re mine forever.”
I have sealed my fate.