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I force myself to loosen, dropping my shoulders, regulating my breathing.
“Teresa, I don’t know what—”
“Of course. You won’t admit that; you’re too smart. Who knows what my motivation is? You keep that instinct, Lilah. You keep it to protect yourself at all times. Before you reveal anything, ever, you make sure you have something worse. Something that could destroy them. You need . . . Okay. Look. I was the one who put Tony away.” The world stops spinning.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“We’re on the same side, Lilah. I’m the one who put Tony away.”
“Teresa, I—” My eyes are wide as she cuts me off.
“Did you know that he offered to take in your mother?” She’s staring at her nails like she’s bored, but I know she’s not. She’s at full attention as she confesses what I think might be her deepest secrets.
“He had Paulie and he was married to me, but he wanted to toss all of that, marry your mother. It would be a win for him—he’d get the girl who turned him down once upon a time, ease that giant fuckin’ ego of his, and have a connection to you, the Russo heir. Carmine might have planted that seed, manipulative shit that he was, but Tony let it grow. He let it fester.”
“I . . . I’m sorry. I—”
Teresa continues, not even paying attention to me.
I think she’s in another world, a history she’d rather forget.
“Your mother turned him down, smart woman she was.” Finally, she stops looking at her nails and moves her eyes to me. “I wouldn’t have known any of this if it wasn’t for her.” She sits in a decorative armchair next to the table I’m setting up with photos from Carmine’s life, putting her arms on the armrests and leaning forward. “Your mother told me about the plan to replace me with her. Called me up and we had coffee and cannoli and started planning.”
Silence lingers and I feel the need to fill it.
My curiosity can’t resist.
“Planning?”
“You’re a lot like your mother, Delilah. She’d be proud.” Her smile is motherly and it warms me in a strange way, despite the panic and confusion coursing through me. “Together we planned to take down Tony. Send him away where he wouldn’t do any more damage. Keep him away from you.” I feel my mouth open, but she keeps speaking. “Your mother had the ears of politicians from Turner and her father. I had the proof. Just had to whisper to the right people, get the right information into the right hands. The feds were dying for what I had—evidence that Tony and Carmine were doing the pump and dump scheme on stocks. They would do anything to get it.” She shrugs then smiles. “I just wanted to stay anonymous and free so I could watch the empire fall apart.”
“My mother . . .”
“Your mother was a good friend of mine. Knew her since I was little. God, you look so much like her, Lilah, it’s insane. And you, now? What you’re doing? Dismantling this toxic, poisonous family, working to build it back up from the bottom? Fuck. She’d be so damn proud.” A part of me lights up with the words.
Another part is so incredibly confused.
She’s made mention, of course—of knowing my mom, knowing the plan, knowing more than anyone would think. But this? I could have never imagined.
“But . . . Paulie is Tony’s son. Didn’t you . . . ?”
Teresa’s smile turns sharp.
“Paulie is Tony’s, but he’s not mine. A product of a million and seven affairs, but this one he didn’t catch quick enough to offer his normal . . . settlement. So instead, he paid off his goumad and took the kid in because he needed an heir anyway. Made me pretend it was mine. Perfect little family. He never even fucked me, Deilah. It was an arranged marriage to benefit the families, but wasn’t it just hilarious when I refused to let him sleep with me even after we were wed?”
Her smile is near devious and I see the pride there.
The marriage was forced, but she maintained that control.
“But he got an heir either way, made me pretend I was hiding a pregnancy with baggy clothes, the whole nine. And then one morning, I woke up and I was a mother. Something I never fucking wanted. I spent years treating Paulie like he was mine, doing everything I could to counter the fuckin’ poison that is the Carluccio blood. But he’s a selfish, greedy little shit just like his father. And where he wants to take this family? He’s dangerous, Delilah.”
As she drops her bomb, I stare blankly at her.
“Teresa, I—”
“I owe a debt to your mother.” I don’t speak, unsure of what to say but also afraid to interrupt and have her stop. “She wanted revenge for herself, but she’s the one who dug through years and years of information and found the scheme, the proof. She knew I wanted to stay comfortable but get out from under Tony’s thumb. He went away, and I got the house. I’m still a made man’s wife, still get his cut of things. And he gets to rot in prison.”
She looks off to some point behind me and I know instinctively she’s in another world. “I got freedom, and she got Turner, cancer, and her daughters being tortured by this family.”
