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Still, Gino Borelli found a way to bother us. Since he was Elsie’s father legally, he decided to use the law against us to take Elsie. We realized we had to adopt Elsie.
For some frustrating reason, it took a little too long, but it was done. She was ours in every way now.
“It was not a Chicago matter,” Sal said, explaining the reason for the delay. “I had to get a lot of people involved. In the end, we managed.”
“Thank you,” I said with a smile. “At one point, I honestly thought you were stalling intentionally to see if I was sure.”
Sal huffed. “I wouldn’t have done it at all if I thought you were not sure.”
“That is surprising. I didn’t believe you were going to see that so easily. You are kind of a troublemaker. You know that, right?”
My brother looked at me with such shock that I almost burst out laughing. Obviously, he knew I was right. However, he said, “Am I?” with skepticism.
“Damn, of course, you are. You tried to prevent Alessio and Isabella from getting together, you were unnecessarily dubious about Priscilla, and you were an asshole to Mia early on in your marriage. I definitely thought you were going to be difficult about Elsie's situation. I was waiting for you to tell me it was stupid for me to accept someone else’s child as my own, and Luce was playing me for safety.”
He looked at me with hard eyes and shook his head. “You are an idiot.”
“Hey, I am talking facts.”
“That is right. I was not the best in those situations, but I would never discourage you from adopting Elsie. I knew well that blood doesn’t make a family. How could I when I have Gia? She is the person who made me a father for the first time. She is not my blood, but she is a part of my heart still. I know Elsie is a part of yours. You are her father. Doesn’t matter if she carries your DNA or not.”
Oh shit. Now, I felt like an asshole. His words actually brought tears to my eyes. I was sure of those words in my mind and in my heart, but it meant a lot hearing them from Sal. It meant too much.
I swallowed, trying to keep my tears from falling. “Thank you,” I said with a hoarse voice. “It feels good to hear that from a good father.”
He grabbed my shoulder, squeezing it. “You are becoming a better father than me, Val.”
“I can only hope. You might be a questionable person, but you are the best father I know. You are a good father to your kids, and you have been a good father to me as much as you are a good brother.”
Now Sal was the one with shiny eyes. “I haven’t been good enough. If I did, you wouldn’t have nightmares of your past still following you.”
I felt too seen by those words. I felt like I had an intruder in my head. “I don’t,” I said. I never told Sal what happened. Luce encouraged me a few times, but I didn’t have the heart to do it. I couldn’t let him blame himself for that shit. I couldn’t hurt him like that.
However, my brother was smart. He didn’t look a tiny bit convinced. “Valerio, I know you never told me. I don’t know why, but you never did, and you don’t have to, either. I just want you to know that I know. I see things. Maybe I saw it too late. If I had known earlier, I swear things would have been different, but I couldn’t, and I don’t know how I can even apologize for that. I couldn’t protect you and, most likely, Verona. I won’t push you guys to tell me, but I know. I thought about how my twelve-year-old brother killed a man so brutally, even though he was not as violent as me. I saw you get unhinged towards people who committed similar crimes. I saw it too late, but I did. I see you, Valerio, and I see how strong you are despite how I let you down, and I cannot stop but be proud of the man, of the father you have become.”
Damn, he was going to make me cry. “You never let me down, Sal.”
“I did. I was your older brother, and I couldn’t protect you.”
I shook my head. “You did your best. I never blamed you, and I never will.”
Salvatore grabbed my shoulder and squeezed. “Thank you,” he said before hugging me. “Then maybe you shouldn’t blame yourself either.”
When he pulled back, I looked at him with confused eyes, but he only said, “Something to think about,” and left the room.
I didn’t know how he knew I blamed myself, but he was right. It was my fault what happened to Verona. I always went over it in my head. I thought about the ways I could have prevented it. I always felt awfully guilty about it, but maybe it was all the same for Sal. He was our older brother, after all. Maybe he felt guilty like I did, even though he wasn’t.
Maybe I wasn’t guilty, either.
Something to think about, indeed.
I brought the file in my hand close to my chest. This was not the moment for my internal battles. I had good news to share. I had to go be with my girls.
I quickly left the room with the file in my hand. I made my way down to the ridiculously big garden of my childhood home. We were celebrating Priscilla’s birthday, but we had more reasons to celebrate now.
When I reached the garden of my brother’s mansion, I spotted Luce first. Elsie was probably playing with the other kids as she was not around. Luce was sitting on a picnic bench with Bianca, her phone in hand. Their bond got even stronger after Bianca saved my wife in the attack, and no one was more happy about the fact that they were friends now.
They gossiped about me sometimes, but that was a small price to pay.
