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After I made sure Nicole was in her bedroom, no longer crying—at least, in front of me—I waited for Leo with a towel right outside the room where I kept the traitor. Leo came out, a knife in his hand, blood staining his face, clothes and even the cast on his arm.
He took the towel from me and wiped the blood off his skin and the knife. “I’m done with him.”
“Let’s see if his wife will still want him now.”
“Oh, she will. Maybe more now. He can’t be an enforcer anymore, and Enzio wouldn’t make him his underboss after everything that’s happened. She’ll finally get out of the life like she’s always wanted. She’ll raise her baby safely and go back to school and even find a decent job.”
I squinted at him, still not fully grasping the nature of his relationship with her. “How much do you care about Nicole, Leo?”
“Enough to want her to be happy…away from us. Nicole Baldi might be the only good friend I have in this world.”
His answer was firm and definitive without a shred of hesitation, but his words and actions begged to differ. “Baldi? Friend?”
“Si. She should have never married that fuck, and it pisses me off that she still chose him, but she’s never been anything more than a friend.”
“And the doctor?”
“Rav?” He grinned. “Ravenna is everything.”
My heart warmed to see him smile. I thought I’d never see that again. In so many ways, I was grateful to the Russian half breed. She was brave enough to risk her life and help me save my son, and she seemed to be the only reason he smiled.
“What are you gonna do with Li—with Angel?”
A chill ran through my spine. Despite everything, I didn’t like it when he spoke of her, thought of her in any way. However, he’d finally called her by the name I gave her. He’d finally acknowledged she was mine.
“That’s between me and her,” I said.
“You’re right. She’s your wife and the mother of your son, but for once, listen to me. You lost a wife before and cost a child his mother. Look what that child has become.”
I wished I could have told him that in my eyes he was perfect, but it didn’t matter what I saw. It was what he believed himself to be that mattered. Maybe if I’d said it enough before. Maybe if I’d made him listen and see himself through my eyes, his father that loved nothing more than him… Now was too late. “You are looking out for her?”
“I’m looking out for my brother. He’s so innocent, and he can stay that way. Don’t…don’t let him be like me. Don’t let him be like us.” He squeezed my shoulder. “Don’t make the same mistake twice, Don Bellomo.” He gave me the knife and the towel and turned. Then he walked away down the hall.
This couldn’t be the last thing we said to each other. This couldn’t be the last time I spoke to my son. I stalked after him and swirled him in my direction. Then I pulled him hard into my embrace. “You think I didn’t love you, but I do. I didn’t choose her over you. I never chose anything over you.” I gazed at his blue eyes that made me feel I was looking in the mirror. “But I needed her more than you did. I still do.”
Tears froze in both our eyes. “She’s your lifeline. I get it now,” Leo said. “Believe me, I do.”
“Stay with me, Leo.” I didn’t want him to go. We could still make this work. I needed him, too.
“You know I can’t.”
“Because of Angel?”
“No, Papà. Because of Ravenna. I want to be happy with her. I want to heal with her. We can’t do that in this world. Our names have doomed us for so long. Leo Bellomo and Ravenna Berlusconi have to disappear.”
That was what we agreed on. The names Leo Bellomo and Ravenna Berlusconi would belong on tombstones. To the world, I’d have killed my deranged son to protect my wife and other son from his madness. Ravenna, too, after finding out who she really was. But in reality, they’d start over in the Canaries, with new names, new professions, making a new family of their own.
As for the traitor, he’d have had an unfortunate accident that forced him to retire. The Bellomos and the Lanzas would have stayed friends, allies, even a fucking family.
But plans could change. I knew I already had a secret one on my own. Something the Lanzas would love so fucking much.
“Is this your final decision?” I asked, hoping for an answer I knew I wouldn’t get.
With a confident smile, Leo nodded. Then he spun to walk away, to leave our life behind. To leave me.
“There’s something you need to know first,” I said to his back, hesitant to open the subject in the first place. Some things were better left buried. “Anastasia… She’s not dead.”
Leo faltered back a couple of steps, his breath catching.
