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Only then do I look his way and I see him give a smug grin towards the man as he stalks out of the house, my mom following with her gun trained on his head.
“Come, la mia luce. Come here and give your old nonno a hug and sit. We have much to discuss.” He says to me, the hardness in his eyes softening and his grin turning into a full blown smile as he holds his arms out.
“Uhh, ok?” I’m not sure I want to give him a hug. I mean, he did just back me up though and he is my grandfather, after all.
I walk towards him and get wrapped up in a massive bear hug before he holds me at arm’s length and then brings me back in to kiss each of my cheeks. He’s tall and broad so my body just kind of gets corralled in. Mom wasn’t like this at all. She let me come to her in my own time. I guess when you run the mafia you get used to doing whatever you want.
“So, uh, grandpa- err, nonno? I hate to be blunt but, um, well, I’d really love to know what the hell is going on.” He gives a small chuckle at my callous words.
“Si, I imagine you would. I must apologize for all of the hearsay and secrecy. I would’ve been here sooner if I could have, but business got a little messy overseas. What can you do, right?” He gives me a knowing little grin and my mind comes to some gruesome conclusions.
“Nipotina, I am so thankful you are home. You were so terribly missed. We believe we have found the group of abductors from your childhood. I’ve already made the arrangements for those we feel are responsible for your kidnapping. Give me the word and you may have the honor of taking them out yourself. Your mother tells me you’ve become quite the guerriera, the warrior, and in this world it’ll only keep you alive.”
I feel so many things right now. I’m proud of the things he says of me, I’m slightly terrified of the amount of power I apparently hold over others’ lives and I’m sad for the time I lost. I look forward to spending time with this man. He feels like a kindred spirit. It feels as though I was always meant to be here.
“I want to be there. I don’t need to be the one to kill them or whatever but I’d love to go a few rounds with each of them. Hand on hand combat. Set it up.” I smile as the thought brightens my mood just a bit.
“So who was that guy? And why does mom want him dead?” I ask, even though I’ve already summed up the gist of things.
“That, my dear, was Lorenzo DeLuca. His nonno was the one who made the deal with your bisnonno, or great grandfather as you may call him, for the first female heir in the Salvatore line to marry a DeLuca. You see, the DeLuca’s were business partners with your bisnonna’s family, the Bianchi’s and they were in desperate need of money to grow their business plan to fruition.
My father was not only a very keen businessman but he was alsola Donof the Italian mafia on the west coast. When the head DeLuca saw how in love your bisnonna was, he exploited their love and tricked his business partner into only agreeing to give his daughter's hand in marriage for monetary gain and power by connecting the families by blood in the future.
Your bisnonno was many horrible things, but he took his love for your bisnonno very seriously. Catholic Italians are very traditional and marriage isn’t taken into account lightly. He wanted to honor his beloved’s wishes to stick to the tradition of having her father give her away. So, contracts were drawn up and signed. They were too blinded by their love for one another to see how it might affect their future generations.
Only once your mother was born did your bisnonna see the error of their ways and come to me. I looked for any loopholes to get out of it. I threatened my family. I swore to the heavens that it would not happen unless your mama were to truly fall in love. Mio padre was still in charge at the time your mother came of age to marry Lorenzo but she did not love him. She was an independent spirit, you see. She wanted to travel and educate herself. She wanted to be free.
Being the ruthless man he was, my father decided the only way out of it was to hire a man to rape her. He took it upon himself and bought someone to steal her innocence so that she could no longer be considered for the debt owed. For the contracts firmly stated that a virgin was required and must bear a minimum of one heir. Their firstborn was to be a blood heir to the DeLuca name.
I only found out what happened afterward when she came to me. She was already pregnant and she was going to keep the baby - She was going to keep you. Your mama has always found a light amidst the darkness. That is why since you were just a small girl you’ve always been la mia luce, my light. You may have come from darkness but you’ll always outshine it.
After she told me what had happened, I killed my father. In turn, losing the love of her life, killed my mother. When you were born, your mother decided it was best to go away and start a new life. It broke my heart but it was what she felt she had to do to keep you from all of this. She travelled often to keep you from being found. This is a life she never wanted for you.” When I feel her presence I turn to see my beautiful mom, with tears streaming down her face from hearing her own sordid story.
I run to her and hold her close. I feel a hot wetness coat my cheeks as I relive her past through her eyes. I can see the pain but feel her love radiating from her soul. I haven’t cried since I was a young girl and it is a foreign feeling, but I know that I didn’t stand a chance to avoid feeling anything after hearing how my life came to be.
My mother, a woman who just wanted to be carefree and happy had her life stripped from her and then once we found happiness together, I was stolen from her. She is honest to god the strongest woman I know. I’m lucky to have gotten her back. From here on out, I will do my best to appreciate the woman she is and honor what she has lived through.
“I’m confused. If the goal was to kidnap me and get me back here to ensure the bond of power between the DeLuca’s and the Salvatore’s, then why did I end up in Chicago with Lauren the crack whore from hell?” I question, angry at how everything played out.
“Well, according to our sources, it would appear as though Lorenzo hired out someone to kidnap you, though not to bring you back, but to kill you. You see, in his mind, it is his rightful place to take over my position when I die la mia luce. In his mind, your mother has always belonged to him and he feels cheated out of what was meant to be his, according to his family.
If he had found a way to bring you home to marry his son then Matteo would rightfully become the most powerful DeLuca. Matteo would be next in line to take over our family businesses. He has attempted to manipulate his son's mind all these years and that can be a dangerous thing. After you were gone, he spent years trying to renegotiate the deals so that he may still be wed to my sweet Cecelia, despite the virgin and ability to produce an heir clauses.
He has never been successful because I refused to believe you were dead and would not renegotiate terms that do not benefit my girls. As it was, they were stuck because there is no one else to produce a female heir to marry his male heirs. I knew you were alive. I could feel it in my gut. I have spent years looking for you and I am thankful every day that the woman who captured you couldn’t follow through with the murder.
She didn’t have the heart to murder an innocent child it would seem but chose to live a life of squalor instead. Now we have your remaining living kidnappers and they have given us all of this information. We have no proof, however, and Lorenzo has amassed his own following amongst us and has enough manpower to potentially go to war with me if he continues to grow his underground business.
It is a war he knows he cannot win but it’s still a risk to openly take him out without refutable evidence. Lorenzo was here to try and prove his innocence but it matters not. He will be punished as well, however, it is Cecelia here who will take the lead on seeing him to his end because it is her that has taken the most hurt from him.
You will be fit to deal with his son however you wish, although I must admit a certain fondness for the young DeLuca. He has proved himself useful within our ranks. If it comes down to it, we can place a hit on the whole DeLuca family. We just have to find their copies of the signed agreements and dispose of them. This day in age, there’s a backup for every backup it seems. I have an army at your disposal. After all, you, la mia luce, are the true reigning heir. You will take over unless you choose otherwise. Your mother chose to withdraw herself from this life and I approve immensely. It isn’t one I wish upon my loves. I am already proud of you no matter what you decide.”
HO-LY FUCK.
My life was sparedby the twisted woman who couldn’t even stand to look at me most of my life. She knew my mom. It has to be why she kept some of my things from infancy. Guilt. I can’t even begin to fathom the pain life has dealt my mom.
My whole life, I felt like I had been fighting to live but maybe it was all just the world preparing me for this; for the life I was meant to have. How am I supposed to lead the Italian mafia someday? Matteo was worried I would take his kingdom from him and I thought he meant the school. I finally feel like I understand. He thought all of the power, prestige and fortune would be his one day and then I came along and he saw everything taken from him. Now he only wants me because he thinks we are meant to run it all together.
He doesn’t actually feel anything for me. None of the kings do. Those manipulative fucks think they can take what’s mine. They thought they could break me and then they thought they could take me. They thought wrong. I’ll show them. Come time for school to start back up, I’m taking back what’s mine.
