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"What is it about?" I replied instead of responding to his statement.
"Your dad is an annoying jerk."
"That's not news to me." I looked attentively at Vincenzo, hoping to read something on his face, but not the slightest emotion was reflected there. He was good at hiding his inner life from the outside world.
"Have you always been like this?" I asked before I could bite my tongue to hold back my cheeky question.
"Like what?"
"The grim look, the dark aura, the impenetrable expression… as if there was no sunny side in your life." For me, there was none right now because Vincenzo was tall enough to immerse me entirely in shadow.
As if to punctuate my statement, he scowled at me. "That's none of your business. Not everyone can be the embodiment ofraggio di sole," he said it snidely and condescending.
I ignored his comment. "Is it related to your wife and her death?" I continued to probe.
Not only because I was interested but also to show him how uncomfortable it was to talk about family members that should be betrayed in some way. I wouldn't have minded my father ending up at the sharp end of a knife, as long as I didn't know any details.
His upper lip twitched, and I almost expected him to explode. Nothing of the sort happened. Instead, he seemed even calmer than before. Almost deadly.
"You mean, was I different before?"
I nodded. Would he actually answer me?
He tilted his head. "I was many things before, which I am not now."
His words sounded final as if he would say nothing more about it, no matter how hard I tried to persuade him. So I didn't even ask what that meant.
"Now answer my question."
"Is he causing problems?"
"You can call it that."
I averted my eyes, only to look directly at Vincenzo again. Before I left, I had spent weeks trying to find out everything I could about my father and his business. I made an agonized noise before I started to explain.
"All the companies he owns are just a cover for what he is doing. There are official exports abroad, some of those are not recorded or reported to Emilio. He has a few good contacts in Africa with mercenaries and pirates who plunder any freighters in coastal areas that cannot protect themselves. But those are few and far between because there is little information about the illegal activities there and no survivors on the freighters to tell about it. He worked many years to pave the way for these people to get to the Mediterranean, only here, the conditions are different, and the protection is better. So he's working on getting someone into the appropriate authorities who will turn a blind eye and help him take it to the next level," I told him, pausing only to catch my breath. "He's not a particularly good man, certainly not by Mafia standards. I know what's been going on with Emilio and Dario over the last few years, and compared to my father, you could call them saints."
"He could have sold you to some leader of those pirate groups."Was that mockery in his voice?
I snorted. "That would have meant he could no longer have any influence over me."
"Because he continues to hold out for you to have children so he can have an heir?"
I rolled my eyes. Even if I were to have children someday, I certainly wouldn't leave them to my father to turn into little soldiers to serve his purposes. "I don't think that's going to happen."
"You don't want kids?"
"I want my children to bemychildren, not my father's toys."
"Wise decision."
"And you? Why didn't you ever have any?" I asked, courage on my side again because we were in the middle of a deep conversation making it more difficult to refuse to answer.
Vincenzo looked at me thoughtfully. He couldn’t deny that, regarding his age, he should’ve been more than ready to have children.
"If you ever tell anyone about this…"
I rolled my eyes. "You don't have to threaten me. Just tell me to keep it to myself."
