AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“After it happened, I stayed in abandoned buildings until my eighteenth birthday. I needed to be sure I wouldn’t be placed in another home. After all, they’d never offered me any real safety. Once I turned eighteen, I reported him, and he’s been in jail ever since. And I’ve been…” I hesitate and pinch my eyes closed as the weight of my admission finally hits me. “Haunted ever since.”
As the words cross my lips, I open my eyes to seek solace in Alister’s presence. Though, as I look at him, the events of that tragic night play within my mind on a loop. In my memories, his frame is more vivid than his face. He wears a dark button-down shirt with khaki pants. He enters my room and closes the door behind him. As he walks closer, I wrap my covers tightly around me, sensing something is wrong. That’s when he brings his hand to his belt buckle and—
“All of this is to say, deep down, I know, whether my mother lived or died, I’ve always been destined to suffer at the hands of a monster. Her death saved me from one and fated me to another.” I shake my head, my throat raw with emotion. “So, as I sit here and look at what’s left of my mother, myrealmother, and I think about everything I learned today, I can’t help but feel disappointed and disgusted. Because there was never any hope for either of us.”
24
Ariana pullsher hand from mine and wipes her falling tears as I do my best to restrain myself. All I want to do is pull her into my arms and never let her go. That, and rip her rapist to shreds with my bare hands. But, in this moment, I can’t do either of those things. Not only am I over one thousand miles away from the man who is as good as dead, but I don’t trust what my body would do if I were that close to Ariana. And, right now, the last thing she needs is more unwanted advances and shallow words. I mean everything I say. I meant it when I told her she doesn’t have to hide from me and that I’m here for her. But for how long?
Josephine’s words, or should I saywarning,are seared onto my heart, inescapable and inevitable. Even Ariana said her mother’s death freed her from one monster and fated her to another. Her presence in my life lets me know it fated her to more than one. I would never hurt Ariana in the way she’s been hurt before. But those who seek the Amato throne will stop at nothing to claim it, as is evident by the life of secrecy and servitude Ariana’s mother was forced to live as she spied against my family for hers.
Josephine is right. I can’t allow Ariana to become a victim of the same world, the same darkness her mother strove to protect her from. Which means I can’t hold her. I can’t touch her. I can’t swear to her that those who hurt her will suffer a greater pain, even though they will. Most of all, I can’t tell her I love her, and I will protect her until my last breath, even though it’s the truth. Because our love wasn’t meant for the light of day, only the shadows. And, eventually, the sun will rise, chasing away the darkness that has haunted Ariana since birth, and with that rising sun will be the end of us. What a joyful and wretched day it will be. At that, I lower my head and console Ariana in the only way I can.
“Maybe there is hope.” I lift my head to look at Ariana, and I find her staring back at me with parted lips and wide eyes. She holds her breath, as though unsure of what I will say next. “Josephine tracked me down while I was out getting food. She remembered something more she thought would be helpful to us.”
“What did she say?” The words scrape through Ariana as the weight of my revelation settles onto my shoulders. I have three capos based in New Orleans, aside from Gio. One of them will lead us to Ariana’s father, if he’s still alive. Another is responsible for every horrible thing that’s ever happened in both of our lives. Once we return to New Orleans, it won’t be long until a truth twenty years in the making is revealed. And with that truth will be our goodbye.
“She said…she said she followed her father to a strip club in New Orleans after he thwarted her plan to help your mother. He met with someone, someone she believes was his partner in the city.”
“The man responsible for my mother’s death,” Ariana whispers.
I nod.And my mother’s and sister’s.
“Did she know who?”
I shake my head as my emotions swirl inside me. All this time. All the lives lost. Could Gabriel Parisi really be responsible? He’s older than me, but not by much, which means any vendetta he has against my family would’ve been inherited from his father. I’m not aware of any blood feuds between my family and his, but the same can be said for my other capos as well. Sometimes wars like this are bred of nothing but greed and a lust for power. But, even in the mind of a monster, is a throne really worth the abuse Valentina suffered? No. There has to be more to this story. And whether or not I believe Gabriel Parisi and his father before him are capable of such evil, he’s the only lead we have and it’s one I can’t ignore. The more time that passes, the more likely it is that whoever is working against us will strike again. And this time, Sophia may not be their only target.
“She didn’t know,” I say then. “But I might. The club he visited is called the Temptress. To this day, it’s still owned by my family and is a hub for both legal and illegal transactions. I have a man who oversees the latter, off the books, of course. We’re going to pay him a visit.”
“The Temptress,” Ariana whispers. She lowers her eyes then as if she isn’t surprised by the very news I found disturbingly shocking.
“Do you know it?”
“Months ago, when I realized your presumed connection to my mother’s murder, I began investigating you, searching for evidence linking your family to mine. It was at the Temptress that I found a photo of my mother taped to the wall along with hundreds more, presumably of women who worked at the club. But…there weren’t any records of anyone named Valentina having worked there.”
“Why are you just now telling me this?”
“Because there was a part of me, no matter how badly I tried to ignore it, that thought I could be wrong. There was a part of me that wondered if the woman in the photo really was my mom or if I was just so desperate for something, anything, that I was clinging to a lead that was nothing more than a coincidence. And, on top of it all, I didn’t want to offend you.”
“Offend me? How could you offend me?” My brows crinkle as confusion washes over me.
“Because, if I was right, if my mother did work off the books at a strip club owned by your family, especially given what occurred at our home, it could only mean one thing.”
It takes me a moment to follow Ariana’s train of thought, but once I understand, I wish I didn’t. “That she was being sold for sex by my father, which would make the man who raised me no better than the men who sold, bought, abused, and murdered my sister.”
“Yeah, I, um…didn’t think that would go over well,” she says.
“You’re right. It probably wouldn’t have.”
I sit up straight and clear my throat as I absorb this latest blow. This is too much to process. First Gabriel isn’t who I thought he was and now my father? When will the secrets and betrayal end? My father knew I never wanted to be king because of how corrupt our outfit had become. Still, he assured me there was no other way. That if I didn’t take the throne, it would be thrust upon Sophia, which would all but sentence her to death seeing as the men of our world would never accept her as their boss. So, I fell in line. I became the son he wanted me to be. And, after his death, I did everything I could to lead our people as he did. I defended his name against every slander. I swore up and down that my father couldn’t have known what the brotherhood truly was, because he never would’ve sold to their organization if he knew the truth. I speak of my father as a businessman who was respectable and honorable. Have I been lying to myself? Have I been blind to his ways while hating myself for my own?
At that, I lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees and burying my face in my hands. I don’t want to believe my father was a monster. And I know that Ariana’s evidence, if you can even call it that, of illegal sex work happening in one of my family-owned businesses doesn’t mean my father sanctioned the activity. Just like the man who killed Ariana’s mother tried to frame my father, this could be another one of his ploys. Still, the split second I considered the alternative, that I truly didn’t know my father as well as I thought I did, is enough to make me question everything. I do horrible things to maintain my power and, ultimately, the safety of my family. No doubt my father did equally horrible things, especially after he lost my mother. And yet, none of this compares to what Ariana discovered about her own family today.
I’ve always known of the darkness tainting my blood and everyone who shares it. But nothing could’ve prepared Ariana for what she learned today. Even still, I’m not sure she’s realized the extent of our discovery. By birth and blood, she is a Mafia princess and likely the rightful heiress to one, if not two, fortunes. Whatever we discover in New Orleans will change everything for us both. And yet, it still won’t change the thing that matters most.
“It’s almost over, isn’t it?” Ariana asks then. Once more, I sit up straight, taking in the beautiful raven-haired woman before me. As if reading my mind, she looks at me with lifeless eyes and drooping lips. We both know she isn’t only referring to the investigation.
“Yeah, I think it is,” I say. At that, I stand, leaving Ariana to her thoughts and pad Thai. That is, until she stops me.
