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Cara stands next to me, dressed in her typical light-wash jeans and white tank top. Her long, raven-colored hair blends with the night while her bright red lips make me remember all the times I scolded her for appearing too grown for her age. As she stands beside me, she looks like herself, free from the torn, stained, and ghoulish reminders of her tragic end that have haunted me for months now. She watches Sophia with a smile on her face as she barrels into Vitale. Her warm amber eyes seem to smile too. Is this real? Is she really here? I reach out to her, but stop myself, deciding I’d rather not know. She looks at me then. Her gaze is almost enough to bring me to my knees.
“Just because I was unprepared doesn’t mean Sophia is. You don’t have to worry about her anymore, Alister, or me.” At that, Cara steps away from me.
“Wait,” I call out to her. I glance toward Sophia, who’s got her hands too full with Vitale to notice.Thank God.Maybe the blood loss has caused me to hallucinate. It wouldn’t be the first time. Regardless, I know this will be the last time I see my sister.
Cara turns back to me then. “Don’t worry, Alister. Where I’m going, there is no fear. No pain. And I won’t be alone. It’s time you remember that you aren’t either.” She looks at Sophia one last time before returning her gaze to me. “I love you, brother. I always have. You were never to blame for any of this.”
At that, Cara turns and walks through the forest. Her small frame darts in and out of patches of moonlight until I blink. When I open my eyes, she’s gone. Our encounter was so brief, I question if it even happened. Yet, as I stare into the forest, my eyes trained on the path she took, the tension in my muscles releases and the ache in my head subsides. I wonder if this is what peace feels like—a sudden relinquishing of responsibility and guilt. I know I will never stop mourning my sister. Even after all these years, I still cry for my mother. I long for my father. The pain of loss comes and goes, always destined to return. But perhaps now, when I think of Cara, when I cry for her, when I long for her, I can take comfort in the pain rather than feel ashamed by it. I can let it serve as a reminder of her, rather than of my greatest failure. Perhaps that is a burden I’m meant to give up to make room for the place inside me Ariana has laid claim to and yet will never inhabit.
As I turn back to Sophia, I find Cassio pulling her off Vitale and Gio handcuffing him. As Gio breaks the stems of the arrows, Vitale squeals. The first of many. I walk toward them, and Vitale closes his eyes as if he thinks I will gift him a quick death. I move past him and go straight to Sophia where she cries into Cassio’s shoulder. I’m thankful for him, for his support of my family, for his men who fought alongside us. But, most of all, I’m thankful that he loves my sister in a way that allows her to be both vulnerable and strong. Though, I could punch him for allowing her to run off after Vitale all on her own, I suppose I can’t blame him for not being able to keep up with her. I trained her myself, after all. I extend my hand to him, and he takes it. Though no words are spoken between us except this simple request: “May I have a moment alone with my sister?”
“Of course,” Cassio says. At that, Sophia pulls herself from him and turns to me, confusion etched into her brow.
“Our men have taken the house. It’s all over. We’ll get him loaded up and sent back to Laroux House,” Gio says as he and Cassio pull Vitale to his feet and force him to march.
“Wait,” Sophia says, moving toward them. “On your knees,” she commands Vitale. He hesitates. I’m not sure if it’s because she’s a woman or if he simply can’t kneel due to the arrow stems still lodged into his legs to keep him from bleeding out too quickly. As he’s done for me a million times before, Gio enforces the Amato command. He kicks Vitale in his shins, leaving him no choice but to fall before Sophia. With him at her feet, she smiles, and then shifts her attention to his right hand where the ring of the Amato crest resides. She takes it from him, and then holds it before him, allowing him to take one last look at the thing he spent his entire life trying to achieve, and yet ultimately failed because he couldn’t grasp the concept of what it truly means to be powerful, what it truly means to be royalty.
“An Amato king bows to no one,” Sophia says then.Except his queen.At that, Sophia motions for Gio and Cassio to take him and they do. We watch Vitale struggle as he moves through the forest slowly. Gio results to threatening the use of an electric wand, like what Vitale used against me, to speed him up.Ouch.As the three of them disappear into the darkness, I wrap my arm around Sophia and pull her into my chest. She nuzzles against me, instinctively bringing her hand to my shirt, now drenched in blood. She pulls her hand back at the unexpected feel to take a closer look. “You’re bleeding,” she says, her eyes filled with concern.
“So are you,” I say then, tilting her hand to show off her bloody knuckles.
“Well, it was well earned,” she says.
“As was mine.”
As I hold her, my lips lift into a small smile. I can’t remember the last time we shared a hug like this. For nearly a year, I kept our sister’s death a secret, which caused me to be unfairly distant toward her. And when I was finally forced to tell her, things became even more complicated between us. She resented me for keeping the secret, which created only more distance, leaving me to obsess over finding the men responsible for what happened to our sister. Losing Cara retriggered the same hopelessness I felt when my mother died and amplified it tenfold. No matter Sophia’s capabilities, I saw her as nothing more than that little girl in her nightgown needing to be sent back to her room for her own good. I treated her like a ward, not like a sister. Maybe now that can change.
Sophia turns to me. “I believe this belongs to you.” She offers me my ring. I hesitate to take it, knowing what it represents. “Alister, I know you’ve felt like a failure, like what happened to Cara was your fault, like I’m your responsibility, especially since Dad died. But I am myownresponsibility. And what happened to Cara was twenty years in the making. It wasn’t your fault. And whether you choose to believe me or not, youarea worthy king. You are strong, honest, fair, caring, and selfless, a bit too selfless, if you ask me.” At that, Sophia wipes the remnants of tears from her cheeks and places the ring on my palm. “So, take it. Take it because it’s yours by birth and blood. Take it because it’s yours to discard, not someone else’s to steal.”
Sophia’s words strike me.Mine to discard.She makes it sound as if I can choose to walk away. But I’ve never— No one has ever given me that choice.
“I know you ended things with Ariana, and I know why you did it. I’d be lying if I said I don’t agree with you. You worry for her safety, and you have every reason to, especially given our past and events of late. Vitale is just one enemy. When others hear of the brotherhood’s involvement in Cara’s death, of how close Vitale came to ending the Amato line, and of the FBI investigation that awaits us in the new year, more will come. New Orleans will be flocked with those who want us dead and won’t hesitate to use the ones we love against us.”
I nod. I’m not sure Sophia and I have ever agreed more. Though, I still don’t understand where she’s going with this. She takes a deep breath and—
“Which is why I want to give you this choice, the choice you should’ve had from the beginning, but no one ever offered. You can choose to remain king. There are plenty of reasons to do so—family legacy, power, the ability to wield an army, to maintain the status quo in this wretched criminal underworld. Or you can choose to walk away, to abandon it all for love.”
What?I pull away from her then as the sting of heartbreak returns to me. “You know I can’t do that.”
“What I know is you’ve always had a reason to stay and never a reason to leave. But everything’s different now. I have Cassio and you have Ariana. You don’t need to protect me anymore, Alister. If you choose to remain king, I will support you. But I will no longer be the reason for your misery.”
“Sophia, you’re not—”
“Cassio asked me to accompany him back to Savannah after things settle down here. I’ve said yes.” I take a step back from her and shove my hands into my pockets. A swarm of conflicting emotions dance inside me. There’s a part of me that’s angry Cassio didn’t ask my permission, as is the gentlemanly thing to do, not to mention a requirement in our world. Then again, Cassio is no longer a part of our world, at least on most days. And it is for that reason that I allow my anger to subside and remind myself of why this is exactly what I’ve always wanted for my sister—a love and a life far from not only New Orleans but the Mafia itself.
“I’m happy for you, Sophia, truly.” I reach out and give her hand a squeeze.
“I wish I could say the same for you,” she replies.
“Sophia…” I shake my head. Though as I prepare a speech on why what she’s proposing is impossible, my mind can’t help but imagine it—a life without the Mafia, a lifewithAriana.
“I once asked you to let me make myself useful and now I’m telling you. If you decide to relinquish the throne, I will help you figure out how to do it. Cassio and I both will. I can’t promise we will succeed, but if there is anything in this world worth fighting for, worth sacrificing for, it’s love, the kind of love that is uncontrollable and unrelenting, the kind of love that brings air to your lungs, that speaks to your soul, that makes you feel alive. It’s the kind of love I see between you and Ariana, a love that burns so brightly it tethers between tragic and magic.”
“The way you speak it’s as if there isn’t really a choice at all.”
“Don’t pretend that your heart hasn’t already decided. You’ve just been waiting for permission to finally go after what you want and I’m giving you that, Alister. Now, all you have to do is take it. So, what will it be?”
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