“Her clothes, all her jewelry, money he gave her to spend on stylists and shopping trips, thousands and thousands of dollars, he added it all up for the eight years they’d been married. Then, he told her since she was nothing more than a whore, she could work off her debt to him like one of them.”
Bile rises up the back of my throat. “He made her…”
“Yes, in a place worse than you can possibly imagine. Club Oasis is paradise on earth compared to that hellhole.”
“And his men were okay with that?” I ask, incredulously. Even in the Trio, there are some lines that are not crossed when it comes to wives and children or else a man, even a Capo, will lose the respect of his men.
“The sort he keeps closest to him, they knew and revered him for it. The rest only heard rumors and feared my father’s ruthless nature too much to ask too many questions.”
“What about you? Did you know what he’d done?”
He shakes his head. “I was two when it happened. My memories all faded. After seven years had passed, he took us to the place where he stuck her. My brother was five years older. He was excited by the grimy underbelly of prostitution and his fascination with sexual violence had started early. I was only nine. I’d never been to a place like that. Much as I wanted to be treated like a man, I wasn’t ready for that.”
His words about never being with prostitutes makes complete sense now. He would only think of his mother.
“My father introduced us to her. Neither of us recognized her at first. For that matter, she barely knew us after seven years of suffering and being addicted to the drugs all the women there took.” I can’t breathe or speak as he continues. “He told us how she’d tried to leave him, how she'd tried to steal money from him, how she was going to leave us, too. He said to take a good look at what women are good for and how far you can trust them.”
My eyes fill with tears. “Did she die soon after?”
“She died that day, Caterina. My father told my brother her debt had been paid, but she was still a traitor. He ordered Sil to kill her or he would kill him. My brother never hesitated. He had already been initiated and my father, our Capo had given him an order. All I had to do was watch my brother put a bullet between her eyes. My father demanded it.”
There are no words I can say to verbalize my horror. Taught his mother was a traitor, watching his brother kill her, knowing how his father had made her suffer, no wonder he is this hard. No wonder he doesn’t want to feel the things I feel for him.
He walks toward the door. “I’m sending you back to Vegas tonight. I’ll send Frankie, too, if they’ll let me. I have to hunt for my sister. I’ll protect you… but put these other thoughts away.”
Scrambling to my feet, I follow him. “I already said I can’t.”
“You will. You promised never to betray me, and I promised you faithfulness in return. Looks like one of us already broke our promise.”
Stung and desperate, I reach for him. “Alessio, don’t…”
“Don’t what? Don’t cheat?” he asks, a cruel smirk playing on his lips as he shakes me off. “I never wanted your love, Caterina. Our marriage bought peace when all I wanted was revenge. Thiswas never meant to be some goddamn fairytale, and it’s time you accepted that.”
He walks out before I can say anything more, slamming the door shut on my heart as he goes.
32
Caterina
Monday morning, the cook is muttering under her breath in Italian as I pick at another meal she’s prepared. Ornella says that I should eat, that my husband would not want me to waste away. I pretend not to understand her. I have no appetite, and I’m quite certain now he doesn’t care if I eat or not.
As promised, Alessio sent me back to Vegas Friday night. My phone was returned with one tracking application removed and another added. I’m a perpetual teenager to them. Hell, Iamstill a teenager. I wish I felt more like a rebellious one today.
After I arrived at the mansion with a couple of guards, I tried calling my husband when the sun should’ve been coming up in New York. A woman answered his phone. Giggling, she told me he was too busy to talk and then hung up on me. He never returned my call.
He is cruel and he is unforgiving and he answered my betrayal with one aimed directly at my heart. I want to hate him for it with the same intensity which he burns with the desire to killmy brothers. But my heart was fashioned for love. It feels like my weakest link today. Everyone I care about is beyond my assistance or doesn’t want my affection. All love does is pull me further down a path toward misery, waiting for the day my husband finally kills one of my brothers or vice versa and all my foolish hopes die for the last time.
The hours pass slowly, each one a bitter increment measuring something I’ve lost. With every day in which Sofia isn’t found, I become more and more fearful that something dreadful has happened to her.
Nico returned home after unsuccessfully trying to convince my husband to let me stay with my mother and the babies for a few days.“He probably knew if I got you to Chicago, I’d never let you leave again.”
“I wouldn’t have stayed there. For better or worse, he’s my husband and I have a life here.”He’d been silent on the subject after that. I’m not sure if Nico could sense my anguish or he was too focused on his own problems. He certainly has his hands full.
Initially, I was glad that Armando didn’t travel back to Vegas with me after the uncomfortable encounter in my hotel suite. Now, I’m not certain that’s for the best. Bibi has returned home to enter a state of seclusion, full of demands from the servants and lots of hysterical slamming of doors. The problem is Rocco flew back with her, saying his uncle has placed him in charge of the household until his return. He struts around like a peacock. I avoid him but at least he doesn’t frighten me the way Silvio does.
Poor Valdo was sent back as well. He follows me around during the day since his mother is preoccupied with her dramatics. He seeks my quiet reassurance that everything will be alright. He’s only nine, the same age Alessio was when he watched his brother kill his mother on his father’s orders. I watch Valdo play his video games, feigning interest in how many kills and captures he achieves, while grieving over things I can’tundo or control. How soon will it be until this boy will see or do something he can’t forget or forgive himself for? Something that will harden his heart irrevocably?
And then, there’s Frankie. Alessio said he’d try to send her home with me, but it’s been three days since I last saw her being led away for questioning by Don Vicini and her uncle. What have they been doing to her all this time? I shudder to contemplate it.
