He gives a curt nod, makes eye contact with Maurice and tells him, “Tell her.”
24
ENZO
My grandfather tells us the story of how Gianni stole Annanias after a failed plan to take over a part of Las Vegas and branch out the Venatti empire. In truth, he wanted to move up the ranks and move my mother and us away from Dallas, where he could do as he fucking pleased with no one watching over him. If he could have isolated us from Nonno and my uncles, there would’ve been no telling what other torments we would have endured.
“Gianni placed your brother into the Academy, a school for orphans and abandoned children. It’s where we often find our greatest soldiers because they’ve grown up without a family, nothing to tie them down, and a huge chip on their shoulders to prove themselves worthy to someone. They’ve never felt loyalty, but they’re willing to give it in order to prove their value,” Nonno explains. “Your brother, it seems, was the same.”
“I don’t understand. We didn’t abandon Annanias. He wastakenfrom us,” Althea grits out, clenching her jaw.
“Yes, but that’s not the story he was told, and as a young boy whose parents never came to find him, it was easy for him to believe.” Nonno smiles apologetically. “Gianni, he brainwashedyour brother into believing he was alone. He placed him in a special room. One without windows or lights.”
“He put him in a cellar. In the dark? Alone?” Althea’s voice cracks, and I tighten my arms around her. She doesn’t fight me, which I take as a small win.
“Gianni needed the boy on his side. He needed him to believe he was going to be Gianni’s son and not your father’s. So, he began starving him. Hurting him. Every time Annanias would argue with the ‘facts’ Gianni wanted him to believe. Eventually, as any young, starving, abused child would, Annanias gave in to the lies and accepted them as truth. It was merely out of the will to survive. I don’t believe the boy truly forgot his family. But he was taught they had forgotten about him. You see where I’m going with this?” Nonna asks.
Althea nods but says nothing. The only sign I have that she’s still with us is the stuttering of her breath as she fights the unshed tears threatening to fall. I wish Gianni were still alive so I could kill the motherfucker again for the pain he’s caused my little devil.
“When Alessia discovered the truth about the boy and what Gianni had done,” Eliseo picks up the conversation. Nonna’s expression changes from gentle to fierce. “She called Pop and told him. She had kept a diary for years. Journaling about their marriage and kids. She wrote down everything about that night. How he came home drunk, rattling on about bringing them a new son. Adopting a little boy who would bring him power and glory.”
“The son he wished he had.” The words come out of me with a growl. Burning beneath my skin are the vibration and rage from the memory of that man, and how I wasn't his son. I was always the ungrateful, unfeeling, useless disappointment of a son.
All things that led to his demise.
Althea turns to me, her face a mask of confusion.
I nod.
“He had a son,” she asks, and I nod, not wanting to tell her the truth just yet. “I think The Bishop mentioned him. He had a son, and yet he kidnapped my brother, anyway? But why?” Her emotions are beginning to unravel. “Explain to me exactly what happened and where my brother is?”
Nonno tries to speak, but his voice gets caught in his throat. Eliseo gives Nonno’s knee a comforting squeeze then looks to me for permission. I can’t help feeling like I’m going to regret this, but she needs to know the truth. To put this all behind her so we can move on in our marriage and in this life we’re about to build together. I give the nod.
“Gianni discovered my sister’s alleged betrayal. He found out she had told Pop about the boy and the trouble he caused with Caspien. Of course, Pop reached out to your father and offered condolences, and the reassurance that Gianni would be dealt with, and your brother found,” Eliseo continues.
“Gianni knew Pop was coming for him, and he lost control. He punished my sister brutally in front of his men and their son.” He nods to me. Althea looks back and forth between us. The truth finally taking root.
“I don’t understand.” Althea looks between me and the other two men again. “Gianni was your father?”
I let out a long, frustrated breath. “My father never accepted me for who I am. To him, my lack of discipline and emotion was seen as a defect. What he didn’t realize was, I do feel emotion. I just never cared to let him see it because he would’ve weaponized it. I watched as he used my mother’s love and affection for us to control and manipulate her. At a young age, I made a choice to never let him see me cry. To endure the pain and anger, no matter what it took. Until the day he raped and murdered my mother, making her an example, as he called it.That day, he saw the monster he had created. The one I held deep inside.”
Althea gasps. Her hands cover her mouth as tears stream down her face. I’m not sure if the horror I see staring back at me is because I’m the reason he stole another man’s son or because I killed my own father.
“You see, Althea, Enzo has always been a protector. He tried to stop Gianni from hurting his mother, and when he couldn’t get to her fast enough to save her, Enzo did the only thing he knew to do. He killed his father in cold blood.”
“I did it for Mama, and to protect Giselle,” I whisper. Althea is still processing, but she won’t look at me. It leaves a cold, empty feeling in my gut I can’t explain.
“At the time, we didn’t know the boy was in the Academy. We went looking for him, but by then his name had been changed and he had already begun to believe Gianni’s lies. We discovered only recently who he really is and where he’s been,” Nonno says.
Althea looks at him with hopeful eyes. “Where?”
Nonno smiles. “In Texas. In Dallas, actually. We’ve sent word to Nazario to bring him here. Perhaps having some family here will help make you feel better about the wedding ceremony.”
Althea stiffens in my arms. “We’re still going through with this? After everything your father put my family through? You truly believe a wedding is the best way to resolve things?” She’s angry, and I don’t blame her, but I meant what I said.
“Yes, we’re still getting married.” I lean my forehead against hers, grasping her face between my hands. She goes rigid beneath my touch. “It’s the only way to mend the past and solidify a future for both our families. And I already told you, baby. I’m not letting you go. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. You are mine.”
Althea pushes out of my arms and moves to stand up. Tears are now streaming freely down her beautiful face. She’s shakingher head, but she can’t argue with the facts. An alliance through marriage is the only way to correct Gianni’s fuck-up.
