“The opportunity to immigrate to America was too good to pass up. I had no record here. I could do what needed to be done and leave no trace of the man I was. My people called me a Zip. One of the most dangerous men of all because there was no record of me.”
“Aniello was too young to remember you, or else he would have killed you a long time ago for killing his mamma.”
“I should have gone to him sooner. Never allowed him to live with the family that had taken him in. But I didn’t want him to vow to kill me, which was why I couldn’t kill her and let him find out. People talk, word travels. I wanted him to look up to me. It is the entire reason he feels the way he does about me, or did. This life is in his veins as much as I am. That’s something his mamma could never wash him clean of.
“At some point, I told him a version of the truth, about how his mamma turned on me. How she wanted no more of the life. I kept names to myself, because again, I did not want to start a war with my son over old business.”
“Old business,” I repeated. Not because I hadn’t heard him, but from the shock of how cold he was.
He took it as I needed more of an explanation, though.
“His mamma grew a conscience after she had him. The worst thing that can happen to a woman, when she turns away from the life and toward something she feels is more righteous.”
“It’s an affliction in this life,” I said. “A conscience.”
“I’m pleased that you understand, Rosalia. Anything you grow a conscience for will be your priority. At the time, my son understood my predicament.Iwas his priority. This life.”
“Until me,” I said.
He nodded. “You reminded him of the woman who tried to take my son away from me.Mylife.” It was the first time I’d caught any emotion in his voice.
It was angry, and so fucking frightening. The danger in it rippled across my arms like goosebumps.
“It seems like old business has found you again,” I said.
“It seems it has. I didn’t realize how much of a difference she had made in his life. For that, he gives up this life—for you.”
“He gives up his life for love,” I said.
“Love comes and goes,” he said. “What we vow in this life is unwavering, it is solid, it is our life. If we ever make the choice to put something or someone before it, we burn for disavowing. That is the vow we make, and that is the punishment we must accept.”
I said nothing, realizing that no matter what I said, there was no changing this man’s mind. Son or not, Aniello was a part of this life, and this life came before his son.
He sighed long and hard, and leaned forward a little, so I could see his face again. “I did not want it to the end this way. I was willing to let this go, let him go, if you would have married Richard.”
My eyes narrowed on his. “You were going to force me to marry him.”
“At first,” he said. “However, I realized a second too late that even marrying you off was not going to stop my son. The situation was worse than I thought, until fate stepped in and stole your memory. I assumed that would be that.”
He wiped his hands, as though he was cleaning them, but then stopped when he realized they would never be clean. “If you couldn’t remember him, then what was the point of making him angry? That was a mistake. I underestimated my son and how he felt. You had become his conscience.”
“You told me this before.”
He nodded. “You were a little more spirited back then. I’d caught you on your way out. You were in a rush—Paul Assanti was leaving your condo. We had a talk, this talk, and I gave you two options. Get in the car with Richard Dalton, or die. Maybe you would not have fought as hard if I would have told you that my son would die instead.
“Not that you didn’t know the rules. Fraternizing with members was punishable by death. There are reasons for laws, Rosalia, and none greater than ours. The ones we create to keep our way of life intact. I refused to see the business that was handed down to me by a man I respected destroyed. A man who took me in and allowed me to build something here that I couldn’t in Sicily.”
“What’s your name?” I whispered. “Will you tell me that?”
“Vito,” he said.
Aniello didn’t know why I ran,ifI did, or who told me what. Turned out, it had been a collaboration between a few people.
Before I could even react, he had his hand around my throat, choking me. I tried to claw him to get free, but it was no use. He was too strong.
Did my eyes reflect his? His were bugging out with pure hate, his tongue sticking out a bit, while mine stuck out from lack of air. I couldn’t even get my tongue out that far. My entire body was shutting down.
Right before I blacked out, his grip slackened a little, and I was able to gulp in air. It didn’t feel like enough. It felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me, but there was no way to catch my breath because my windpipe had been crushed.
