“My—current role?” I’d never thought Mrs. Murphy was much of a fan of mine. But perhaps she feared she’d have to do the cleaning up herself after Friday Fun Club.
“Your current role. We have a new senior priest—or should I say, a returning senior priest coming to Our Lady.” He winced.
“Returning priest,” I said slowly, with dawning realization. “Do you mean—”
“Father Benedict O’Sullivan will be returning to his duties at Our Lady.”
“But you said—”
“Ihopedwe’d seen the last of him. While he was away, Our Lady’s finances were actually getting back in the black.”
My head swam as I began to connect the pieces. I saw now what the IFF had wanted all along: Benedict O’Sullivan back as head priest at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church. And I knewwhy, too, a gut feeling that I knew without doubt was correct.
It had always seemed strange to me that a church in one of the wealthiest places on earth had scraped by on such a tight budget, never any money for new programs or renovations, or even paid cleaning services. That money had been funneled off to the IFF through O’Sullivan.
He was an unscrupulous man who’d sold secrets to whoever was willing to pay, including the Italian Families here in New York. Was he a true believer in the Irish nationalist cause, or was it just another payday for him? Maybe the IFF had something on him, something to make him obedient. It didn’t matter much, because the outcome was the same.
The IFF wanted O’Sullivan in charge at Our Lady, and there had been only two things standing in their way: the accusations of embezzlement…and me.Thatwas why they’d tried to scare me off, been willing to kill me if necessary. It was only a few days after Father Raphael had recommended me for head priest at Our Lady that the first attempt on my life had occurred.
Except…Uncle Jim hadn’t tried to kill me. Hecouldhave. He could have stuck that knife between my ribs and left me for dead in the aisles. Teo could have found a dead body rather than a petrified not-priest.
Instead of the kill, Jim had gone for the scare. Wewerefamily, after all. He hated my father, but perhaps something in him had balked at the idea of killing his nephew. He must have known the IFF’s go-to method for dealing with me would be murder. Maybe he volunteered for the job, hoping to just frighten me enough to quit Our Lady. O’Sullivan could have given him a key to wait in the administration office upstairs and instructed him on how to disconnect the cameras.
Teo had interrupted that day and kept me alive. But in the end, I’d made it nice and simple for the IFF by refusing to take those vows all on my own.
I let out a disbelieving chuckle at how things had played out.
Father Raphael gave me an uncertain look, as though he expected me to devolve into hysterics. “I put in a formal protest with the Office of the Archdiocese, of course,” he said quickly. “But the matter is out of my hands. Benedict O’Sullivan has some powerful friends, Aidan. You’d do well to remember that.”
Was it a threat? A warning? Or just advice? Rather like O’Sullivan’s motivations, it didn’t matter much. “I can’t and won’t work under O’Sullivan.”
“Ah,well,” Father Raphael said, placing his hands on the table. He sounded almost cheerful. “In that matter I’ve done what I could. I insisted to the Office of the Archdiocese that I would take on the role as your supervising senior priest for now, that Father Benedict would have no say over your work schedule, and that you alone would have responsibility for those outreach programs in which you’ve invested.”
I gave him a look. “Including the LGBTQIA-plus youth program I suggested?”
“Including the...LGBTQIA-plus program.” He said the acronym slowly, deliberately, watching me to make sure he said it right, then gave a small, weary smile. “I’m not your enemy, Aidan. I hope you see that.”
He wasn’t my enemy, but I wasn’t sure that he was my friend, either. “That’s very generous of you, Father,” I said sardonically, “but I’ve already got a new job somewhere else. So I’m afraid you’ll have to find someone else for the role.” I gave him a smile and a nod, and then I walked out of the seminary and into Teo Vitali’s arms. He was waiting for me, resting against the side of his sleek new car.
“All good?” he asked.
I kissed him, hoping that Father Raphael was spying on us from his office window. “All good,” I said after, and Teo opened the car door for me. He was on his way to the D’Amato townhouse to discuss which new Family members would be good to train as bodyguards, while I was coming along to referee an online meeting between Finch and Tara for the new charitable organization we were setting up: All One Family, intended to help disadvantaged kids in the community with a special emphasis on LGBTQIA+ youth. Today Father Mike was joining the discussion as well, with some suggestions for aligning our goals with Catholic Pride.
Finch had been the one to talk Luca into the charity, while Tara, I thought, saw it as an opportunity to steer the Donovan Family further down the path she preferred. “You’ve come a long way,” Finch had said to me when I first suggested it.
“What do you mean?”
We had been sitting in the townhouse kitchen, at the table where we’d shared so many meals. “Not that long ago you were telling me the Morellis couldn’t donate to the Church because it was blood money. ‘The proceeds of crime,’” he’d mimicked me. “‘Of murder and misery and sin.’” He’d scoffed as he said it, but I could tell by the way he quoted my exact words that it must have hurt him deeply at the time, and I regretted that.
“I’m sorry,” I’d told him sincerely. “It was judgmental of me to say that.”
Finch had weighed up my words before replying. “It wasn’t entirely wrong,” he’d allowed. “But you’re okay with it now?”
“I thought the money would come from the more legitimate areas of the Morelli and Donovan businesses.”
“Oh, it will. Luca wants it clean as a whistle if we’re doing it.” Finch had paused then and said, “So, assuming this not-priest thing sticks, does that mean we can go back to playing cards for money?”
I’d sighed, but smiled and nodded. Finch had cheered as thoughthatwere the most important thing.
