He killed my brother and father, but spared me at the behest of our extended family here.He made me his bodyguard and proceeded to treat me like shit for the past seven years.Now I’ve fucked him over yet again, because my sister needed saving from him before he took his revenge on her too.And because it’s time I either bring honor back to our family name or let it die out with me.
Everything in Nico’s closet is either black, white or some variation of dark grey.I settle on a pair of black pants and black shirt, since I don’t know where he’s taking me to welcome me home, as he put it, and I figure you can never go wrong with the classics.
Half an hour later, I’m showered, shaved and dressed and the sky outside the penthouse windows is probably as dark as it’s gonna get in this city.Basically a dark purple with pockets of light to brighten it all up.
“So where are we going?”I ask, joining him by the window where he’s texting someone.
“Wow, that took you longer than my girlfriend needs,” he says, pocketing the phone.
“Your girlfriend must be exceptionally fast at getting ready then,” I say, grinning at him.“Lucky you.”
It feels good to joke around like this.I haven’t done much of it in the last seven years since I lost my father, brother and most of my closest cousins and friends out West.And my years at Dante Moretti’s mercy… those involved no kind of joking or even smiling.No girlfriends either, so I really don’t know how long one of those takes to get ready.I just hear it’s usually a long time.
“All right, let’s go,” Nico announces.“It’s dinner first because I’m starving, and then we’ll pop into the Sphere.DJ Enzo Vital is playing and I want to see what all the hype is about.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I say.“Haven’t been to a concert in ages.”
He gives me a sidelong look that’s filled with all sorts of questions, mostly the kind which would need answers that would make this night a total bummer.
“Will there be women?”I add to prevent him from asking any of those questions.
“Always,” he says with a big old grin, hands me a leather jacket by the door then leads the way into the fancy, brass and red carpet-lined elevator.The crystal chandelier hanging off the ceiling seems like total overkill for an elevator.But I’m in old money land now and they do things differently here than out west.Or rather, way more extravagantly.I could get used to it.
A few minutes later, we’re whizzing out of the underground garage in Nico’s brand-new Lamborghini.It’s midnight black and sleek as fuck.Not even available to purchase yet, he told me as I admired it like I’d never seen a car before.I could get used to owning cars like this again too.
But I’m gonna have to earn that.
And I’m not gonna worry about that tonight.I’m just gonna let go for one night before getting to work on resurrecting what was squandered through years of bad choices and bad luck, and the old family curse finally getting its way.
I’m also not gonna worry about whether it can even be done in the first place.Because I mean to die trying and there’s no use worrying beyond that.
Chapter3
GIANNA
We returnedto the city at just past six PM, at which time Lidia decided not to join us on our escapade at the last minute.It wasn’t a shock, since that’s what usually happens.She’s much happier at home, reading books or just gazing out the window, reliving the stories in her head.Dreaming about the day her Prince Charming will come and take her away.Never.That’s when that’s going to happen.But I won’t tell her that.It’ll be painful enough once she realizes it on her own like I did.
What came as more of a shock is that I was considering not going either.Usually, as soon as I get back to New York City, whether I’ve been away for a month or a day, the buzz of constant possibility this city is imbued in makes me want to go out and live all those possibilities.That’s never really an option for me; I can look forward to living maybe ten percent of those possibilities in my entire life.Especially while I’m still a Mafia Princess.
And if I ever do get married, my possibilities might be even more limited.I have cousins and friends who are married and never get to leave the house unless their husbands are with them.But I never miss a chance to do it and Chiara’s plan for sneaking out tonight is solid.
It involves taking out the trash and stuffing pillows under the covers in our bedrooms so even if they check they won’t know we’re gone.And with Lidia staying at home to cover for us, it will go off without a hitch.
But I’m still reluctant to go, even after I just spent over an hour applying my makeup at my vanity table—an ornate white thing with a mirror that has roses carved into it that also belonged to my great-grandmother.She never had the amount of makeup to work with that I do, and I’ve been using it all for over an hour, creating one of my most elaborate makeup looks yet.Gold shimmer, black shimmer, eyeliner, fake lashes… the works.
But I’m done now.It’s time to go.
I stand in front of the large mirror in my closet, admiring my reflection in the skin-tight golden dress and how well my eye makeup complements it.I can see myself in both the mirror and reflection in the window, beyond which thousands of lights are shining in the darkness.I look so good against that backdrop of the nighttime cityscape… like I belong out there in the night, not locked up in this high-up penthouse I share with my sisters, while my mom and dad live in the other penthouse on this floor.
And as soon as I think it, guilt washes over me like a deluge of cold rain.
My family has been through so much grief lately, and every time I see my dad, there’s this sadness in his eyes like he’s wondering if it’s the last time he’s going to see me.Pain over losing his only son, I’m sure.Or maybe something more.Maybe a fear that he’s on the way out, so weakened that the vultures that are always circling will come for him and his position as the head of one of the five mafia families that run New York.He has no heir, three unmarried daughters, and is aging.Things are not looking good for us.
I’ve spent a lot of time hating him for wanting to trade me off like cattle for favors, but the basic truth is that it had always been done like that in our family.I love my dad very much and I know he loves me.I’ve long since decided to focus only on that love and nothing else.
Going out tonight, putting myself in harm’s way and potentially disgracing myself even more than I’m already disgraced… that’s not something a loving, respectful daughter would do.
But in the end, I decide that I deserve a life too.Beyond these walls, beyond the tight confines of my golden cage, beyond family tradition and roles that never did me any favors and probably never will.
