Granted, I may have deigned to inform him that I would be bringing Matteo Vitale. I just figured it was about time he metmy boyfriend in an official capacity, other than their business deals, of course.
I narrow my eyes at my father, gesturing with my fork that he’d better start playing. Matteo, for his part, is as quiet as he usually is when it’s not just the two of us. He’s steady, sure and waiting for my dad to make the first move.
He does so with a clearing of his throat.
“So… Matteo,” he starts. “What do you do for work?”
I snort at the question.
“I’m an accountant, sir. And a businessman,” he replies dryly, amusement coating his voice.
“I see. That sounds like a wonderful career. Stable, not dangerous in the slightest.”
My eyes roll. “Enough, Daddy.”
He finally looks at me. “I can’t believe you’re moving in with him permanently.”
“You’re the one that pushed me into his arms in the first place,” I remind him.
He looks stricken at the thought. “I didn’t think things would progress like this between you two. Lindsay, you’re my only daughter. Please reconsider.”
“There’s nothing to reconsider. I’m moving in with Matteo. He’s my boyfriend, and I love him. Plus, you haven’t even heard the good news. You can freak out after. Actually, I have a lot to tell you, but we can start with the good news first.”
His eyebrows rise warily. “What good news?”
“I’m three months pregnant.”
My father chokes on air. Kim, who’s at his side, immediately grabs a glass of water and hands it to him. We wait until he regains his composure.
“Lindsay,” he whispers. “Please, tell me you’re joking.”
“Fortunately, not. And before you get angry, remember what you did. Yes, I fell in love with Matteo. And yes, I’m well awareof who he is and what he’s capable of. But that doesn’t matter to me. All that matters is that I love him and he makes me happy. Don’t be a hypocrite, Daddy.
“You chose this life first. I’m just following in your footsteps. You know… it took me a while to understand why I was pulled off the Vitale RICO case and handed the Bratva file instead. I thought it was a promotion. It wasn’t, was it? It was your office making a problem disappear. I was just the instrument you used to do it.”
He looks so gray, I actually start to feel bad for him.
“Anything else you’d like to add before I have my heart attack?” he questions weakly.
I smile. “Yes, I quit my job at the DA’s office.”
He exhales a deep, deep breath. “What? Why?”
“Because… the thought of working in something so heavily tainted, where you can’t tell who’s good and who’s bad anymore, who’s actually working on the side of the law and who’s just been planted there to help criminal empires keep running smoothly? I don’t know. I’m tired of trying to figure it out.
“I want to be part of something real. Something good. Something that actually changes people’s lives instead of destroying them behind closed doors. I want to help shape young minds before this gray-ass world gets its hands on them. Give kids a place to dream bigger. To learn. To choose who they want to become before the world tries choosing for them.
“So Valentina and I are pooling our resources together. We’re opening a library. It’s going to be something spectacular.”
“A library,” he repeats blankly.
“Mom would have loved it,” I tell him. His eyes immediately soften. And standing here, watching my father’s face crack open at the mention of her, I finally understand something I’ve been circling for years without ever landing on it.
My mother loved without conditions. She loved my father even when ambition hollowed him out and left someone I barely recognized. She loved me the way sunlight loves a room, completely, without needing anything back.
I spent thirteen years after losing her trying to fill that space with something solid. Something I could control. A case file. A conviction rate. A title that told me exactly who I was when I woke up in the morning.
I realize now that I didn’t love the work. I needed it. I’m only seeing it now.
