We hadn’t spoken much over the past few hours. All of us had vengeance in our hearts and blood on our hands. We had nothing to talk about until we put our father’s killers into the ground.
Paulie and three others were digging their graves. They were beaten to a pulp, their faces almost unrecognizable. But I would never forget Paulie’s face.
After they finished digging, Dante removed a gun from his holster. He aimed at Paulie while Nico, Angelo, and I pointed at the other pieces of shit.
“Any last words?” Dante asked.
Everyone but Paulie kept their eyes on the ground and waited for their imminent deaths.
“Salvatore deserved what he got,” Paulie shouted. “He’s the reason Giulia is dead.”
“Don’t you dare speak my mother’s name,” Dante snapped.
“It’s true.” Paulie inched closer to Dante, standing in the shallow grave. “I was close with your mother. Much closer than any of you ever realized. Sal’s incompetence got her killed.”
“You turned on my father because of an accident?” Dante stood over Paulie and put the gun’s tip to his forehead. “The bullet meant for him hit her instead. My dad had nothing to do with that.”
“I loved Giulia.” Paulie’s voice shook as he spoke. “And your dad treated her like trash. Flaunted his relationship with Cara in front of her. She was going to leave him for me.”
“The fuck she was.” Dante smacked him on the side of the head with the gun. “Stop telling lies about the dead.”
“That bullet should have hit Sal,” he said with certainty. “I should know. I hired the hitman.”
My heart sank into my stomach.
What the fuck?
Dante’s usual expressionless mask slipped, and he emptied an entire clip into Paulie. He threw the gun at Paulie’s dead body and spat in his grave.
I followed suit.
So did my brothers.
Pop, pop, pop.
Like a domino effect, all three men fell backward and into the pit.
“Do you think it’s true?” Angelo asked Dante. “What Paulie said about Mom.”
He shook his head. “No. Ma was a saint. She didn’t have an affair with Paulie.”
His words said one thing, but his face said another. I didn’t know my mother well. She died when I was eleven. But I remembered her hanging around with Paulie, even when my dad wasn’t home.
I didn’t think much of it back then.
Dante would never admit that our mother was anything other than a saint. That was how he chose to view her.
Paulie’s confession was the truth.
ChapterTwenty
AVA
Dante held my hand as the doctor strolled into the room with an open chart, scanning the paper inside. He shut the door behind him and peeked at me with a tiny smile. “Ava, I have good news for you.” Dr. Carter pulled out a chair from the counter and sat at my side. “You’re carrying a healthy baby. We will continue to monitor both of you, but I don’t see any cause for concern.”
Dante squeezed my hand tighter and smiled, a real one that lit up his face. He did that a lot more now that I was about to marry him and carrying a Luciano baby. This morning, he said the baby and me gave him hope that all the shitty parts of our lives could produce something wonderful.
It was hard to believe that after everything we had been through, we could have a happily ever after. Or at least the closest to one we would ever get.
