DeLuca (Mafia Romance)

“But you did it, right?” I asked.

“Yes, I did. I couldn’t let him see weakness. I had to take a life to save my own, because if I embarrassed my father in front of his men then I was liable to never see the light of day again. When we came home that night something had shifted, one look at my face and my mother knew. Her heartbreak was palpable, with the pull of a trigger I had just crushed any hope she’d had for me to get away from my father’s grasp. The next day she got on a plane to Italy with the excuse of visiting family and left me in the hands of the monster we’d fought against for so many years. I only saw my mother three more times before she died, and each time her disappointment and despair cut me deeper than the last.”

“She abandoned you?”

“Trust me, for years I resented her for it, but as I got older I realized it was probably more self-preservation than anything. The only reason she’d stayed as long as she did was because she was fighting for me, and I’d just thrown it all away. I’d let my father take control of me. There was nothing left for her to fight for.”Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

“What happened after she left?”

“I became an enforcer, started working for my father full time and learned how the business worked. What my parents didn’t realize is that I was still my own person. I refused to let my father burn away my will, I had too much of my mother in me. I wasn’t the sheep he wanted me to be, following blindly in his wake and carrying out his bidding without thought.

“As I got older I became increasingly critical of his decisions, noticing the accounts were dwindling and less and less money was going back in to buy more product. He was a selfish man, I had always known that, but his greed and gambling addiction had gotten him into a mess of trouble. When I discovered he’d been burning through money faster than we could make it for years I confronted him. After all, this was to be my empire one day and I would be damned if he bankrupted it before I ever got control. I told him it was time for him to step down and allow me to take over. Naturally his embarrassment manifested itself in anger and violence and he did the one thing he could to try and break me.”

“What did he do?”

“He killed my mother. He didn’t come out and say he was the one responsible but from the glint in his eye when he told me she’d been in a car accident and didn’t make it, I knew. The thing was he didn’t break me, instead he gave me even more reason to fight. I refused to become his pawn, instead I destroyed him. I knew that to end him and take control of the family would mean that I had to relinquish a part of my soul in order to become the monster I needed to be. With my mother gone there wasn’t a reason for me to need a soul anyways so I did what my father had done before me and sold my humanity for dominance, power and money.”

“Carlo, if you didn’t have a soul you wouldn’t have taken me in, given me all that you have. You have to know that, right?”

“Now I know that, but at the time and for many years after that, I didn’t. When you came kicking and screaming into my life I was in awe, that foul mouth and all that passion and anger,” he chuckled, “I wasn’t expecting you.” He turned his head to study my face, his last words softly floating in the air around us.

“I wasn’t expecting you, either.” I whispered. We stared at each other for a long time, only a few inches separating us. I wanted to kiss him. He’d just poured out his deepest secrets and fears and all I could think about was leaning in and tasting the wine that stained his lips.

“I think it’s time for bed,” Carlo said suddenly. Jumping up from his position on the floor to help me up. “We have an early flight in the morning.”

“Yeah, you’re right, enough daddy issues for one night.”

Carlo chuckled, “Good night, sweetheart,” he said kissing my forehead before we went our separate ways to bed.