Page 15 of Vices and Vows
“I let him,” he whispers, shame dripping from his words.
“You’d be dead if you fought him on it. What he wants, he gets.”
“Like Gianna.”
My eyes slip closed as my own grief threatens to drown me.Whether he intended it or not, Gia is exactly like the man who raised her, and I’m more like Alessio.
“She’ll come around,” I tell him, opening my eyes. “She’ll be mad when she finds out, but she’ll forgive you.”
“No. She won’t. I wasn’t allowed near her, or he’d kill us both. I had to stand on the sidelines and watch as my little girl turned into a monster. To Gia, I’m nobody, the hired help who she looks down her nose at. If I were dying, she’d step over me and carry on as if my death meant nothing. She has no compassion for human life unless it benefits her somehow.”
He stands up and starts pacing, his hand running through his hair. “I’m too late. Gianna died that day in the park. Gia is Vigo’s daughter, not mine,” he says, and I feel the weight of his words rest heavily on my shoulders.
He must hate me.
As if sensing my thoughts, he turns and looks at me. “Vigo refused to let me love you. Showing you any affection was forbidden.”
The more I learn, the angrier I get. Vigo is a selfish man, and his reckless decisions have left the rest of us living through the ripple effect that a single moment had on all our lives.
“I was banned from showing you that you mattered to me, but the one thing Vigo couldn’t control is how I feel. I know you won’t believe me now, after everything, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s true.”
“What’s true?”
“That you matter.” He steps forward and hits his chest. “You matter to me. I can’t dial it back or turn it off. And God knows, at times, I wished I could.”
I stand up and place my gun on the chair before walkingslowly toward him. He looks at me warily. Then, for the first time since I was little, I wrap my arms around him, and he holds me tightly as he breaks for the past that broke him and the future that will break me if I can’t change it.
Eventually, he gets control of himself and lets me go. Taking a step back, he wipes his face, and I take the moment to ask something I’ve been wondering.
“You’re Vigo’sconsigliere, yet I rarely see you act as an adviser. Vigo does what he wants. Why?”
“The role ofconsigliereis built on trust. Trust, faith, and loyalty, and it goes both ways.”
The pieces suddenly click into place. “And he broke it when he forced you to hand Gia over to him and distance yourself from her and me.”
He swallows and nods his head.
“Does anyone else know?”
“Anyone who knew was killed.”
He sits back down on the bed as I wander over to the window and look out over the city.
“He’s dying.” I hear his sharp intake of breath and turn to face him. “I didn’t ask what was wrong with him. I don’t care. He has agreed to keep my identity quiet for one month, then I’m to marry Aldo before he takes over as the don.”
“He’ll kill you.”
“He’ll kill you too. He’ll appoint his ownconsigliere.”
“I don’t give a fuck about me,” he snarls.
“Yeah, well, I do.”
He shuts up at that. I sigh and go back to the chair, moving my gun so I can sit once more.
“As much as there is no love between me and Gia, she doesn’tdeserve this. She’s about to lose the man she thinks is her father, the home she lives in, the wealth she’s grown accustomed to, and the man she wants to marry.”
“If she marries Aldo, she’ll keep all that.”