Page 44 of Mafia Scars

“What does that mean for you? The business is yours, Luc, if you want it.”

“If I have a chance with your daughter, sir, I’m afraid I’ll have to decline that offer.”

He smiled wide and placed a hand at his heart. “Then you’re a better man than me, and better than what I ever thought.”

I stared at him trying him out. My earlier worry about him picking me because he thought Amelia would like me more than Claudius was correct.

But not the way I thought.

He knew or at least hoped this would happen.

There was a lot I had to answer for, a lot of wrong I was tied to that stemmed beyond me going to LA and meeting Amelia.

However, turning down the business was a start.

It was a start for both of us. Me stepping away from something I’d worked for practically my whole life. Her. Seeing that I was willing to change a big part of my life to be with her.

I just didn’t know if it would be enough.

It was for me, and that was saying a great deal.

I was incredibly wealthy off my own back. There’d been something about me that wanted more, and more. Mainly because of my childhood, growing up in LA with nothing and barely surviving in the piece-of-shit trailer park we’d stayed in for far too long.

It never occurred to me at the time that, that had been all of us trying our hand at a normal life for my mother’s sake. Claudius and I were too young to know the full story, until we were old enough to understand that my father had left Raphael here to try and live a crime-free life.

For years after, I’d believed that normal meant poor.

However, I knew it didn’t’ have to.

“I want this sorted out, Raphael. I want this problem gone. She deserves to have normal, even if that’s not with me. She deserves to be Amelia Rossi and not have to constantly watch her back, or change her name, or take on a profession because she feels she always has to fight a cause. She was supposed to be a dancer, Raphael. How could you allow her to lose her dream?”

I thought back to when Amelia first told me about her dancing, and every time we talked about it, her face would light up. Those beautiful eyes that I loved would sparkle, and I could see her soul.

Raphael’s eyes fell to his lap, and he looked away toward his window. It was open, and the curtains swayed lightly against the cool night air that drifted inside.

“I know I messed everything up.”

“Help me fix it,” I reiterated. “Tell me what happened. Who is doing this?”

“His name is Taglioni Donachie.”

I released a breath. Taglioni, they called him Tag for short. My father spoke about him often when we were kids. He was his friend.

“Tag.”

Raphael nodded and gazed at me tentatively. “Tag was my friend, and he was a good friend to your father. If you don’t mind, I’d like to tell this story in full when Amelia gets here. She deserves to know the full truth about everything. What I will tell you now is this. I ruined Tag’s life. I took everything from him, and he never knew that it was me until months ago when I received this.”

He flicked to the back of the Bible and pulled out a note.

I retrieved it when he tossed it on the bed.

It said:

It was you, wasn’t it. You caused me to lose everything.

You’ll pay with what you hold dear.

Tag