“Ah, you love it. How many big sisters do you think can really beat up someone that fucks with you?”
“That’s true.” I squeezed her tight. “You know I’m not ready to talk about what happened,” I said, hoping she’d understand.
“Hun, I don’t expect for you to ever to be able to talk about most of what happened to you. I love your brother with every bit of what is left of my tattered soul, and I would never tell him the truth of everything that was done to me. What I do expect is for you to live with it. Every day I live with it because Lucca and the babies make it worthwhile. I bury it deep because I refuse to let Enzo win and that’s what you need to do. You need to latch onto that one special thing in your life and refuse to give it to Caterina because if you don’t then she wins. And if there is one thing that I know about a Salvatici it’s that they can’t stand to let someone else win.”
Chapter 28
Sitting in my bedroom staring out the window had become a daily routine for me. Nothing seemed to matter anymore. Sleep was a distant memory. The last time I slept through the night had been the last time I had let the doctors drug me. Stuck for hours in my terror, unable to leave my nightmares, I endured the pain of my gunshot wound after that. I had been lucky the bullet had gone through and hadn’t hit anything. That night had been the last time that I had seen Dom. He hadn’t even stayed around long enough to make sure I was OK. I never asked but I assumed Dom was fine. Nero didn’t bring him up, so neither did I. Life had gone back to normal with Caterina gone. Grams and Nero tried to get me to leave the house but I had no desire to. There was nothing to leave the house for.
I turned my head at the knocking at my door. “Come in.”
The new little maid that Grams had hired hurried in, looking nervous. When she just stood there staring at me I got up. “Is there something you need, Leah?” I asked, getting annoyed.
“I told the lady that you weren’t home, but she wouldn’t listen. She just walked by me and went into the sitting room. I didn’t know what to do,” she squeaked out and wrung her hands together.
“What lady?”
“I told Mr. Genovese, and he said that he’d deal with it but I thought I should tell you, too, because she asked for you.”
“What was the lady’s name, Leah?” I asked, trying to remain patient.
“Angelica Salvatici.”
I rushed forward, pushing past Leah and out of my room. Why was she here? Was there something wrong with Dominic? My foot had just touched the first stair when I saw Nero and Grandmother Rose walk into the sitting room. Hurrying down the stairs I stopped before entering, wanting to hear what was being said.
“Mrs. Salvatici I understand that you are here to see my sister,” Nero said, obviously unhappy with her presence.
“Yes,” she drawled out, amusement lacing her voice.
Peeking through the crack by the door hinges I watched Grandma Rose move to take a seat across from Angelica. Courageously she stared right into her eyes. “My granddaughter is not responsible for the sins of her brother or her sister. Enzo and Caterina were like their father, evil and twisted. I know both Enzo and his father did unthinkable things to you, and Caterina committed sins against your family, but my other grandchildren are innocent and should not have to suffer for their sins.”
Grandma Rose took a deep breath before continuing. “We have destroyed the tapes. We have no desire to harm you or your family. As far as we are concerned justice has been served and no one need ever know. Nothing that I can ever say or do will ever make up for what was done to you, so I will not insult you and try. Should you feel that the debt has not been paid to you in full and need to take a life then I ask that you take mine and not Victoria’s. My family has suffered greatly for my weakness of not defying my own parents’ demands and marrying their grandfather Giorgio. I knew in my soul that he was not a good man, and he passed his evil onto my son. I did my best to protect my grandchildren but I couldn’t. The truth is the first one to truly protect them was you, when you killed my son, Julius.” Sliding from the couch to her knees, Gramma Rose threw away all pride. “As one mother to another, I beg you for the life of my granddaughter.”
Angelica looked up from Grandma Rose to Nero, whose rage at her begging was clear in his dark eyes. “Do you have anything to say?”
“You know I will not beg for the lives of my family. If I have to kill you I will,” Nero said, bringing a smile to Angelica’s face.
“If I wanted you dead you would be, Nero, but I think you realize that. Now pick your grandmother up, leave the room and send your sister in. She’s right outside the door.” By letting the shroud of civility drop from her face, Nero got to see and walk away from what few men did, the monster that lurked beneath her beauty. “Oh, and Nero, I suggest that you take your men outside the windows with you. Should there be an accidental discharge of a weapon I will not take it kindly.” She finished putting a slightly amused mask back into place.
I stepped into the room before this could get out of hand, avoided Nero’s outstretched arm and hurried to Angelica. “I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.”
“That’s quite all right, dear. Your grandmother and brother were kind enough to keep me entertained until you decided that you had eavesdropped enough.” Turning as red as her hair I looked down to avoid the reprimand in Nero’s eyes. “But now that you’re here I’m sure that your brother and grandmother will excuse us, so that I can say what I came to say.”
I saw that Nero was about to say no, so I cut him off. “As Angelica has already explained, if she wanted us dead than we would be dead. I’ll be fine.” I watched Grams and Nero stiffly leave the room. I knew that they didn’t go far.
I turned back to Angelica and tried not to fidget. “Why are you here?”
“We never finished our discussion.”
Confusion was clear in my voice. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. What discussion?”
“The real reason that brought you into my life. The tapes. Tell me and be truthful. Were you planning to blackmail me?”
I was shocked at the question. “No. No,” I said. “I wanted to meet you.”
She kept her eyes glued to me. “Why would you ever want to meet the woman that killed your brother? Was it vengeance? Did you think that you could get close enough to me to take my life? Did you honestly believe that I was so foolish that I wouldn’t have realized who you were?”
Terrified that if I gave the wrong answer it wouldn’t be just my life taken today, I spoke my next words carefully. “Enzo was no brother to me. He was cruel and vindictive. I was terrified of him. He tortured me as a child whenever my brother Nero wasn’t around to protect me. He took great joy in it until I learned to mask my fear. Once that happened he lost interest and it only became an occasional thing. I thought that he left me those tapes as a last act of cruelty, of torture. They were not just of you. When my father was alive I never had friends. We were all kept as prisoners in the house. After his death it was better. Mama remarried to the new head of the family, and he sent Enzo away to boarding school only allowing him home at holidays and we were a normal family without them. Life became good during those years without Enzo and my father. They became the best of my life until I realized the truth of what he did on his holidays. Every holiday he came home I lost a friend. I couldn’t figure out why until I went to my best friend Josie’s house. She had been ignoring me for weeks, so finally fed up I went there.
“Joe, Enzo’s right hand, answered her door. I tried to run when I saw him but he caught me and pulled me in. Josie’s parents were dead on the floor. Keeping hold of me, Joe brought me to Josie’s room. What was left of my best friend moaned softly from her bed. Enzo made me watch for an hour before they were finally finished. They then put me in the car and set the house on fire. Josie was still alive when they did it. They laughed and joked on the way home, dropping me off in the driveway before leaving. She was the last friend I ever let myself have.
“Every girl I had called a friend had a tape. He only killed three of them but from what the ones he let live became I’m sure they all wished they were dead. I wished I were dead. I couldn’t tell because he threatened to kill Caterina. I didn’t know the truth—that she was just as sick as him. “
I looked at her in confusion. “Then there was you. There were so many of you. You were strong. He couldn’t break you. I needed to know why. Why could you defy him when so many others couldn’t? I needed to know what became of you. I was obsessed. When I found out the truth about you, my obsession grew. You not only defied Enzo, but you were strong enough to get revenge against those that had harmed you. You were able to put what had happened to you behind you and be normal. You who had been tortured and abused in ways that I could never imagine had a husband, had a child, a life, and a family for herself. How were you able to put it behind you? Why were you so much stronger than me?” I asked in desperation, needing the answer.
As she looked at me I knew she saw what I hid from my family. She saw the broken child. She shook her head and a sadness entered her eyes. “I can’t give you what you seek. Only you can. Only you can forgive yourself and move on. I blamed myself for things that where beyond my control for so many years but what I learned was that it wasn’t me. Enzo was a monster. If it hadn’t been me it would have been someone else, and that is the simple truth. I would never give Enzo the satisfaction in life of breaking me so why the hell should I give it to him in death.” Leaned forward and took my hand. “What you have to ask yourself is are you going to give that piece of shit one more tear, one more thought? Are you going to give that monster the satisfaction of knowing that even in death he controls you?”
She dropped my hand. “Dominic didn’t know you when this began. You were a job. But once he looked past that to the real you he was willing to stand up against his own family to protect you.”
Pain filled me at the mention of his name. “You’re wrong. I was never more than a job to him. A means to an end. He couldn’t even be truthful about it.”
She shook her head and stood up. As she stared down at me she looked disappointed. “You know, for someone willing to be tortured and isolated for years to protect her family, I would think that you could be a little more understanding of Dominic. Maybe I was wrong about you.”
“Wrong about what? Why are you here? Why the hell do you care if I forgive Dominic?”
“It’s not Dominic that you need to forgive, Victoria. But until you realize that you’ll never move forward. And as for the reason I’m here, it’s to let you know that there is a choice.”
“I don’t understand. Why would you, of all people, come here encouraging me to speak to Dominic? Why would you encourage me—Enzo and Caterina’s sister—to have anything to do with your family? If anyone has a reason, a right to hate me, it’s you. Your husband looked at me with such disgust, and he had every right to do so. My brother had his sister raped. My sister had Maria and Dominic sold a sex slaves. My brother abused and hunted you since you were a child. My sister almost murdered you and your child. Why, why would you come here if not to kill me?”
Grabbing my chin in a firm grip. “We are not responsible for the sins of our family, Victoria. You are not responsible for their sins. Let them be buried with them. You have to decide if you can let go of the past for a chance at a future. If Dominic is the future you want, then be brave, seize it with both hands and never let go. Weather the short storm and know that a sunny sky awaits at the end. If he’s not, and you cannot break free of the chains of the past, have the courage to face him and set him free. The choice is for you to make. There is no one to hold you back any longer other than yourself,” Angelica said softly.
Stunned into speechlessness, I stared after the woman as she left. Would I ever be as strong as this woman who was willing to put aside her own feeling to give someone else a chance at happiness?
I went to the window and pressed my forehead against its cold panes. “Were you planning to tell me the truth?” Nero asked, his voice filling the silent room, obviously having heard our conversation.
I stared despondently out the window. “Never. I knew that you would confront Enzo. I knew you’d die because you had honor and he had none. Even after he and Caterina murdered Mama and you knew the truth of their evil, I stayed silent because it didn’t make a difference. It couldn’t be changed. I knew that you were gathering men to protect us, and you weren’t ready yet. So I remained silent. I think I would have remained silent forever if Caterina hadn’t sent me those tapes. In a way it was probably the best thing she had ever done for me, though she meant it as an everlasting torment. Without those tapes I would never have accepted what had happened. I would never have found Angelica and without her I never would have truly accepted the fact that it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t do those evil things Enzo did. It is beyond ironic that Enzo’s most prized victim was the one to make me see the truth. The one to set me free. The one to make me realize that even in death I was still letting Enzo control me.”
I pushed myself from the window and turned to face Nero. “I’m in love. As crazy and foolish as it is, I’m in love with Dominic, and I’m tired of trying to hide from it.”
Pity filled his face as he spoke. “Tori, it is impossible. No matter what that woman has said, you two can never be together. After the things that have happened between our families, the Salvaticis will never accept you. You have to realize that and move on. Move on so that you can find happiness. I love you, Tori, and it will haunt me to my dying day that I didn’t protect you from Enzo and Caterina, but I can protect you now from yourself. ”
I took Nero’s hands in mine. “Nero, you are my family and I love you, but I have to make this decision on my own. I know you feel guilty, but you shouldn’t. You did everything in your power to keep me safe.”
“And I failed.”
I smiled softly and squeezed his hands. “No you didn’t. I’m here. I’m alive and for the first time in a long time I’m glad of it. I’m glad because I realize that there is so much out there waiting for me if I put aside my own fears and seize it. I know that Dominic’s family may never accept me but I’m willing to take the risk if it means that I’ll have him. And I know that he may not want me, but I’d rather go and have him tell me that instead of spending the rest of my life wondering what if.”
Nero pulled me into his arms and rested his cheek on my head. “So I guess that there’s no talking you out of this.”
“Nope.”
“And I don’t suppose you’ll let me kill him if you come back with a broken heart.”
“Nope.”
“How about a good beating? Will you give me that at least?”
“No, but I’ll let you sit on the couch with me watching sappy romance movies while I cry into my ice cream.”
“Of course you will,” he groaned, releasing me. “So when do you want to go?”
“Soon.” I patted his arm and smiled up at him. “Don’t worry. I don’t give a damn what he wants. He’s mine and for once in my life I’m not going to let anyone get in the way of what’s mine.”
Chapter 29
I looked around the campus and I smiled to myself. Who the hell would have thought that I’d end up here? Angie had decided that I needed a break from the family, so she enrolled me in school. At first I balked, thinking that I was being pushed out but she was right. With the tension between Lucca, my father, and me, diving back in wasn’t the best idea. Marcus and Chris joined me, saying that they needed a break, too, but I knew the truth. They were here to keep an eye on me and maybe they were no more eager than I was to embrace a family that had turned against us. We all laughed because our fathers had gotten what they wanted in the end. We’d all be college graduates.
Sitting here in the place where it all began I couldn’t help but think of Tori. I could still see her the first day I saw her talking to Maria. That awful black hair and baggy clothes making me want to run the other way. The f
unny part was I’d take her like that in a heartbeat if she was here, which was funny for a guy whose first thought about a girl was what she looked like.
“Hey, man, we’ve been looking all over for you,” Chris said, coming up behind me. Turning to look over my shoulder I smirked when I saw a group of girls hanging all over Marcus. There were some things about college that the two of them were definitely enjoying. “There’s a party at these chicks’ sorority, so get your ass up there before the best pussy is snatched up.”
I shook my head before the last word left his mouth. “Nah man, I’m good. You two go enjoy yourselves. I’m going to head back to the apartment and stay in tonight.”
“Dom, you can’t keep doing this. You need to move on with your life.”
“I am. I’m just not in the mood to party tonight. So you two fucks go enjoy yourselves,” I said. I gave a chin up to Marcus and walked away. I wasn’t in the mood for some random pussy with no name and attachment issues. To tell the truth that’s one thing I didn’t miss. Trying to get rid of some bitch that thought if she gave it away like it was nothing that she owned you. If I was honest with myself I knew that the thought of letting one of them touch me made me feel like I was going to puke. Since my time as Caterina’s property I hadn’t been with anyone and had no desire to be. If my dick didn’t get hard at the thought of Tori, I’d be worried. For right now I was just fine with jacking off in the shower. I wasn’t ready to move on.
It took twenty minutes to walk to my building but I enjoyed it because it was a little less time sitting in my room in silence, letting the shit in my head drive me a little closer to insanity. I unlocked my door and just as I was reaching for the handle I knew I wasn’t alone. I swung around, pulled out the gun at my back and pointed it at the shadows of the alcove by the stairs. Slowly she moved out into the light, almost making me drop my gun.
Dominic (The Family Book 2) Page 15