Page 197 of Forced Vows

Aria arrives promptly at 4 o'clock and I show her into the living room. She does not have access to the penthouse and I have to let her up.

Miceli did that. Did he know I would invite his mom over one day and need that extra reminder that this is my home?

I pour her coffee and she asks about plans for the wedding. I tell her the things moma and I have discussed. It's probably not anything Aria doesn't already know.

Moma is keeping her in the loop and asking for Aria's opinion on things she thinks will matter to the former don's wife.

So, really this is just stalling.

"Here's the thing, Aria," I dive in bluntly. "I know you lost someone to hostilities between the Bonanno Family and the Shaughnessy mob."

"It was my brother. My baby brother." Old grief creases the fine lines of her face. "He had just gotten made and then he was gone."

"I am truly sorry for your loss."

Aria nods. "Thank you. I know you lost your mother to another flare up between the families many years later."

"She was gunned down in front of me." I don't sugarcoat it.

There's no point. Aria knows what happened.

"Can you imagine how hard it was for me to even contemplate this marriage with your son."

"Better than most. But all the strife, the conflict, it's because of you stubborn Irish."

I could blow up, but that wouldn't accomplish anything. Build trust, I remind myself.

Aria wrings her hands. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

"Maybe not, but hiding behind manners isn't going to solve the issue between us."

"It's just…I'll never understand why your family won't sell those properties to the Bonannos." Aria snaps her mouth shut.

Like she's said too much. Like I don't know exactly what the source of the tension between the two syndicates is.

"If my uncle asked your son to sell the De Luca apartment building to him because it is technically in our territory, would you expect Severu to do it?"

"Of course not. We have over a century of history there."

"How old do you think the Queens properties are?"

Aria puts her cup down without taking the drink she planned to. "I don't know."

"The first of the Shaughnessy clan came over in 1869. More of the clan emigrated over the next decade. They weren't alone, other clans like them came too."

"Like them in what way?" Aria sounds curious in spite of herself.

"They were not law-abiding citizens. They flouted the laws and what they saw as the tyranny of the wealthy back in Ireland. They did the same when they came to America, forming mobs, some still connected to those in the Old Country ."

"Are you trying to point out we have a similar history?" Aria asks.

"Yes. The warehouse the Bonanno don wants so badly is on the first tract of land my ancestors purchased in New York."

"So you're saying sentimentality keeps them from selling the warehouse?"

"No. Necessity. Not many years after they bought the land that the warehouse is on, they purchased the land to build an apartment building where they could all live. Which they did. They added a second apartment building a couple of years later."

"How interesting," Aria says, but her eyes are glazing over.

---