Page 198 of Forced Vows

"I'm not a great storyteller, unless it's someone else's story written down for me," I admit. "The point is that they had three buildings, not far from each other in the middle of Queens."

"What are you trying to say?"

It's all about the Bunker. Telling Aria about it is a risk, but like Miceli says, trust has to start somewhere.

"The agreement between the Cosa Nostra and our family to operate different major criminal enterprises in New York is supposed to keep peace between the syndicates."

"I am aware of that." Aria sounds a little snippy and I like her more for it.

The perfect persona she presents to the world isn't the woman in the portraits her husband painted.

"I don't know what happened when your brother died, but twelve years ago, the Bonanno don decided he wanted to get into the weapons trade and he wanted our warehouse to store them."

"I didn't know that."

"And what your former don didn't know was that even if my grandfather had been willing to allow him to horn in on the weapons trade, he would never sell any of the properties in Queens."

"But why?" she asks in a voice laced with old anguish.

"Because those buildings are connected by a warren of tunnels and storage rooms impervious to being spied on and in over one-hundred years, have never been found and raided by the FEDs."

Aria's eyes widen in understanding. "Those properties aren't just a piece of Shaughnessy history, but that's where you store the things that are most important to your mob."

"People are the most important thing to any mob, or mafia. You can't build an empire on things, only with people. But you're right, we can't sell those buildings without giving those spaces up and they are important."

"I can't believe you're telling me this. What if I pass the information on to the Bonanno don?"

"You won't," I say with conviction. "You have too much integrity."

"You can't know that."

I can because she raised Miceli. "Your son told me once that trust has to start somewhere. And he trusted me with something very important to him."

"Is that how you reconciled yourself to your coming marriage?"

"It's part of it." A big part. I couldn't love Miceli if I didn't trust him.

"One of the things he trusted me with is the family social media app."

"I know."

"If you never unblock me from your feed, I'm okay with that, Aria. I can promise I'll never betray Miceli or my new family, but that's all I can do. Is promise."

Aria nods. "It should be enough."

But I don't agree. "You know how you said that you understand better than anybody how hard it was for me to agree to marry into the Italian mafia and give birth to a child that would become one of them?"

She nods again.

"Well, I understand better than anybody too how hard it is for you to accept me. So, let's just start by getting to know each other, okay?"

"You know a lot about your family's business…" She lets her voice trail off. I smile.

"For a woman?" I ask. "Mamo says women in the underworld have to hoard information."

"My daughter-in-law would agree with her."

"Catalina is pretty great."

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