Page 14 of Beautiful Vows

“You can... and you will stay alive. I’m giving up my life to protect my children. You promised me you would help me.” Rory’s voice is harsh.

“Mom,” Lia sobs, her voice quivering with anguish as she stares at the screen. “She killed herself … for me?”

I pause the video as Aurelia collapses to her knees, overcome by the weight of the reality of her mother’s sacrifice and the torrent of emotions crashing over her.

Tentatively, I crouch down, pulling her onto my lap, holding my daughter on the floor as uncontrollable sobs wreck her body.

Right then, everything she thought she knew was completely shattered.

Chapter 5

Lia

“I’m sorry. She didn’t want to be initiated, but she knew you and your sisters would never be safe if she were alive,” Antonio says. His shaky lips show the war of emotions going on inside him.

“I don’t know how to process all of this,” I confess. My eyelids are heavy with sadness as I stare at him.

“Me neither.”

The silence between us grows heavy, a reminder of the immense pain we both carry.

Somehow, the video plays again. My mother raises her head, her gaze penetrating the camera lens as she holds a bottle of what I know is poison in her hand.

I can't … I just can't see it.

“Turn it off,” I beg.

Antonio pauses the screen.

But I can’t take my eyes away from the way she is staring into the camera. It feels like it's directly into my soul. Her gaze is so intense that it renders me speechless while the pain in my heart feels like an open wound.

Only now do I understand how deeply my freedom influenced her, the significance of her decisions, and the depth of her love. But taking her own life was a step too far.

Tears stream down my face uncontrollably. I know my mother left when I was four years old. She was already free from them. “Why couldn’t she just stay away?”

I hate she felt she had no choice. Hate it was her or me.

"To save her family."

I press my hand over my stomach and sigh. I understand the tough decision she had to make. The overwhelming love she had for her children. She was selfless, ensuring mine and my sisters’ survival, but nothing can stop my heart from aching.

Finally, the pieces of the puzzle fit together—and the reason my dad hates the mafia.

Antonio raises his gaze to Dominic, urging him to leave the room.

“I’m sorry Lia,” Dominic says as he walks to the door before he turns around and says, “My home will always be your home.”

When the door closes behind Dominic, Antonio takes the gun on the table and hands it to me. “And I’m ready to die,” he confesses, his voice heavy with the weight of his grief. “Ready to join her, because the day she died, I lost the only woman I ever loved. But I gave her what she wanted. I protected our daughter from this life as much as I could.”

The weapon feels heavy in my hand, adding to the growing tension in the air. I came here to do this. With two men dead and three to go, Antonio is making this too fucking easy.

And knowing he wanted to die with her breaks my heart. Neither of my parents wanted to stay in my life.

Tears coat my eyes as I point the gun at his face.

“I’m ready to die.” His voice doesn't waver. It's tinged with finality as he waits for me to be the one to end his suffering. “Please. I’ve waited my entire life to join your mother.”

He’s asking my permission to be with the one he loves.

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