Page 2 of Broken Vows

I know why he is cornering me. Now that Carla is eighteen, we should split our inheritance. “About the Swiss?—”

“Now’s not the time, Gigi.” My stepdad sighs as he lets go of my hand, and we lean on the railing to look out to the sea.

“No? But Carla’s share?—”

“I’ve always wanted for you what your mom wanted,” Don Trapani interrupts. “Freedom from family obligations, from this spiderweb we’re caught in. God knows, after decades of trying to leave the Mafia, my son is dragging me back in.”

Deep in my gut, unease stirs. What did Vincenzo get involved in this time? He’s been Don Trapani’s headache for years, on and off, always poised to turn into a full-on migraine.

“What’s happened?” I ask, reminding myself I’m my own person, with my own thriving business, unattached and unbound to the Trapanis’ Mafia affairs. This shouldn’t affect me. In fact, Iwon’tlet it affect me.

For ten years, I’ve worked to extricate myself from their web as I’d vowed to Mom I would. I plan to take Carla along as soon as I possibly can. When she was born, a chamber opened in my heart shaped just like that little baby girl, almost as if she were my own. Over the years, this space has expanded and grown with her. I’ll never leave her behind.

“The world is changing,cara. I am no longer able to keep up with it…or with your brother.”

“He isn’t my brother,” I whisper, because in my gut, I sense where this would go if I don’t nip it in the bud. Vincenzo is my stepbrother and no blood of mine. We share the same surname, nothing more.

“In this, he sees you as his younger sister.”

And a pawn. I fist the railing and clench it hard, anything to contain the anger rising in me. Anger that smells of fear.

“I have my own life, my own business.” I owe him nothing. I need him for nothing. I plan to keep it this way. To be honest, Vincenzo Trapani can go fuck himself.

“Which you built and found success with by using the Trapani name and connections. Don’t think you would’ve gotten this far without it,cara. And don’t snub your origins. They will always be part of you.”

I push down on the anger, which is morphing into panic in my chest. It’s all true. More than a century of Mafia blood runs in me; rivulets gathered from all over Italy into my veins. I might not be Don Trapani’s own daughter, but I’m from old stock, too. I’m a product of my past, but I refuse to give it a future by bending to anybody’s will. Least of all my stepbrother’s. “I’ve built what I have, and nobody will take it away from me.”

“This isn’t about your business, Gigi.”

No, it isn’t. It’s about how fragile this wall I’ve built around me could prove to be if Vincenzo decides I’m handy in the bigger scheme of his plans—it’s about how fragileI’llprove to be if things come to a head.

Don Trapani sighs, and in this moment, he’s no longer my stepdad but a Mafia Don. I sense the change in him, in his stance and the bow of his head.

“I’ve given you all this freedom, Gigi, sending you to boarding school in Switzerland, allowing you to study in England and France. In retrospect, maybe every one of them was a delusional decision on my part. I thought I’d be able to protect you forever, but I can no longer promise that. I’m too old for this game.” He shifts on his feet and lowers his gaze. “You know how this works,cara.”

I do. And it’s the type of knowledge that keeps me up at night, worrying if I’ve done enough, if my fort would hold. I’ve seen more of the machinations of the Mafia than I ever cared for. Every vow I made to Mom on her deathbed, every truth I held myself honest to, surges up in me.

“What about Carla?”

I’d promised to keep her safe, to make sure she has the same exit from this life as me.

“She’s Vincenzo’s half-sister. They share the same blood, but when it comes down to it, she’ll be in the same boat as you are.”

Over my dead body. I won’t see my sister bartered and married off to secure some new alliance Vincenzo must be forging with another crime ring. I will protect her with my life.

Don Trapani’s words might be subtle, but I read their true meaning between the lines: under the dark water of this underworld we hail from, monsters are stirring.

My heart rate has been escalating with each minute of this conversation, and now it pulses in my temple as fear shoots up to settle in the form of a stress headache.

I have time. I’ve always been ready. My business has kept me travel fit and I’m ready to run without much notice. I’m not so concerned about myself, but Carla is innocent and naive, and living in a bubble that can pop at any time.

“Now that she’s done with school, she’ll need a permanent bodyguard,” I venture aloud.

She’s no longer protected by the confines of a very exclusive boarding school in Switzerland. It’s the same school I went to, but beyond our education, the only difference between me and Carla is the first decade of my life where I got to know the ‘real world’ firsthand. Those ten years are making all the difference in our perspectives on life. Where Carla is still happy to go with the flow, I make sure not to get caught in the tide in the first place.

“You too,cara.”

“I’m fine.”

---