Page 75 of Rock Chick Bonus Tracks

Yeah, he knew he wasn’t going to like this story.

“Vito,” Ren whispered.

It was like he didn’t speak.

Vito continued.

“When the time came, months went by. Years. Nothin’. Took her to doctors, every one we could find in Denver. One in LA. One in San Francisco. Two in New York. One in DC.”

Christ.

“It was just not gonna happen,” he carried on. “They all said the same things. Even when science advanced, it wouldn’t have happened. My Angela just didn’t have something down there that worked right.”

Ren said nothing.

“She tried to leave me.”

Ren said something to that.

“Jesus.”

Vito was a family man. He was also Italian. He was powerful, and he was wealthy.

But Ren had never even seen him look at another woman other than his wife.

He and Vito had a father-son relationship, and Vito didn’t share about that kind of thing. But Ren would be shocked stupid if Vito had ever stepped out on Angela.

He loved her. Doted on her.

Dom could be an ass, but Vito hadn’t given up on him, until Dom started cheating on Sissy. That was something he couldn’t abide, a character flaw that Vito found indefensible. Ren agreed.

It also gave further evidence to the thought that Vito would never do that to his own wife, and not because God said you shouldn’t cheat.

Because he respected her too much.

He loved her too much.

And just that she was the only woman he wanted.

“She knew I wanted kids as bad as she did,” Vito kept going. “The problem wasn’t with me. It was with her. She thought if I was free to find another woman, I’d have what I needed most in this world. It was the hardest blow I’ve ever sustained.”

Ren again said nothing, but this time, he didn’t because of the look that came into his uncle’s eyes.

“I fell down on the job, son. That my Angela would ever…everthink I needed anything else in this world. I died a little death when she said that to me. I still haven’t recovered, and she said that shit to me thirty years ago. Hear me, Lorenzo, make certain your woman knows, without ever questioning, that there is not one thing on this earth you need more than her at your side.”

“Think you already taught me that, Uncle Vito,” Ren murmured.

Again, it was like Ren didn’t speak.

“You’re my boy,” Vito said softly. “You all grown up, not wantin’ to do what I did, makin’ it plain you didn’t wanna be grown up and be like me. That was the second hardest blow I ever took.”

Goddamn fuck.

“Vito—”

His uncle raised his hand. “I get it. Talked with Angela about it. She told me what a stubborn ass I am and that I did what I did for the reasons I did it. But I’m not you. Any good father lets their son choose his own path. It isn’t an indictment if they don’t choose yours. It’s a gift you got to give. And I fell down again because I didn’t give it.”

“I should have been more sensitive to you bein’ in that place,” Ren replied.

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