Page 112 of Luciano

“You used what I gave you,” I said, my voice flat. “Turned it into a weapon and aimed it back at my father.”

She stood now. “Yes.”

“You asked me to train you… knowing you’d kill my father?”

“No,” she said. “I hadn’t planned on doing any of this. But your father decided he wanted to act like my mother deserved what he did to her. I was so hurt.”

She paused.

“And then I remembered what Aria told me that night I was kidnapped. That if I was going to survive this world with you, I’d have to be harder.”

I took a step back.

“Soft women get eaten alive,” she said. “You let me kill Matteo. You gave me the power. Showed me what I was capable of. And it gave me the courage to kill your father.”

"I'm like you now," she said softly, her eyes steady on mine. "I told you I wanted to be."

There was no apology in her tone. Just fact.

And everything she said was factual.

I understood her.

My breath stopped.

“I created this,” I muttered, more to myself than to her.

She tilted her head. “No. Your father did.”

She stared at me like she hadn’t just said the most damning sentence of her life.

She was right, though.

To her, my father was like the men who created me.

Still, I hadn’t felt this much anguish in a long time.

Everything inside me felt twisted. My jaw locked. My hands twitched.

I knew what I had to do.

I pulled my gun.

Her eyes widened. “Luciano…”

I didn’t need to hear anything else.

I knew what I had to do. It was the only logical think after everything that happened.

I aimed at her—

I hadn't cried in years. Buttears ran down my cheeks today as Ipulled the trigger.

Epilogue

The long mahogany table stretched the length of the room, carved by hand and old as any vendetta in this life. My father once sat at its head, flanked by men who feared him more than they trusted him. Now I sat there. Silent. Watching.

Six dons. Each one older than the next. Each one waiting for me to blink first.

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