Page 239 of Vita Mia

He captured her face.

“I don’t care what mistakes you made. I won’t stop you from being happy. Not anymore. Whatever happiness is for you I want you demand it. Settle for nothing less. You understand?”

“I love you too. I only really wanted you to be my father again. I want to be first. Not Gino. Me.”

Giovanni chuckled. “You are first. And I’ve always been here, waiting for your forgiveness. It’s been a long time to live without your trust,” Giovanni said.

“I’m sorry Papa. I’m so sorry for blaming you.”

She hugged him again.

“Everybody is going to Cuba tomorrow. Will you come with us?” he asked.

“Yes. I’ll come.”

Giovanni smiled. He let her go. Eve stood and offered her father her hand instead of his cane. He stood with her help and she put her arm around his waist; together they walked toward the door.

***

“IWANT TO THANK YOU, Ms. Battaglia for inviting me into your home. For telling me your story,” Ryder said. Mirabella smiled and nodded.

“Do you have any other questions?” Mirabella asked.

Ryder glanced to MiaBella who never left the windowsill that she stood next too. He had hoped the tension between them had thawed but it had not. “I guess after Giovanni died in the explosion your family was no longer part of the Camorra. You left that life behind?”

“My life changed a lot after his death—”

“They’re here Mummy,” MiaBella said.

Ryder frowned at her interruption.

“And his resurrection,” Mirabella concluded.

“Resurrection? What does that mean?”

“I’ll let MiaBella explain. I need to go downstairs and greet her father.”

Ryder brows shot up in surprise.

Mirabella left. Ryder turned his gaze to MiaBella for an explanation. She rubbed her arms and stared at him for a long moment. “My father had two deaths. The first one was for the world, the second one was for us. He didn’t die in that crash. He escaped. He was supposed to die. We thought he did.”

“Wait, I’m confused.”

“Listen Ryder. When I told you that coming here with me would change your life I meant it. I’m sorry for what happened to you at that party, for what happened to your aunt’s restaurant. The world thinks my father is dead. We believed the world the first time. Five years later we found out he was alive. So we killed him again, this time by protecting the lie. Two deaths, one lie. That’s my family history. You will be the person to expose the truth. To tell them that he’s here. With us. You will meet him. Speak with him and then go public.”

Ryder sat there stunned. The conspiracies of Giovanni’s supposed existence beyond death was as infamous as the stories of Elvis and Tupac being alive.

“You love conspiracies, well, you have solved one of the biggest.” MiaBella gave him a sad smile.

“But what about your family? What will happen to them?”

She shrugged. “Mum and Papa say we will be fine. But I’m scared. Gino is worried. Zio Domi is against it. We all don’t know what this means.”

“Then why risk it. Why?”

“My Papa isn’t a coward. He stayed away to make my brothers strong. To heal my sister. But I always had him. Since I was five I was with him. And then by the time I was ten my mum had disappeared to live with us. Eve, Gino and Gianni didn’t have him like I did. I think it’s hurt them, in different ways. But what they don’t see is how Papa’s death freed them. My brothers are their own men. Not his shadow. They are tied to the legacy of the Dons of Sicily and Camorra not the crimes of my Papa’s past. They run the family without obligations or debts to anyone. And Eve. She has all the power in this family. Gino consults with her constantly. She runs my life and mums. She’s taken over the fashion world and my mother is barely mentioned. My mother and father gave up their lives for us to have the dreams we wanted.”

“You don’t seem to have the life you want. When we met you were going to be forced into marriage.”

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