Page 32 of Bound By Sin
Something dark crossed Valentino’s face, and the mood in the room shifted. “I’m not a nice man, Nia, and I will never claim to be. Most, if not all the stories you’ve read about me have some truth in them, but nobody truly knows all the things I’ve done, and dead men don’t speak. However, I promise, on my life, and the life of every man in my family, that you and your mother have nothing to worry about. I will kill anyone who dares to try to hurt you.”
Nia’s widened eyes filled with fear. No matter how terrified she was of what she’d just heard from Valentino, she needed to know who her father really was, and he didn’t sugarcoat it. It pissed me off that he scared her, but it also gave me some type of relief. She needed to hear it from him, not through something she read on the internet, and I knew he’d do everything in his power to make sure we were safe. He’d die before he’d let anyone hurt us, but I didn’t want her to be afraid of him, either, because he wouldn’t hurt her.
“You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“I am.” He crossed his ankle over his knee. “I don’t lie, even if it makes you scared or pissed off at me. Like your mother, your safety will always be my priority. So, in order to keep you safe, you need to know who I am and what I will do.”
She looked at me. “Is this why you are so against me going to public school?”
“Yes, and I’m sorry I lied to you about that too, Nia, but I have to do whatever I need to do to keep you safe. And now you know who your father is, I can let you know someone is trying to put it in the newspapers. Which is not a good thing.”
“I’m handling that,” Valentino chimed in, “so you don’t need to worry about it.”
I faced him, but he didn’t say anything else on the topic. I wasn’t quite sure how he was handling it; I just hoped the story got squashed without anyone getting hurt.
“So, where do we go from here?” Nia asked.
“Well, I’d like to get to know you, if that’s all right with you. I don’t expect to become your dad overnight, but I want to be in your life and your mother’s. And eventually, I want you to look at me like a daughter would look at her father.”
“But there’s an issue,” I said. “Valentino has to leave.”
I hated to see disappointment cover her face. Despite the anger, despite the bravado, a father was something she always wanted in her life. Valentino and I had argued about telling her why he couldn’t stay. He thought she was old enough to hear the truth, and I was just trying to protect her from that side of his life. But the more we sat and talked about the future, there was nothing we’d be able to shield her from. She was now firmly involved in the mafia world whether we both wanted it or not. She was what he called a mafia princess. Her husband would be the rightful heir of the Cavallaro Family since she is his firstborn.
“You’re seventeen, so I’m not going to sugarcoat shit for you, Nia.”
She took a deep breath, and I saw the admiration on her face. She wanted to be treated like an adult in this situation, and I couldn’t blame her. This was a lot to digest in such a short amount of time, and I was proud of how well she was taking everything so far.
“Thank you. I appreciate that,” she responded.
“There are five families. The Cavallaro family, my family, is one of those. Chicago is another family’s territory. An enemy who now knows about you and your mother. I’ve gotten permission to be here for only a short amount of time, and now that time has ended, I have to go back to Philadelphia. Do you understand?”
“I think so. So, when do I get to see you again if we live in the enemy’s territory? And is it safe for us to be here?”
I took a deep breath and let it out. I didn’t want to uproot her from her life here, but Valentino explained that it was only a matter of time before word got around to the other families about us. And it was safer for us to be in his territory. Did I believe his offer for us to move to Philadelphia had only to do with our safety? I didn’t. I really believed he wanted us with him and for us to have a genuine family.
I really wanted to see if we could make it work, but I did have to think about what moving during Nia’s junior year of school would do to her. She’d lose her friends and would have to make a whole new life in a new city where we didn’t know anyone.
“That’s the thing. Valentino wants us to move to Philadelphia.”
“With him?” she asked.
“Yes. With me. I want to get to know you. I want to have a relationship with you and somehow make up for the last seventeen years I’ve missed. But I also want you to be safe—you and your mother. And I can only do that in Philadelphia.”
“Because you’re not allowed to come to Chicago unless you get permission from the person who runs it?”
Valentino nodded.
“And you can’t just lie to that person and come see me when you want to?”
“It doesn’t work like that in my world, Nia. Coming into enemy territory is dangerous for everyone involved. It could cause a war, and a lot of men could die. A lot of good men.”
“When do you need an answer?” she asked.
“I have until the weekend, then I have to leave. There’s no extending my stay this time. I’ve been here much longer than I’m supposed to. And the longer I stay, the more dangerous it becomes for all of us.”
“Ma, what do you want?”
“I want you safe.”
