Page 135 of Original Sins (Dark Odyssey 6)

“The shooting could have been avoided. My father warned you to leave and if you had, you wouldn’t have killed Joe’s son and make him declare war on your head. That’s what happened. But your fucking ego got in the way when he pissed you off for taking your clients. Your ego made everything escalate and that formed the basis of why my parents were killed. It was your fault. You should have died that night, not my parents. It was guilt that made you take me in.”

“I did feel guilty,” Dad admits. “Of course I would. Not a damn day goes by when I don’t.”

“Shut the fuck up!”

“I am sorry for your parent’s deaths Peter and I’m not going to apologize anymore. I bent over backwards to make up for what I did and it got me nowhere. You grew up to be a hateful bastard. I never wanted you to marry my girl or give you the business but I was willing to make the final amend by doing so. I was even willing to do it after you attacked my daughter. I wanted to kill you after that, but I didn’t. I even allowed you to live after finding out you screwed me over.”

My God.My brain feels numb. This is the truth and Dad is saying all the things I expected him to say about the attack.

Dad felt guilty about Peter’s parents. That’s why he took such care of Peter. I remember my birthday and that sad look in Dad’s eyes. His eyes didn’t match what he was doing. This was why. Dad didn’t want to give me away to Peter.

“Enough shit, Donny,” Peter sneers. “This is the end of the road for you. If you didn’t have Georgiou Giordano and friends snooping around my shit none of this would have happened and I wouldn’t have to kill you. You’d be in Italy in your vineyard and I’d be balls deep in your daughter with the business in my hands.”

“You bastard.”

“Just sign the fucking paperwork.” Peter points the gun over to me and smirks.

Dad takes out an envelope from his jacket pocket, pulls out an old document and lays it on the table to sign his signature.

I watch my father’s shoulders sag as he signs away our legacy and when he looks at me, it feels like he signed me away too.

He can’t save either of us now.

Peter walks over to the table and looks over the document with a smile.

“Wonderful. Thank you very much,” he says and in the flash of a second he lifts his gun and shoots Dad in his stomach.

Dad falls to the floor with blood pouring from him and I scream from the depths of my soul. The guards hold me back when I try to break free to run to him.

Tears pour out of my eyes and I sob as I stare at my father on the ground bleeding out and groaning in pain.

This is the second time in my life that I’ve seen someone I love get shot like this. And it’s the same man’s fault.

“There, now we’re even. That’s the same place my father was shot,” Peter states.

Another bullet echoes but it’s coming from outside. More sound through the open windows and Peter’s face hardens.

The double doors burst open and one of the guards rush in.

“It’s the Giordanos,” the man blurts. “The whole pack of them. Georgiou is here with his cousins. Frankie and Vincent just took down all the guards at the gate with their men.”

Georgiou is here? Oh my God.

All I can hear is round after round of bullets flying outside.

“You people stay here and deal with it,” Peter orders picking up the company papers. “Kill all of them. I’m taking the girl.”

He marches over and yanks me to him by my arm. At first I try to pull away but he presses the gun to my head.

“No, sweetheart. You fight me and you can join your old man.”

I look at Dad still suffering on the ground and I can’t stop crying.

“I love you,” Dad whispers.

“I love you too,” I tell him. As soon as the words leave my mouth, Peter pulls me away.

We go out the back and I’m thrown into the backseat of the same car we came in.

---