Page 70 of Sins of the Son

I was going to die in the dark, alone.

I might as well die.

I had been betrayed by one of my closest friends.

Cesare Cavalieri betrayed me.

Worse.

He had set me up to be attacked, humiliated, and left for dead.

* * *

I didn't know if it was hours or days later, but when I heard the doorknob lock rattle, I panicked.

I couldn’t know for certain if it was help… or the boys returning to finish what they'd started.

As a blinding white light made me cringe and hide my eyes, I heard horrified exclamations.

I was lifted into the arms of an older man. “What has happened to you, sweet girl?”

Through swollen eyes, I watched as a matronly woman came rushing over. “Holy Madonna! Sal, put her over here. Lay her down gently. Gently. Get some help, Sal.”

I reached for her wrist as I shook my head. “No, please. Don’t. Cavalieri,” I choked out past my dry, chapped lips.

The woman and the man named Sal exchanged concerned looks.

That one word… Cavalieri.

It spoke volumes in our mountain village.

Wealth. Power. Privilege. Legacy. Authority.

And one phrase especially… above the law.

CHAPTER 24

CESARE

Present.

Milana swallowed as she swiped at the fresh tears on her cheeks. “I learned later that Sal, who worked as a janitor at the school at the time for extra money, hadn’t found me until late Saturday afternoon.”

Sal. It explained the man’s almost fatherly devotion to Milana. He had been the one to rescue her. Not me.

I reached for her.

She flinched.

In a rage, I turned and punched the compartment wall, leaving a rusty crimson smear of blood and further damaging my already split-open knuckles. “Fuck! God fucking dammit, Milana. Jesus. Why didn’t you tell me? How could you, for a fucking second, think I would be part of something so disgusting?”

“Are you forgetting the rumors about how your father got away with murdering your mother? And those are just the tip of the iceberg. Your family’s hands aren’t exactly clean, Cesare.”

I pounded my palm against my chest, not caring I was getting blood on my white shirt. “That is my family. This was us. Us! You and me. You could have told me what happened. You didn’t have to believe that bullshit. You should have trusted in us. Trusted in me.”

She threw her arms into the air. “Us? There was no us! Don’t you get it yet?” She slammed her pointed finger into the center of my chest. “There are the Cavalieris and then there is the rest of the world.”

Her eyes flared to life with righteous anger, and I welcomed it. Anything was better than her pain.

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