Page 63 of The Don

“I’m an old woman now, Don Ortega. I never expected to reach old age, and it took me by surprise. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed any of the journey, though.”

She sighs. “My marriage to Carlos was arranged against my will, and unlike the romance novels I read, it never changed. I despised him and it appears the feeling was mutual, but we had an arrangement of sorts that we learned to live with.”

She shrugs. “He stayed away from me, and I arranged for women to keep him there. He kept me alive because he had no choice.”

“No choice?” I’m surprised at that, knowing how this world operates and she smiles. “Because of where I came from. The Vieri family is bigger than the Matassos and even crueler. Carlos wasn’t a fool and knew if anything happened to me, retribution would be swift.”

She turns to Flora, who is obviously terrified to be in the same room as her, and says sadly, “When you and Diana grew into beautiful young women, he noticed you. Your mother was his ‘go to’ whore and your father had no say in that.”

Flora says angrily, “I never knew that until the night he died. Whenyoumurdered her.”

Dom snarls like a pacing lion and Giselle merely raises her eyes.

“Is that what she told you? It doesn’t surprise me.”

The tension is at breaking point as Flora says in shock. “Then who?”

Giselle appears upset as she says gently, “When Diana ran from Carlos’s room that night, there was an expression on her face that struck me as different. She was lit with excitement and appeared so animated it made me stare.”

Flora gasps. “I remember.”

She turns to Dom. “I told you she was different. As if something so good was happening with none of the grief I experienced when she told me Giselle had just murdered our mother.”

Giselle continues. “I stopped her and questioned what was happening and she merely giggled and stared at me with derision before running off to find her father. When I walked into the room, I saw Rachel’s body on the floor with a gaping wound in the side of her head, the gun lying beside her. I yelled at Carlos, and he appeared shocked for once and told me Diana had shot her mother when she tried to stop him.”

Her lip curls in disgust. “He told me he was fucking Diana and her mother walked into the room. They had a huge argument, and he answered with his fists. Diana grabbed his gun from the side and told them to stop. He thought she was going to use it on him, but she fired the gun at her mother instead.”

Flora’s loud sob reminds us of our humanity and as Dom pulls her into his arms, Gisele says angrily. “Something sparked inside me, and I reached for the gun. Intending on using it to rid my world of the monster controlling it. I had enough and seized my chance, but Carlos was too fast, and we struggled. I screamed in pain as he punched me hard in the face and the gun went off. The bullet bounced off the walls and fell from my hand. Then Benjamin burst in and saw his wife lying dead at his feet and Carlos merely laughed and told him my patience had run out.”

She stares around the room with an angry expression that softens when she sees Flora sobbing in Dom’s arms. “I’m so sorry, my dear. I was the convenient scapegoat. Nobody would seek revenge on me because I was caught up in an act of emotional instability.”

Flora is destroyed as she sobs in Dom’s immense arms and Matteo says abruptly, “So why did the Bachini’s take the girls in? They were sent to an even bigger monster than your husband.”

Giselle spits. “You got that right. Anyway, Carlos used the situation to his advantage and made sure to place Diana exactly where he could control her. With his son. Carlos was tight with Sam Bachini because of an unfortunate shared love for an organization called the Dark Lords. When Carlos got the daughter of one of his guards pregnant, she died in childbirth. The baby was given to the Bachinis because they were childless, and Carlos wanted nothing to do with his bastard son.”

“Why not?”

Matteo speaks up and Gisele hisses, “Because he didn’t want children. He didn’t want anyone to threaten his position and thought a son would grow up and challenge him. He couldn’t bear the thought of another Don Matasso and Carlos would rather the whole family died along with him when the time came, and that is why I made sure of it.”

I stare at her with interest. “You wanted this to happen?”

She nods. “I have lived my entire life waiting for someone to kill that miserable bastard but he’s like a cockroach and survived every single time. When I overheard him laughing with his consigliere about a woman coming for him, I listened with interest. He was proud of what he did to your parents and delighted in the story. It made me sick and when he discovered she was in the neighborhood, he wasted no time in discovering her identity.”

Chastity says icily, “So, you shot Matteo to cause a distraction and Carlos intended to kill me in that warehouse.”

“Correction.” She glances at Matteo and shakes her head. “Heshot Matteo in revenge for Mario’s death, for appearance’s sake. He couldn’t give a fuck that he was dead. If anything, he was happy because Mario was becoming a problem he was nervous about.”

Abigail speaks up, “He was a disgusting creep into the weirdest depraved shit. He told me his father was some supreme dark lord, or something and would want revenge.”

Giselle’s eyes widen. “He was wrong.”

She laughs out loud. “The Dark Lords washed their hands of the Matassos and Bachinis a long time ago. They were bringing unnecessary heat on the organization and that wasn’t what they were about.”

“You seem to know a lot about this shit.” Dom growls and Giselle nods. “I do because my grandfather was a founder member. It’s why Carlos couldn’t kill me. He knew he would be no match for my family and my only hope of living a peaceful retirement was to get someone else to succeed where everyone else had failed.”

She stands and looks around the room with satisfaction before saying pleasantly.

“You have your family back. Now keep them close. The sins of the fathers must never be repeated, and I hope you have learned a hard lesson from them and will be a better don because of it. My time is precious because I don’t have a lot of it left and the Matasso mafia dies with my husband like he wanted all along. His soldiers will find a home with the Vieris and you will be free to carry on business as usual and I will buy a house in the Hamptons where I will live out the rest of my days in serenity.”

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