Page 48 of Playing the Sicilian's Game of Revenge

Teo could not find his voice right away. Unacceptable. “No.”

Julia let out a long sigh as her shoulders slumped. Relief, clearly, and it had that ugly guilt Saverina had warned him about eating away at his insides.

“What do you want, Mr. LaRosa?” Julia asked, her voice frayed by stress and something he could not begin to guess at.

“To expose your husband for what he is. A violent criminal on top of everything else.”

She shook her head, then met his gaze. There were tears in her eyes, but they did not fall. “I cannot let you do this.”

Teo frowned. “Why not?”

“I don’t know how you found this out, but I know who you are. It’s impossible to ignore the resemblance between you and my sons, the way your mother left our employ all those years ago. I... I lived in much denial back then, but I don’t anymore.”

“Because your husband attacked your son.”

She inhaled sharply, but she nodded, her hard gaze never leaving the pond. “He was drunk. He and my son engaged in a physical fight that Dante won. It was the first and only time there’d been a physical altercation. And we handled it in a way that is best for my family.” Finally she turned to face him, and her expression was pleading. “So I would appreciate your discretion, Mr. LaRosa. Please don’t do this to us.”

The please landed too hard, in a memory of his mother. Begging him for something. He didn’t want that memory of her in that hospital bed. A wisp of nothing. Already gone.

“Please be happy, Teo. Please.”

“There will be no discretion,” Teo said harshly. “I will end him. Not only will his reputation be ruined, but he could very likely face actual charges. He will be put in jail. Whatever you fear, you will be safe from.”

She laughed. Bitterly. “No, I won’t. And he won’t face charges because we won’t press them. I understand how you feel. Why you want this. Even if I don’t know the details of what Dante did to your mother, I can guess. I sympathize with your feelings, I do. But I will fight you on bringing what Dante has done to light.”

He did not understand this. She should be on her knees begging for his help, thanking him profusely. “How can you not want to see him ended?”

“Because with our agreement in place, my son is happy. Free to follow the life he chooses without Dante’s say, but with the help of Dante’s money. This was my son’s wish, and I agreed because this way there’s no revenge, no chance of Dante hurting us. I can hurt him worse and better. He stays away, and we get to live free of his threats. I would do anything, sacrifice anything to keep my children happy. Even allow Dante to walk free.”

Teo could only gape at her. It made no sense. How could there possibly be a way not to want to see him ended?

“You don’t understand,” Julia said morosely. “I don’t know how to make you understand. I love my children more than I need that man to suffer. Life isn’t fair. It has never been fair. We could think we’re evening the playing field, make it feel fair to us because he loses something. But it isn’t fair. Nothing is fair. I can let that terrible truth ruin my life, or I can do this.”

“And what is this?”

“Love. My children. Myself. Focus on what we have, not what we don’t. A mother only wants to see her children safe, and healthy, and happy. Would I enjoy seeing Dante in jail? Of course. But it wouldn’t last, and he is vindictive and cruel. Trust me when I say that he lives in his own kind of jail. A life devoid of love, empathy, family. He is an empty chasm of wanting more, more, more and never getting it. It will eat him alive far better than any justice system.”

It wasn’t enough. It couldn’t be enough. “I will ruin your husband because he ruined my mother. It is right. It is fair. This...whatever you’re doing...is not.”

“I only vaguely remember your mother. I don’t know you at all. But your devotion to her makes me think you loved each other very much.”

He thought back to the day he’d said something to Saverina about everyone loving their mother. Her response about not being sure she did. He had an evil father, so he supposed evil mothers existed, but it struck him as sadder, somehow. But this was not about Saverina. “She was the best person I’ll ever know.”

“I am glad of it. Let me tell you, as a mother. If she loved you, protected you, got to see you grow into a man who would love her back, who succeeded, her life was not ruined. No matter what hardships she faced. And if you are happy in your life, you have honored her memory in the only way that would ever matter to her. That is all a good mother wants. Her child to be happy and fulfilled.”

Happy.

Teo did not know what to say to this. Did not know how to reconcile the fact that... Saverina had been right. Julia did not want his revenge. Did not feel safe in it. And worse, so much worse, she somehow agreed with Lorenzo’s philosophy on the whole thing. That love and happiness could be more important than justice.

“Will you ruin my son’s life to make yourself feel better?” Julia asked, her eyes full of tears. Like Saverina’s had been last night. When she’d begged him not to move forward. When she’d warned him that just this would happen.

When she was somehow right, and he couldn’t find purchase in this moment. He wanted to ruin Dante, not these people, but...

“Mr. LaRosa? Teo...”

But he got to his feet. And left without answering her question. Because he did not have an answer. He had nothing now. Only more and more confusion.

So much so that when he drove past the cemetery he’d visited with Saverina only yesterday, he turned in, just as she had. But he drove to his mother’s gravesite.

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