Chapter Thirty-Two

Over the years, my wife had surprised, and even shocked me on several occasions, a feat few people managed.

Today my daughter and wife both had given me the greatest shock of my life, and not just me.

I knew they hadn’t agreed on making such a public affair out of it, but they both shared a boisterous temperament that sometimes chose unfortunate moments to burst through.

“Valentina, what is going on?” I muttered under my breath. The shocked silence was quickly turning into disbelieving whispers. I needed to get the situation under control before it escalated even more.

“I’m sorry, Dante. I couldn’t let Anna marry Clifford. She wouldn’t have been happy.”

I stood with a tight smile.

Maximo Clark looked ready to explode and his wife was already fanning herself with the wedding program in a very attention-seeking way.

I cleared my throat audibly, then waited for silence to descend in church. “We must ask you to leave now. We have matters to settle and this wedding won’t happen.”

Then I turned my focus on the Clarks. Maximo was motioning for his son to come toward them. Valentina in turn was already rushing toward Anna who still stood in the front with a wide-eyed look.

I didn’t allow my frustration to grab the reins. I had to handle Maximo and Clifford first. They could cause a scandal I didn’t have the necessary patience for. Once that was done, I’d deal with my erratic wife and daughter. I had a feeling there was more at play here.

A suspicion had festered in me ever since I’d seen Anna at Santino’s side when he’d been shot, but I’d chosen to distrust my instinct, because I didn’t like what they were telling me.

Valentina and I had always thought by arranging a marriage with Clifford, we’d make sure Anna had more freedom than other girls in our world. We’d taken our own marriage as reassurance. Our love had developed with time, and we’d thought Anna would make the same experience.

If I’d known she was in love with Santino, I would have canceled the wedding myself. Any bond was bound to fail if one of the parties entered it while being in love with someone else. My marriage to Valentina had almost crumpled because I’d clung to my love to my late wife, no matter how hopeless that love was.

Anna’s love wasn’t hopeless. Or hadn’t been. Right this moment, my emotions were too complicated to decide about Santino’s fate.

I stepped into the small room where Anna had gone. Her expression turned apologetic the moment her gaze met mine, but before the change, I’d seen the blatant relief and joy on her face. Joy over having stopped the wedding.

“I’m sorry, Dad. I know I caused a mess.”

“You did,” I agreed.

She swallowed, wringing her hands in front of her body. She cast her gaze up to the ceiling. “I’ve tried to convince myself every day in the last few weeks, months even, that marrying Clifford would be okay. That I could do it, that I had to do it out of my duty for the Outfit and not to disappoint you and Mom, but today the only thing I could think about while standing beside Clifford at the altar was how Santino was doing and that I wanted to be by his side. If I’d gone through with the wedding, I’d eventually have tried to escape it and caused an even bigger scandal.”

A divorce for a Capo’s daughter would have caused major waves.

If Anna had filed for one at some point, many of my soldiers would have asked me to forbid her from going through with it. I would have stood up for Anna of course, because her happiness was ultimately my main goal, but it would have created unnecessary conflict in the Outfit.

“Are you very disappointed?” she asked.

“Yes.” I was disappointed. In her, but mostly in me, for not having seen what was happening long before. I prided myself on my insight into human nature, and it was what had guaranteed my position as Capo over the years, but with my own daughter, I had failed to see the signs. “I’m disappointed because you didn’t tell me about your doubts before, that you didn’t discuss your decision with your mother and me, and instead suffered through the doubt by yourself only for it to overwhelm you today, in the most inopportune moment.”

“I didn’t want to burden you or Mom. I know you prefer to handle things on your own too. You’re always dutiful and I wanted to be like that too.”

I shook my head. I tried to be dutiful, but in the past, I’d on occasion shoved my duty to the Outfit aside for Valentina. My love for my family had always and would always trump my sense of duty. It was my biggest failure as a Capo and my greatest pride as a husband and father. Today Valentina had chosen her love for our daughter too, and I knew she’d do it again. That’s why I’d never ask her to apologize, and she wouldn’t. “Being dutiful is admirable but not for the sake of your happiness, Anna. Your mother and I wanted you to be happy, to live a life filled with freedoms a bond in our world couldn’t give you.”

Anna frowned. “That’s all? I thought it was to strengthen the Outfit.”

“Indeed. That was what we’d hoped for. But we could have strengthened the Outfit by a bond with the Corsican Union too, for the price of risking your safety. I’d have never considered it.”

“I know,” Anna said with a small smile. “I know you and Mom meant well when you agreed to the engagement. You even asked me and back when I said yes, I really thought I’d have no trouble to go through with it, but then…” She trailed off, obviously considering what she should tell me, but she needn’t worry.

Today the scales fell from my eyes. I’d chosen ignorance too long, wanted to cling to an image of Anna that didn’t reflect the truth. Anna wasn’t a little girl anymore. She was a grown woman. “Then you fell in love with Santino.”

Anger expanded in my chest, forcing me to take a deep breath to keep my calm.

Anna sighed. She came toward me and wrapped her arms around my middle. I hugged her back and felt her relax as if she’d worried I’d shove her away in my anger. Anger that wasn’t even directed at her, but even if it were. Anger would never stop me from showing affection to Anna. I couldn’t imagine her doing anything that would make me shove her away.

“What about him? Does he have feelings for you?” I asked, my voice tightly controlled.

Anna pursed her lips. “You worry he played with me? That he led me on?”

I worried about a lot of things now that I knew Anna and Santino’s relationship had been a far cry from professional. “Santino has known you for a long time, and it could have been easy for him to steer a young girl’s infatuation in a direction that would benefit him.”

Anna’s expression turned offended. “Do you really think I’d be that naive and stupid?”

“You are anything but stupid,” I said firmly. “But naivete comes with young age and your mother and I always worried that your strong empathy would be a hindrance in our world.”

“Dad, I’m good at reading people, maybe that makes me an empath but trust me when I say that I’ve used it to my advantage in the past too. I’m not the good girl you think I am. If anyone has been played then it’s Santino. I gave him a tough time, really.”

I narrowed my eyes. “How long has this been going on between you and Santino?” I didn’t want to put a name to it, and if I was being honest, I wasn’t sure if I had any intention to let it become anything worth having a name. Anna’s feelings aside, the fact remained that Santino was my soldier, one I’d entrusted with my daughter’s safety, and he’d betrayed me in the most personal way I could imagine. I didn’t feel inclined to forgive him for this transgression.

“It started in Paris,” she said. “I’ve been having feelings for Santino long before but he’s always ignored my flirting.”

“So he knew your feelings toward him when he agreed to live with you in Paris unsupervised.”

Anna’s expression twisted with realization, then regret over having said too much. Anna was clever and could certainly evade an unpleasant truth without an actual lie, but I had decades of experience on her when it came to manipulation and coercion. One day she’d be as good as me, maybe even better, but right now she still needed to realize that she didn’t know everything there was.

“He did. But he’d never had any intention to give in to my advances that’s why he could say with full confidence that he could protect me in France. He was sure of it. He didn’t lie.”

I smiled bitterly. “I admire your attempt to protect Santino but I fail to see how his behavior doesn’t constitute betrayal. If he suspected you had feelings for him, he should have told me during our conversation before I allowed you to leave. I am his Capo and your father, it should have fallen upon me to decide if I was willing to entrust him with your safety despite your feelings for him, and I would have definitely said no. I’m left with no other conclusion but that Santino already harbored feelings for you and had every intention to pursue them and that was why he omitted to tell me about the risk a shared trip to Paris would pose.”

Anna pulled away. I could see that she was weighing her options. I’d suspected that there was more to the story that she didn’t want to share. Her hesitation told me I was right and that she tried to decide if divulging more of the truth would help Santino or not. I had to admit it made me furious to see Anna cherry-picking what truth she wanted to tell me. As a father, you didn’t want to be lied to.

“You too have lied to me for years, and I think it’s time for you to be honest with me. You aren’t protecting anyone by omitting part of the truth. It’ll only make me assume the worst option, and that’s definitely not a version that’s in favor of Santino. Don’t I deserve the truth?”

Anna closed her eyes briefly. “I’m not even sure I’m protecting Santino by not telling you what happened before Paris, because I acted like a real…” She searched for the right word, then shrugged. “Bitch. Sorry Dad, there’s really no other way to put it.”

Valentina had always taken more offense at curse words than me. Yet, hearing Anna call herself by a term that would have me punish anyone else severely if they used it for any of my daughters or my wife still made me cringe inwardly.

“Let me be the judge,” I said neutrally.

Anna nodded but I still caught her hesitation. “I blackmailed Santino, or he wouldn’t have come to Paris. He didn’t want to, trust me, but he had no choice.”

“I assume what you had on him must have been a major betrayal or he wouldn’t have chosen the risk of being alone with you in Paris.”

Anna flushed. “Well, it wasn’t really a betrayal of you, Dad. I caught Santino with Mrs. Alfera.”

I raised my brows. It wasn’t uncommon for men to cheat on their wives, and word about that often reached my ears. It was something that was tolerated in our world, naturally, as we were a male-oriented world. I wasn’t naive so I’d always known that many women weren’t faithful either, only more clever to keep it hidden. In a world of arranged marriages and unfaithful husbands, it was only natural that wives would look for attention elsewhere. But I expected my soldiers not to sleep with another Made Man’s wife. It added conflict to the Outfit that I found absolutely unnecessary. “Was that all?” I asked, my instinct telling me that Anna hadn’t yet divulged all there was to me.

Anna made a face. “Well, I also caught him with Mrs. Clark.”

I shook my head. “While this is troubling behavior when it comes to the good of the Outfit, I find it even more concerning when it comes to him being the man you obviously have feelings for.”

Anna deserved to be respected and cherished. A man that considered cheating a valid hobby wasn’t someone I considered capable of either.

“Santino has been faithful since we started… dating.” Anna’s cheeks turned red, and I decided that I preferred the term dating to whatever else she might have called it.

I nodded. “I understand. Still, I have to say that Santino’s behavior requires a punishment.”

“Santino’s protected me with his life. He’s in a coma because he protected me. No matter what you might think of him, or his behavior in the past, he’s the man who’d do everything for me. I don’t have a single doubt about that.”

I wished I could share her conviction, but Santino and I had a lot to discuss before I could decide about his future—once his health allowed it naturally. I’d give him a fair chance to defend himself, for Anna and for Enzo.

Anna pressed her cheek against my chest. “Dad, please don’t punish Santino, not for loving me.”

“As you described it, there are plenty of other misconducts I can punish him for.”

“Dad!” Anna said with a pout. She, like her mother, had a miraculous talent to get her will. I’d long given up fighting it. “Promise you won’t punish Santino too badly. Please.”

I kissed the top of her head. “I can’t promise anything yet, but I’ll certainly keep in mind that your well-being is on the line as well. For now, we have to wait for Santino to get better.”

“I hope he wakes soon.”

I hadn’t told her the news about him waking up yet, had thought it more prudent to talk to her before her mind was occupied with Santino. “He did wake. Enzo sent me a message a few minutes ago.”

Anna’s eyes grew huge in disbelief then pure happiness reflected on her face. For a father to see this kind of emotion on their child’s face because of a man they should punish harshly was a nightmare. It wouldn’t be the first time the women in my life made me blur the lines of what should be done for the sake of the Outfit. Yet, I still wasn’t convinced Santino was someone I wanted around Anna.

“Can I see him? Please, Dad, I need to see him and tell him that I didn’t marry Clifford. He probably thinks I’m already married.”

“All right.”

Anna hollered in joy, throwing her arms around me. Despite my intention to hold on to my anger, her happiness filled me with relief. I patted her back, then pulled back and said sternly. “You can visit, but I’ll need to talk to him. And after that, we all need to figure out a solution with the Clarks.”

Anna bit her lip. “They’ll want to ruin us, I suppose.”

“Maximo Clark most definitely, but I can handle him. It won’t be pleasant, though. Maybe Santino can be of help. That way he can prove to me that he’s willing to atone for his betrayal.”