Chapter 8

ANNA

It hadn't been too much of a shock when The Capo had sprung his idea for a walk on me . . . the talking bit at least. What would we talk about besides his obvious desire to know where I had been, with whom and doing what? Would it be that simple, the chat he wanted or was it because he didn't trust me? I decided that it was probably both, and I couldn't say that I blamed him, after all, in his mind and everyone's else's, Aldo had betrayed the family despite having been considered to be one of them. My father, one of the family's closest friends would buy me some favour, but again, because of Aldo, that might be a minimal amount if they adopted the logic that if my brother could stab them in the back, what was to say that I wouldn't do the same? Maybe especially as they had murdered my only known living relative aside from Amina.

Perhaps I should be more concerned about my stroll, but the fact that my daughter had also been invited was reassuring because even if there was a plot to hurt me, I knew this family well enough to know that my innocent baby would not bear witness to it. I shook thoughts of such a melodramatic nature from my mind. The one thing I knew with certainty about this world and this family was that if they were gunning for me it wouldn't be cloaked, I would know about it, as Aldo had. Briefly I wondered what I should call him now as he was no longer The Capo. I'd never known him as anything else and as such had no idea what would be an appropriately respectful title for him.

"What time does Amina wake up from her nap?" Startled from my thoughts, my attention turned to the question I was unsure who had asked, and gazing around the table, I found Gina smiling at me.

"Erm, about eleven, and then she'll feed."

"Eleven-thirty for our walk?" Alessandro asked.

"Of course. I might go and put her down if that's okay?"

"Anna, you do not need to ask, this is your home, as it always was, yours and Amina's now." Maria smiled at me while her husband nodded his agreement.

With Amina's nap over and her fed and dressed, I made my way downstairs where The Capo was leaning on a walking stick already waiting for me.

"Sorry, am I late?" I didn't think I was, perhaps even a little early, and I had been raised to think that lateness was rude.

He smiled at me, resting his stick against the wall in order to embrace me and Amina who he immediately took from my hold as I noticed a stroller near the door. "You know me, to be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, and to be late is unacceptable."

I watched on as the man before me, an older man than I had remembered him being, expertly strapped my daughter into the stroller and hooked his walking stick over the handles. Looked like he was in the driving seat for our walk.

Only a few minutes had passed when the topic of my missing time was raised. "I'm glad Dante found you. You were missed, especially by my son, but by us all, you and Aldo."

I laughed at the last bit, a hard and bitter sound that I almost wanted to apologise for when I looked across at the man I walked in step with, and then I remembered that as sweet as he was with those closest to him, he was also a cold, ruthless murderer who had more blood on his hands than most people could ever imagine. Was I most people? At this point I was unsure.

Once I had left this place and lifestyle behind, I'd told myself I was better than this world and the people in it. It had been my plan to make a clean and honest life for myself and my daughter, even if that was going to be a slow road judging by me spending evenings wrapped around a pole for money while illegal deals went down all around me. And now I was back here with the same people I never thought I'd see again and in the space of a couple of weeks, I had become immersed in it. Just days after my return I had seen one of the men with black eyes and hadn't questioned it, the same way that I hadn't given a second thought to the work Dante would be doing when he'd left that morning, the same Dante I had vowed to hate forever for what he'd done to Aldo, and yet, I had slept in his bed, allowed him to hold me and admitted that we were somehow destined to be during the same conversation where I had told him that I needed to give my brother an appropriate resting place.

I returned to the conversation I was part of. "I don't think Aldo was missed, well not beyond the desire to find him to murder him."

A loud sigh was the reply I received. "Murder is such an ugly word. It sounds dirty and without motivation, and you know there is always motivation, Anna, a reason, wrongdoing."

"You have no idea how much wrongdoing took place in this whole mess, Capo."

He nodded, not disputing what I had said, but didn't respond to that part. "I am not The Capo, not anymore."

"Then what should I call you?"

"Alessandro . . . perhaps it's too soon for Papa."

Words escaped me at the implication of ever calling him papa and the reason why that might be an appropriate title for him.

"I am sorry that you found yourself needing to work as you did."

"It was dancing, no more, Cap. . . Alessandro. Never any more than that."

He reached across and took my hand in his to give it a squeeze. "Apologies if you thought I was suggesting anything untoward, I would never. You're a good girl, Anna, always were."

"Thank you."

"Let's sit a while."

Amina sat on Alessandro's knee as we chatted, reminiscing about years gone by. He spoke of a time before I was born and my infant years.

"Your mother was a wonderful woman, so gentle and kind, much like my wife which is why they got on so well. I remember the night he saw her for the first time and he knew from that second that she was his soulmate."

I grinned at the picture he was painting of my parents, not that it was a surprise as they had always been devoted to one another.

"He hadn't even spoken to her when he told me she was the girl he was going to marry and build a family with."

"They had a real love story," I said, a slightly sad feeling settling in my stomach as I recalled the devastation that had befallen my father when my mother had died.

"They did . . . you know I think he died of a broken heart." Emotion tainted his words. "And he would have been thrilled to have been a nonno to this beautiful girl . . . her father–"

I cut him off. This wasn't a conversation I was having with him, but I did wonder if this had been the purpose of his reason for wanting to take a walk with me. "Alessandro, with respect, I am not discussing this with you. I haven't really discussed it with Dante, so I won't discuss it with anyone else."

His toothy grin made him resemble a wolf who was ready to secure his prey. "You're a good girl, and Dante is lucky to have found you again. You and he are like your parents and my wife and I, destined to be together. Come, it will be lunchtime by the time we get back to the house and it looks like rain."

"Can we go back via the orchard?"

"Of course, Anna, of course."