The Don and His Angel

Chapter 13

As soon as we returned, Luca disappeared. Gio and Enzo are nowhere to be found either.

So I wander around the castle. I have no idea where I'm going but every hallway and room is more beautiful than the last. It is quite obvious that this place has been passed down for generations but it is maintained very well.

I stop in one of the hallways to look at the paintings. They are all portraits and seem to be in chronological order. I start with the one that looks the most recent.

A younger Luca sits up straight with a hardened face. He still looks like a child. He wears the same kind of suit he wears to this day but lacks any of the tattoos. His head is held high with authority.

Beside that is a family portrait. A tall man who looks like Luca stands beside a beautiful woman. The man who must be Luca's father is the only one without a smile on his face. The woman is holding a baby in her arms wrapped in a blue blanket. Two teenage boys stand on either side of their parents. Blue eyed Luca stands next to their father and brown eyed Antonio stands next to their mother.

The portrait before that is who I assume to be Luca's father. They look a lot alike, especially after today. The man looks like he's never smiled in his life.

"What are you doing?" Antonio's voice startles me.

"I was just looking around," I tell him. He strides over until he is next to me. But he doesn't get any closer, instead he looks up at the family portrait.

"I remember when we posed for that," he says, "Enzo couldn't have been more than a few months old. Luca had just begun his training to take over for our father. I asked for this painting to be done."

"Why?"

"I'm not sure. But I'm glad I did," he replies with a far off look in his eyes, "it's the only one of all of us."

"I'm sorry," I say.

Losing a parent hurts in a different kind of way, especially if they die when you're young. I was still a kid when my mom died. It feels like your whole body is made of bricks. Your muscles. Your bones. Your heart.

We always count on our parents being there for the big things. Graduations, birthdays, weddings, the birth of your own child. But when your parents are ripped away from you when you're still a kid, all of that goes away.

There is no father to walk you down the aisle. There is no mother to help you through breakups. There are no grandparents to coo over your own children.

"Thank you," Antonio whispers.

He turns to me with a sad smile, "I know you lost your mother too. I'm sorry."

"She's happy now," I tell him with certainty.

"You're a very kind person Victoria," he says, "I have been nothing but awful to you and yet you're showing me compassion."

"No one deserves to lose the people they love," I reply.

Antonio nods in agreement before returning his gaze to the painting.

"I'm sorry about the way I've treated you," he says, "to be honest I didn't think you'd last long and I really didn't know what you would mean to my brother."

I don't quite know what to say to that so I look back at the painting as well. What feels like centuries, but is probably two minutes, passes before I leave.

I continue the exploration until I find an oddly familiar door. Did he literally import doors from Italy so they could match in New York? My suspicions are mostly confirmed by the angry voices behind them. I lean closer to try and hear them better.

"I confirmed that it's him," Gio says.

"I want him and his father in the basement now," Luca growls, "we are returning after the christening."

"Do you want to counterattack before we go back?" Gio asks.

"No. I want to watch them fucking burn," Luca replies.

"The safe houses are in place," Enzo says.

"And the compound is almost entirely fixed," Gio adds.

"Until it's time, you stay with her," Luca demands.

"Don't you think you're going a bit overboard?" Enzo asks, "he's one of your best and you're going to stick him on babysitting duty?"

"Do not fucking question me," Luca roars.

"Look I just think there are other men who can guard her," Enzo says.

"Who would you assign to guard Maria and the baby?" Luca asks, his voice returning to it's terrifyingly calm tone.

"That's different," Enzo insists.

"It's not," Luca counters.

I step away from the door and let out a shaky breath I didn't know I had been holding. Luca wasn't fucking around before.

We are under attack.