He Took His Childhood Friend Away, So I Came Back a Mafia Heiress novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Rocco's POV: The Choice

Rocco's POV

My uncle's house sat at the top of Mount Prospect Avenue, with a long drive and a gate he never locked.

I had come up that drive on a bicycle at eight years old.

I had come up it in a limousine behind my father's coffin.

I left my car at the foot of the steps and went in alone.

The study door was open.

He was packing.

An old leather bag lay on the desk, and he was laying shirts into it with great care, one at a time.

A passport sat on the blotter.

Beside the passport lay a black pistol.

"Close the door," my uncle said. "There's a draft."

I closed it.

"You came by yourself," he said. "Good. Your father would have been proud."

"Don't."

"Sit."

"I'll stand."

He nodded.

"I have a plane at four," he said. "Two seats. It isn't too late, Rocco. I have money in Palermo that no girl and no lawyer can find. We take your mother and what's left of the men. In a year the Rinaldis will have forgotten."

"You killed her father."

"I removed an obstacle."

"She was twelve."

"And I took her in." He turned, and his eyes were wet. "I fed her. I sent her to school. She was never hungry one day in my brother's house. I was good to that child."

"You were good to her," I said, "and you kept her small."

"I kept her alive."

"You kept her small so you could keep her money."

He looked at me for a long time.

"I loved your father," he said. "I loved you. Do you think I enjoyed this?"

"I think you did it every day for sixteen years."

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