Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 55769 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55769 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
“Hey, Daisy,” he replied, and looked to the big man. “Tex.”
“Zano.”
“I take it Ally isn’t here?” he asked Daisy.
“Due back soon. Want me to send her over?”
“Would you? If she has time, wanna take my woman to lunch.”
“Love to, darlin’.”
He nodded to her, lifted his chin to Tex, then he headed back to his office.
When he got there, their new receptionist, Sarah, who was quiet, pretty, in her mid-forties, and very good at her job, immediately said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Zano. I tried to stop him.”
Shit.
“But your uncle is here. He’s in your office,” she finished.
Fantastic.
“I really did try to stop him,” she went on.
“It’s okay, Sarah,” he assured. “He’s unstoppable if he wants to be.”
She appeared relieved he understood.
Ren headed to his office.
Vito didn’t get up when he hit it, just turned in his chair and watched as Ren walked to his desk.
He sat behind it and didn’t get a word in before Vito spoke.
“Father Paolo says Ally’s takin’ Catholic classes.”
Ren nodded. “She is.”
“Good,” he grunted.
Vito said no more.
Neither did Ren.
They hadn’t spoken since the big blowup. Even though Vito was sitting right there, Ren knew it was going to have to be him who officially extended the olive branch. Vito was too damned stubborn to do it. It just pissed him off it had to be him.
But family was family.
Vito taught him that.
He opened his mouth.
Vito beat him to it again.
“You know,” Vito began, “before we got married, Angela and me named all our kids.”
Ren felt something tighten in his chest since he knew with this opener it was story time from Vito, he just wasn’t going to like this story. He also knew, when Vito was in the mood to tell a story, he had no choice but to sit back and listen.
So he did that.
“We picked eight names. The middle name and everything,” Vito shared. “Not that we wanted eight kids. We wanted four. But, you know, you never know what a kid’s gonna come out like. We figured we’d have to have alternates just in case an Antonio turned out to be a Massimo.”
“Right,” Ren said quietly.
“We gave it time in the beginning. I just wanted Angela. She just wanted me. But we knew when we were gonna add on. We had it all planned. We had years, we thought, to make our family.”
Vito and Angela were childless.
Yeah, he knew he wasn’t going to like this story.
“Vito,” Ren whispered.
It was like he didn’t speak.
Vito continued.
“When the time came, months went by. Years. Nothin’. Took her to doctors, every one we could find in Denver. One in LA. One in San Francisco. Two in New York. One in DC.”
Christ.
“It was just not gonna happen,” he carried on. “They all said the same things. Even when science advanced, it wouldn’t have happened. My Angela just didn’t have something down there that worked right.”
Ren said nothing.
“She tried to leave me.”
Ren said something to that.
“Jesus.”
Vito was a family man. He was also Italian. He was powerful, and he was wealthy.
But Ren had never even seen him look at another woman other than his wife.
He and Vito had a father-son relationship, and Vito didn’t share about that kind of thing. But Ren would be shocked stupid if Vito had ever stepped out on Angela.
He loved her. Doted on her.
Dom could be an ass, but Vito hadn’t given up on him, until Dom started cheating on Sissy. That was something he couldn’t abide, a character flaw that Vito found indefensible. Ren agreed.
It also gave further evidence to the thought that Vito would never do that to his own wife, and not because God said you shouldn’t cheat.
Because he respected her too much.
He loved her too much.
And just that she was the only woman he wanted.
“She knew I wanted kids as bad as she did,” Vito kept going. “The problem wasn’t with me. It was with her. She thought if I was free to find another woman, I’d have what I needed most in this world. It was the hardest blow I’ve ever sustained.”
Ren again said nothing, but this time, he didn’t because of the look that came into his uncle’s eyes.
“I fell down on the job, son. That my Angela would ever…ever think I needed anything else in this world. I died a little death when she said that to me. I still haven’t recovered, and she said that shit to me thirty years ago. Hear me, Lorenzo, make certain your woman knows, without ever questioning, that there is not one thing on this earth you need more than her at your side.”
“Think you already taught me that, Uncle Vito,” Ren murmured.
Again, it was like Ren didn’t speak.
“You’re my boy,” Vito said softly. “You all grown up, not wantin’ to do what I did, makin’ it plain you didn’t wanna be grown up and be like me. That was the second hardest blow I ever took.”