Ethan

At first, I seriously thought that Aldo was going to kill me. When I watched him reach into his jacket pocket, my heart jumped and my mind began to race.

I thought, oh my God, he’s going to kill me over the fact that I was refusing to work for him. But no.

What Aldo ended up doing was far worse than I could have ever imagined. With just a mere glimpse at the photo he held up for me to see, my entire world felt like it was on the brink of falling to pieces.

No...No...No, no, no, no! NO!! Oh my God!

My throat grew sore. My heart slammed wildly against my rib cage to the point of breaking through. I felt my blood run cold.

“That’s impossible,” I whispered.

“I assure you, it’s not,” Aldo said faintly. “I hadn’t believed it myself in the beginning. As far as my family and I knew, Matteo Marcello was lost. Dead. Until one day, a cop gets injured on the job and ends up getting treated by my wife.”

My breaths became hollow. “Wait...Are you saying that you’ve known the truth about this the entire time?”

A solemn look crossed his face. “Yes,” he admitted.

I couldn’t believe it. No. I didn’t want to believe it. I always knew there were these major gaps in my memory that sometimes left me wondering late at night. But I never would have guessed that it could be something as wild as this.

I mean, it just didn’t make any sense. How could I be related to such a notorious family when I was brought up to hate and despise their nature?

It was like a cruel joke. Worse. A nightmare. One that I would never be able to wake up from. There were so many thoughts and questions racing through my head, I didn’t even know where to start.

“Wait...If you knew the truth this entire time, why didn’t you say something sooner?” I questioned. “Why did you keep it to yourself?”

The creases in Aldo’s features gradually loosened. “There were a few reasons. The first was because you had direct ties to the NYPD. It still poses a problem; however, there’s no way I was going to outwardly admit the whole thing upon our first meeting.”

Yeah, I guess he had a point there. I probably would have thought he was insane if he had tried to approach the topic back then.

Although he was approaching the topic now, I was still somewhat holding out for it to all be a complete joke.

“And the other reasons?” I prompted.

This time, Aldo actually tried to smile. “I held out wanting to tell you because...Because I wanted you to have a normal life. One that was away from all the madness and constant violence. You see, I wasn’t always the head of the family. When I was eighteen, I left. I wanted no part of our family’s darkness or the heavy responsibility that came with being a Marcello.”

I raised my brows in shock.

“So, what happened? How did you end up back where you started?”

“When you were still Matteo, our father passed away and the title passed down to you.”

Slowly the pieces were beginning to fall into place. “And when I had my accident and forgot who I was...Matteo Marcello ceased to exist. Which made you have to be the newly appointed head of the family.”

Aldo nodded his head. “I didn’t have a choice.”

“What was your life like before you had to come back?”

“For starters, I too went by a different name. I was Vasco Conti and I put myself through school and got a job. I worked as a businessman and did pretty well for myself if I’m being honest. Hell, I had an amazing life.”

“Till it all came crashing down.”

“Pretty much,” he snorted. “Our mother reached out and told me what had happened. I had no choice but to drop everything and come back to become the family’s new Don.”

Jesus Christ. I couldn’t decide what was more heartbreaking. Knowing that my own brother had to sacrifice his own happiness to keep the Marcella family running. Or the fact that he had knowingly kept my connection to the family hidden for the sake of not wanting to disrupt my life.

He tried living in the light but was torn from it.

It wasn’t fair. For either of us. Why couldn’t we be left alone to live our own lives without these unbearable expectations that none of us wanted to deal with?

“I really appreciate that, Aldo,” I said. “I’m sorry it had to be you to take over everything.”

The man merely shrugged but I could tell that there was a storm raging behind his eyes. Being a Marcello clearly came with more negatives rather than positives. Hence the current issue that was going on.

Whatever doubts I had about Aldo wanting peace had crumbled to dust. I believed him. For a man who had initially stepped back from his family’s dark reputation to craft an honest life of his own was worth taking a chance on.

“I’m gonna help you,” I said.

Aldo offered a small smile. “Thank you. You have no idea how much I appreciate this,” he said. “I’ve got a plan but we need to act fast.”

Apparently, Vanessa had set the meeting time for tomorrow morning at nine. That meant that we only had the night and the ungodly earlier hours of the morning before all hell was due to break loose.

“What have you come up with exactly?” I dared to ask.

“Since Vanessa will be expecting Layal and everyone else to arrive at nine, then that gives us a small window to act. I’ve got the location. We can ride over there right now and get a decent idea as to what we’re up against.”

“Aldo, that’s great. You have the location, why not inform the police and have them formally take care of it? No one would get hurt and there’s nothing illegal to happen.”

He shook his head. “First, the mere second Vanessa catches wind that the police are on to her, she’s going to vanish into thin air along with my son. Secondly, even if the cops were able to recover Eli, that would mean a report would have to be filed and I’m doing everything in my power to keep the Marcello name out of the public eye right now.”

Damn. Again, he had a point.

I begrudgingly nodded my head in agreement. “Alright. Let’s go.”

Aldo

5523 West Pearl Avenue—Lot number 13 looked like a literal death trap.

It held virtually zero appeal and made sense that Vanessa would pick such a place to hide out in. Not a single living soul would think to ever check out the place given the likelihood of needing a tetanus shot afterward.

Its foundation was barely structurally sound to the point where a strong wind could come by and knock the whole place down. Every window was either busted out or covered in cheap pieces of plywood.

It looked as though it had been abandoned decades ago with not a single willing soul wanting to take it over. Other than Vanessa, of course.

Ethan—Matteo and I had quietly rolled up to the building and shut off all the lights on the car. I purposely had us silence our phone not wanting to draw any unwanted attention to ourselves.

From where we were stationed, I could make out only a handful of guards. It took everything in me to not storm the place and take back my son.

I was tempted merely because it would have thrown a wrench in Layla’s plans. But with that thought in mind, it gave me another idea...