Chapter Thirty-four

LUNA

The ride home was silent. And I appreciated that. My mind was occupied with thoughts of the night, and after every thought process, I found that I had more and more questions.

I thought I had come to terms with my father’s murder, and not ever seeing my mother. I sighed and touched my necklace. Giovanni’s uncle had said that there were only two pieces and he had the other one. What did he mean?

I knew that my necklace was a diamond, but I didn’t think it to be anything out of the ordinary.

“You’re silent.” Giovanni’s voice broke through my train of thought.

“Hm.”

“Is everything okay?” I forced a smile to my lips and nodded.

“Yes, of course.” He looked like he was about to say something and then thought better of it. I went back to looking out the window, busy with my thoughts.

“So…that man who was bidding on the necklace…” Giovanni’s eyes dropped to my neck and he smiled, running his fingers on the expensive diamonds.

“What about him?”

“Who is he? It seemed like some sort of competition…”

“It was. At least to him, everything related to this family is a competition. He is my uncle. My father’s only brother.”

“Oh…” I wanted to ask him about his dealings, hoping that maybe, just maybe, my father’s name would drop.

“You don’t need to worry about him.”

“I’m not. I just realized that you’ve never told me anything about your family, so why not start now? With your uncle.” I smiled my most genuine smile, hoping that he didn’t see through the façade. If he noticed that anything was off, he didn’t mention it.

“Hmm…okay. My uncle is my father’s brother like I said. He is a part of our family, but not in any position to make any decisions. He runs some businesses…”

“Illegal businesses?” Giovanni nodded.

“Guns, prostitutes, and sometimes drugs. But on a very small scale.”

“You guys let him do that?” I didn’t know much about the mafia, but I knew enough to know that he shouldn’t be doing that.

“He is family. And it’s on a small scale, not hurting anybody.”

“Something tells me that you didn’t sign up for that.” He smiled at me and kissed my forehead.

“You’d be right, my love. There’s something about my uncle that always makes me guarded.”

“Really?”

“He gives the aura of someone who wants what others have, and wouldn’t stop till they get that…he would kill to do it,” I scoffed.

“You mean like you?” He chuckled.

“Yes, princess. Something like that, but I would never kill my family to have what they have. I wouldn’t kill them for whatever reason.”

“Sure?”

“Yes. Family is everything.”

“What happened today?” He waved his hand dismissively.

“Don’t worry about it. It was nothing. He has a habit of doing that.”

“Oh…” I licked my lip, as though warming them for what was about to come out “Gio?”

“Yes?”

“Did you know a man by the name of Lorenzo? I heard that he was mostly called Enzo. Do you know him?”

“Hm…personally, no. but I know that name. He worked with my uncle. Why?”

“He…he was my father.”

“Really?” I nodded.

“And Viper killed him.”

“I’m thinking that my uncle gave the order.” I looked at him in shock.

“What?! He said they were close friends!!!”

“He spoke to you?”

“When you went to get the necklace, yes. But are you sure?” He shook his head.

“No. But the only job Viper does for my uncle is kill people. So, it’s not farfetched to assume that my uncle gave the order.”

“Could you…maybe…look into it for me?”

“You want to go down this rabbit hole? Are you sure you’re not better off leaving things as they are?”

“No. I want to know.” He looked at me and sighed.

“Sure. I’ll see what I can do. No promises.” I nodded and yawned. Giovanni laughed and my cheeks reddened in embarrassment.

“It’s been quite the night, right?” I nodded. He stretched his hand over to me, and I slid closer to him on the backseat and leaned into him, falling asleep.

The next morning, I woke up in bed. And the giant tee shirt on me told me that Giovanni had changed me.

My stomach grumbled, and I jumped off the bed and into the bathroom, running through my morning activities. I went down to the kitchen still dressed in another of Giovanni’s tee shirts.

Maria was more than happy to fix me a plate of food, and I took it upstairs to Giovanni’s parlor. I settled in with a cartoon, a glass of juice, and my food. Halfway through it, a knock sounded on the door, and a guard poked his head in.

“Ma’am, Mr. Valente’s uncle is here to see you.”

“Oh…why?” I was surprised. There was no reason for him to want to see him. Though I had my questions.

“He didn’t say. Do you want to see him?” I nodded, and soon enough, he was escorted in.

“Ah…Luna. It’s nice to see you.”

“Yeah…” He came over to me and dropped low till his cheek touched mine, and then sat on the single couch across from me.

“What brings you here?”

“Um…I came here to see Giovanni, but busy bee that he is, he isn’t around of course.” The way the guard was looking at him told me that he was lying.

“Okay. So, you wanted to see me?”

“Yes. If I remember correctly, we didn’t quite finish our conversation last night, did we?”

“I don’t think we have anything else to discuss.”

“Wouldn’t you at least want to know about your mother? Your father?” I opened my mouth to say no, but the words couldn’t come out.

“Sure,” I said instead. He looked back at the guard, and then at me.

“What?”

“Do you want him here during something so private?” I looked over at Steve, who stood there, stoic.

“I think he’s fine.”

“Yes, but I’m not comfortable laying bare private details in the presence of a stranger. Enzo was a great friend of mine.”

A great friend who you killed. The words were almost out of my mouth. I couldn’t prove it yet, so, I nodded at Steve to excuse us.

“We won’t be long, and then you can come back in.” He looked at me skeptically.

“Are you sure, ma’am?” No. I wasn’t.

“Yes.” I smiled reassuringly and nodded. He shrugged, and left the room, closing the door behind him.

“So…”

“Yes. Your father.” He was silent for a while, all the time staring at me like he was thrown back in time “Hello!!!”

“Yes…sorry about that. It’s just that…you look so much like her…”

“Who? My mother?”

“Yes. Just as beautiful too.”

“Oh. Thank you. You said you knew her.”

“Yes. Rather closely. We were together for a while…then she met your father.”

“Together. Like dating?”

“Yes. We were planning to get married.”

“Oh.” My eyes widened in surprise.

“I had given her that diamond.”

“Before you guys broke up?”

“We didn’t break up.” I didn’t like his tone, and I found myself subconsciously looking for a weapon.