Arianna POV:
The mob.
The mob, mafia, crime syndicate. Often involved with money laundering and racketeering.
I had wound up in some parking lot my mind a swirl of information. My father had clearly been hiding something from me, all the hidden messages I hadn't been able to catch.
He had been very good to me after my mother's passing but that didn't mean I knew the man in fact looking at it I knew nothing about him at all.
There was only one person I could go to for information but she was gone…
But her things weren't.
I started my car and drove the three hours to my house. I hadn't touched her things at all since she passed. Everything was just as she'd left it I had intended to keep it that way but now I needed answers.
I remember in her closet the things she kept hidden under her floorboards. I had only seen her pull them out once when I had gotten out of bed in the middle of the night.
I can still picture the dark expression she wore as she pulled the box out. It scared me so much that I ran back to my room and didn't mention it ever again.
Now I was in the middle of the mess she left for the first time since my mom left I felt anger rise in my body. I had never been upset with my mother before, she was loving, tender, and warm. Now I realized there was a lie plastering the cracks.
I thought for a second perhaps I was overthinking it, just because my parents divorced so strangely doesn't mean that he was in the mafia. There were plenty of people who'd been investigated and it was all a misunderstanding.
This could all be a slimy tactic by Gio to bring down my father's business.
His handing over his books today flashed in my head. He had so willingly handed over books that had off numbers. The look on his face as I went over them and speculated like he was proud of me.
He didn't fit into this as the villain, that was too easy.
I pulled into my driveway and raced into the house stomping over to her room hesitating only a moment at her door.
I felt it settle into my bones, this was going to change everything. I wouldn't see either of them the same way. Should I stay here, take the blind look away from the darkness like my sister?
My body moved for me the door opened and I found myself pulling up the floorboard of her closet and the box was in my lap.
I inhaled a deep breath and opened it up. Photos off an old camera, my father at some club with some guys, him getting into a car, him at some warehouse.
A man was beaten to a pulp in a pool of blood.
I tossed the photos away from me. My stomach turned.
There were files behind it. In my father's tax records, he'd failed to mention half his income. Half income was cash so why should he, my mother kept track of everything he had earned the real number.
This is why we left. She must have confronted him, told him she knew, and when she did he threw her out.
She must have kept this as insurance to keep him away from me. I bet he had the resources to get me away from her but she didn't want to risk fighting for Guilia.
I felt my blood boil. He had lied and waited until she was gone and was going to keep lying. He wanted me to play the pretty fool, to do his bidding for him. I grabbed the file and stomped out of the house.
What was once my sanctuary felt tainted and dark now.
I couldn't figure out who I was the most upset with. My mother had lied to me my whole life, but she'd had her heartbroken, my father was continuing to lie to me and get me to do his dirty work. Somehow I chose someone who had been innocent in all of this to take the blame. I cursed his name for mocking me in my naivete and snickering at my ignorance to my face. He was cruel to dangle the truth in front of me, making a joke out of me for his own amusement.
"Sick fucking prick!" I growled and my foot pressed further down on the gas.
I remember Gulia telling me he had a townhouse on Miller Street, a nice place with marble steps like in the movies. I found myself heading to his house ready for somebody to face my wrath.
It wasn't like he had done the deed of lying to me, in fact when I would look back on it he was always truthful with me, but growing up with nothing but lies I couldn't tell one from the other and instead balked at the honesty he had shown me.
I skirted my car over to the side of the road and marched out of the car a security guard masquerading as a doorman stomped down the steps to me before someone else stopped him.
"Ms. Caputo," The man who looked much more like a member of Gio's family than his cousin, opened the door and led me inside.
"He's having dinner but I'll ask him to meet you in the parlor," He gestured towards the dancing sitting room and I stomped over.
The frenzy abated from me, embarrassment tinged my cheeks for behaving like this in front of the polite man who had no clue what this was about. Although I doubted angry females were an oddity with Gio as his boss. Composure fell upon me as I heard his footsteps near the room.
"What do I owe this wonderful blessing to?" He entered the room and opened the whiskey on the cart behind me.
"Detective Mosely paid me a visit after our meeting today," I turned and watched the save man freeze for a moment.
"Mosley," He noted the name, I realized my error they probably will do whatever it takes to keep their name in good graces.
"He suggested you and my father had ties to money laundering and racketeering," I told him my mind flashing to the photos from earlier, whatever other dark deeds they had done.
"Well no wonder you're in a mood, that must have been scary hearing such falsities," He handed me a glass and I almost ripped it out of his grip and chucked it at his head.
"Cut the bullshit!" I demanded. "You and my father are in the mob, or run the mob, or whatever. You've both fudged your numbers, you own the town and everybody who has a business is in one of your pockets," I rambled furious that now he was feigning ignorance.
"I would be stupid to admit that to you," He chuckled his eyes dangerous and his smile not the charming one I had been used to brushing off. He was well aware of his sins and he didn't care, he wasn't going to pay the price.
I stifled a shriek of frustration. "I went to my mother's house, and I found a file she'd kept connecting my father to tax evasion and murder, sounds like he's pretty dirty and you should know better than to go into business with a crook unless you're one yourself,"
He stopped and walked over to me. "Where's the file," He ordered.
I glared at him, daggers of resentment as I snarled at him. "What did you just say to me," I pushed him away from me. "Don't threaten me," I growled.
He grabbed me by his arms and brought me closer. "Do you have the file!" He shouted
"Yes!" I shrieked not thinking as the shock from his confining grapes rattled me. He released me, and my heart pounded in my chest, he was a player and a criminal but I didn't expect him to lay hands on me.
"Good, that detective undoubtedly followed you," He brushed his hair aside. "I'm sorry but if he contacted you he has some evidence," He sighed and sat down on one of the couches. "I shouldn't have done that but you've stepped into the viper's den so unwillingly,"
"I'm not afraid of you," I stared down at him.
He gave me an impressed smile as he laughed at my brashness. "I'm not the dangerous one here," He gave a light-hearted chuckle my way that made my hand twitch wanting to smack him across the face. "You are the daughter of the most evil man I have ever come across and you're upset with me for laughing at the thought you find me dangerous?"
His words rang in my ears for a second, my mind left me for a moment thinking back to when I was a child one of the few instances my father had come home early from work. We were outside underneath the cherry trees and we were pointing up at clouds with my sister who was still very small. The deep joy on his face from being with his family.
That man was dangerous.
I spun on my heel and got ready to march out of the room, I shouldn't believe a word this man said.
"If he knows that the detective contacted you he will not hesitate to eliminate the loose thread," Gio called behind me.
There were some things he didn't know, some things only family could see. I didn't think my father had it in him to kill me. He loved his girls, even if he was a ruthless mob boss or whatever it was he did. He wouldn't hurt me, and I wouldn't stay here.