Tempted By The Mafia Boss

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Mimi

Seeing dad the other night made me want to dig a little deeper into the past.

I only intended to just look around a few things here and there so I went back to grandma’s the following day.

I didn’t find anything, just a lot of what was already there, like her recipe books and journals which said nothing about William. But curiosity lured me to the internet and I wish it hadn’t.

I searched for William Russo and only added suspicion to my curiosity.

He resigned from his position the same week Mom died and hadn’t been heard from since.

I don’t know if that means anything, or if it’s just me wanting to believe something more than what happened. Me so desperate to rewrite the past and believe that mom wouldn’t kill herself.

I wanted to talk to Salvatore about it but held off because I knew he was under a lot of stress from what’s currently happening.

Just like yesterday, when he left me this morning three guards took his place and when I left to go to Grandma they followed me. They’ve been with me all day, alternating between coming inside my apartment and hanging around outside.

When Gina came by, coming to my aid, she was searched and questioned. But she also had a guard with her too. Tony. He came with her and I had to admit that in the two minutes I saw him, he showed more care for her than I ever witnessed in Mario over the seven years she’d been with him.

We would have talked about that. I would have joked about it even but tonight wasn’t the night for jokes.

I took her into my bedroom and hit her with the full story of my mother.

She currently stood as the fifth person who knew what I knew.

She’s sitting before me looking at the picture now of Mom and William and I can see she’s worried.

“Did you tell Salvatore about William? I mean him resigning office in the same week your mom died?” she asks.

I shake my head. “No… I…” I sigh. “Gina I can see that now’s not the time to burden him with something neither of us can change. It’s not like I can bring my mother back. I just want to know what happened. Her death was… it still devastates me. I found her. I can’t get that image of her out of my head.”

Blood in the pool then her body. The pool red then mom floating there like a doll, her white blond hair crimson.

Then me screaming. I screamed and I feel like sometimes I’m still that little girl screaming. I remember arms holding me back from going to her. It was Dad. He was screaming and crying too, both of us shaking. It was neighbors who heard us and came. Everything was a blur after.

It’s still a blur. Time seemed to skip to the funeral. Then a void took the place of my soul as the last bit of earth covered the coffin.

“You want closure.” Gina fills in. I nod. “Mimi, I’m not one to leap and jump to conclusions but this is… it’s something I’d want to know too. One could argue that maybe William was so distraught by her death that he resigned. They looked like they were in love and she told him she loved him.”

“Yeah, I thought that. I did. What gets me is that there’s nothing about him after. Was he that distraught that he couldn’t do anything else? It’s been more than a decade and men like that are always doing something.”

She dips her head agreeing. “Yes, I think so. Just to get to State’s Attorney is a big deal. You don’t just stop for good. Let’s say he did grieve for years, I feel like it would be circumstantial or too farfetched for me to think he didn’t come back in some way.”

“So, what do you think I should do? Gina, it sounds like there was some danger. She says so. She told him to keep the files safe. What gets me is that she told him she had to take care of me and then she kills herself? Does that make sense?”

It doesn’t and previous experience taught me that when something doesn’t make sense it’s because it simply doesn’t.Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

She shakes her head. “What about your father? Do you think that maybe you should speak to him?”

“God, no. Not at all.” She knows about that too, we had a lot to catch up on. “I can’t bring this to him. I mean if I find something worth mentioning that would make him feel better for her death, sure I’ll tell him. I’ll show him everything but he’s already cut up about me and Salvatore, I don’t really want to pour more salt on his wounds if we can look at it like that.”

“I get it… um…” Her hands still and she glances down at the table with an uneasy expression.

“What?”

She releases a ragged sigh. “There’s a guy in the underground. One of Mario’s thuggish acquaintances. He’s the kind of guy who’s into all the talk and everybody’s business. Shit no one should know. He was always mouthing off about his work with government officials. He was a driver for years but got busted for using company cars to smuggle cocaine. I was just thinking he might know something. I mean something in the way of what might have happened to William after.”

A person like that would probably be helpful. Especially if he was into business no one should know about.

An underground guy though? I know to be wary of guys like that. You can’t trust them.

Should I be going to a guy like that in times like these when it looks like no one can be trusted? There have been guards with me since Salvatore told me what was going on. How am I supposed to go search out an underground guy with Giordano guards at my side?

He wouldn’t talk to me just from the sight of them.

My desire to know what happened to Mom though gets the better of me.

I want to know the full details.

Why she killed herself.

Just why for everything and I think I deserve to know.

“Gina, I think I want to speak to this guy if I can.”