Proverbial tires screech as a new question comes to mind. “Why did you order Rem to find Marianow?”
“I heard rumors,” Aldo says. “They started several months ago. Given the vile nature of them, I believe they came from Maria’s husband’s family.Hewas the one who beat her, buttheywere the ones humiliated, wronged by her leaving, even after all this time. Recently they’ve been spreading nasty rumors, none of which I’ll repeat, but the one about her having a child stuck with me. I couldn’t let it go. I needed to know if there was any chance I had a son or daughter in the world. You’ve seen what family is to us, Lena. I couldn’t live not knowing if you existed. Not to mention that other families—some allies, some enemies—were hearing the same rumors. I couldn’t let them get to you first. So, I tasked my best man—Rem—with finding Maria and I made sure he was motivated to do it quickly. Said she had betrayed us. I never had hopes he’d find her alive, but I was praying he’d stumble across evidence of you along the way. Anything to help me find you.”
Rem curses. “You should’ve told me the truth, Uncle. Should’ve told me who I was really looking for and why. It would’ve saved us a fuck ton of trouble.”
“Forgive an old man.” Aldo doesn’t look the least bit repentant. “I didn’t want anyone knowing that Lena might truly exist, not before I was certain myself.”
Rem, who has been protectively perched on the armrest, suddenly stands. “But wait—youdidknow Lena existed. You and Ari have known of Lena’s existence for months. Maybe you didn’t know she was your biological daughter, but you knewher. Where she worked, where she lived. What she looked like. You knew her by name. Ages before the house fire.”
For the first time tonight, Aldo looks genuinely surprised.
“No,” he says, standing to meet Rem. “I assure you I didn’t. Iwas able to track a DNA connection to a woman who infrequently visited the Fisher residence, but did not live there. That was the limit of my information, where my search for my daughter hit a dead end. Which is why I’ve been pushing you so hard for answers. I didn’t know the name Lena Haywood until very recently. It never came up in any research into Mable Fisher.”
“He’s right, it wouldn’t,” I say, rising from the sofa. “Unless you already knew my connection to the Haywoods and found Aunt Mable through them, like a reverse search, you’d struggle to know that she and I were connected in any way.”
“But if you didn’t make the connection, who did?” Rem asks. “Because someone did. Someone with better intel than me. I only knew through my…” Rem pauses, looking for a word that won’t enrage his uncle, myfather.
“Your investigation,” I prompt.
“Yeah,” Rem says. “I knew through myinvestigationLena was supposed to be away from her apartment that night, outside of Chicago. Once I cleared her intended destination with any ties to the Paganos, I didn’t look give it another look. But someone did.”
He looks at me, continuing, “If the fire at Mabel’s house wasn’t an accident, if it was intentionally set to burn the house down on theonenight you were supposed to be there, then someone absolutely knew the connection between you and Mabel. Not only that, but they were so determined to kill you that night they weren’t taking any chances. Which is why, in the time between the fire starting and you learning about it on the news, that person sent an assassin to shoot you in your own apartment. That person hired theArkhangelto finish the job because you didn’t die with your aunt like you were supposed to.”
“Wait.” Aldo grips Rem’s forearm, that one word so forceful. “Go back. What do you mean Lena was supposed to be in the house when it burned down?”
“Exactly that,” I answer. “I was scheduled to visit Aunt Mable that night, but a last-minute audition came up and I had to cancel on her. It’s sheer luck I wasn’t in the house when it caught fire.”
Aldo squeezes Rem’s arm until his fingertips go white. “Second question, and this one Rem has to answer—why are you so sure I knew Lena prior to the Fisher fire?”
“You’re kidding, right?” Rem is pissed, enough that he looks like he wants to hit the old man. “You and Ari have been all over Lena for months. Convinced she was working for the Paganos.Convincedshe posed a threat to the Family. Ari showed me photo after photo, video after video, all evidence thatyoucollected showing she was a threat that needed to be eliminated. That’s why Ari said you issued the hit.”
Aldo stares at Rem, his jaw flickering in a way that tells me something is really fucking off. “When?” he grinds out. “Whendid Ari say I issued a hit against Lena?”
“About eight, nine weeks ago. I was in his office. He’d just gotten off the phone with you. You’d both agreed. I was to take her out, make it look like she’d never existed.Lupara bianca. But I said no. I didn’t think the evidence held up and I had no intention of taking out a woman without being one thousand percent sure she was guilty. So I refused, said I would do surveillance instead. That I’d get to the bottom of what she was and wasn’t doing, the hit called off till then. And you guys agreed,” Rem insists. “Ari said you both agreed.”
Aldo releases his nephew’s arm, stumbling back like he’s been shoved. In this moment he looks every bit of his age, pale and disconcertingly fragile. He turns to me. “You knew about this hit?”
I nod.
“And that’s what you meant earlier, when you said I’d ordered Rem to kill you?”
I nod again.
“Vaffanculo,” Aldo says to no one in particular. Then, to me, “Setting that aside for one moment, and barring a second opinion from another lab, do you believe what I’ve said about our relationship? That I am your biological father?”
“Honestly, I don’t know what to believe any more. But…” I look at Rem, my heart squeezing dangerously hard for him. “But I’m not leaving this family any time soon, so I’ll accept it’s what you believe and agree to do a second test to confirm.”
Aldo nods. “Bene. I appreciate your honesty, Lena. And I apologize for the way this evening has progressed. When I collected you from the hotel, I only wanted a chance to meet you. To tell you what I’d learned in the safe confines of my own home, away from distraction or threat. If only I knew then what I do now.”
“Wait—howdidyou know I was at the hotel?” I ask. “Or that Rem and I are married? Did Ari tell you?”
Aldo’s laugh is humorless. “No, he most certainly did not. But, as I said before, there’s little that happens in my city that I don’t know about. Especially when I have Agata to keep me informed.”
“The old lady who makes the omelets?” I practically squeak.
“Not how I would choose to describe her, but yes.”
“Fucking bastard.” Rem is most definitely talking to his uncle. Who, again, is entirely unbothered by his nephew’s anger.