Page 147 of Broken Mafia Bride
“I was a simple man,” he continues. “A simple man with a simple life, who just wanted to be with his family and protect them. I failed her, and I swore never to fail my family again. I turned Sardegna from a den of thieves and rogues into paradise.”
He spreads out his other hand, gesticulating. “Here, we could have all led the most beautiful, wonderful life. Free from pain,the uncertainties of the world, the cruelty. I gave Eleanora everything she ever wanted here.”
A small smile curves his lips, eyes far away, lost in memory. “The day Enrico stepped onto this island is the day everything came crumbling to dust. He ruined everything.”
“That’s not true!” Giulia cries.
“It’s the truth,” he says coldly. “My daughter made the biggest mistake of her life by allowing that man to put his hands on her, to convince her that there was life outside the island, full of possibilities. She gave him her life and entrusted you in his hands, and all for what?”
There’s a pause before he continues. “Can you really say that you grew up loved, taken care of, happy?”
Giulia flinches, and he takes note of it immediately.
“Voila!” He laughs darkly. “He took everything from me, and didn’t even bother to care for it. Do you think that a man who ignored you and made you feel unwanted for years would have been the best husband to my Eleanora? Face it, child, it was for the best that she died rather than face the reality of the horrible decision she made.”
I feel sick at his reasoning. He has managed to justify killing off his own daughter by telling himself that he saved her from a lifetime of unhappiness from her own choices.
Giulia steps forward. “What about you?”
His eyes narrow. “What about me?”
“You talk a lot about everybody else’s role in ruining everything, but what about yours?” she asks. “The thing that makes us human is our ability to choose. I know that somewhere in that twisted head of yours, you think everything you’ve done was to save the people you cared about. But if you hadn’t been so obsessed with controlling everything—so obsessed with everything following your master plan—you’d have realized that Mama loved Papa.”
“She—”
“And he loved her too,” she cuts him off firmly. “He wasn’t the best father after Mama died, but if you really think he didn’t care about me, why didn’t you come out of the shadows and ask him to hand me over? A man who didn’t care wouldn’t have hesitated—so why didn’t you? You say he treated me like I was invisible, but you were right there too, watching from your paradise and unaffected by my pain.”
She scoffs. “You don’t care about me, you don’t care about Val, and you sure as hell don’t care about Noemi. All of this has just been your hatred for my father coming into play.”
I’m beginning to feel faint from the blood loss, but I know that things are about to come to a boil, and I have to stay alert. My finger hovers a hairsbreadth from the trigger, ready.
“Come to think of it, the two of you are so similar,” Giulia points out. “You became obsessed with your daughter after your wife died, while he just shut down. You both owe me millions of dollars in therapy—but the difference between the two of you is that Papa doesn’t think he’s some kind of hero.”
Her hand holding the gun aimed at the old man goes perfectly still. “The most terrifying part about you, Lucio, is that you don’t know you’re a monster.”
Three gunshots fire at once. Giulia’s shot knocks the gun out of Lucio’s hand, causing his own to go wide and hit the wall, just an inch from my head. My bullet lands dead center in his chest, and he crashes to his knees, eyes wide with shock.
“Enrico w-will… never…. be the f-father you want,” he croaks.
Giulia walks forward, stopping right in front of him, gun held to the middle of his forehead. “Well, he hasn’t driven me off a bridge yet.”
His eyes widen, pain and horror and something that looks like guilt shining in them. But it’s too late. Giulia’s handjerks back as she fires, and Lucio’s head explodes in a sea of blood, brain matter, and bone. He remains kneeling upright for a second before his body falls backward and crashes to the ground.
The room is plunged into silence, and my vision starts to blur from the blood loss. I stagger a little, then grab the wall for support. The moment is far too heavy, and Giulia is awfully still.
My gaze shifts over to Lucio’s fallen body. It’s hard to believe that he’s the man who’s tormented us for years, the man who’s ruined our lives for far too long.
“He’s dead,” she finally says, turning to face me, face pale and expression a blank mask. “It’s over now.”
“Yes, it’s over,” I echo the words, assuring her that this isn’t a figment of her imagination. “We’re free now.”
47
GIULIA
It’s over.
It’s finally over.
