Chapter 6 - SUNDAY DINNER
Vincent DeLuca lived in a stone house overlooking Lake Michigan.
He had cooked Sunday dinner for Leo there nearly every week for twenty years.
Gemma knew that before they arrived.
Leo had told her in the car.
She had expected marble.
Guards.
Cold rooms.
Instead, the house smelled like tomato sauce and rosemary.
Family photographs covered the hallway.
Vincent stood at the stove wearing a navy sweater and an apron.
He was seventy-one.
Silver-haired.
Straight-backed.
Ordinary enough to make Gemma angry.
Arthur stayed outside.
Leo had insisted.
No performance.
No army.
Just truth.
Vincent turned when they entered.
His eyes landed on Anna.
The spoon fell from his hand.
It struck the tile.
Nobody moved.
“Anna.”
She said nothing.
Then he saw Gemma.
His face softened.
That was somehow worse.
“You look like Michael.”
Gemma almost stepped toward him.
Leo caught her arm lightly.
Not restraining.
Reminding.
She pulled free.
“Don’t touch me.”
He released her immediately.
Vincent turned off the burner.
“I suppose Rizzi finally found religion.”
“No,” Gemma said. “Just shame.”
Vincent nodded.
“Sometimes that’s close.”
Leo put the photograph on the kitchen table.
Vincent looked at it.
Then at Leo.
“You know.”
“I know enough.”
“Enough is dangerous.”
“So is letting one man decide everybody else’s truth.”
Vincent removed his apron.
“Sit.”
“No.”
“Leo.”
“No more Sunday dinner.”
That hurt him.
Gemma saw it.
Good.
Then she hated herself for thinking good.
Vincent had done terrible things.
He had also raised Leo.
Again, people were inconveniently complicated.
Anna stepped forward.
“Why did you tell me Leo wanted Gemma?”
Vincent looked at her.
“Because he did.”
Leo’s jaw tightened.
“Not like that.”
“You wanted to adopt her.”
“Yes.”
“You wanted her to become a DeLuca.”
“With Anna.”
“And if Anna left?”
“I would have let her go.”
Vincent laughed sadly.
“You were twenty-three.”
“I knew what no meant.”
“You knew nothing.”
Gemma said, “So you decided for everyone.”
Vincent’s eyes moved to her.
“You were a baby.”
“And somehow you’ve been controlling my life ever since.”
His expression changed.
Regret.
Real.
“I thought Anna would leave Chicago for a month.”
Anna laughed bitterly.
“A month?”
“Long enough for Danny to calm down.”
“Danny vanished.”
“Because he chose to.”
“To protect us from you.”
Vincent looked away.
That was answer enough.
Leo asked, “Did you kill Michael?”
“No.”
“Did you order him brought to the warehouse?”
“Yes.”
Anna inhaled sharply.
“Why?”
“He had freed two women from one of my clubs.”
“You mean women you were trapping.”
Vincent looked at Gemma.
“I was not a good man.”
“That’s not the same as answering.”
“No.”
He nodded.
“I had convinced myself they owed money. Travel. Housing. Papers.”
Gemma’s face hardened.
“You owned them.”
“Yes.”
The admission came without decoration.
“I told Rizzi to bring Michael in so I could scare him.”
“And he died on the way.”
“Yes.”
“Did you cover it up?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because an investigation would expose the club.”
Gemma touched the bracelet.
“So my father died trying to help people, and you turned him into a man who abandoned his baby.”
Vincent’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
She wanted him to argue.
Wanted him to make it easy.
He didn’t.
Anna asked, “Danny?”
Vincent sat down.
“Danny came to me with photographs.”
“You threatened Gemma.”
“I threatened custody.”
Leo stared.
“With what?”
Vincent looked ashamed.
“I had people who could make Anna look unstable.”
Gemma felt her mother stiffen beside her.
False reports.
A woman alone.
No steady job.
Moving constantly.
A powerful man could create a frightening story.
“I told Danny that if he exposed me, I would help Leo take the child.”
Leo stepped forward.
“You used my name.”
“Yes.”
“You knew I would never do that.”
“Yes.”
Leo’s voice rose for the first time.
“You made her afraid of me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Vincent looked at him.
“Because you were leaving me.”
Silence.
Leo stopped.
“What?”
“You had Anna. The legitimate construction company. Plans to move away from the clubs.”
“So?”
“So I had already lost your father.”
Vincent’s voice cracked.
“I thought I was losing you.”
Leo looked stunned.
Gemma did too.
There it was.
Not money.
Not territory.
Possession disguised as love.
Vincent continued.
“I raised you. I buried your father. I sat outside the hospital when you had pneumonia at twenty. I taught you every ugly thing I knew because I thought ugly things kept men alive.”
Leo stared at him.
“And when I wanted something better?”
“I thought better meant without me.”
“It did not.”
“I know that now.”
Anna laughed softly.
“Twenty-one years late.”
Vincent nodded.
“Yes.”
Gemma asked, “Did you know where we were?”
“For a while.”
“How long?”
“Eight years.”
Anna looked sick.
“You watched us?”
“I had someone check.”
“You saw how we lived?”
“Yes.”
“You saw me working three jobs?”
“Yes.”
“And did nothing.”
Vincent looked toward Leo.
“If I helped, Leo might find you.”
Gemma whispered, “So you let us struggle to preserve your lie.”
“Yes.”
The honesty was unbearable.
Leo removed his ring from his pocket and placed it on the table.
Vincent stared.
“You gave that back to me.”
“Yes.”
“You told me Anna wanted me to have it.”
“Yes.”
Leo pushed it toward him.
“I don’t.”
Vincent’s face changed.
“No.”
“I don’t want anything you used to build that lie.”
“Leo.”
“No.”
Vincent reached for the ring.
Then stopped.
Gemma noticed his hand shaking.
“I loved you,” Vincent said.
Leo’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
“Still do.”
“I know.”
“Then what happens now?”
Leo looked toward Anna.
Then Gemma.
“Now loving me doesn’t protect you from consequences.”
Vincent nodded slowly.
“I expected that.”
He stood and walked to a cabinet.
From the back, he removed a small wooden box.
“I kept something.”
Anna went pale.
Vincent opened it.
Inside was a child’s drawing.
Crayon.
Three stick figures beneath a yellow sun.
One tall.
One woman.
One tiny child.
Above them, in shaky letters:
DAD LEO
Gemma stared.
“I drew that?”
Leo’s hand covered his mouth.
Vincent whispered, “You gave it to him two days before Anna left.”
Gemma looked at Leo.
He was crying.
Silently.
Vincent had taken more than a relationship.
He had stolen a family already beginning to exist.
Then Vincent removed the drawing.
Underneath was one final object.
A key.
Anna stared at it.
“What is that?”
Vincent looked at Gemma.
“The key to Michael Hayes’s locker.”
Gemma’s heart stopped.
“You said you took his wallet and phone.”
“I did.”
“What locker?”
Vincent’s voice dropped.
May you like
“The one thing I never opened.”
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