my parents were hardworking and law-abiding people. Nobody could have foreseen such a tragedy striking an ordinary family from a small village in the middle of rural Italy.”
“Did you ever find out what happened?”
His smile held no warmth, only malice. “I sure did,” Alessandro said with a sardonic bite. “I didn't know it then, but my mother had a brother who lived in a country thousands of miles away, and let's just say he was far from making an honest living. She had never talked to us about him, but the police were well aware of our tainted family connections that stretched across the ocean. The attack was aimed as an act of revenge against my estranged uncle. My family was the collateral damage.”
“So, the men who did this were never brought to justice?”
His nostrils flared and he pursed his lips. “Oh, they were brought to justice,” he assured me. “Once I grew older, I made it my mission to set the record straight and avenge my family.”
My heart pounded wildly against my chest. I didn't have to probe further. I knew very well what happened to those murderers. They probably suffered the worst kind of death imaginable. “What happened to you after you lost your parents and your sister?” I asked in the gentlest voice I could muster.
He clasped his hands in front of him on the desk and shrugged. “I was placed in an orphanage.”
“But you told me you still had relatives in Italy,” I reminded him. “Didn't they try to help you?”
“I had a few aunts and uncles, but nobody in the family wanted to presume to care for me. They feared the killers might return to finish the job. Some of them lived in hiding for years, fearing they might be next on the hitman's list. The mafia never forgets, tesoro. Everyone knows this.”
“But you were just a little boy. How could they abandon you like that?”
Alessandro smiled sadly. “I don't blame them. People tend to save their own skin when they’re faced with such serious risk. Some of them had children of their own. I can understand how their well-being came before mine.”
“But still...it seems really cruel.” I sympathized with him.
“The world is a cruel place, tesoro. The sooner you learn this, the better,” he said in a calm voice. “Besides, as you may already know, I didn't spend an eternity living like an orphan. It eventually turned out I still had family members who were very much aware of my existence and more than willing to get involved.”
“Your uncle...” I blurted out.
Alessandro smirked. “You’re as bright as always, tesoro. Indeed, it was my uncle whom I had never met before.” His eyes narrowed as though he was reliving a memory. “All I knew was that an intimidating, tall man who reminded me of my mother came to the orphanage one day and had a serious conversation with me. His name was Gabriele Damiani and he was the most impressive man I had ever seen. I could tell he was powerful and dangerous. If there was anyone who could help me avenge my family, it was him. He asked me if I wanted to come with him. He promised he would take care of me, and I would live in America like a king. I didn't think twice before accepting.”
“You did say you moved to the US when you were eight,” I said, more to myself than him.
“That's right. Gabriele adopted me and brought me to the US. He gave me his last name and treated me like a son, but he was a tough, brutal man. He had no emotions and no mercy and he raised me to be just like him.”
“You had a tough childhood,” I concluded. A shiver danced through me. I imagined the life he must have had growing up. And it now made sense how he became the man myself and so many others feared.
“If you want to call it that. It wasn't typical to say the least,” he revealed with a hint of irony. He reached into the side drawer and withdrew a decanter of whiskey and a crystal snifter. “Already from the beginning, I was groomed to inherit the role of capo from Gabriele. I was only ten when he had me initiated in the Cosa Nostra and made me pledge my alliance to them. By the time I was eleven, I had already killed my first man.”
My breathing grew shallow at the imagery of a little child