Sempre (Forever Series #1)(101)

Vincent cringed. Corrado noticed his reaction and clarified. “Not saying she should’ve died. I still, to this day, wish I would’ve done more, but I never thought Antonelli could be so heinous.”

“None of us did.”

Corrado looked away from him. “It’s hard to believe she’s one of our own. It’s surreal to discover, after all of these years, the little slave girl is Joseph and Federica’s granddaughter. Their baby survived and ended up in Antonelli’s care. What are the odds they’d be related to . . . ?”

“Salvatore,” Vincent said.

“He has surviving family, after all.”

So many people had been lost in the chaos of the ’70s, a lot of bodies never recovered. It started with one man making a spectacle of the lifestyle and escalated to a clash that spread throughout the country. It became about revenge and bloodshed, men going against everything the organizations stood for in the name of vengeance. The same families that had sworn to protect women and children were so blinded by hatred they took it out on the innocent.

Joseph Russo had been discovered buried in a cornfield years later. Antonio sent men out looking for Federica, hoping she had gone undercover with their baby. But a bundle had been dropped off on his doorstep one night, human bones wrapped in a pink baby blanket. There were no DNA tests in those days, but everyone believed it then—Federica and the baby were dead.

But they’d been wrong. The baby had survived, going by the name Miranda, living right under their noses their entire time.

“I knew you were hiding something, but I never imagined it would be this,” Corrado said. “The odds of that woman turning out to be Sal’s dead niece are about as likely as Jimmy Hoffa showing up tomorrow on the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Orchard Street.”

“I’m inclined to believe anything’s possible now.”

“True,” Corrado said. “They disappeared around the same time. I’ll be on the lookout for Hoffa whenever I’m in the neighborhood.”

His tone was so serious Vincent couldn’t be sure if he was joking or not. He usually couldn’t with Corrado and didn’t dare laugh either way.

“So whoever killed them gave the baby to the Antonellis, and Frankie took the child knowing who she was. He ordered the wife of a fellow Mafioso murdered to retain his secret, because he knew what he’d done would be an automatic death sentence,” Corrado said, summing up in a few seconds what had taken Vincent an hour to stumble through.

“As it would be for me.”

“Yes.”

“You understand why I’ve done what I’ve done, right?” Vincent asked. “You understand why I couldn’t turn the girl over to him?”

“We wouldn’t still be sitting here if some part of me didn’t,” Corrado said. “The fallout would be disastrous. Not only would you be killed on principle, but her life would also be in danger. Squint’s set upon inheriting the dynasty, banking on the fact that he’s the closest thing the Don has left to a relative. Carmine’s in enough danger because of Sal’s interest in him. Adding the girl to the equation would jeopardize them both.”

“Not to mention what it would mean for the organization,” Vincent said. “They never determined who killed Joseph and Federica, or what they did with her body. Sal would go on a rampage, and we have enough problems right now.”

“He’d start another war,” Corrado said. “We’d all be in danger.”

“I know. And I’m not worried about myself. I just don’t want the kids to be taken down by this.”

“So you want the Principe and the Principessa to ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after? That’s not asking for too much, right?” he asked, his voice mocking. “I hate to break it to you, but this is the real world, Vincent. I have a greater chance of getting you out of this than I do of keeping them unscathed. I honestly don’t know what you expect of me.”

“I’m not asking you to do anything. I just—”

Corrado cut him off. “You’re getting soft. I don’t know what happened to you, but I don’t like it. You claim you aren’t trying to involve me, but you’ve done so from day one by involving my wife.”

“I didn’t intend—”

“No, I’m sure you didn’t intend it, but I would’ve thought you, of all people, would understand. You lost your wife to this, and now you’re putting me in the same situation! For someone who grieved so wholly, you surely didn’t hesitate to set me up to endure the same. I want nothing more than to refuse your request right now, but I can’t. I have to help you, even though it goes against everything I’ve sworn myself to, because it’s the only way to protect Celia.” He stared at him pointedly. “This girl better be worth it.”

“She was to Maura.”

Corrado rubbed his face with frustration. “The things we do for women. What possessed you to run her DNA in the first place? You know who her parents are.”

Vincent sighed. “I wanted to get her a green card.”

“A green card?” he asked incredulously.

“I knew it was too risky to try to get her a birth certificate, so I thought I could get a green card to legally establish her here. With her father being a citizen, she’d be approved as long as the relationship could be established. I knew Michael wouldn’t agree willingly, so I thought a DNA test could strong-arm him.”