Love in the Vineyard (Tavonesi #7)(80)

“I don’t want to prosecute Enrique,” Adrian added as he paced the carpet in front of the crackling fire. “I want to give him a chance to make a new life, offer him the number-two position in the native garden business. He can pay the money back gradually—as he can afford it.”

His father kept his face placid, unreadable, the face Adrian remembered from days long ago when as youngsters, he and his siblings pelted him with questions, questions he hadn’t answered.

“I want to build a program that attacks scarcity head-on, to provide opportunities for men and women to get on their feet, learn job skills, improve their lives,” Adrian continued.

Santino liked facts. Adrian had loaded up on just the sort of facts he was sure would sway his father to support his plan.

“I’ve studied the research—scarcity begets scarcity. People with a mindset of ‘not enough,’ of poverty, make bad decisions in the moment, decisions that create a never-ending cycle. Stress overtakes them and forces more bad decisions, makes them think there’s no way out. Enrique made a bad decision because he was stressed. I want to change that.”

“There are social programs for that, Adrian.”

“But social programs don’t see people—we can help real people, identifiable individuals and their families. So maybe it’s only a few, but we can help. Hands-on programs have the highest success rates. I’ve thought this through. I want to create ten positions, temporary, but long-term enough to help workers in the program build skills. Once they’ve mastered key skills, we can help them find the next position, positions suited to them, permanent positions. People can learn here and then move on stronger.” He was repeating himself now, his father would see that.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes, son, okay. It’s a good plan. Calls to integrity. I like it. And I admire what you’re doing here, what you’ve accomplished in so little time. I see the light in your team’s faces. More than hope, you’ve given them a tool for reaching toward their futures, a stake in the stream of resources they might never have had.”

He shifted so he was facing Adrian full on.

“But in the end, Adrian, people have to save themselves—they have to step up. You can only offer the opportunity. There will always be individuals that you can’t help. Enrique may be a good soul under it all, but there are others who aren’t. There are those who don’t care who their actions hurt.”

“I know that.”

“I’m not sure you do.”

Santino stood, strode to the fireplace and idly poked at a log already burning well.

“You can’t always be a step ahead of such people, Adrian. The powers that drive them are deep, hidden, hard to imagine. I worked in the shadow world. Maybe for too long. Working in such a world can make a man cynical. I admire your optimism, but you have to balance it with the facts of the real world, where dozens of factors influence actions and choices.”

His father’s words hit home. In his driving desire to help, he hadn’t seen what was happening under his nose. He hadn’t registered Natasha’s actions, hadn’t imagined Enrique’s.

Some truths slice deep. He’d seen what he wanted to see, not what was.

“It’s true. I ignored the facts.”

“You ignored the facts because you don’t want to believe that true evil exists. I wish recognizing the powers of the dark side were a lesson no one had to learn, especially one of my children. But what we ignore can be harmful, especially if it’s driven by a cut-off part of ourselves. You have to look hardest at what you don’t want to see.”

He let out a deep sigh as he turned from the fire and faced Adrian.

“Our family paid a price for my blindness to my own shadow. My anger put blinders on me. I ignored that anger and put the family at risk. I should never have agreed to head the team that investigated the Gualdieris. I was unbalanced by my grief after your mother died, but that’s no excuse. I was gripped by a dark force, by the blinding drive for retribution, and I let it rule for too long. If Vico Gualdieri had harmed Zoe…” He dragged his gaze from Adrian’s and looked into the fire. “I can’t even think about that night, not even now.”

“Retribution? Retribution for what?” Adrian and his siblings had always wanted to know what had driven their father to take such a personal risk, to accept a mission that brought danger into their home.

“Let’s just say that though Vico couldn’t have known the outcome of his scheme to steal bank funds, his scheme destroyed my best friend’s life and drove him to suicide. I was crusading when I took that job, trying to make up for wrongs of the past. My anger and my hunger for retribution, for revenge, blinded me. It took Vico attacking Zoe for me to see that, for me to change.”

Santino returned to his chair. He’s slowed down, Adrian thought. The troubles of the past year were catching up with him. His father was their rock. But it was time to relieve him of some of the burdens he carried.

“You couldn’t have known.”

“Don’t get me wrong, son. Every effort counts if it comes from a place of wisdom and wholeness. The trick is not to fool yourself into thinking you have the full picture when you don’t. And the only way to get the whole picture is to look really hard at your motivations. At what’s hidden from you, what you’ve buried. Bring what’s hidden to light, and then you can make better decisions. Perhaps Natasha and Enrique have given you a gift—you have the opportunity to begin to see more clearly without putting lives at stake.”