Out of His Reach

“Even if the family’s territory and business shrink this year, you won’t starve.”

Nico let out a mocking laugh and slapped a printed guest list onto the table. “This is the wedding guest list I drafted. Take a look and see if there’s anyone else you want to invite.”

The invitation template had been downloaded online. Even my name was misspelled.

I sneered inwardly. “I’m doing just fine now. You don’t need to concern yourself, Don Nico.”

“Lena, stop pretending.” The sarcasm on Nico’s face deepened. “Everyone knows that five years ago, the Sorrentino family was wiped out and pushed out of the mafia circle. You were like a stray dog, unable to lift your head.

“If I hadn’t shown some mercy, would you have had the chance to run off to Nassau and survive?”

I looked coldly at the man in front of me.

“By mercy, do you mean announcing at my wedding that you’d take responsibility for your pregnant widowed sister-in-law and turning me, the bride, into the laughingstock of New Haven?”

Five years ago, at my wedding to Nico, his widowed sister-in-law, Sophia, arrived with a pregnancy report.

My father, the don of the Sorrentino family, suffered a heart attack on the spot and died despite rescue efforts.

My mother, unable to bear the grief, shot herself.

The Sorrentino family was carved up by rival families overnight. All territory was lost.

I became a target of scorn and fled to Nassau that same night.

Nico’s expression darkened. He stood up abruptly.

“Lena, when did you become so aggressive and petty?

“Sophia was carrying my child. As a man, should I not take responsibility?

“She’s understanding. She endured everything without complaint. Do you know how much she has given to the Luciano family all these years? Why can’t you learn from her tolerance and kindness?”

I let out a cold laugh.

“She was wronged, so I deserved to be abandoned at my own wedding? The Sorrentino family deserved to be destroyed?”

Nico raised his voice to force me to give in.

“That wasn’t abandonment! It was a temporary solution!

“I told you back then that once Sophia gave birth to a son and had someone to rely on, I would cut ties with her and marry you!

“You were the one who was narrow-minded and refused to accept it. You insisted on breaking off the engagement and leaving!”

He took a deep breath, his tone shifting to play the bigger person.

“Alright. What’s done is done. Ask yourself. Can you find a better future than I?

“You’re not young anymore. Stop playing these childish games!”

“Nico, what makes you think I have to cling to the Luciano family?” I looked at him.

“What makes you think I couldn’t already be married?”

Nico leaned on the table, looking down at me with contempt.

“With the Sorrentino family in its current state, which mafia family in New Haven would take you?

“You may have polished yourself in Nassau, but to real families like ours, you’re nothing.

“All these years, climbing upward, wasn’t it to prove something to me? To get my attention?”

As if to prove his point, he took out his phone and held it before me.

On the screen was my social media profile. The bio had five words: Waiting for a dawn.

Nico smiled like a victor.

“Waiting five years, what else could it be? You’re clearly waiting for me to change my mind, to give you that ‘dawn.’

“Lena, admit it. You can’t forget me. Everything you’ve done was for me to see.”

That line was a matching phrase I shared with my husband, Vincent, and Nico just had to twist it into something else.

I picked up my phone and adjusted the Luciano family’s partnership risk rating from B+ to C-.

As the person in charge of the Luciano family’s M&A financing projects, I had the authority to reassess partners and cut off funding.

“Don Nico, my dawn doesn’t need you to plan it.”