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A muscle clenches in my jaw. “What do you want? A presentation? Should I go buy a whiteboard and some markers in order to explain to you what the fuck’s going on?”
“If it’ll make you leave, then sure, by all means,” she states with a pleased smirk.
“Nice try, Aurora. But I’m staying and you’re going to shut your mouth and listen to what I have to say, understand?” I ask, my patience fraying at the edges.
She arches an eyebrow but keeps her mouth shut.
Thank fuck for small mercies.
I open my mouth to speak, and then I close it. I shut my eyes in frustration. Because it’s suddenly hitting me, the reason I’m here. The past five minutes have created an atmosphere that’s going to make delivering this news much worse than I planned. I didn’t want it to be this way.
Fuck.
“Your father’s dying.”
The words come out in a cold, unfeeling way. Sympathy eludes me, especially considering the way she’s acted in the past few minutes. It turns out that sympathy’s unnecessary, because Aurora takes the news with a stoic expression.
“I see,” she says after a moment.
My jaw twitches. “You see?”
“Yes, I see. You said Valerio is dying. I said I see.”
“I see,” I say again, my words a murmur.
My gaze trails over her face, searching for any trace of emotion. A few minutes ago, she was yelling at me, her brown eyes bright with fury. And now, at the news of her father’s death—nothing. I’m not sure how that makes me feel.
“Did you come all the way here to tell me that? That’s a little melodramatic,” she says.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I ask after several seconds pass.
She shrugs. “What’s wrong with me is that there’s an asshole standing in my home acting like he owns the place.”
“Quit the bitch act. It doesn’t suit you.”
She glares at me. “You don’t have a clue what suits me or not, so don’t act like you do.”
I inhale once, then exhale. I fix her with a hard look.
“You’re coming with me.”
“I can assure you, I am not,” she says calmly.
“Aurora, your father’s going to be dead in fucking days.”
“Why the hell should I care? Why the hell do you? I know for a fact that he didn’t ask you to bring me to his deathbed or make any similar requests. So why are you here, Nico?”
That gives me pause. She’s right. Even in his last days, Valerio hasn’t said a word about seeing his two daughters. He has no idea that I’m here. He went through great pains to erase them from his life. Like they never even existed at all. And it seems his daughter shares the same sentiment.
I’m not going to even try and pretend to understand the concept of family. I’ve lived without one of my own for most of my life. But one thing I’m sure of, is that no matter how much pain or torment is hanging over their heads, family shows up for one another. I knew there’s a rift between Valerio and his daughters. After all, he hasn’t spoken to either of them in a decade. I just didn’t think it was this wide.
“He has a heart condition,” I find myself informing her. “A few years ago, he got a bypass surgery which was successful. But two months ago, he suddenly had a heart attack, which is when the doctors told him he only had two months to live. As of yesterday, I was informed he only had mere days. He’s been slipping in and out of consciousness in the past week, barely surviving.”
Not a lot of people are aware of the Don’s condition. Only the made men who sit at the table and a couple of trusted capos know. We’ve been keeping things quiet, and we plan to do so until his eventual passing.
Aurora doesn’t even blink at my words. “That doesn’t answer my question as to why you’re here, Nico.”
She’s being fucking cruel. And I hate it. I hate it even more because I know it’s all a front. This isn’t really who she is.
