Page 79 of Deathless & Divided

“Thanks,” Evelina said. “I know this is hard for you, too.”

“Oh?”

“Your parents.”

Lily cleared her throat, glancing around the quiet room. They were alone, but Lily still felt like she had to be careful when she discussed her parents in the presence of others. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had to bury someone.”

“It’s not fair.”

“It never is,” Lily murmured.

Which was the exact reason she despised this life and the ways of the mafia and Outfit. A murder was just another job. A person was just another body. This was just another day. Business as usual, except for the people hurting. Sure, la famiglia would put on a good show for the family with their black suits, remorseful words, and supportive hugs, but it meant nothing. It was all lies.

This shit happens.

Move on.

Evelina wiped under her eyes with one hand. “Dad is so … confusing.”

“Confused or confusing?” Lily asked, her brow furrowing.

“He’s weird,” Evelina said quietly. “He keeps locking himself in his office. He won’t take calls. Even Adriano can’t get him to pay attention to anything. And he’s mad—really, really mad, Lily.”

“His wife was killed,” Lily replied simply.

Just because Evelina wasn’t angry, or rather, hadn’t gotten to that place in her grief yet, didn’t mean Riley Conti would hit that level at the same speed as his daughter.

Lily shrugged, adding, “I guess I understand the anger.”

“At Terrance, though?” Evelina asked. “At the Outfit? I don’t know, it just doesn’t make sense.”

It did to Lily. She hated the Outfit for a long time after it took her parents. She wasn’t sure how the Outfit had been responsible for Mia’s death, if it even was, but it probably led back to something involving the mafia in one way or another.

Damian leaned in the doorway that separated the private room from the church’s main hall. He offered Lily a small smile. “It’s almost time to start, sweetheart. They’re just waiting on some last minute people.”

Lily nodded. “A few more minutes, okay?”

“Sure.”

Evelina sniffled when Damian disappeared again. “He’s been around a lot lately.”

“Yeah, I guess he has,” Lily murmured more to herself than her friend.

Lily didn’t mind Damian’s constant presence, honestly. It gave her a chance to get to know the man beyond awkward dinners with people neither of them could stand and what he could do to her in his bed. Not that they had fucked again since that first time.

“I heard him on the phone the other day talking to somebody about a Poletti hit or whatever,” Lily said. “Retaliation was the word he used, I think. Is that what happened?”

Evelina grimaced. “Yeah.”

“What did I miss?”

“I know as much as you, Lily.”

Lovely.

Ignorance was bliss.

Evelina fell into another crying fit, ruining her makeup further.