Page 189 of Vega

I stepped away. “Tell me the truth.”

He wiped his face free of tears that had fallen, looking as if he was fighting an internal battle with himself.

“Please,” I begged. “Liberami da questo. (Free me from this.) I’ve been miserable for eighteen years trying to answer questions only you can answer.”

Renzo sat down, so I did the same. He stared into space, and I allowed him to think, hoping that it would lead him to tell me the truth.

Finally, he began to speak. “Your grandfather Teddy never wanted me with your mother. He said I couldn’t provide for Denise and that I wasn’t good enough for his daughter. He tried to pay me to leave. When that didn’t work, he started threatening me.”

Frowning, I asked, “You left because Grandpa Teddy didn’t want you with my mother?”

“No.” He took a deep breath as if this pained him to say out loud. “My parents came from Italy to visit. They died in a car accident while they were here.”

“I know.”

“But you don’t know everything.” The pain in his face deepened. “When I went to identify their bodies, a man came into the morgue. He told me you’d be the next body I identified if I didn’t leave Denise.”

My stomach turned.

“After that, pictures started coming of you at school, playing outside, getting on the bus. Whoever sent them knew your routine and could reach you whenever they wanted.”

“Grandpa Teddy did that?”

“He was behind it, but he didn’t have the money or connections to do it alone.”

“Who helped him?”

“At first, I didn’t know. I thought it might be connected to Vittorio Carbone. I thought the men who came after him might’ve believed I was involved in his business too. But I was a regular man trying to take care of my family. I didn’t have money, soldiers, or any way to fight people who could watch my child without being seen. I couldn’t go to the police without risking your life.”

“So, you left.”

“I left because they promised you’d live if I disappeared.”

Anger and grief were at war inside me. “You could’ve told Ma.”

“That wouldn’t have protected you.”

I turned away from him and dragged my hand over my face.

“Over the years, I started investigating,” he continued. “I found out your grandfather had help from somebody much closer to us…Marcus.”

I fell back against the chair, in pure disbelief, hoping I had heard wrong. I couldn’t form words. I just stared at him in disbelief.

“Marcus wanted your mother. He’d wanted her for years, ever since they met when your grandfather started doing work for Marcus. Marcus promised to help Teddy build the family’s wealth if Teddy helped get rid of me.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“I wish it was.”

“Marcus raised me.”

“I know.”

“He loves my mother. You telling me he killed your parents?”

“He was the man that approached me in the morgue. I can prove he moved money to Teddy. I can prove he benefited from my disappearance.”

I shook my head, struggling to take all of this in. He was asking me to question the man who had attended every school event, taught me how to drive, and stood beside my mother through every loss.