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"No need for that yet. I need tonight to think about what to do next."
After he hung up with Tony, Salvo entered his bedroom and pulled out his Glock 17 from the nightstand drawer beside his bed. Then he poured himself a glass of old scotch, stood on his patio, and smoked a cigarette. Salvo heard police sirens blare while looking down at the streets below, remembering New Year's Eve and spending it with Bianca. That soft kiss he gave her and how she told him she was still a virgin. He loved Bianca Cappello. But all the things they talked about, their future together, and their intimacy seemed to have been lost at that moment because of Matteo.
He could never forgive his cousin, who he'd loved as a brother. Matteo destroyed Salvo's ambitions of being Matteo's underboss and marrying Bianca.
The condo intercom buzzed, and Salvo heard Bianca's voice asking to be let in. He pushed the button to unlock button to the front entrance, then opened his door as he held his gun. Looking down the hallway at the elevator, he waited impatiently for Bianca. When the elevator doors opened, and Bianca stepped out and walked toward him, he pulled her into his condo, shut the door, and locked it.
"It's late. You shouldn't be here, BB." He barked.
"You didn't call me tonight, and I was worried. So I snuck out of the house and had Nicole drive me here." She replied, then noticed the handgun in Salvo's hand. "You're scaring me, Salvo. What happened?"
Salvo took her hand, and they sat on the couch together. He placed the handgun on the coffee table, pulled Bianca into his arms, and held her. "Matteo made a stupid and dangerous mistake tonight. And it changes everything."
"Whatever Matteo has done, it will never change how I feel about you, Salvo."
Salvo brushed the back of his hand over her cheek as her eyes welled up with tears. She feared losing him, something she had never thought could happen.
"Nothing will ever change how I feel about you, too, BB. But the Andolini family, your family, will be in danger, and we'll need added security for protection. It's too dangerous for you to come all this way from Staten Island."
"Are Tessa's suspicions about Matteo true?" Bianca asked bluntly.
"He told me years ago, when we were just teenagers, that he was attracted to boys rather than girls," Salvo admitted. "I've always kept his secret safe, hoping he'd grow out of it, that maybe he was just confused with all the shit boys deal with going through puberty."
"Poor Tessa. I feel so bad for her and Matteo."
"He's struggled with being a homo-sexual for a long time, and it's been hard to hide it from his family, friends, and especially Uncle Rico. Then the pressure of being the next in line to run the Andolini family business and getting married was too much for him to handle. Tony told me that Matteo was seen in a gay bar in Brooklyn recently, and he was there again tonight. So I drove into Brooklyn, took him out of there, and drove him home."
Bianca gasped, placing her hands over her mouth as Salvo continued. "News spreads like wildfire in this city. By tomorrow, Matteo will be summoned to Uncle Rico's house. I'll drive over there to be with him.”
By dawn the next morning, Salvo stood motionless in his uncle's office when Enrico backhanded his son across the face. Matteo fell to the carpeted floor, the side of his jaw already bruised from when Salvo hit him the night before.
"Get up, you worthless coward!" Enrico roared, his face flushed, and his eyes gleamed with rage.
Matteo didn't make a sound as he stood back up but didn't meet his father's eyes.
"You have brought shame and weakness to our family!" Enrico continued, "Everything I've done for the Andolini name. Everything your grandfather did to build this empire. Now, to crumble, taken down because of your pathetic and indecent urges!"
Salvo had never seen his uncle this angry, but he felt all the same rage when he punched Matteo the night before. Salvo was loyal to his cousin since they were teenagers, keeping the secret of his sexuality a secret, even advising him to enjoy the happiness of marriage and having children but to be careful and discreet when he had intimate affairs with men.
Salvo wanted everything Matteo was destined to become but couldn't because he was a bastard. Just then, the image of his father's closed coffin flashed through his mind. The sadness and worry he felt as a young boy, then the rage that filled his heart when he grew older, wanting to find his father's killer and carry out his vengeance.
"I don't want any of this!" Matteo shot back. "I never did! Do you know what being an Andoloni means to me, Father? Violence, bloodshed, and corruption!" He broke down and began to sob, his shoulders trembling.
"You are not my son," Enrico replied solemnly as his voice cracked.
Salvo took what belonged to him as he stepped up to his uncle, grasped his right hand, and said, "I will be your son, Enrico Andolini. I swear to you right now that I, Salvatore Falco, will carry on the Andolini family empire as the next boss." He leaned down and kissed the top of Enrico's hand.
"I hope you rot in hell, Salvo," Matteo said, storming out of his father's office.
As the office door slammed shut, Enrico looked at Salvatore and pulled him into his arms for a warm fatherly embrace, and said, “My son.”
CHAPTER 10
That morning, after Matteo cursed Salvo to rot in hell, he left his father's house and drove his brand new Audi Quattro, a wedding gift from Tessa's family, into the city with only one goal in mind – to run away and disappear so no one could find him. The pain of hiding the truth about himself from his wife and then Salvo's betrayal, taking everything from him.
He lied to Tessa the night before when Salvo dropped him off at home after they left Q-City. Matteo was not a hot-tempered man, but the events that happened the night before and that morning had flipped a switch inside him. First, he yelled at his wife, telling her that he needed space and that the new role he was to play as the next boss of his family weighed heavily on him. Then, to make it even worse, so that Tessa would hate him, Matteo said he was out with a girlfriend. Finally, he berated her for worrying so much about him, which made Salvo go out to find him.
Matteo entered the house, smelling of newly painted walls with new furniture and stacked boxes full of things, and laughed as he stormed into the bedroom. He ignored Tessa, who sat at the dinette table in the kitchen, her eyes puffy from crying.
