Roses & Ruin

Chapter 43 (Lexi)

        Giana thought she had me when she told me it was my turn, but I kindly reminded her that she had yet to link that long complicated story with what's happening here today. She huffed when she realized I was right.

"Liam O' Riley, Conry's younger brother is out for vengeance. He threw a brick through my window with a note calling me a whore. He knows what we did to his brother. He hates me just as much as he hates Dom and all the rest of them. That's why I'm here. They think I'm a target. And now that you're marrying into the Rizzo family I guess they think you're actually a target too. That's why we're here" she summed it up.

I took a moment to think about her words.

        "So the Italians have a looming mob war coming with the Irish?" I asked, but I already knew the answer. I wanted her to be very clear though. Again, I wanna know what I'm walking into here. What did my father marry me into? And does he care in the least bit?

"Yes," she answered plainly. "And the Russians? They want no part in it?" I asked another question. "Pretty much, to my understanding at least. I don't know too much of the business. That's for my dad and brother to deal with" she waved it off.

"Your turn" she brought things to me again. A promise is a promise.

        "Well Giana, my story starts farther back than a year ago. Let's go back 20 years to when I was born... Vitaly's got a lot of kids from multiple women, but for a while I think he loved my mother...maybe love isn't the word. You know how you called Dom toxic, agro, and possessive...yeah, I think that could sum up my parents relationship" I told her.

She snorted a laugh. "I guess we see their future then" she was smug on the idea of Dom and Mia failing as a couple.

         "For the first 7 years of my life I lived in Russia with my parents, and my two half brother's who were my only siblings at the time. Sorta. There's a whole other story with the half sister...but yeah, the boys lived with their father and not their mother because they were meant to take over the family business one day and Vitaly never let them out of his sight. They were his prize possessions. I'm not bitter or anything."

I joked around because I felt awkward saying this out loud. I haven't really told anyone before.

I told my best friend Sasha, but that was it. And now Giana who I have no relationship with whatsoever. I guess sometimes those are the best people to tell. The ones who don't really care one way or the other, but listen anyway. Not invested or biased.

        "I guess my mother had been secretly planning to leave my father because he was toxic and controlling. I was his first born daughter and he had a vision of how I'd be raised. Maybe to be primed as a future bride. If they made that my norm it wouldn't mean as much to me would it? My mother wasn't having it. She escaped him but at a huge cost to herself" I told her.

I took a second to take a breath.

Talking about my mother can sting sometimes. Especially when I think about what she gave up to give me a better life, and where I ended up despite her efforts. It's damn tragic.

Giana waited patiently though. She really wants to be in the know.

        "My mother had to give up her family, her home, her country, and most of her possessions. She had been smart and was slowly withdrawing money over the course of a year or something. She had her private cash as our security blanket, and she knew a guy who could get her out of the country with fake passports and all that" I continued.

I remember my mother eventually fessing up to all this when I became a teenager and wanted to know more about our back story. I've already mentioned all this.