Vengeance.
It's something I've been taught as the son of a cruel mafia don; something I've comforted myself with for years.
When the one thing that kept me grounded is yanked away so ruthlessly, it's only in my nature to strike out in the only way...
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MY MOTHER DIDN'T KNOW how to walk away from my father.
Her obsession with him ended up being the cause of her destruction.
All the signs were there.
She'd seen it coming from a mile away, but she was powerless to stop it.
Or maybe she didn't just want to stop it.
Day by day, I watched her deteriorate, slowly tipping to the edge of insanity because the object of her obsession shunned her.
I watched the object of her obsession continue to live like she didn't exist while she withered away in exile.
I made a promise to myself when I was ten.
After watching my mother's downfall, I promised I wouldn't grant anyone that much power over me.
I knew from a young age how humans liked to abuse power once they had it. It was too risky.
I couldn't take the chance knowing that I could suffer the same fate as my mother because I gave someone the irrevocable power to wreck me.
Instead I'd wield that power, bending everyone around me to my own will, using them as I saw fit until they no longer served me purpose.
Love had no place in my life.
When I told my mother that, she'd laughed at me.
"It sneaks up on you, idiot," she'd said while tipping back another shot of tequila. "You have no way of preparing for it. Not even the most powerful of men can. Come see me when you fail."
Her words triggered me. If there was anything I loved more than my brother, it was proving people around me wrong.
At the end of the day, my mother wasn't wrong. Despite her less than stellar parenting skills, she was a smart woman.
I failed.
* There is a Q&A on my IG story(@snowbarbie7) for those who want to ask me anything about this new book or the series in general. I'm not drowning in school work today, lol.
