Page 85 of Deathless & Divided

Dino didn’t give an opinion at all.

“Somebody else might bury their mother,” Lily said, wanting her friend to understand what her father’s actions meant.

Evelina flipped a page in her magazine. “So be it.”

“Eve!”

“Don’t be so surprised,” Evelina said coolly. “Tell me in all your years that you’ve never once wished someone had paid for the life of your mother and father. I know what your dad did—we all fucking know, Lily. But you still loved them, right? It still hurt.”

“It did,” Lily replied.

“Look me in my eyes and tell me it’s okay with you that nobody ever answered for doing that to you and your brothers.”

Lily couldn’t.

Lily turned her new Maserati off to the side of the quiet street, threw the gears into park and cut the engine, frustrated and overwhelmed. She’d cut her evening short with Evelina after the show between Riley and Adriano. Lily didn’t know what to think about her friend’s response or how Evelina acted like retaliation for her mother’s killing could be in any way justified.

Lily understood pain. She got Evelina was still in the midst of grieving and maybe her anger was finally catching up with her. At the same time, Lily didn’t get it at all. Maybe the lingering pain from losing her own mother and father way back when prevented Lily from accepting the mafia way of taking a life for a life, but no matter how hard she tried … she couldn’t do it.

The Outfit had taken people away from Lily once—her view had long been tainted. She knew that. She also knew the people she did care about, her brothers, Evelina, and even Damian, were all involved in a life that hurt her once. They fully engrained their own worlds and rules to fit the mafia.

Lily couldn’t help but wonder if she had ever been able to get the retribution deserved for her parents’ death, would she be like them, too? Accepting. Tolerant. Unaffected. Would she? If her parents’ death had been answered with more blood, would the ache in her heart be mended?

She had always believed that spilling blood did nothing but stain the ground and the hands of the person making the calls.

Her father’s death had always been considered justified. Her mother’s, a by-product.

A fucking afterthought.

Dismissed.

Someone took away Lily’s mother without even thinking or caring about it. They buried her and pretended like it didn’t happen. Like that woman wasn’t important to three little people who she helped create and who needed her.

Nobody ever answered for that. Nobody ever would.

Why was Mia Conti so goddamn different from Lily’s mother?

And why did it bother Lily so much?

Lily blew out a heavy breath, jerked her car door open, and got out. The cool breeze of the late July air swept around her bare legs. The dress she wore fell just above her knees and the skirt blew wide as the wind picked up.

She didn’t even care that she was wearing heels and it was colder than normal. Locking her car, Lily started a trek down the street. She needed to clear her head or do something. Just anything.

Being in Chicago and getting a front row seat to what seemed like the beginning of another family feud only put Lily right back into her childhood. She didn’t feel like a young girl anymore, but her emotions mirrored that time and threated to take her under with the weight.

More confused than ever, Lily pulled her phone out of her purse and dialed a familiar number. Dino picked up on the second ring.

“Lily,” he greeted.

“Why are we different?” she asked right away.

Dino cleared his throat and chuckled. “I have no idea what you’re asking me, little one.”

Despite how that pet name usually bothered her, especially when one of her brothers used it, Lily smiled that time.

“Our parents and what happened to them. Why are we different, Dino? Why didn’t someone fight for what happened to Mom or—”

“Dad turned on the Outfit,” Dino interjected gently. “You know that.”