Chapter 9 - When Lily Learned the TruthLily was twelve when she found the photographs.
By then, the Russo family had changed beyond recognition.
The compound remained guarded.
Dominic remained dangerous.
But the criminal empire had become a collection of mostly legitimate companies.
Mostly.
Some ghosts refused to disappear.
Lily found one in the basement archive.
She had been searching for old photographs for a school project about family history.
Instead, she found evidence photographs from the Moretti war.
Cars.
Weapons.
Bodies blurred by police cameras.
One image showed Dominic leaving a warehouse with blood across his shirt.
Another showed the burned crib.
Lily carried the folder upstairs.
Norah was making coffee.
“Mom?”
Something in Lily's voice made her turn.
Then she saw the photographs.
Her stomach dropped.
“Where did you get those?”
“Basement.”
Norah closed her eyes.
Dominic had wanted the old files destroyed.
Norah had insisted history should not be erased.
Now she wondered whether she had been wrong.
“Sit down.”
Lily did not.
“Did Dad kill these people?”
Norah looked at her daughter.
At twelve, Lily had Dominic's eyes.
But she had Norah's habit of demanding complete answers.
“Yes.”
Lily went pale.
“All of them?”
“I don't know.”
“Was Dad in the Mafia?”
The word sounded strange inside their kitchen.
Norah did not soften it.
“Yes.”
Lily stared.
“For how long?”
“Most of his life.”
“Are you?”
“No.”
“But you helped him.”
Norah hesitated.
“Yes.”
Lily dropped the photographs.
“You lied to me.”
“We protected you.”
“That's what liars say.”
Norah absorbed the blow.
Lily ran upstairs.
Dominic came home an hour later.
Norah met him in the foyer.
“She knows.”
He stopped.
“How much?”
“Enough.”
His face changed.
“Where is she?”
“Bedroom.”
Dominic started upstairs.
Norah caught his arm.
“Don't order her to forgive you.”
He looked offended.
“I wasn't going to.”
“You order people when you're scared.”
“I do not.”
“You absolutely do.”
Dominic exhaled.
Then climbed the stairs.
Lily refused to open the door.
Dominic sat outside.
Norah watched from the hallway.
“Bug.”
“Go away.”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because this is my house.”
Norah covered her face.
Dominic glanced at her.
“What?”
She mouthed, Terrible.
He tried again.
“Because you're angry with me.”
Silence.
“You should be.”
The door remained closed.
“I killed people.”
Norah's breath caught.
Dominic continued.
“Some were trying to kill me. Some were trying to kill people I loved.”
He paused.
“And some deaths happened because I wanted power.”
The door opened slightly.
Lily's face appeared.
“Did you like it?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because I grew up believing there was no other way.”
Lily looked at him.
“You tell me I always have choices.”
“I do.”
“But you didn't?”
Dominic lowered his head.
“I had choices.”
His answer surprised Norah.
“I just didn't always make good ones.”
Lily opened the door farther.
“Did Mom know?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Before Isabella was born.”
Lily looked toward Norah.
“You stayed?”
Norah approached.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
That question had once been simple.
Then complicated.
Now it required truth.
“Because your father was changing.”
Lily shook her head.
“People don't change that much.”
“Sometimes they do.”
“How do you know?”
Norah looked at Dominic.
“Because I watched him choose differently when it cost him something.”
Lily crossed her arms.
“What about the people he hurt?”
Dominic answered.
“They don't disappear because I became better.”
The words landed heavily.
“I can't undo them.”
He looked at his daughter.
“I can only make sure you don't inherit my excuses.”
Lily began crying.
Dominic stood uncertainly.
He could negotiate multimillion-dollar contracts.
He still did not know what to do when his daughters cried.
Norah nodded toward her.
Go.
Dominic opened his arms.
Lily hesitated.
Then stepped into them.
He held her.
“I hate what you did.”
“I know.”
“I don't hate you.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“I know.”
That night, Norah found Lily sitting beside Isabella's bed.
Her younger sister was asleep.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Is Dad still dangerous?”
Norah sat beside her.
“Yes.”
Lily frowned.
“You weren't supposed to say yes.”
Norah smiled sadly.
“I don't lie to you anymore.”
“Would he kill someone now?”
Norah considered it.
“To protect you or Isabella?”
“Yes.”
“Probably.”
Lily looked troubled.
“Would you?”
Norah stared at her hands.
Years earlier, the answer would have been immediate.
No.
Now?
She had lived differently.
Loved differently.
Survived differently.
“If there were absolutely no other way to save you?”
Lily waited.
Norah met her eyes.
“Yes.”
Lily leaned against her shoulder.
“That's scary.”
“It should be.”
They sat quietly.
Then Lily asked the question Norah had always feared.
“Am I going to become like him?”
May you like
Norah kissed her hair.
“You're going to become like yourself.”
