His Greatest Redemption [REUPLOADED]

1

Samantha

Everyone fostered a secret.

While some secrets were tedious, others were just downright dark and twisted.

My whole existence, to be fair, fell under everything in that exact order. My fate was sought out for me before I could even blink and the chance of having a normal childhood wasn't an option for me. I wasn't typically asked for, and I most definitely didn't ask to be here. But in my mamma's eyes and as the wife of a Made man, she was to do as expected of her and give the man children.

And she didn't disappoint for once in her life

She gave my papà three kids. But we weren't really children at all, were we? We were his little toys for him to dispose of and destroy when he felt we had no more use to him. I was no kid. I was ancient by the time I was thirteen.

My last name, while only being a goddamn surname, weighed more than anyone could possibly imagine. Being a Cavallaro was a curse more than it had ever been a blessing, and the day that I was forced really understand what that mean, was also the day that I saw the world for what it really was. Harsh and cold and cruel. And just about everyone was out to get me.

There was no good in this world, and the people who thought they were good were just lying to themselves.

I realized that my father's betrayal to the Cosa Nostra turned the ones closest to him into targets, and I was seen as a traitor by default. I wasn't safe here in New York, never have been. And if it weren't for the promise I intended to keep to my sister, I would've hightailed my ass out of here a long time ago. My childhood was built around the ways of the mafia, and it was all I knew until it wasn't.

I'd asked myself many times what was I without the protection of my family, without my papà, without any morals or honor, and then just as quick as the question came, it left my mind. I knew exactly what it meant. It meant that I was free.

My freedom was the most important thing to me— it always had been. I didn't like being told what to do or how to do it. The life I was born into wasn't one I wanted, and I knew that this was my time to redeem myself. If there was any redemption left for me.

My nose twitched in disgust, and it had little to do with the stench of blood and body odor in the air and more to do with the scene in front of me. One would think that after working here for so long, my revulsion to this place would be long gone. The same thing happened each and every night, and yet, I still found myself in the same position.

I watched the man across the room as he licked blood off the bottom of his lip and smirked at me. His arm was draped over a girl as he slowly took a sip of something cold from a glass, his eyes gleaming with pride. They told me words that he couldn't exactly say from where he was; I won.

I sucked some spilled-over booze off my middle finger, smirking around my digit as his grin fell, replaced by a harsh glare. His bloody knuckles tightened around the glass he was holding, and I laughed to myself.