Imprisoned, Poisoned, She Took His Throne Chapter 09
I didn’t kill Luca.
I locked him in the basement of the Viletta family’s Long Island villa-the very same room where he had locked me up all those years ago.
I had someone deliver a meal to him every day.
Food that only made sure he didn’t starve, but never enough to fill him. I want him to suffer the hunger, darkness, and fear that I once endured.
What about Giulia?
the
I had her committed to a psychiatric hospital and had the doctors give her daily injections of the mind-control drug that Luca had once used on me.
I visited her once a week.
She developed depression from medication, just as I did back then. She suffered from insomnia, just as I did, and she despaired of the world and attempted suicide, just as I did-but I will never let
her die. I want her to live in agony.
Every time I went to see her, she would lie on the floor like a dog, begging me: “Kill me, please kill
me…”
I just shook my head.
“Back then, when I begged Luca to tell me where my child was buried, he wouldn’t agree.”
“Why should I agree to you now?”
As for the graves of those three children.
Tony and his team searched for a whole month.
Finally, we found them in that abandoned cemetery on the outskirts of Brooklyn.
“Mom’s coming to take you home.”
I knelt before the grave and wept bitterly.
I had them reburied in the Salerno family’s private cemetery, right next to my father’s grave, and
had headstones erected for the three children.
Their names were engraved on it-names I chose for them, even though they didn’t live to see the day they were named.
Elena Salerno’s eldest son – Angelo
Elena Salerno’s eldest daughter – Isabella
Elena Salerno’s second son – Marco
The inscription was just one line:
“Died of greed.”
Three months later.
Luca was still locked in the basement.
It was the last time I went to see him.
He had become so thin he was barely recognizable, and his hair had turned completely white.
When he saw me come in, he looked up, his eyes clouded over.
“Elena… just kill me…”
“No.”
“Why…”
“Because you haven’t had enough yet.”
I crouched down and looked into his eyes.
“I want you to live. Live to be a hundred. Live until your hair is completely white, your teeth are all gone, and your bones are rotten. Live until you, the once-great Don Vitale, become a worthless |piece of trash-less than a rat.”
“This is your atonement.”
Luca cried.
Not wailing and sobbing, but silently shedding tears.
“Elena… I’m sorry… I’m sorry for those three children…”
“I know,” I said, “but I won’t forgive you.”
I stood up.
“Never.”
As I turned to leave, I heard him said behind me.
The door closed.
The basement was plunged into darkness.
I stepped out of the main house and stood in the moonlight on Long Island.
Tony walked over. “Donna, the Chicago Irish gang called. They’re asking when the arms shipment on the East Coast will be handed over.”
“Tomorrow.”
“So, Luca and Giulia……”
“Giulia is still locked up. Luca… one meal a day-as long as he doesn’t die, that’s fine.”
“Yes.”
I looked up at the moon.
Dad, did you see that?
The Salerno family is back.
I’ve taken back everything you lost.
Our dignity, our territory, and our family name.
I got into the car.
New York, all lit up, outside the car window.
This city owed me four lives.
Now, I’ve paid them back.
