Filomena’s words haunted me.
I tried to forget what she’d said –
But memories came rushing back, all of them tinged with violence and sin.
Dario showing up in my father’s café with his enemy’s blood still pooled on the floor.
How he had beaten the man outside the church nearly to death with his bare hands.
The way Dario had first ‘punished’ me, touching me until I came…
Addicting me to him, then leading me farther down the path of sin until I gave my virginity to him…
Until I gave my heart to him.
To a mafioso… a murderer.
Was he all bad?
No. Definitely not.
There was kindness in him.
He had saved me from my attacker at the church –
But I would have never been in danger if Dario hadn’t kidnapped me in the first place.
Were his brothers all bad?
No. There was kindness in them, too.
Massimo had saved my life in Florence –
But would I have been shot at if they weren’t a family of criminals?
Violence attracts violence.
Evil attracts evil.
Death attracts death.
There was goodness in them, yes…
But Lucifer is the angel of light, the most beautiful of the heavenly host…
And still the devil.
Everything around Dario was twisted and dark.
And now he had touched me, leaving his fingerprints on my soul.
I imagined my father walking in on me and Dario.
I could see the horror on his face…
And then I heard Dario’s mocking voice:
I gave you my word, old man.
I didn’t take your daughter’s virginity… until she begged me to do it.
I had been led astray by sin so sweet that I had forgotten everything else…
But Filomena’s words had awoken me to the danger I was in.
The danger my soul was in.
I knew I had to change the path I was on…
…or be lost forever.
