Sold to the Capo-Chapter 128: A DECISION THAT COULD HURT
ADRIANA’S POV
He stared at me, guilt heavy in his expression and I couldn’t bear it anymore so I looked away, feeling tears gather in my eyes.
My heart was thundering in my chest. I couldn’t believe it. This was ...my father. The thought hurt me as much as it thrilled me and be damned if I wasn’t ready to burst into tears at the realization.
I stepped aside after what felt like a whole minute and he got inside without a single word and I shut the door behind him, preparing myself for a conversation that I didn’t think I was ready to have.
"Sit" I muttered, gesturing to the chair by the table.
He looked at it and nodded, walking over to it before lowering himself down on it. "I’m sorry, I couldn’t get there on time. I found Hale..."
He didn’t get to finish that statement because I cut him off. "Is he okay?"
"Critical at the time that I found him but he’ll live. Maybe. His condition is slightly more worse than your husband..." He paused and tilted his head, a sad smile gracing his lips. "I’m finally calling him your husband" He pointed out.
I had known that Micheal hadn’t been overly comfortable with seeing Vincenzo together with me but I pushed aside that thought for now, that wasn’t what I was supposed to be thinking about now. "How long did you know?"
He leaned his head back, avoiding my gaze and his voice soft in the dim light of the room. All thoughts of leaving the house had temporarily been erased from my mine. I needed to understand my past and come to terms with it.
"I have been looking for you but then I received a call from Don Enzo and trust me, I was mad that someone from the mafia was reaching out to me again but when he said he knew where you were... I had to listen, he sent a record and said he knew who I was and all that shit and I immediately wanted to meet with you but he said he couldn’t let me close to you until he was sure so he met with me in person and we had a talk..." He paused to look at me, making sure that I was still listening.
When he saw that I was still listening, he continued. "He wanted to make sure he could trust me then he told me he was sending you to Costa Rica at the last minute and he wanted me to be with you but I wasn’t ready to tell you about my identity, I just wanted to know you without making things awkward. I didn’t want my daughter to hate me before I even got to know" He shut his eyes, a pained growl escaping his lips.
"When were you going to tell me?" I asked him, tears gathering in my eyes and threatening to spill over.
He looked at me and gave me a sad smile. "After all this ended. You were going through a lot, it would be unfair to burden you with another thing so... I kept it to myself and told Vincenzo not to tell you"
Another thing that Vincenzo had kept from me, it hurt. A tear slipped and rolled down my cheek and I looked down at my feet. "You both knew... you both fucking knew...".
"Hate me. Hate me, Aurora..." He paused and I snapped my gaze up to meet him.
"Is that...?" I couldn’t complete it and I instead choked back on a sob.
"The name that I had given you at birth? Yes. Now you’re Adriana, a grown woman and you’re making me fucking proud, Preziosa. Vincenzo proved himself to you and I’ll spend my life proving myself to you" He smiled at me warmly and I saw it ㅡ unfiltered love ㅡ in his eyes. He wasn’t holding back again. The look I never saw in Master LaRosa’s eyes.
"How did I end up with that monster?" I asked.
"I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with your mum but I did... put her in danger without knowing. My family saw it as a threat and they got rid of her, giving you out as a baby to someone random who owed them. They didn’t care what happened to you and they threw me out. I had to start from scratch again, I tried to find you but there was no trace. Until Vincenzo"
Vincenzo. The name sent a ripple through me and made my sense tingle.
"Are you mad at him?" Micheal asked. It was weird referring to him as my father now, even if it was previously a joke, it now felt too real to be thrown around carelessly.
"Yes... I just... no. It just hurts that he kept a lot of important things from me" I admitted, a sad smile on my lips.
"If it’s about not telling you about me, he wanted to tell you but I told him not to. Not until I was ready and I had to beg him not to. Not his fault. You wouldn’t have taken it lightly if you had found that out a while back"
He was right. I would have lost it if I had been told in the heat of things.
"Let’s forget that. How’s everyone?" I asked, trying to change the topic.
"Henry has been found. Currently being hostage. Grace is fine. Hale and Vincenzo are barely there but I’m sure they’ll be fine. You can check up on them...later ..." he was watching me closely for my reaction.
I let his words settle in my mind, feeling the weight of everything he’d just told me. Vincenzo had known. He had known all along.
The betrayal still burned, but it was duller now—like a wound scabbing over but still sensitive to the touch. Would I ever be ready to face him again? To look at him and not see everything he had kept from me?
Michael didn’t say anything, just watched me, waiting.
I let out a slow breath and forced a sad smile. "I’ll pass."
He didn’t argue, didn’t try to convince me otherwise. He just nodded, understanding in his eyes. "I get it," he said quietly. "But don’t make any brash decisions."
I huffed a short, humorless laugh. "I don’t think I have the energy for that right now."
Michael leaned back slightly, arms crossing over his chest. "Vincenzo isn’t like the other mafiosos," he said after a beat of silence. "I hated him on principle. Thought he was just another power-hungry bastard who wanted control. But then I saw him with you."
I looked at him then, a flicker of something uncertain settling in my chest.
"He calls you Tesoro, doesn’t he?" he mused, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. "Fitting, since you were Aurora to me."
I swallowed, looking away. Gold to Micheal. Treasure to Vincenzo.
The words lodged themselves in my mind, settling deeper than I wanted them to.
Michael let me sit with the thought for a moment before speaking again. "So, what now?"
I hesitated, then sighed. "I’m leaving Italy soon." The words felt heavier now that I was saying them out loud.
Michael didn’t react right away. He just studied me, then gave a slow nod. "Where?"
"I don’t know yet."
Another beat of silence stretched between us before he leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. "Come with me," he said simply.
I blinked, taken aback. "With you?"
"I’ve been staying in Argentina," he explained. "Buenos Aires. It’s...different from Italy. Less cold, in every way. It’s lively, but not suffocating. You could disappear there if you wanted to. Or you could start over."
I frowned slightly, considering.
Michael shrugged. "No pressure. But if you really don’t want to be around Vincenzo, then at least go somewhere you’ll be safe. Somewhere you won’t be looking over your shoulder every second."
Safe. The word felt foreign to me.
He sighed and ran a hand down his face. "But if you do stay..." He trailed off, watching me carefully. "If you stay, it’s because you love him enough to swallow the pain and talk to him."
I tensed, my jaw clenching.
"I know what you’re thinking," he continued. "That he broke your trust. That he hurt you. And yeah, he did. But love isn’t just about feeling good when things are perfect. It’s about deciding if it’s worth the pain when things aren’t."
I stayed silent, my mind a tangled mess.
Michael didn’t push. He just leaned back and gave me a small, almost teasing smirk. "Besides, I might not like the bastard, but I’ll admit—he’d burn the world down for you."
The words hit me harder than I expected.
Would leaving make things easier? Maybe. But would it make things better? I wasn’t so sure.
I sat there, staring at the floor, the choice sitting heavy in my chest.
Argentina or Italy.
Michael or Vincenzo.
A clean slate or the man who had shattered me—but also pieced me back together more times than I could count.
I just didn’t know which one I wanted
