Looking back on that morning I received that call from Victor, I wished I had realized that when he hung up the phone that would be the last time I spoke to him. I lived a good portion of my life despising the man but when I really sat down and thought about it he had been the only man in my life for a long time. I wouldn’t say he was a father figure to me, but he had once been my role model, a man I chose to look up to. He stormed into my life bringing a lot of pain and suffering into it, but he also gave me his daughter, making my relationship with him worthwhile.
You don’t realize all the things you want to tell a person until you can’t say the words anymore, until the chance to speak is ripped from you. I would have thanked him for creating such a perfect woman for me to love. I would’ve told him I had it from here and that I’d take care of her from now on. I would’ve said goodbye.
It took us two days from the day he called to get to Florida, to the hospital that Mike had been admitted to. He had made it through surgery. The doctors removed the bullet and repaired the damage, assuring us he would make a full recovery.
When we arrived, Grace had been in the waiting room, crying and looking lost until Adrianna placed her grandson into her arms. The woman Vic had shared his life with looked into the eyes of the little boy and his innocence gave her hope. She guided us to Mike’s room and when we stepped inside Adrianna ran to her sister. They held each other, tears streaming down both their faces as they mourned the tragedy they lived through, the pain they were free from, and the loss of their father.
Victor hadn’t died, but he lost the only life he had ever known. After word came from the doctor that Michael survived the surgery, Victor checked in on the man that saved his daughter. Like he had with me, he gave Michael his blessing to take care of Nikki.
Victor Pastore would always be known as the man who controlled the streets of New York. A man feared, respected and despised. He was a man who made headlines and filled the obituaries of a newspaper. He was the man who made the ultimate sacrifice for his daughters. See, only a man who has been inside knows the magnitude of what his actions mean. I’m that man. I spent three years in jail for a crime I didn’t commit, and now Victor would spend the rest of his life doing the same.
Vic confessed to the police that he killed Rico the night of the shooting, sparing both of his daughters. His confession snowballed into taking responsibility for a laundry list of crimes that weighed heavily on his conscience. The authorities brought him back to New York after charging him and he will stand trial but there is no escaping his fate. Throughout his years of corruption, he has paid top dollar for lawyers, always beating the system and eluding jail. This time Vic has refused the attorneys he keeps on retainer and is using the public defender. He surrendered, giving everything up, walking away from the power and set us all free.
Heartbroken. I’ve spent half of my life acquainted with the feeling of the chambers of my heart shattering. The shards stabbing at what’s left, and that’s how I felt when I learned what my father had done. It was different from the heartbreak I was used to though there was a different echo of sadness laced with the pain.
I was numb, other than the guilt that consumed me, swallowing me whole. I didn’t know how to explain what I felt, it was almost as if my father had died when they told me he’d been arrested. I saw the devastation in my mother’s eyes, the sadness in my sister’s and I felt responsible. The last conversation I had with my father haunted me, Rico’s face as my bullet pierced him flashed in my head, it was all too much. This was all my fault.
Nikki grabbed my hand, kissed Mikey on the cheek, and told him and Anthony that she was steeling me away for a few minutes.
Anthony stepped to me, tilting my chin with his finger so that my eyes met his. “You okay?”
I nodded, but he knew just as well as I did, that, I was anything but okay. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to my forehead.
“Let it go,” he whispered against my skin. “It’s not your fault.” He said so low that only I could hear his words.
I pulled back and stared at him, wondering if he believed I wasn’t to blame for all this. Nikki tugged on my hand and I broke my stare with Anthony to follow her out of Mike’s room. She led me to the hospital cafeteria, ordering us both coffees, and took a seat. It wasn’t until we were seated that she let tears fall freely down her face.