I grew up in a mafia family.
My grandfather came over from Sicily half a century ago to stake his claim in the countryside outside Florence, Italy. He established a small kingdom within the Cosa Nostra. After my grandfatherâs death, my father turned that kingdom into an empire.
I was the fifth of six brothers, so I knew I would never head up the family. That honor belonged to my oldest brother Dario, who deserved it. He was a born leader â and he sacrificed the most out of all of us. He took the fall for the family on a corruption charge and went to prison for four long years.
When our father died â murdered, we later found out â Dario was the one we all voted to lead us.
So I knew from an early age that I would never be at the topâ¦
But I always knew I would be of service.
I was trained from the time I could walk to be a fighter for the family.
Though the second youngest, I was by far the biggest of my brothers â 6â7â and 270 pounds. Papa used to joke that a strain of giant blood must run in our family.
But I didnât want to fight.
I wanted peaceâ¦
But thatâs in short supply when you grow up in the Cosa Nostra.
At only 26, I had seen assassinations⦠car bombings⦠over two dozen gunfightsâ¦
And yet, I hadnât experienced anything like the insanity of the last couple of months.
A raid on our home by a gangster named the Turkâ¦
Dario almost killed by an old woman seeking revengeâ¦
A Sicilian gangster who wiped out a rival family and tried to kill us, as wellâ¦
And now the betrayal of our family by our own flesh and blood.
We found out when my brother Adriano married Bianca, my new sister-in-law.
A month before, a rival family in Florence â the Agrellas â had conspired against us.
Bianca had seen a stranger talking to one of the Agrellas just hours before the bastards sprang their trap.
Assassins showed up at a hotel to kill Adriano, Bianca, Lars, and me.
We escaped by the skin of our teethâ¦
But we never discovered who the mysterious stranger was that Bianca had seen.
That is, until he congratulated her at the wedding reception.
It was our cousin Aurelio â
The son of our uncle Fausto, who had been our fatherâs consigliere for 25 years.
Our world was turned upside-down in an instant.