Lucia was smart.
She was also a bitch â
But she was smart, Iâd give her that.
Sheâd deduced the one inconvenient fact behind the entire shitshow of the last 24 hours:
That ultimately, my brothers and I were the reason behind everything that had happened.
The attack on the palazzoâ¦
The kidnappers at the universityâ¦
The two of us being forced to go on the lam.
Now, I took it for granted that murder and mayhem were just part of being in the Cosa Nostra.
(And of having treacherous relatives, although that was a different matter.)
The Widow certainly didnât seem to blame us for bringing a war to her doorstepâ¦
But I couldnât deny what Lucia had said.
There was a 99% chance that none of this would have ever happened if I hadnât flown to Venice yesterday morning.
So I could understand Lucia being angryâ¦
But I was angry, too.
Iâd risked my life any number of times to save both her and her grandmother.
Butâ¦
That argument didnât hold much water when it was me who had put them in danger in the first place.
I didnât feel bad about that. Like I said â part of being in the Cosa Nostra.
The Widow knew the risks and the downsides.
And Fausto and Aurelio were ultimately the ones to blame.
But it wasnât like I could feign total innocence in all of this.
Still, Luciaâs attitude rankled meâ¦
Maybe because I knew she was right. Or at least partially right.
One good thing about her figuring it out, though:
She didnât talk to me for the next two hours. Not even to complain.
So there was a huge upside to her being a bitch, for once.