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Category: Romance
Description: As if being the daughter of a Mafia boss isn't challenging enough, when Luciana Milanetti moves from Chicago to New England, her life becomes infinitely more complicated by the addition of not one but two men in her life.?@ No wall flower herself, with?@a black belt in Karate and the ability to master any weapon, Lucy doesn't feel like she needs protection.?@ However, there is more to fear than she could ever imagine.?@When a killer comes calling to ruin her normal existence who will come to her rescue??@
eBook Publisher: Solstice Publishing/solsticepublishing,
eBookwise Release Date: August 2010

3 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [195 KB]
Words: 42706
Reading time: 122-170 min.

Dinner with Family

Driving past a cemetery, Lucy wondered how many people had been killed for her father. Remembering her mother, she wondered how much her mother really knew before she was murdered. Lucy glanced at her father who lovingly smiled. He always had a smile for her even when things seemed impossible

Lucy loved autumn in New England and had many fond memories of visits with her mother. She loved the magical hues of red and gold, the crisp air, new soft sweaters and the anticipation of what was just around the corner. However, this year, the rain hid the colors from her and the future seemed difficult to imagine. This year her mother was not with them.

The stretch limo from Logan Airport slowly pulled up to the entrance of the Italian restaurant on a Thursday night in Boston's historic north end. It was still raining, and the smog made the city streetlights seem eerie and distant, as if they glowed from another time. Even though it had been years since she had visited, from the time of her mother's tragic death, Lucy knew she belonged here.

Lucy tried to smile as her father Vincent Milanetti laughed with his business partners. They were a part of "the family," and it was her father's turn to help cultivate the business. There had been many changes in the family through the years. Now, the family was scattered, her father had told her, thanks to the advancement in technology and communications. Like his father before him, Vincent, was confident and quite intuitive in his business dealings. Furthermore, Vincent was highly educated having earned a B.S. from Harvard, where he had met and married her mother, and an M.B.A. in business from the University of Chicago. The next generation of "the family" trusted him to take them into the new era with global success.

Seventeen-year-old Luciana (Lucy) is Vincent's precious daughter. Her mother died in a car accident when she was only nine years old. When she was fifteen, she found out it was not an accident, but a "hit" on the family. "That was a long time ago," her father often told her, but it explained why he was so protective of her. Her devastating memory was barely mentioned now, to honor and remember her mother's love and joy. Her father never focused on sadness or showed such emotion. Vincent only expressed great happiness, love or anger. In time, Lucy learned how certain family members were involved in the mafia and she quickly understood her father's role and expectations. She understood what family and loyalty meant and what happened to those who betrayed such trust. Still, there were secrets and many unspoken reasons to have a gun hidden in the bedside drawer, extra locks on the door and constant escorts by Dante and Gino. Actually, they were known as "Uncle Dante and Uncle Gino" even though there was no blood relation. Their years of faithful service to the family made them family.

Lucy looked like her mother, but she did not have the same confident outgoing personality her mother was known to have had. Actually, Lucy's shyness and soft-spoken ways clashed with her loud boisterous Italian family. Lucy preferred to express her emotions in her writing and art. Her long chestnut brown hair and soft olive skin she inherited from her mother, but her deep amber eyes were from her father. Lucy often looked at a photo of her mother holding her as a toddler. The photograph was always next to her bed wherever they went. She treasured the few distant memories of her - of being tucked into bed, the smell of her jasmine scented hair as she bent down to kiss her goodnight, her voice when she read her stories, her laughter as she ran through the halls of their home playing hide and seek, and when they danced in the rain.

It was the rain. The rain always made her think of her mother. As the rain washed down the car window blurring her view, she remembered her mother's yellow rubber gardening boots, yellow rain jacket and long wet hair.

Flowers and rain. She opened her journal and wrote the words down.