Chapter 5 - THE SHADOW OF PALERMO
Mateo stepped directly into the space between his father and Tessa, his broad frame creating a protective barrier, though his face was a mask of intense, dark curiosity.
"Father," Mateo demanded, his voice low and firm. "What are you talking about? Rosa Giuliano died in a house fire in 1968. You told the Commission fifty years ago that the entire Giuliano bloodline was wiped out during the war with the Falcone family."
Salvatore slowly lowered his head, his shoulders slumping as if fifty years of heavy, secret iron armor had just been stripped from his body.
"That is what I told the Commission," Salvatore murmured, his voice hollow. "That is what I had to tell them so they would stop hunting her."
He looked up at Tessa, his eyes filled with an agonizing mix of grief, reverence, and ancient pain.
"In the summer of 1966," Salvatore spoke to the quiet room, his words swallowed by the soft crackle of the fireplace, "the Vitiello family and the Giuliano family were locked in a blood feud that turned the streets of Palermo red. I was twenty-four years old. I was sent to set fire to the Giuliano estate."
Tessa’s breath caught in her throat. Her great-grandmother had possessed deep, dark burn scars along her left shoulder and neck—scars she had always claimed came from a kitchen accident in her youth.
"When I broke into the house," Salvatore continued, his voice trembling, "I found Rosa standing in the hallway, holding a rifle. She didn't shoot me. And I couldn't ignite the kerosene."
He looked at Tessa’s auburn hair. "She had your hair. Your eyes. We spent three days hiding in the hills above Cefalù while both of our families searched the island to kill us both for treason."
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Mateo stared at his father, his gray eyes wide with realization. "You let her escape to America."
"I forged her transit papers," Salvatore confessed, tears finally spilling over his weathered cheeks. "I paid a Greek captain to take her across the Atlantic. And to ensure my father and the Commission never searched for her, I burned the Giuliano estate to the ground myself and swore she had perished inside."
