Chapter 5 - THE MAN AT OUR WINDOW
For almost three months, things improved.
Mom worked fewer hours.
Noah had food.
Bills stopped piling up.
I saw Lorenzo twice a month.
Public places.
Always with Mom’s permission.
He never tried to make me call him Dad.
That helped.
Then one night I saw a man outside our house.
Not Lorenzo.
Not one of his men I recognized.
He stood across the street.
Watching.
I told Mom.
She called police first.
Then Lorenzo.
In that order.
He arrived after officers.
His face was different.
Not fatherly.
Something colder.
The man was gone.
But a neighbor’s camera had captured his car.
Lorenzo recognized it.
Victor Salerno.
Former associate.
Former friend.
Current enemy.
Mom looked at him.
“This is what I was afraid of.”
Lorenzo did not argue.
That mattered.
“Is Emily in danger because of you?”
“Possibly.”
Mom’s face hardened.
“Then you stay away.”
He looked at me.
Then back at her.
“Yes.”
My stomach dropped.
He agreed.
Just like that.
For six weeks, I did not see him.
He texted once a week.
Nothing dramatic.
How is school?
Noah walking yet?
Did you finish the architecture book?
I answered sometimes.
Sometimes not.
Then police arrested Victor Salerno on unrelated federal charges.
Only afterward did Lorenzo ask to see us again.
Mom said yes.
The first thing I asked him:
“Why didn’t you fix it?”
He frowned.
“What?”
“Victor.”
Mom inhaled sharply.
I continued.
“You’re a mafia boss. Couldn’t you just make him disappear?”
Silence.
Then Lorenzo said something I never forgot.
“I could make many problems disappear.”
He leaned forward.
“That is not the same as solving them.”
I stared.
“So what did you do?”
“Gave law enforcement what I legally could through attorneys.”
Mom looked surprised.
Lorenzo ignored her.
“I am trying very hard not to teach you that power means getting to skip rules.”
May you like
That was probably the most important thing a feared man ever told me.
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