The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 10
My mother didn’t answer right away.
She held the phone, her breathing so soft I could barely hear it.
My father, who had overheard what I said, took the phone from her hand.
“How long are you going to keep this up?”
“You saw us taking better care of Ava and it bothered you, didn’t it?”
“She’s a publicly registered protected orphan of the Ferraro Family. You were born with a family name, a home, and our protection. If you knew how to be obedient—like she does—instead of always forcing us to choose between our Family duty and you, maybe we’d be more willing to be close to you.”
So that was it. In his eyes, I had been given everything.
It just never seemed to reach me.
I let out a soft, humorless laugh.
“In your eyes, what would I have to do to finally be good enough?”
The streets slid past the window.
Dusk was falling, and one by one, the streetlights flickered to life.
I looked down at my washed-out canvas sneakers.
The insoles were worn thin.
“Do you remember our midterm exams? Mine and Ava’s?”
“Every time she did poorly, you said she’d been through too much and couldn’t be pushed. You took her hiking, you took her to play sports, you helped her get her mind off things.”
“The math section of the SATs is out of 800. I got a 780.”
“It was far higher than Ava’s score. But you never smiled at me. You just asked me how I could have possibly gotten the easiest questions wrong.”
“Because I’m your biological daughter, I don’t need encouragement?”
The line went quiet.
I went on.
“Ava doesn’t have parents, but she has the Ferraro Family’s promise and all of you protecting her.”
“And I have parents, a brother, and the Vitale name.”
“But I’ve been living like an outsider who has to beg for her own life with stamped permission slips.”
I hung up.
Then I blocked Marco’s number, my father’s number, and my mother’s.