“Lie.” She lowered herself onto the bed, and for some fucking reason, I stopped what I was doing and turned back to her. “Your real name is Vittorio Amante.” My brows tugged closer, but she had my attention. I never knew shit about my parents, only that they dumped me here when I was four. The woman lowered her hoodie to the sides of her neck, and I felt my shoulders relax. Something about her felt warm. I had never been near anyone of this kind of goodness, except her. “Your father was the capo of the Amante Cosa Nostra, and a standing member of the committee. When you were a child, my husband killed him and your mother, and framed the Russians, started a decade long war.” Her eyes traveled up to me. “You are drawn to my girl Ruby because you knew her. You spent every day around one another right up until your parents murder. Slept in the same crib. Shared the same breast milk at one point because your mother’s stubbornness refused to put you on bottle milk.”

“Ehh…”

“Sorry.” She folded her hands on her lap. “I guess you won’t remember and maybe not believe me.” She stood and pulled out something from her back pocket, handing it to me.

I switched hands with the machete, taking the photo from her and looking down at it. Two babies wrapped tight in their own little blankets but facing each other during sleep. One was larger and a little older than the other, and to the side of the smaller baby was a single rose.

“Her middle name is Rose, but she doesn’t know that. I’ve always told her it was just Ruby La Rosa, but it’s actually Ruby Rose La Rosa.” Tears fell from her eyes. “Like me.”

Flipping the photo, it reads Ruby Rose & Vittorio.

“This could be any baby.” I handed the photo back to her, but she ignored me, turning back to face the curled up girl in bed. She’d be drugged out of her mind no doubt, which was why she hadn’t woken.

“You know it’s not, Tori.” Even as she said a name I had never heard before, my breathing thickened, as if my soul had recognized it. “This is Ruby’s twin sister. They’re his children, Tor. His. His girls.”

“You had that psycho’s babies?” The anger that erupted inside of me was unwarranted, and I knew that we only had a few more minutes before I was going to have to show them a body.