Some things you don’t forget and some you don’t forgive.

For ‘Bastian Galileo, the thing hardest to forget was literally stumbling upon his mamma dead on the kitchen floor with a welcoming smile on her face and bullets in her back. Even as a teenager, even without the calling card, Sebastian knew a mob hit when he saw one. It was a classic maneuver, involving someone the mark trusted in order to distract them.

Later, he’d have the same trick used on him… once. Afterward, only Adrian would get that trust and only because he’d been there, both hoping for Italian cooking and helping to save his life.

What Bastian would never forgive was his father’s reaction. Not rage. Not Sebastian’s need for retribution. Not even sorrow. Fear.

Fear so strong you could smell it as he ran upstairs, throwing things into a bag, yelling for Sebastian and his brother to do the same. Fear that made him shake. Fear that curled Bastian’s lip in disgust as they argued over whether to run. Fear that prompted him to threaten his eldest son that they would disappear without him if he wouldn’t come.

Fear that made Star’s father keep that promise.