Fires to Come

by Asha Lemmie

“Now remember this, both of you. Never discuss the family business with anyone outside the family. Don’t ask questions about things that don’t concern you. Understood?”

Because no respectable Italian family would ever accept her as a daughter-in-law.

She was a bridge, perhaps, but never a destination.

thats so mean 😭

So there was little point in telling him that she did not want to be managed, or situated, or foisted off on the imbecile son of a drunk who would sell his family’s good name away for the right price, or for the forgiveness of some gambling debt. She wanted someone to look at her the way that Papa looked at Mama, the way that Luca looked at Antonia. She wanted to be valued, not tolerated, and not even Papa could buy her that.

She’d thought about Harlem, of course. Ever since she was old enough to know it existed. It seemed strange to her that just thirty-five minutes away there were neighborhoods where she could walk down the street and no one would bat an eyelash.

She saw clearly now how a horse could grow to love its blinders. Maybe it was better not to have choices, not to have an open pasture to run in. She understood now that there was never a choice made that did not cost something.

“Anyway, three days later I went back and got you. I told your father that this was the way of things in my own home as far as I was concerned, and he did not try to change my mind. We had you christened and I named you after my mother. Because you were my daughter.”

She wished her mother were still alive so that she could ask her how to manage being a smart woman in a family where men did not value such a thing.