Thanks for your reviews, anmodo...maybe we were separated at birth! Ha Ha!

Chapter Four - The Women Who Love Him

Central Park - 15 Hours Missing

"Aunt Angie!"

Angie turned around just in time to see her 4 year old nephew, Eddie Caruso jr., flying toward her. She smiled, bent down, and opened her arms as he barreled into them. Picking him up, she held him tightly to her body and breathed in the sticky, sweet, little boy scent of him.

"Ow! Aunt Angie, you're hurtin' me!" Little Eddie cried, wriggling to get free from her grasp.

"Sorry, buddy." Angie laughed, kissing his soft cheek and putting him back down on the ground. He grinned up at her and Angie almost had to catch her breath. He was the spitting image of his father. "Are you here to feed the ducks?" she asked.

"Yeah!" He said, turning to look out over the duck pond. "Ducks!"

Theresa came up to them at that moment, pushing baby Rose in her stroller. "Playground first, young man. So that mommy can talk to Aunt Angie."

"Aww, mama!" Little Eddie protested, pasting a pout on his adorable little face. But Theresa was having none of it and Little Eddie knew it. Without any more protests, he headed off to find a friend on the nearby playground.

Angie and Theresa embraced for a moment longer than they should have, and when they parted both women had tears in their eyes. Theresa clasped Angie's hand as they sat together on the bench and looked out over the playground where Little Eddie was having such fun. They shared a few quiet moments together before either woman spoke.

"Do you think he's dead?" Theresa finally asked, her voice eerily calm.

"I don't see any other way for this to have ended." Angie said, afraid to look at her sister in law. She shook her head and asked, "What happened? I thought he was getting out?"

"He was." Theresa told her, reaching down to rearrange the blankets that covered baby Rose in her stroller. "I don't know how. He never told me. But his plan was to walk away. We were getting ready to follow your lead...walking away and never looking back."

Angie nodded. "I knew I would finally lose him when you did. And I was getting ready for that. Because I knew it meant you'd be safer. But it wasn't supposed to play out like this."

Theresa half snorted and half laughed at that. "Nothing in my life was supposed to play out like this. When I was dreaming about my prince as a little girl, he didn't carry a gun or launder dirty money for his family." She shook her head and asked, "How the hell did I get here? I am a nice girl from the suburbs, for Christ's sake! And here I am in the middle of this dark, dangerous, and deadly life. I married a man who could never promise me that he'd return home at the end of the day, couldn't promise a life of safety and security. The only thing he could ever promise me was that he would protect and love his family." Her grasp on Angie's hand tightened a bit as she continued, "I did this to myself. I knew what I was walking into with this relationship and then marriage. I thought I could handle it. Block it out. If I didn't actually have to see him work, I could pretend that what he did wasn't deadly. But, in the back of my mind, I still worried every day about the life I'd have if, God forbid, he was to leave one evening and not return. And now that has happened."

Angie heard Theresa's voice break with that last statement and knew that she could not look over at her sister-in-law at that moment and remain composed. She remained silent for a few moments, then took a deep breath and asked, "Why did you bring this to the Feds?"

Theresa bent over and buried her face in her hands. "I didn't know what else to do. I had no where to go." She raked her fingers through her dark hair and shook her head again. "I figured out right away when he didn't come home that Tony and Joey had to be behind it, so I couldn't go to them for help...I knew I would get the run around. I guess I thought that the Feds would be part of Eddie's plan to leave the organization, so I went to them..." Her voice trailed off and she simply said, "I don't know. I don't know what I was thinking." She turned to look at Angie and asked, "What did they say to you?"

"Not too much. It was a fishing expedition on their part. I kind of tried to cut them off at the knees, but they kept bringing up my relationship with Eddie."

"What did you say?"

"What I always say...I lied my ass off." A smirk came onto Angie's face, but disappeared quickly. "I told them that I haven't seen him in more than 15 years. If anyone in the family ever found out that we have really been in contact on a regular basis, I would get dragged back into the middle of this so fast it would make everyone's head spin. It was part of the conditions they laid out for me...if I chose to walk away, I could never look back."

"He never would have made it if he hadn't been able to hear your voice when things got tough." Theresa said, her eyes filling with tears. "To know that you are out there doing some good in this world and that he is responsible for it in a small way, it helps him sleep at night. He always said that getting you out is the only good he's ever done in his whole life."

"Well that's certainly not true. He did that." Angie nodded down to the stroller where Rose slept as peacefully as only an infant could. Then she looked out at the playground where Little Eddie was hanging like a monkey from the parallel bars and throwing his head back in sheer delight. "And that." She nudged Theresa's shoulder in a playful gesture. "With a little help." Theresa smiled at her and looked out at her son as Angie continued, "I couldn't have made it through the last 16 years without him, either. It's an awful thing to be completely alone in this world. I knew that when I walked away. But part of me knew that I would never be alone as long as he was drawing breath."

"You had your mom's family. Your Uncle Frank and Aunt Mary...Mikey and Anna." Theresa reminded her.

"I know. And they did everything humanly possible to try and make up for the fact that the Caruso's sucked the life blood out of me when I lived with them. But it wasn't ever the same as it was with Eddie." Angie shook her head again. "There were always things I had to hide from the Sullivan side of my family...for their safety and mine. But I never had any secrets from Eddie. He knew about all the things that scared me, the things that still make me cry. He was the only person I could ever really be me with."

"Let's not talk about him in past tense just yet, OK?" Theresa asked. "I have never been one to hold onto hope, but it seems like a good time to start." Angie nodded and Theresa said slowly, "Maybe you should cooperate with the F.B.I."

"In what way?"

"Maybe you should tell them that you lied...that you have been in contact with Eddie during these last 16 years. Almost every day, in fact." Theresa said. "Tell them why you left and why you'll never go back."

"If I tell them that, I will have to tell them why he stayed." Angie shook her head. "I don't know if I'm ready for that. I don't know if the F.B.I. is ready for that. They have built their entire existence on the idea that everyone in the mob is evil. Finding out that Eddie is an amazingly good guy could derail their whole system of government."

Theresa took a big breath and said quietly, "Eventually, Angie, you're going to have to trust someone. If you start now, with these agents, we might be able to help Eddie."

"And if they don't believe me?"

"The things you know...the things you've seen...could bring down the entire Caruso crime family. They should not only believe you, they should be falling at your feet." Theresa turned and finally looked Angie full in the eye. "You've kept silent all these years because you were afraid that what you knew could bring down the family and Eddie right along with them. But now, Eddie may not be a part of that equation any more. Bringing down Joey, Uncle Tony, and the boys may be the only way to find out what happened to him. And one way or another, we have to know what happened to him."

Angie nodded. "Never knowing would be worse. We could spend the rest of our lives asking each other 'What if's' and slowly drive ourselves insane. There's only so much hope to hold onto before it runs out."

"So, what are you going to do?" Theresa wanted to know.

Angie shook her head and shrugged. "I don't know. Right now, I'm just going to feed the ducks with my nephew and enjoy the simple sound of a little boy's laughter."