"What is it?" I ask as I take the faded old envelope from him.

"Just open and read it, and then I'll explain."

Dear Chrissy,

Please understand that the last thing I intended to do was hurt you. If we could run away, I would in a heartbeat, but too many lives count on me taking over now that my dad is dying.

I can't bring you and the baby into my life right now. I'm so very young to be in this position, so vulnerable, and you and our child will be considered a weakness. My enemies would seek to exploit that, and I can't have that.

But someday, I'll be strong, I'll have a firm hold on this empire, and when that time comes, if you'll still have me, I'd love nothing more than to marry you and have more children.

.... And I know promises don't mean anything until they can proven to be kept.

I will do what I can to ensure we can be a family.

I will wait for you until the end of time. However, if you choose someone else or no longer want me, I will accept it. I'll only wish you the best.

As for my son, though, I want him to have this.

Then, a line says this can be considered a legal contract with a second signature. Under that, it says.

If Jackson Mancini (Russo) chooses, he will be my predecessor when he reaches the age of twenty. I will begin grooming him to take over the Russo empire. When this time comes, I will work with him to mend and merge our family's strengths. Upon my death, Jackson Mancini (Russo) will be first in line to take over the family business and all its assets.

This offer will stand no matter what happens with Christina and the rest of the Mancini family.

It's then signed at the bottom with both those signatures. The second page is a DNA report showing Jackson's parentage.

I stare at it with a dumbfounded look on my face.

"My father, Vinny, is the only Russo who knew I am also a Russo. The Russos think they wiped my family out, including me, before he ever told them anything. If any of them found out this land is here and then that Edward Mancini's grandson is alive..." He leaves that unsaid. "I had to go and get this in case there was any chance they sent you here to spy or something. This would save my life if they came here." 

"That's why you were watching me for a while and didn't approach me?" I guess, and he nods in confirmation.

"I don't know why I got it in my head they sent you. They think I'm dead, and there's no reason for them to doubt that. And if they did, It wouldn't make sense for them to send one teenager all alone, but I got all paranoid anyway. I haven't seen a person since Franky last summer. Then you found my camp. My safe spot -  that really freaked me out,  but...  I'm sorry I held a gun at you."

There is nothing but sincerity in his tone and guilt in his eyes.

"It's okay, Jax. I'm sorry I came sneaking around. I was trying to figure out if you were someone already here or if the Russos had found me," I explain. "I knew where your fire was coming from; it didn't seem likely that it was them, but like you, I got all paranoid."

"This place does that. Even after you told me you were a runway, I still had doubts."

"I don't blame you. I can't imagine being out here alone for so long."

"Yeah.. it sucks, just me and all my ghosts."

I reach over and squeeze his shoulder and then give him back his envelope.

"You're  turning twenty this summer,"  I recall.

"And... if  I show up with this letter." He waves it around.  "Vinny will have to honor it. He'll have to start grooming me to take over."

"But he thinks you're dead?"

"Let's keep walking," Jackson says as he shoves it back in his pocket, his face turning grim. I'm guessing this is where the story takes a dark turn.

"Life went on after he gave her that letter. Grandpa forgave Mom and brought us a nice house, and we were safe out of the way of the family shit." 

"Did you know they were criminals?"

"Not when I was little, but I figured stuff out as I got older. My mom told me the truth about everything around eleven or twelve. She told me she never wanted this life for me. She said, in many ways, my uncle's life was stolen from him. He didn't go to college and didn't get to pick his own career path. It was chosen for him, and it's not a career. It's a life sentence. She was dead on there. That's exactly what it was."

He pauses for a moment, and we continue to walk silently. I give him the time to clear his thoughts, and then he continues.

"The Russos were growing more powerful under Vinny's leadership fast, but so were the Mancinis under Jack with my grandpa's help. Jack never got over Vinny getting his sister pregnant. The two of them started to become bitter rivals."

He stops to pick up a bunch of loose branches in our path, tossing them onto the sled.

"It got so bad that around the time I was two or so, my mom confronted Vinny about it. He had once told her he'd try to merge the families, and he was making tensions worse. She begged him to ease off our family, so he told her he would call for peace if she married him." He pauses for a moment to clear his throat, and I continue to listen intently.  "She said no, she didn't want that life not for her and not for me."

"What did he do?"

"He said he understood, and he loved her and a bunch of other crap, but then he married someone else a few months later. "

"That's so messed up!"

"Yeah," Jackson agrees. "I told you, I don't believe anything he ever told her."

I can hear the anger in his tone when he speaks of his father, and I can tell it goes deep.

"Life was pretty normal for me growing up despite my family being who they were; my mom and I were close, and we had a good life and a nice house. I loved my uncle and my grandpa despite their shadiness about them.  Until I was around thirteen. There was this huge bust, and my grandpa and several other high-level members of the family were arrested. My grandpa was murdered in prison not long after his arrest."

"I'm so sorry you lost him that way," I am once again touching his arm, seeking some way to comfort him. He doesn't seem to mind, even leaning into it a little.

"I lost everyone violently, sweet Sam." His voice trembles slightly, but he clears his throat and continues.

"This left us weak and my uncle Jack in charge. Jack hired his cousin Franky as his right hand since he was very smart. Franky suggested we keep a low profile and get the Russos off us. This worked for a while. For a few years, things were actually peaceful. Jack never tried to encroach on the Russo's territory, never messed with them again, he just kept the family running doing whatever he did, quietly with who he had left."

Jackson's jaw tenses as his eyes look off at a memory in the distance. "Vinny had no reason to do it!"

"What did he do?" I whisper as I step tentatively closer to Jackson. I take his hands, and he looks at me, his smoky eyes full of pain.

"Since things were so peaceful, my uncle finally had the time to meet someone. He  fell in love, they got married, had a wedding..."

I feel a shudder going through me even before he says.

"... and Vinny Russo and his men came and shot the place up at the reception."

I gasp in absolute horror, shaking my head slowly. "No... Jax no! Were you there!?"

"No, it was in Vegas, an adults-only event. We were going to have a small family party the next weekend, but they made it look like I was there after the fact."

"What, why?"

"I'll get to that,"  he says his voice is quiet and low as he continues. "No one was prepared for such an onslaught, and they couldn't defend themselves. We lost my mom, my uncle, his new bride, her damn parents, and so many others..."

"You lost your whole family in one night?" I manage to say as the tears begin to fall down my cheeks.

Jackson gives me the saddest smile I have ever seen. Then he steps closer and brushes the tears from my cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. His eyes are growing misty, but they stay trained on me. After a long silent moment, he lets out a small breath, looking down at his shoes as he continues.   "I knew the moment Franky showed up at my house in the middle of the night that things were bad."

"How old were you?" I whisper.

"Fifteen. It feels like a lifetime ago, though, you know? I miss my mom so much, Sam."

"Oh, Jax." I throw my arms around him. He stiffens at first but then relaxes and loosely hugs me back for a moment before letting me go. He's wiping at the corner of his eye as he part.

"Let's get back on the trail," he says with a ragged sigh.

"Okay," I say softly, falling into step with him.

"Franky was at the wedding with his wife as a guest, which was rare," he continues, putting his emotion behind him as he goes on. "He always kept such a low profile no one even knew him. Still don't - so today, he's the eyes on them, and they don't even know it. He lost his wife that night, along with his brother and so many others."

I reach for the hand he's not pulling the sled with, and he allows me to take it. I squeeze it gently. He doesn't let go right away as he continues walking, and he continues his story.

"Franky and a few other guys that survived the shooting lit the place on fire, so anyone on the guest list that did survive would be presumed dead. He then came to me to tell me what happened, and I blew up. I went from shocked to pissed in five seconds. Anger was the only way I got through that night. The sadness didn't hit me until much later. In that anger, I spilled about Vinny being my father and the letter he wrote. As we vented, we both grew more and more furious, and then the plan was formed."

"The plan?" I ask as he pulls his hand away from mine to run it through his shaggy hair.

"Let Vinny think I was there too. Make him think he killed his own son. We'd hide me here on this land with a handful of guys. We'd wait it out until I was twenty, and then I'd reemerge. There weren't many guys left, though, after the shooting, and many of them scattered. So it was Carl, a young twenty-some second cousin of mine, and his girl Angie that came with me."

... Only to be eaten alive by wolves. The intrusive thought causes my stomach to knot up.

Jackson's thinking of them, too, I can tell. His face has that haunted look again.

"How would you explain where you were all that time?" I ask Jackson to pull his thoughts away from Carl and Angie.

"The story would be that I ran scared from the shooting and have been living on the streets. Then, as I got older, I grew tired of hustling and came to find my dad. Having the ego he does, Vinny would want to save, groom, and make me in his image. His wife only gave him girls; a guy like Vinny would want a son to take over. Then, when he trusts me, I can slowly start to dismantle his business from within, and when he least expects it, leave him open for Franky to kill."

"Damn," I mutter as a chill goes down my spine. It's not that Vinny doesn't deserve it. It's just so horrifying.

"But you said you didn't want to do it?" I question as I glance sideways at him.

"I don't," Jackson says with a sigh. "The longer I was out here alone, the more I thought about how my mom never wanted that life for me. But Franky says I have to avenge her."

"Well, Franky is wrong," I say irritably. He manipulated Jackson– and played on his anger, and it ticks me off. I get that Franky was furious, too. I understand that he lost his wife and so many in that shooting, but still, Jackson was just a kid.

"When Franky came last summer, I tried telling him I wanted to leave. After hearing about the wolves, I thought he'd hear me out. I hoped he had time to get over his anger a little, too. I told him I only needed a little money, and he could keep the rest, and I'd start over somewhere."

"He didn't like that idea," I guess.

"Not at all. He wouldn't hear it. He begged me just to wait a little longer. One more year, I'd be twenty. Finally, to shut him up, I said I'd wait the year and decide. As soon as he was gone, I started planning my escape. Like I told you, I ate a ton, gaining weight and strength.

"When the time came to leave, I got scared. Part of it was the thought of leaving and living on the streets after so long in the woods, but I also knew I'd have to cross the creek before I left. If I ever had a run-in with the Russos, I'd need the proof of who I am. It took me months to get the courage to cross.

"I was finally going to do it. I was walking to the creek when I smelled your fire and saw you, and... here we are."

"Wow, Jax I– " I shake my head as words fail me, and a knot forms in my stomach. If my dad hadn't brought me here, he'd have escaped this place already!

"Guess it's a good thing I was being a chicken shit, or you would have got here and been alone."

"But you would be free!" I protest. "I screwed you over."

"Don't say that. You didn't do anything. Neither of us did. We're both fucked over shit we had nothing to do with," Jackson says.

We fall silent. Each lost in our thoughts as we continue crunching through the leaves on the ground.

"You can't do it," I say after a while. "As soon as it's warm enough, you have to leave. You can't let Franky turn you into someone you aren't."

"Sam, Vinny turned the Russos into brutal, bloodthirsty people. They don't care about the money your dad owes. They like the power of playing with people. He took that away by hiding you which will only make them want you more. You're a missing person; I'm sure your picture has been on the news. You can't leave here without the Russos finding you. Not until a good amount of time has passed, and even then you'll have to change your identity and looks."

"So then I'll stay here until it's safe for me to leave, however long you say I should wait."

"You'll be fine for the summer, and then winter comes. How long before you starve or freeze or worse?" He doesn't wait for an answer. "I am alive out of sheer luck, Sam. I almost died more than once out here. I can save you. All I have to do is go to Vinny. Once he trusts me, I can get him to back off on your dad."

"Then what?"

"Then I guess I have to choose. Either take him down and bring back the Mancinis or keep working with him and lead the Russos."

"You don't want either," I say.

"No, but..." He trails off.

"You're not throwing your life away to save mine," I say firmly. "It's not happening."

"You have a better idea? Because I don't," Jackson says.

"No, I don't, but it's not even November yet. We have an entire winter before either of us can go anywhere. We have time to come up with a better idea, and we will."

He gives me a sad smile that doesn't reach his eyes. Maybe he doesn't think so, but I am one hell of an overthinker. I'll come up with something.

We start walking past that water collection shack and I see we're almost at Jackson's camp, well, I guess our camp now. I like this side of the woods. The big pines make it feel so secure. I can see why he prefers it.

We pass the big pretty willow tree and make our way to the clearing of the camp. It feels like ages ago I was last here when it was only a few weeks ago. Time feels strange out here. It moves differently.

We stop outside his cabin, set our bags and the sled down, and then Jackson heads up the steps and opens the door for us.

"Welcome to your new home, Sam."