"What happened, Max? Why did things change?"

"It was the day my father was hosting some meeting at the house. I didn't know any of the people then, except your grandfather was there. I remember how disappointed I was that Aunt Tricia hadn't come with him. But my father told me this was business. That I'd see her soon enough at my birthday party, but today I needed to listen to my mother, and stay out of the grown-ups' way."

I just sit there, listening, watching Max's face. I don't want to interrupt him with questions because he might decide not to tell me what happened.

"I'd heard my parents arguing that morning, and I was worried because they never argued. When he came out of their bedroom, I stepped back around the corner. It was the first time in my life I'd ever been afraid. But he walked right past me without noticing I was there. As soon as he went downstairs, I went into my parents' room. My mother was sitting on the edge of the bed, and I could tell she'd been crying. But when I asked her what was wrong, she said it was nothing, and she took my hand and told me to come down to the kitchen and get some breakfast."

Max pauses, and the silence stretches out so long I'm afraid he's not going to tell me the rest of it. I'm about to risk promoting him to go on, when he starts speaking again.

"I didn't know it then, but my mother was very much against my father doing business with what she called that group from New York."

"Gino?" I ask, and he nods.

"My uncle had something going on with Gino's brother-in-law."

"Angelica's father?"

"Yes. He was pushing my father to do business with Gino. I don't know what it was about. I was five years old, so it's not like I had any clue about what was going on. I didn't understand what kind of business my father and my uncle were in.

"But Gino and Angelica's father and a whole group flew in. That's the first time I met Gino. I know now that he was a key player in one of the New York crime families, and well on his way to taking over a large part of the operations. His control was solidified later when he made his allegiance with the New Jersey syndicate that's now run by Joey D."

"And something happened that day?"

"Yes. I was just a little kid, and I was bored. There was no one to play with, and my mother was distracted. I remember going into the hallway outside my father's office and listening through the closed door to see if they were still having a meeting.

"My uncle was yelling, making threats. And I could hear my father and Uncle Andy. There were some other voices I didn't recognize at the time, and one of them – who I later realized must have been Gino - was also yelling and threatening. Then there was quiet. I was just reaching for the doorknob, when the door slammed open and Uncle Andy came striding out. I'd never seen him angry like that, and I started to say something but the words stuck in my throat."

"What was going on?"

"I never found out for sure, except my parents had another big fight that night. I'd never heard them argue before, and now it was twice in one day. They were in their bedroom, after I was supposed to be asleep in bed. But I had a bad dream and I woke up and wanted my mother.

"I ran into their room and she was standing there, facing my father, and he was looking down at her and yelling at her, and she was shaking her head no. He looked so angry I was scared and I ran over and pushed him and yelled don't you hurt her. And then they both turned and stared at me. I thought for a second he was going to hit me, he looked so angry. Then something changed in his face and he stooped down to my level. Maxie, he said, you protect your mother, always. Even from me."

"Honestly, Max," I say, "this is even more surprising than the idea that my grandfather built his law firm on working for someone who . . . " My voice trails off. I'm not sure how to phrase it without offending him.

"A crime boss?" Max suggests, and smiles just a little.

"Well, yeah," I saw, not missing the irony that I myself have done legal work for a crime boss. "I've read up on your father and, I guess I just assumed he was the kind of man who ruled his family with an iron fist."

"He ruled his various criminal enterprises with what I guess you would call an iron fist, but he never would have raised that fist to my mother or me. Anyway, I started crying then and he picked me up, then reached out his arm to my mother and pulled her in."

"So what ended up happening?"

"With the business deal Uncle Eddie was negotiating with Gino? I really don't know. But your grandfather never set foot in this house again, and he and my father were no longer business associates or friends."

"You must have still seen my grandmother, though. You seem to remember her too well to have never seen her after you were five years old."

He nods. "She and my mother remained friends. That's what my parents were fighting about that night. My mother refused to sever her relationship with Patricia when my father demanded it." He shakes his head. "I'm not sure she'd ever refused him anything before."

"Didn't you ever ask your father about what happened that day? I mean, not when you were a kid, but years later? Especially since he obviously did do business with Gino at some point."

"No," Max says, "and I never will."

* * *

On the drive back to my grandparents' house, Gabe still has a wall between us. Fine. I had to tell Max about my encounter with the FBI, and if Gabe thinks I'm playing with Max by calling him, then he can think what he wants.

I have weightier things on my mind anyway than defending my on-again off-again relationship with Max to Gabe.

In a moment of weakness before I left I'd almost suggested that we go upstairs, that I spend the night. The vulnerable side Max revealed when he talked about his mother made me just want to wrap my arms around him and make love with him.

But I can't allow myself to make that mistake again. Max has made his decision clear that we cannot be together, and if anything my encounter with the FBI demonstrates that that's the right decision.

I wish my grandfather would just tell me the truth about his history with Maxwell Bennett. How deeply did he actually get involved with the criminal side of Bennett's empire? Max said his father had kept the legitimate businesses and the illegal ones separate at first. I'm wondering at what point those lines became blurred.

Did my grandfather do something to kill the deal Max's uncle was putting in place with Gino? Max said it was both his uncle and Gino who were yelling, making threats, when he overheard them that day in his father's office.

Did Gino continue making threats? Is he who my grandmother was so afraid of? I have no trouble believing that crossing Gino in a business deal would be fatal. But what would he do - or threaten to do - if someone stood in the way of a lucrative business opportunity? Max said this all happened 26 years ago. So that would have been during a time period when Griselda Blanco and, later, Pablo Escobar, no longer controlled the drug trade in Florida. Had there been some opportunity Gino and Max's uncle saw to move into that space? Did my grandfather find out about it and somehow stop them?

I would like to see my grandfather as a hero in all this, stopping the New York mafia from getting a foothold in the Miami drug trade, but I don't know if that's what happened. And since my grandfather refuses to discuss anything about his relationship with Maxwell Bennett, he's an unlikely source of information.

Everything from the past is locked inside my grandmother's mind.

I just don't have the key to unlock it.

When we pull into the large circular driveway at my grandparent's home and I'm about to get out, Gabe reaches over and puts his hand on my arm.

I look at him, surprised. His face is serious but his eyes are not unkind.

"Just live your life, Hadley," he says. "The smartest thing you can do is just stay away from Max, and just go live your life."

He's right. I'm only hurting Max - and torturing myself - by spending time with him when I know we can never be together. He doesn't want me in his world, and I don't want to give up everything I've worked toward my whole life just to be with him. I can't spend my life with a man, wondering each time he comes home whether his day was filled with business or violence.

And Max has made it clear that has no intention, ever, of abandoning the legacy from his father.

I can't go through my life worrying each day whether he'll be caught in the net the FBI seems to be tightening, or, worse, end up the victim of violence from some rival criminal enterprise.

I look into Gabe's eyes, and nod. "You're right. I need to live my life, and let go of Max."

As I step out of the car, I decide on the first step in my plan to do just that.