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SAM – AGE 16
I’ve always knownone day I’ll be king. My father has been telling me this my entire life. And when Vito Beneventi speaks, you listen. Pop is the head of the family. Not just my family—The Family. His father was in charge before he died, and I’ll take over after Pops dies. It’s the way of our world.
Most of my life can be broken down into befores and afters.
Before my mother died, she wanted my brother and me to be sheltered from this life. She was born into it. She knew what to expect, knew she couldn’t protect us. But I heard my father and her argue about it anyway. Mom knew my life was planned out the minute she gave birth to a boy. But still, she tried to keep my little brother and me as far from harm as possible.
Eventually, she accepted my fate.
That’s when she started telling me, as the big brother, my job was to always keep my baby brother, Sebastian, safe.
She made me swear it on my life before she died in a car accident a few years ago.
After she died, Pop started pulling me into this life a little at a time. By the time I was fourteen years old, I was doing a little bit of everything for everyone. I cleaned cars. Picked up dry cleaning. I was the food delivery guy. Whatever was needed by one of The Family, I was supposed to make it happen.
I was a glorified gopher.
Learn everything.
Be able to do everything.
It was my first step in my eventual ascension.
It wasn’t until my sixteenth birthday a few months ago that my father told me I’d start training with my mother’s brother, Uncle Nick. My uncle is a guy who has a smile for everyone. But that smile hides the monster inside. He’s brought me with him on his collection runs for the last month. I’ve watched him smile while we collect money that’s owed. He asks about everyone’s family by name. He knows what sports their kids play. According to him, this makes the job easier. Shows the guys they’re dealing with someone who knows where they live and who they love. And those guys never miss a payment for the very same reasons.
Until they do.
Until they can’t pay us.
Then Nick unleashes that monster.
I’ve watched him make men twice his size cry for their mom.
But today is different
Today, he’s brought me to an empty warehouse. Inside is a man who’s been beaten. His eyes are swollen shut, and dried blood cakes his naked chest. He’s dangling by his arms from a meat hook that’s attached to the ceiling when we enter.
I look around quickly and clock seven of my dad’s men scattered around the room... waiting. “What’s going on, Nick?” I step forward, needing to understand what’s expected of me.
He puffs on his cigar and leans against the wall before answering, “Hold tight, Sam. Your father will be here soon.”
No sooner do the words leave his mouth than my father walks into the room. Dressed from head to toe in a tailored black Italian suit and leather shoes, he looks every bit the boss he is. “Jesus Christ. Somebody cut him down.”
Order given, he crosses the room toward me, muttering something about dramatics and then stops in front of Nick. “We sure it’s him?”
Nick nods once as I watch the terrified fuck fall to the floor in a lump, crying.
Pop’s icy glare is momentarily locked on mine. “Come with me, Sam. Say nothing.”
I don’t answer. I just follow as we move to stand in front of the broken man on the floor. His eyes are two small slits amidst swollen flesh, but they’re both focused on my father. “Please, Vito. Please...” he begs, sobbing. “They were going to kill my family. Please.”
“So instead, they killed mine. I should gut your wife in front of you. Make you watch while she takes her last breath. But that would be granting you a goodbye I never got.” My father’s voice doesn’t shake.
There’s no hesitation.
It’s cold, calculated, and it elicits the exact reaction he’s looking for, judging from the piss trickling down the guy’s legs. My father pulls his prized revolver out from inside his coat and hands it to me. “This is the man who sold out our family, Sam. This is the man who caused your mother’s death.”
I don’t hear anything else my father says. When they told us our mother had died in a car accident, no one ever said it was related to Family business. I suspected but never knew for sure. A haze of rage threatens to take control of my body as I move next to the man on the floor, put the gun flat against his temple, pull back the hammer, and shoot. A spray of red blood hits the floor seconds before his body follows.
