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Twenty-Four
Vincenzo
Imiss her. That’s a new feeling. Since when have I ever missed any woman? How often have I thought about a woman once I’ve fucked them?
It’s never happened before. That’s how often. I’m experiencing something entirely new as I drive back to the country house. I want to go to her apartment and fetch her, tell my father to go fuck himself.
I can’t do that. Not until I’m running things. If I get on the wrong side of him at the moment, there’s a big risk that he hands the operation over to Michael. I will not let that happen.
My father may have a blindspot about his golden child but I do not. I know what it would mean if he was in charge. Within five years our family name would be nothing but dust in the wind.
Once I’m in charge, I will never let anyone tell me what to do again. Especially regarding Ophelia.
For now, I’ll play it safe. I’ll go back and talk to him and I’ll play by his rules. Make sure everything is signed over and approved by the commission as it should be.
I get back expecting an argument but I find my father in a surprisingly talkative mood. I’m not sure if it’s the brandy he’s been drinking while I was gone or the illness making him realize his own mortality. Whatever it is, he doesn’t try to pick a fight. He starts talking from the minute I walk into the drawing room.
“There are many challenges to a business such as ours,” he says. “The burdens and weights on the Don’s shoulder are many. Are you sure you want that burden?”
I don’t reply. He doesn’t look as if he expects an answer.
“Your brother is eager to take over the operation but his fiancée has told me in no uncertain terms that she will not bear a child for him. Health issues, yawn. Thus, a marriage between them with no heir is useless to me.”
He looks up at me and his eyes are watery, either from booze, cigar smoke, or maybe showing emotion for the first time in his life. “All that matters in life is family. What is the point of building an empire such as ours if you have no one to pass it on to? If it dies with you, what was the point?” He takes a drag on his cigar, letting the smoke slowly drift from his mouth. “I will miss these the most,” he says. “I doubt they allow them in heaven.”
“You think you’re going to heaven?” I ask, raising my eyebrows.
“I intend to recant my sins on my deathbed,” he replies. “Once all is forgiven and my donation to the mission is accepted, I will be as pure as that woman you brought in front of me today.”
He taps ash from the end of the cigar, pointing the glowing butt at me a moment later. “Which brings me to my point. Who is she?”
“I told you who she is.”
“Don’t bullshit me. If you think you can hire a hooker to marry you just to get around me, you’re more of a fool than I thought.”
“Call her a hooker again and see what happens.”
He laughs, his eyes flashing fire. “That’s the spirit. You want to prove she means something to you, be ready to defend her. You sent her home because I said so? You should have told me to go to hell. That is why I thought she was a hooker. Are you telling me she is not one?”
“She is my fiancée and you will show her some respect.”
“You love her?”
“I’m marrying her, aren’t I?”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“Yes, I love her.”
“Didn’t seem like she loved you. Lot of hesitation when I asked her about it.”
“She’s nervous. She’s not used to our world.”
“A civilian, of course. Well, she will learn soon enough if she marries you. No one keeps their hands clean for long in this business.”
I pour myself a glass of brandy, taking a sip while he examines me closely. “You got something to say,” I tell him. “Come out with it. Stop all this beating about the bush.”
“I intend to give everything to the right son,” he says, leaning forward in his seat.
