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Tommaso has been my attorney for seven years now, and he’s always been able to get me out of some of the worst situations I’ve been in with the law. The fact that he’s calling me this late spells disaster for me in some way, and I’m not excited to find out what.
I breathe in deep, my heart jumping into my throat and choking me as I prepare myself for the worst. “Uhh, give me the good news first. Maybe it’ll soften the blow of the bad news.”
“Alright. The good news is that all the charges against you have been dropped. The department that was managing your case doesn’t have enough evidence to pin anything on you, and after they’ve been trying fuck you forsix months,that’s pretty significant,” he says. “So, that’s some pretty damn good news.”
Relief hits me like a tidal wave. My blood pressure lowers, and I can feel the tension in my shoulders relaxing for the first time in the recent past. I didn’t even realize how much of this stress was living in my body until now.
But wait. What could the bad news be?
“Okay, that’s amazing. I don’t know how to thank you,” I reply, sitting on my bed and lying back as I stare at the ceiling. “So, what’s the bad news?”
Tommaso sighs deeply, and the dread starts to build up again. Could it be different charges? Are they going to try to get me for tax evasion?
“Your brother has been arrested on RICO charges in Germany. He has an attorney working with him, but he’s probably going to be denied bond. I guess there was an informant who got offered a plea deal if he gave up the people he was working with,” he explains. “Unfortunately, your brother was an easy target because of the charges that were pinned on you.”
“That’s bullshit. The charges on me were dropped. And either way, what I’m accused of should have nothing to do with him,” I protest, feeling the temporary peace of my freedom slipping through my fingers.
“I know, it’s all bullshit, but he’s in a really shitty spot. I don’t know what you want to do with this information, but I figured you should at least know so you can make a plan for moving forward.”
I pause for a moment, hearing my own heartbeat in my ears as my mind races. “Who was the informant?”
“Marcello, please,” he replies cautiously. “You don’t need to do this right now. Just try to get some sleep.”
“No, Tommaso. If you know who the informant is, I need to know as well. If Enzo is in prison, he can’t be held responsible for what happens to the informant,” I say, trying to keep myself from getting too heated. If I let this get to me right now, I won’t sleep for days.
I need a plan. I need to strategize.
“Ah, fuck. Okay, I’ll tell you, but you need to promise me that you can keep your shit together instead of mowing this guy down in a grocery store parking lot. Promise me that, and I’ll tell you,” he continues.
“Yeah, I promise. You know me better than that.”
“But this is your brother, Marcello.”
I exhale heavily. I’m exhausted from a lack of sleep already, and now I have to temper myself to ensure that I don’t end up in prison for murder.
“Just trust me, please. If you thought I was that big of a risk, you shouldn’t have taken me on as a client,” I respond.
“Fair enough. Okay, fine, but I’m not going to talk about it here. Meet me at the club downtown, the one with all of the blue lights. I’ll send you the address. Be there in an hour, and we’ll talk it over. That’s all I ask.”
I wasn’t going to sleep anyway, but I know I’m not in the right headspace to have this conversation in person.
“Let’s do it tomorrow. I haven’t slept in days. It’s the responsible thing to do,” I reply.
He hesitates for a moment but begrudgingly agrees.
“Okay, fine. Meet me at eleven PM.”
“Affirmative.”
I hang up the phone, tossing it to the other side of the bed in an exasperated show of defeat. Hearing that I’m free of all my charges should have been the best news of my life, but now I don’t even feel like I can celebrate that at all.
My brother has never been to jail in his life, which is something of a miracle considering how sloppy he can be in his work and the people he associates with. He’s not a bad person, but he can miss details that could eventually spell life or death for him.
As his oldest sibling, I’ve always felt responsible for his well-being, even if I had to sacrifice my own peace to find it for him. I can’t resent him for it – we didn’t exactly have the strongest role models growing up.
But he wasn’t always like this, and that’s what chews me up inside.
He used to have this vision of a future for himself that didn’t involve the family business at all. He wanted to walk the straight and narrow, be a contributing citizen who went to work and kept his head down. Seeing the way that this life devastated my mother growing up, he was determined to rise above it and be better.
