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“You heard the boss. That’s it.”
“You weren’t telling him the entire truth.”
“Oh, so now you’re some moral compass? Your job is not to tell me what to do, last time I checked.”
“No, but yours was to marry Espie, and somehow you got out of doing that too.” I turn around to see he’s already walking out the door, and I'll be damned if he gets the final word.
“I’m not the one selling out for a girl, by the way. Since you were so concerned about me doing that.”
“Adrik, that wasn’t why we came to talk to you.” He spins around on his heel, and now I’m fully attentive. “We thought you should know the implications of fraternizing with a San Giovanni. Contract or not, she was not yet your wife. You’ve made a new war with our strongest ally, and you’ll pay for that. So, I don’t need you to be angry with me, too. I was only trying to prevent the inevitable?”
“And what are those? More war? I hate to break it to you, but you’re in the wrong line of work if you think you can prevent war.”
“No, Adrik.”
“Then what? What inevitable?”
“The breaking of your heart, sir.”
I burst out laughing because he has to be pulling my leg. Though, the more I laugh, the less I think he’s joking. His face remains flat, almost a little sad, and then he turns out the door as I continue to cackle, mostly to keep from thinking about what he’s said.
But the moment it’s silent, I take a very long drag and stare into space. After finishing the cigarette in this stance, I toss it into the sink and continue packing like a mindless drone. That’s all I want to be from now on.
I can’t fathom Barth’s ridiculous words, but the growing ache in my chest, like the splintering of my insides, is just about as annoying as they are. Just as I zip up my suitcase, there’s a knock at the door. I twist around to see one of the San Giovanni boys standing in the doorway.
“There’s a meeting in the theater. Everyone is expected to attend.” He gulps nervously, and I feel bad for the man. No one else was probably brave enough to order me around while I’m like this. Call it a guilty conscience or a moment of weakness, but I decide to cut him some slack.
“Alright.” I nod and follow him down to the theater. I don’t expect much, just the boys, maybe Barth excluded. He’s probably tending to Olive like a lapdog, trying to get her to forgive him for doing his job. That’s a lost cause, though. I might not know Olive very well, but I can tell she’s not the type to give second chances.
The second I arrive, my whole body tenses, stomach lurches, eyes go a bit blurry when I see Espie and Olive seated on the left side of the theater, surrounded by their guys. The shrimp who walked with me here, joins them and then one of my boys on the right side of the theater calls me over.
I have half the sense to walk over there right now and tell Espie that I didn’t do this to hurt her, but I don’t know if that's even true. I can’t figure out if anything I did was genuine. I just know how badly everything in me aches since it all fell apart.
With as much gusto as I can manage, I take a brisk jog over to the boys and take my seat in the center of them. There are a few cameras set up in the space between the seats and screen. Just as I pull out my phone to ask Barth what the hell is going on, up on the screen pops Vince’s head on the right and my father’s on the left.
“Good morning to you all.” Vince begins. “I’ve called this meeting to discuss the outlined points in our contract. I think you all will find it very fascinating what we have discovered and what, we think, needs to take place to resolve them.” I glance over at my father's face, who is completely calm. He knows what he’s going to say, what we’re going to do. Nothing can phase him now.
“And in that contract, does it not state that the firstborn daughter of your family must be given to her husband as a virgin? Is that not the rules of every mafia engagement?”
Vince’s brows tense ever-so-slightly, but he’s a master at keeping calm. He has to be in this business. “I assure you, that’s not what I’ve brought everyone together to discuss.”
“Well, that might be so, but I’ve been alerted by Adrik just an hour ago of herimpurestatus.”
“Are you trying to tell me that my heavily guarded sister, who has a chaperone and has not ever been alone with a man, is not a virgin.”
“Vincenzo, I don’t know how you run your household, and quite frankly have no interest in going over those details. All I know is that your sister is not a virgin, and thus we wish to dissolve the contract.”
“Esperanza?” Vince snaps, ignoring my father's pompous reaction that makes even me want to slap him. This wasn’t the plan. I didn’t want the whole world to know that she wasn’t suitable to marry. I just thought my father would end everything with a discussion between him and Vince. Espie is in my peripherals, so I glance over at her. Her eyes are flooded with tears, cheeks shining in the light from the screen as Olive holds her tightly. She tucks her head into the curve of her neck and Olive speaks for her.
“It’s true. But Adrik is the one who took her virginity.”
“How could you let this happen? You were supposed to watch her.”
“And you were supposed to be getting me out of this contract!” Espie shouts at him, clearly forcing the words out. The boys huddle closer, keeping her out of my sight. Now the truth is out. The complete truth. She never intended to marry me anyway, and now I have no idea what I meant to her in the first place. I thought she wanted me, at least enough to say yes when I asked her out and to be seduced. But perhaps she was playing me this whole time too.
It’s a stupid thought because I’m still a dick. I fucking know. And I feel worse now that everything's out in the open.
“We’ll discuss this privately.” Vince tells them both, and then my father clears his throat.
