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“That’s why I’m here. I thought I’d make things fair between you.”
“Fair would be handing control to me and not him. You know he kicks the shit out of Julia, don’t you?”
“I am not the moral arbiter of you two. If I was, I might have something to say about you fucking your eighteen-year-old nanny.”
“She’s nineteen.”
“Fifteen years younger than you.”
“And Julia’s eighteen but you don’t mind Ernesto marrying her.”
“That’s not the point. The point is that I want a fair contest between you two and if you both get married this week, how am I to choose who to give control to?”
“Simple, give it all to me.”
“If only life were that simple. If I give control to the younger son, the commission would ask why. They could feasibly overrule me once I’m dead, hand it all back to your brother.”
“So the commission overrules a Don, is that how it is these days?”
“I am one man. They govern all five families. The rules exist for a reason.”
“To grip us by the balls?”
“To make sure things are fair. That is their job.”
“Funny, I thought it was to fuck me over.”
He finishes playing on the piano, picking up his cigar and bringing it with him to the sofa near the window. He looks at me for a moment as if he’s seeing me for the first time. “I know how much you want this,” he says. “But you are the younger son. You have that against you.”
“So it doesn’t matter if I marry Bex then? You’ve made your mind up already.”
“You will both wed your prospective brides. The first one to bring me proof of a grandchild will inherit. You get your girl pregnant and the empire is yours.”
“I have a child, father. If it is a bloodline you want, it already exists.”
“But your wife does not. The traditions of our kind are clear. You must have a wife and child of the same blood to prove your merit.”
“I will have a wife and child the moment the wedding certificate is signed.”
“I love Alicia, my boy, but her mother is dead. You must have Bex bear you a child to prove your worth.”
“Why? Alicia is not good enough for you?”
“It is not me you must prove yourself to. It is the commission.”
“They can go to hell.”
“Then Ernesto inherits while you bitch and moan.”
“I will have two children to take care of and no mother to raise them if I agree to this.”
“You can pack them both off to boarding school and a couple of extra bucks to the principal will mean they don’t even have to come home for vacations.”
“You mean like you did with me and Ernesto?”
“Now you are learning. All people are pawns to true men of power.”
“Even members of their own family?”
