AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Papa nods. “Exactly. Personally, I think you would make a good boss.”
“I disagree.”
But I don’t completely. Yes, the job would be horrific and I’d have even more blood on my hands than I do now by the end. I could bring honor back to our family, clean the streets of our scum, stop the Jews from fucking with our shit… but I can’t. Not with Matteo gone. Even in the fucking Albanian countryside, he would find out what I did and Matteo would kill me.
“No,” Papa replies calmly. “You don’t. But I agree with your assessment that you’re not quite ready.”
“I never said that. I said I didn’t want the job.”
Nobody smart wants my father’s job. He spent twenty years walking around with a target on his back before he built up enough trust, enough loyalty, enough captains in the streets of Italy to ensure his safety. I don’t want to lose my freedom.
“You didn’t have to say anything. I know my son.”
“Hm.”
Arguing with my father is entirely senseless.
“You need an heir, Van.”
“What?”
“I will give you the leadership of this family without the ritual, without the sacrifice and without the financial investment required. All I want is an heir.”
“Why don’t I go up to fucking Albania, then? Because I can’t produce a child out of thin air.”
Papa chuckles. “Don’t you have women? If you want a woman… I filled this house with them. I have very young ones too. Eighteen. Nineteen. They make good mothers.”
“I am not interested in fucking teenagers.”
“Then find a whore like that old Greek Pagonis fuck. I don’t care how you get the heir. You can prove how serious you are by giving me a child. I’ll be generous. I’ll give you a year.”
“I don’t want this role,” I snap. “So the likelihood I’ll produce an heir is slim.”
Papa laughs, which only infuriates me further. There’s nothing funny about bringing a child into the world.
“You can’t lie to me, Van. You were always the most ambitious child. Maybe it’s because you were smack in the middle and we didn’t pay any attention to you. Who fucking knows?”
My father spent little time raising any of us, except for Enzo, and look how that fucking turned out.
“Thank you for the psychoanalysis.”
Every time I visit my father, my desire for alcohol increases exponentially, along with my cravings for nicotine. He brings the worst out of everyone, especially me.
“No problem,” he says, again ignoring my sarcasm.
“What happens if I don’t produce an heir? Eh? You still need someone to take your place.”
“I make this offer to Lorenzo if you don’t produce what I want.”
“What?” I would have at least expected him to mention one of our cousins, one of the very obedient captains from the northern coast, or even fucking Eddie, Matteo’s 18-year-old son, would be better than my irresponsible fuck of a brother. That old fuck really knows me well because he just said the only thing that could get me to reconsider his stupid fucking offer.
“You heard me.”
“Lorenzo would ruin this family. For fun.”
“I know. And it would become your responsibility to save it. You would have to act as the boss to save Lorenzo from himself. You might as well earn the position.”
Fuck this old man…
