“You’ll have them by tomorrow, I’m sure of it. I assume the wedding will be soon after?”
I nod with hesitation. “Yes, hopefully, within a few days. Mama, Kat and Liana are still planning the ceremony. The invites are set to go out tonight. You can have yours before you leave to go home, though.”
“Nonsense,” my grandfather chimes in again. “If all goes according to plan, the wedding will be soon, and if so, there’s no need for us to go home to Italy, only to make the trip again in a few days.”
“Your grandparents will be staying with your mother and me until the wedding,” my father adds.
I want to refuse, to tell them that I want the ceremony short and simple with very few witnesses. It’s not something either of us wants to remember, I’m sure of it. I don’t want to imagine the heartbreak on that pretty little face of hers as everyone congratulates her on a marriage she never wanted in the first place.
“That’s great,” I finally say, pushing aside my actual thoughts. “It will be a big help to have you here.”
“Now, where is my future granddaughter-in-law? I’d like to meet her.” My grandmother stands, brushing herself off.
“Why don’t you show her, Rio? I’ll take Dad to our house and get him settled. Mama, you can join us when you’re ready.”
I shake my head. “I have a scheduled call in,”—I check my watch—“well, now, actually. Could you take her?”
My father agrees with a silent nod of his head. “Make yourself available for dinner at 6 pm; your mother has set up a cake tasting for dessert.”
“I’ll be finished by then,” I assure him. “Now, if you would excuse me…” I display a hand towards the door, signaling for them to leave.
Within a few seconds, they all disperse and I take a few moments to breathe. Everything is moving too fast. Something screams within me to stand up to my grandfather, but I can’t—no, I won’t. He’s done all he can do to ensure I have everything he did when he was don. He’s made sure that I have everything necessary to be as great a leader as he was. Every command that comes from my father comes from him first. While my father is the godfather, my grandfather will always have that unofficial title.
Grabbing my phone, I text Red to join me, and he soon appears, settling himself in front of me.
“It’s the Russians, right?” he asks, kicking his feet up onto my desk.
Raising an eyebrow, I give his shoes a hard look before flicking my eyes up to his. He rolls his eyes before lowering his legs, his feet thudding against the floor. “Yes, the Novikovs, not the Sokolovs. I took one glance at their proposal and immediately dismissed it. There’s nothing they could offer that we don’t already have or need.”
“Aleksandra’s good, though” he adds, nodding his head. “She’s picked up the slack that gathered from her older siblings' disappearance, and she’s improving with every passing day. I’msure having them as an ally will be good for us. Besides, you’d rather the Novikovs over the Sokolovs—they’re much more efficient and less… Hm, what’s the right word—”
“Heavy handed? Likely to hold a grudge? Or maybe less likely to fuck you over?”
“All of the above,” he agrees with a laugh.
“Well, after this phone call, we’ll know for certain. There’s only so much she can divulge in the contract and even less over the phone. This call is to get the basics and a meeting place.”
He nods, and I dial her number, placing it on speaker. “Aleksandra?”
“Dario,” she replies with an icy tone. “I assume you’ve had a chance to read over the file?”
“I did, and I’m impressed. You’ve done some good work in the past year. A lot better than anyone could’ve expected. You have my condolences—”
She sighs. “My brother and sister aren’t the nature of this call. My family has dealt with our loss and I’m doing everything humanly possible to live up to everyone’s expectations of me. Now, how about we get back on track,da?”
“Of course, my apologies.”
“Good, now tell me your thoughts, Dario. How does everything look?”
“Efficient,” I say without embellishment. “You seem to have included all your greatest achievements, but before we go ahead and schedule a meeting, I’d like to hear about your war stories. You know, the ones that didn’t end as you’d planned.”
She sighs again, this time heavier. “All I will say over the phone is there’s more than I’d care to admit. We were ambushed, slicedand diced, tortured… but we only lost one innocent soul during the process. She was dead long before we got there, but that’s still a name in that little black book we all carry, I’m sure.”
“Again, that’s impressive, Aleksandra. You must realise by now that not all losses are through faults. Sometimes, you’re late, but that doesn’t mean you’re doing a bad job.”
“It will always be something I carry, though,” she says, her voice weaker now.
“Your brother would be proud of the woman you’ve become, and I know he’d be impressed by how much you have accomplished in his absence. We all know how difficult it is to live up to someone’s name, but just think of it this way, if he was still around, you would never have made a name for yourself. You would be sitting back and watching while he gets all the glory and you do god-knows what with your life. You should be fucking proud of yourself.”
