Chapter {21} Antonio

Ezekiel 18:23

"Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?

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"Sir, I-i am so... s-sorry but Ms Cavelli... did n-not make it," did he have to take so long to only say the one thing I had been waiting for? I dismissed him with the movement of my right hand and watched as he quickly scurried off in the opposite direction before the wails of Emma filled the entire floor. Drama Queen, the real reason she was crying was because this meant the empire was coming back to its rightful owner, Me.

We all knew that there was only a ten percent chance that Samantha would survive the bullet wounds that she had sustained in her head, chest and leg, the Russian man who shot her was definitely aiming for a kill and I wouldn't say I was sad that one of my problems had finally gone away, permanently but I had to put up a sad facade in order to persuade my stepmom and my men who were present there so as to not have them pointing fingers at me. I looked like I was still digesting the news before abruptly walking away before I had to speak to that stepmom of mine. The staff gave me anxious looks because of my changed demeanour and the news that had probably spread throughout the hospital. They were all hired to save all the men injured in wars and casual brawls and could not say a word about it as the code of silence tied their lips.

I got into my room, locking just sat, thinking about how sudden the attack was. None of us were prepared and everyone was asking themselves who could've planned the attack but I knew very well who the mastermind was, Izan. The shreds of broken glass outside the yard, the putrid smell of blood emitting from the open wounds of my men and the sound of open fire was enough to know that this was something more than just an attack, it was some sort of message directed towards me as he killed the one person he knew was valuable to me. The million-dollar question was what was coming next now? I knew for a fact that this was only the beginning but if he was asking for a war, he would get one.

The rapping of my door took me out of my strategy on how we could possibly retaliate to this obvious attack. A normal person would've asked who was knocking but I knew that the only person who would dare to come to my room would be Emma, who would just barge in, Avelina who would run in or Giovanni who would sometimes respect my privacy and knock.

Once the door was open, Giovanni stepped in, with a knowing grin on his face, he knew that one of my problems was solved and couldn't be any happier, they weren't birds of the same feather. He gently shut the door behind him.

"She is finally gone!" He exclaimed falling back unto my bed, giddily like a girl that had just found out that her crush liked her back. To think that he was the underboss.

"Yeah," I shrugged, not paying attention to his childishness and went to pacing around the room thinking of a way to end her another problem of mine.

"I thought you would be happy," He sat up, all serious with his hands' hands folded and his head laying on them.

"Happy would be an understatement," I replied nonchalantly, still pacing around.

"Then why do you sound like that?" He furrowed his brows, standing up sensing that whaaA1)@1t I was about to tell him was something that would change the whole narrative and mood.

"Because we are nowhere out of the deep waters, this is only the beginning of an impending war," I slowly said as he caught on to my every word.

"What do you mean?" He asked, now more curious than ever.

I pointed to my black silk couches, and he followed me before taking a seat, an anxious look on his face because whatever was bothering me just had to be big. The summary of how Izan had threatened Destiny flowed out of my lips leading to him having to station security for her and how this attack was one of his other plans. He listened silently, widening his eyes when I mentioned his brutality and nodding to show understanding.

I had explained everything in less than five minutes before standing up and asking him the one question that had been bugging my mind, "What do we do?"

"We attack, no one attacks the Italian mafia and gets away with it," he stood up, stating what I already knew, which made me roll my eyes.

"I know that but how do we attack?" And what he said next made me stop right in my tracks.

"I have the perfect plan," he smirked, rubbing his hands together like a crazy scientist having found something to destroy someone, I was happy as long as we were destroying Izan.

*****

A week later...

Samantha's draining yet depressing funeral was finally over, a lot of fake tears were shed whilst people wore white 'in honour' of a free-spirited woman as Emma had described but I decided to be the black sheep and represent the true dark heart she had so I showed up in an all-black outfit, which caused rumours to spread by.

The one person I was not expecting to find at the funeral was Destiny. She was seated at the far back side, wearing white as the dress code had stated. Looking so ever lost, like she did not even belong there but she sat through it and surprisingly shed a tear or two for the one person she should've hated and instead of mourning, joyfully rejoice her death but her heart seemed to not hold any kind of animosity towards her and that confused me beyond my mind could comprehend, who did that?

"Why are they so fake?" Lucia asked, giving a stink eye to all the girls rolls their hair against their pointer fingers and some even biting their blood-red lips in hopes of seducing me enough to love them but they were nowhere close to what I would even bat an eye to but rather I felt disgusted by them even Rebecca joined in, she had seen how used she was finally, so perhaps she was an opportunist who saw that the person standing in her way was out of her way, either way, she was not worthy of my time.

"They aren't fake but rather love the feeling of competition and winning the trophy," I replied moving swiftly from the preying eyes as they followed suit.

"Oh, so you are a trophy that they are fighting for," Giovanni said as though he had just discovered the world's most interesting thing.

I did not grace him with an answer but rather rolled my eyes as Margaret and Lucia excused themselves to go to their designed classroom and soon Giovanni did the same.

I continued my walk over to Heywood's class but someone just had to bump into me, irking me, did they not have eyes to see that there was someone in front of them? That so-called person was none other than the wolf in sheep's clothing, Mr Heywood.

"Watch where you are walking!" He hissed not bothering to look at who he was shouting at. Securing his files in his arms, preparing to leave but the sound of my voice made a slight shiver ripple through him and still him in his walk.

"Heywood," it was a simple recognition which I knew would leave him feeling scared.

"M-mr D'Angelo," he stuttered feeling utterly terrified, not even meeting my eye. Coward. Someone who stuttered and could not stand his ground was not supposed to even breathe the same air that I did.

I suddenly remembered the debt he was owing me and that angered me, "Where is my money?" I did not like beating around the bush, why waste time when you could get straight to the point and move on with life?

"I-i," he started stuttering and before he could go any further, I stopped him.

"You will stop stuttering if you still want your hand attached to your arm," I whispered to not draw any unnecessary eyes.

He gulped and rapidly nodded though I wanted a verbal answer, I let it slide. "I am arranging some money, you will get it at the end of the week."

"I better get it, otherwise... you do not want to know what I will do to you," I moved forward, whispering into his ear, with a smirk, as he danced around with his feet uncomfortably.

I left him standing in the middle of the hallway, looking at my retracting figure in terror as he owed me money from buying drugs, which he was highly addicted to and knew very well did not have money to pay back for.

"Nio!" Only one person had the voice of an angel and called me that.