Owning the Mafia Don

Proserpina

When I came back to the world of the living, it was bright and sunny outside. I was in my room, and the cool air of the air conditioner swirled around me. For a minute, I was blindsided. What was I doing in bed in the middle of the morning, I thought bemusedly.

I sat up, puzzled.

Why was I in bed? I needed to be with the kids…

My thoughts trailed off as reality and my memory of the previous day’s events slammed into me, like a hard fist.

Raising a shaking hand to my mouth, I made a gasping, sobbing sound as I recalled Beston’s words.

*

“Are you awake?’ It was Rachel. She was huddled on the large couch in a corner of the room, and she looked beaten, as she watched me. The door opened, and Danielle stormed in.

Danielle did not do slow and graceful. She was like a tornado, sweeping in, regardless of the destruction she caused in her wake.

” Is she asleep?’ she barked at Rachel who stood up, glaring daggers at her.

Both of them seemed to have taken an instant dislike to each other from the first time they had met each other. I sat up, pushing my tangled hair off my face.

“Dani.’ I croaked, my eyes watering again.

“Hey kid.’ she said and she was beside me in a minute, enveloping me in her arms. Then I heard the sound of my kids creeping in.

I turned to them, arms spread wide, and Ria rushed to me, flinging herself onto me, clambering onto the bed, sobbing her heart out. I buried my face in her sweet-smelling hair, hugging Piers who was snivelling too and Claude, who was unsure of what was happening but who decided to join in, crying to show his solidarity.

We stayed like that for a few minutes. Then I felt Beatrice’s hand on my shoulder.

“You have a visitor.’ she said gently.

I looked up.

Dr Asha stood in the doorway. She was dressed in a sombre white suit but the eyes behind the large tortoiseshell glasses were keenly observing me.

She came forward and took my hands in hers as she sat on the large chair Danielle had propelled forward.

“My dear.’ she murmured, and I sat, feeling her serene presence. The others carefully left the room, taking my children out with them.

Sinking back onto the pillows, I closed my eyes, the sedative a nurse had given me, working its way into my system. I had been hysterical sometime earlier, I recalled, screaming and sobbing when I surfaced once and Danielle and Rachel had restrained me, holding me in their arms as I swung blindly, knocking down trinkets, anything and everything around me. Behaving like a crazed woman.

*

We sat for a while.

And then, I closed my eyes and let myself relax.

I thought of Lucien, the years we had shared.

I thought of my powerful husband, my love for him.

Everything.

And gradually, I became aware of a strange feeling.All content © N/.ôvel/Dr/ama.Org.

There was no sense of emptiness, no sense of loss as I had felt when the Mother had passed away.

“He’s alive.’ I whispered, bowing my head,

“My Lucien is alive.’

*

Aiyana

She was beside herself when she received the message from Schwartz. He had sounded broken as he said in a voice hoarse with pain

‘ We lost him, Aiyana, we lost him,’ he took in a shuddering breath as he said in a low, broken voice,” We lost the Boss.’

His voice broke and the phone went dead. She was in the vehicle racing across to the spot where the drone had sighted him.

The moment the vehicle came to a halt, she was outside, racing across the snow to be with him. Uncaring of the fact that he was on the ground, bleeding, she threw herself down onto him, taking him into her arms.

“You are alive! Oh, my darling, you are alive!’

He was bleeding heavily and the men who were with him, paramedics, gently prised her away.

But she lingered, her usually stoic demeanour crumbling at the sight of the man she realised she loved.

*

Proserpina

Dr Asha was still in my room, sitting cross-legged on the wide couch.

Now she looked at me, compassion in her eyes but she said nothing. Just listened.

‘I know,’ I said, a little more fiercely this time, struggling to sit up, the waves of dizziness subsiding.

And it was true. I had been dreaming of Lucien. And suddenly, sometime in the deep throes of my slumber, I had felt his pain as he fell down. But he was alive. I could feel his pain as he struggled to stay alive in the icy waters.

As his body was tossed on the waters, he had been alive.

And he was alive, I could feel it.

My Lucien was alive and out there somewhere.

*

Schwartz

Schwartz was barely aware of Aiyana or anyone moving around him, loading him onto the aircraft, to carry him to the hospital. He was in a daze, slipping into unconsciousness with the loss of blood. The frantic medical crew moved about him, speaking but he was floating in a realm above them.

The paramedical team had flown in almost at once when he radioed Aiyana for help.

He realised dully that Lucien had taken care of everything and had kept a unit on standby, hovering close to where they had burnt down.

There was no sign of the murderous young man who had probably been wounded grievously by Lucien.

But Schwartz was beyond thinking of all that.

There was only one scene that kept playing itself over and over again in his mind.

All he could think back to was the moment when his mentor, the man he regarded as a big brother, had looked up in fury to see the youth coming at him. The way he had tried to wrench that demon, Dmitri Rudenko’s fingers off his throat as they rolled down the cliff; the moment when he had watched in horror as the two men, struggling wildly, had disappeared over the edge of the precipice…

He kept seeing it again and again, as the scene played out in his mind. he tossed his head, groaning, the sorrow he felt was like a physical thing. And the guilt he felt about Proserpina…

that left him feeling bereft.

Lucien’s last command,

“Marry her.’

He cried out in anguish. How could he face Proserpina, the woman he loved wholeheartedly, the woman who loved Lucien so completely, that she had no eyes for any other man?

As the paramedical staff struggled to control the damage from his wound, Schwartz wept unashamedly, slipping off into a deep sleep after the exasperated medical crew finally gave him a shot to control him.

*

Proserpina

I sat up, my mouth a firm line. My eyes hurt. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My eyes were puffy and red-rimmed, my nose red. But I could not care.

“Tony,’ I said in a commanding voice, meeting the eyes of the man who stood before me, looking as though he had aged a hundred years overnight.

“Ma’am?’ he inquired softly, deferentially.

“Tony, tell me.’

And when he raised his eyes questioningly, I snapped,

“Everything. I know you have the details. So tell me. ‘

I had already found out about Schwartz, had been told about the demise of Lucien’s man, Rhyme. And about Ngoc, who was still fighting for his life.

He looked at me, a helpless expression chasing over his tanned, hard features.

‘Ma’am,’

I straightened my spine.

“Where did …this happen…?’ I swallowed hard as I asked.

He looked unhappy but he gave me the details. Told me about how Lucien, Schwartz, Aiyana and a few of their trusted men had been holed up in the tiny city in Slovakia.

I listened, white-faced, trying not to break down.

When he came to the end, haltingly as he spoke, I asked slowly,

“And …Lucien?’ As he stared at me in confusion, I asked again, as one speaks to a child, slowly,

“When a person falls into the water, the body…’ I swallowed before going on, ‘It gets swept off…’

He nodded, pity in his eyes as he glanced at me briefly, face clouding over.

He added, “Dmitri Rudenko’s body washed up a few miles downstream.

“And …” I held my breath and then asked in a whisper, ‘Lucien’s…?’