Page 3 of Capone
By the time I was dressed and ready for work, I had just enough time to make a quick breakfast before I had to leave. Just as I was finishing up, I heard a horn honking outside my home. Gunner was out front summoning Dice and me. We sometimes carpooled to work.
After locking up my home, I made my way to Gunner's truck and got in the passenger seat. We chuckled as we watched Dice stomp across his yard before getting into the truck. He hated wearing a suit more than I did.
“Those girls knew what they were doing. Flashing those big-ass numbers of a salary but waited until after we accepted to inform us we have to dress in these goddamn monkey suits at least once a week,” he fussed as soon as he was in the truck.
Gunner and I chuckled as he backed out of the driveway. Things had definitely changed for me, but I would much rather live the life I created for myself than the one that was expected of me.
Chapter Two
GIOVANNA
Six days. That’s how long it's been since my already broken life had shattered into a million pieces. They took her. They took my baby!
After I was tased, I passed out and was stuffed into my trunk. My attacker went and grabbed my baby from her car seat and got back inside their vehicle, taking my baby with them.
I hadn’t slept. I’d barely eaten. I hadn’t even left Gabi’s room other than to shower and use the bathroom. I felt like a walking zombie. Derek’s brother, Danny, who was also an agent with STF, had been working day and night trying to locate Gabrielle. He hadn’t found a single clue as to who took her and why.
My mother got on a plane and came as soon as I called her crying, telling her what had happened. I wasn’t surprised when she showed up alone. I hadn’t spoken to my father in years. He was a traditional Italian man. He didn’t like it when I refused to allow him to make decisions regarding my life.
Growing up, I had the perfect childhood. I was spoiled and got any and everything I wanted. I never knew what my father did to afford us the lifestyle we lived until I turned twenty-one. He came to me with a marriage arrangement to the son of a business partner of his. When I refused, he became enraged.
It was then that I found out that my father had been living a dangerous life. He was the top weapons distributor on the West Coast. Illegally, I might add. I was in shock, but not as shocked that he had set me up to marry the son of a Mafia Don who would soon be taking over.
I was livid with him, but all he cared about was solidifying his position with the Mafia. All he could talk about was the money it would bring in and how we would be untouchable. He didn’t care that I was still a virgin, and in no way did I want to give something so precious away to a complete stranger.
At one point, he told me I didn’t have a choice because he funded my life. And that he did. My car and my apartment were paid for by him. I couldn’t believe he was throwing that in my face. My mother tried reasoning with my father, but he wouldn’t hear it.
I heard the cries of my younger siblings from the hall as they listened to us scream at one another. In the end, my father gave me an ultimatum. Either I marry the future Mafia Don, or I could be disowned.
I was hurt.
I loved my father so much. I had never seen this coming. Growing up, he was the perfect father. He loved and doted on me every chance he got. To see him switch to the careless monster he was today killed me.
My father got the surprise of his life when I chose to be disowned. He informed me not to bother going back to the apartment because he would have the locks changed by the time I got there. He took my car keys and told me to leave his home and not to come back until I was ready to do as I was told.
That day never came.
My best friend, Kelly, offered me her couch until I could get back on my feet. My mother was conflicted. She wanted to leave, but she had four children and a twenty-five-year marriage onthe line. She and my father argued constantly. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Part of me was angry with her for staying, but my father was all that she knew. She didn’t care what he felt. She didn’t turn her back on me. She offered me money a few times, but I always declined. I didn’t want anything else from him.
I ended up getting a job at a diner. I saved and saved until I was able to afford a small one-bedroom apartment. I enrolled at a local community college. My life had finally gotten back on track.
And then I met Derek.
He came into the diner one night and instantly began to pursue me. I tried resisting him at first. I was nowhere near in the headspace to be in a relationship. I was still figuring out my life, but in the end, he convinced me to go on a date. From there, I fell hard and fast for that man.
Six months into our relationship, I gave him my virginity. I was pregnant three months later. When I told my mother, she cried tears of joy. She was so excited to become a grandparent. My father, not so much.
When he actually said I was muddying my blood by reproducing with a Black man, I had enough. I told my father to forget I ever existed. I didn’t want anyone who thought of my baby that way to have anything to do with her. From that day on, we never spoke to each other. Gabi had never met him. She didn’t even know what he looked like.
When Derek proposed, I accepted. My father made sure to let me know I was making the biggest mistake of my life, and he couldn’t wait to laugh in my face. I’m sure he would have had something done to Derek if he didn’t work for the government. My father didn’t need the STF sniffing around his illegal business.
Once Gabrielle was born, I had settled into a housewife role, setting my dreams of opening my own bakery aside. I hadn’t worked since I found out I was pregnant. Derek didn’t like the idea of my working while pregnant. He pressed the issue until I finally gave in.
We married when Gabi was six months old, and I was happy. Then, our one-year anniversary came. Things began to change. All of a sudden, Derek was taking more business trips than normal. He spent more time away from home than in it. When I voiced feeling neglected, Derek sweet-talked me until I let it go.
He would always say he wanted to give his girls the world. I just wanted to scream I didn’t want the world. Just him. But instead, I kept my mouth shut and prayed things would get better.
