* * *
I’m at the deli around noon the next day, fending off teasing from the other guys about the way I looked at the wedding.
“Who knew Olivia was such a knockout,” Josh laughs. He’s eating fries covered in loads of ketchup.
“Watch it,” I tell him, “or I’ll knock you out.”
Tommy is on the phone. He called me earlier to say that he wanted everyone here for a meeting. As he mumbles into the mouthpiece, the back of the deli is filling up with more and more people. Apparently, Tommy wants everyone here. I came because of that. I figure I’ll hear Tommy out, and then I’ll try to figure out why in the hell my mother isn’t in her coffin.
Vincent sidles in the door with a few other guys. His hair is greasy and there are dark circles under his eyes. I wonder if he’s been on a bender or something, since his father died. He was perpetually drinking whiskey every time I saw him before the funeral. I feel bad for him again, but I know better than to say anything. Instead, I steal one of Josh’s fries.
“Hey!” he says.
“Don’t worry,” I say while chewing, “I don’t want anymore. You drowned them in ketchup.”
Tommy raises his voice. “All right, everyone, I’ve got Lucio on the line. I’m going to put him on speaker phone.”
My dad? I swallow the rest of the fry, feeling nervous. For some reason, I don’t want to hear his voice. Not when I’m still so confused about everything.
Everyone quiets. My father’s voice comes over the speaker. “Can everyone hear me?”
A chorus of affirmatives.
He continues, “As you’re all well aware, we’ve suffered a terrible tragedy in the loss of Guido. And with him gone, our family is bereft of leadership. I had hoped to give more time to Olivia and Vincent to prove themselves, but Guido’s death has forced my hand.”
What? Is he going to make a decision on who heads the family now? Why? What difference does it make whether Guido is in a coma or not alive? He’s still not able to make decisions or to run things. I feel like my father is rushing this.
“As it stands, there’s one clear leader between the two of them,” my father says. “Olivia has brought in more money, she provided a solution to make peace with the Ercalonos, and from all accounts seems to be handling herself well. I’m proud to pass this responsibility on to my daughter.”
Vincent makes a noise in the back of the room, a sort of strangled grunt.
My heart is racing in my chest. Am I supposed to say something now? “Thank you. I’m honored by your decision. I’ll do my best for this family.”
“I’m sure you will, Olivia,” says my father. “Take me off speaker and let me talk to my daughter alone.”
I stand up. My legs are shaking. This is it. What I’ve been working towards ever since I lost my mother. I can’t believe it’s happening now. I’m happy, aren’t I?
Tommy hands me the phone.
“Hello?” I say.
“Olivia,” says my father. “You’ve made me very proud. I often regretted not having any sons, but you’ve been both a son and a daughter to me. Good job.”
“Thanks,” I say again.
“You and I will need to be in touch each week. You’ll need to come visit me in the jail. It will actually work out much more nicely, since it’s not nearly as suspicious for a daughter to visit her father regularly. I think things are really coming together.”
I walk with the phone away from everyone else, ducking into the same closet where I locked Brice up. “I have questions, Dad. Things I need to understand.”
“You can ask me when you visit.”
“Things about Mom.”
He’s quiet.
“I know she’s not dead. I know she betrayed the family and turned you in to the police. Where is she? If you didn’t kill her—”
“Olivia, your mother was shot by stray bullets when I was being arrested. You know this.”
“Right,” I say. “So why isn’t her body in her coffin?”
“You dug up your mother’s...” My father chuckles. “Well, aren’t you just a bundle of surprises, Olivia.”
“She is alive, isn’t she?”
“I don’t know,” says my father. “I don’t know what happened to her. I haven’t seen her since she flipped for the police. I buried that coffin because she was dead to me. You understand how much it hurt me, don’t you? She was everything to me, and then she betrayed me and the family. To do that, to betray your family, that’s the worst thing I can think of. Traitors end up in the final circle of Hell. You know that, don’t you, Olivia? There in the grasp of Lucifer are Judas and Brutus, the two worst traitors of all time.”
I gulp. Have I betrayed my family? Am I going to betray my family? “I would never betray you, Dad. I’m loyal to you. To the family.”
“I know you are, sweetheart. And you’re going to do an excellent job as boss. I just know it.”
The Toil and Trouble Trilogy, Book One Page 27
