by Meg Watson
“That’s an invasion of my privacy,” Aldo objects.
I can tell he is shaken. Several pieces of hair have fallen over his eyebrow. He's breathing heavily, speaking through clenched teeth.
“And what happened at the diner?” Don Dante asks, directing his question to Tek.
I hear Tek swallow hard. “When I went to meet with Charli, I happened to notice two suspicious vehicles in the parking lot. After a few moments, they brought out an RPG-7.”
Dante raises his eyebrows and twists in his chair to look at Aldo. “A rocket launcher?” he repeats, still directing his question at Tek but looking at Aldo.
“Yeah, I couldn't believe it. Definitely a motorcycle gang or maybe just exceptionally well armed hillbillies, I don't know. Not our people. Mercenaries.”
Don Dante nods slowly, steepling his fingers under his chin. His emerald ring glints in the low light.
“But that was the last attack? After that you were able to travel safely?”
“After that we destroyed Charli's cell phone,” Tek asserts. “It was the cell phone which enabled Aldo to track her movements. Once that was gone, the attacks stopped.”
“Then why didn't you continue to safety? Why return here?”
It's a perfectly reasonable question. We could have, probably. We could have found a way to Mexico eventually. We could have found some Family guys out West and maybe just got new identities. We did have options.
“Because after everything that's happened, Don Dante,” I say clearly, slowly so that everyone knows exactly what I mean, “we fear for your safety. You’re not safe here. Aldo has systematically climbed the ladder, eliminating every obstacle in his path to get to… Well, to the top. To you, Don Dante.”
Don Dante nods into his fingers, not looking up. Aldo coughs at the back of his throat, shaking his head as though the whole thing is ridiculous. But Alphonso has edged over to the other side of the desk, away from him. He stands alone now, and I know he feels it.
“These crimes are… Grave. Aldo, what can you say for yourself? It breaks my heart. How can this all be true?”
“Because it's not true!” Aldo explodes. His chest is heaving, his eyes flashing as though he might go off at any second. "This is all lies, absolutely. There's nothing there that qualifies as proof. This is all just guesses, jealous plotting by my younger brothers! There's nothing in here that proves that I —”
“There's an abundance of proof,” Don Dante interrupts, speaking slowly and sadly. He shakes his head from side to side. “Aldo, there's nothing here but proof. There's years of your calumny. And you know the price for these crimes, Aldo. Do you have anything to say for yourself before I deliver my sentence?”
“I do,” I say, shocking myself and everyone in the room. All eyes turn to me. I didn't know I was going to say anything, but there it is. My hands tremble and I clench them into fists, trying to keep myself still.
“You have something to say, Nico? We don't need you to present any more evidence. You've been exonerated. You may go.”
“I don't want to go,” I say quickly. “I know the punishment for these crimes. Aldo knows the punishment for these crimes. But Tek and I did not return here in order to get blood for blood. Please don't… Not for us. We just want safety for Charli, for Gus. That's all.”
Don Dante takes a deep breath. I can see Aldo sneering out of the corner of my eye, in that triumphant way. He thinks me begging for mercy is part of my weakness. He used to tell me when we were kids how soft I was, like a girl.
“That's not for you to decide,” Don Dante says finally. He nods sympathetically, and I know that he understands I don't want to see my brother killed. I don't want the blood on my hands.
Don Dante closes his eyes for a long moment, nodding to himself. He almost seems to have fallen asleep. We all wait breathlessly until he speaks again.
“For the first part of my judgment, I need to address the matter of Nico and Tek Lauro. You were both retired from duty, but that was in error. You must be restored, with my deepest apologies and my thanks.”
Tek nods, looking down. I know he’s uncomfortable being in the spotlight like this, but I’m glad someone is finally saying something nice to him after all this time.
Don Dante continues. “I find myself without adequate manpower among my advisors. With Nero Cappelli — God rest his soul — taken from us so abruptly, I wonder, Nico… If you would consider the position of Underboss?”
Charli gasps, and I barely resist the urge to stare at her. Take over Nero's responsibilities? This is an unbelievable honor. All I can do is nod silently. My head is swimming. I can't even say anything.
“And Tek, do you believe you could take over for Aldo? His position is suddenly vacant.”
“I could do that, Don Dante. As you wish,” Tek says quietly.
Alphonso scribbles furiously in his notebook, his lips pursed like an old lady. I’ve never liked that guy, and now I’ll be stuck with him.
Don Dante lets his head drop into his hands for a few moments and rubs his temples slowly. When he raises his face, his expression is as hard and as sad as I've ever seen him.
“Everyone, thank you for your service here today. I understand what an inconvenience it was for some, and what a hardship it's been for others. You have my gratitude. You're all dismissed.”
I hear the door open behind me, and everyone pivots to leave. Aldo stares at me hard, seething. His muscles strain against the fabric of his fine, handmade suit. I search his eyes, looking for something like the connection I have with Tek, but there’s nothing. If there ever was any blood between us, he polluted it all long ago.
I turn away.
“Aldo, please stay. And you of course, Alphonso,” I hear Don Dante say behind me.
I catch Tek’s eye as we make our way slowly to the door. It feels like a procession of some kind, like an ending. It’s awful, but unavoidable.
I know just what we need to do next. I see it in his eyes: he does too. There's no doubt.
When we return to the hallway, we find Charli standing by a tall window, knuckling her chin.
“Charli, where is Gus?” I ask.
“Rita took him to play with his cousins for a day or so. I need to… think.”
“Charli, we need to talk,” Tek says immediately.
She pivots to see us and takes one step back, shaking her head with her lips in a hard line.
“No… I need to think. I need to —”
She walks away. She just turns her back to us and walks down the hall, the sound of her footsteps echoing against the marble.
“Well, fuck this,” Tek mutters and immediately starts after her.
She hears us behind her and takes long strides with those lanky, strong legs of hers. I forgot, she's actually pretty fast when she needs to be. She darts through a couple of marble columns and then through an arched doorway. By the time we enter the room, she's all the way in the other corner, trying to open a locked door.
“Are you seriously running away from us?”
She jiggles the door handle furiously, then slaps the locked panel with her palm.
“Dammit!”
“Charli, can we just talk, please?” I ask her.
She turns around to face us, her shoulders to the door, her hair floating out in tendrils from her face. She takes a deep breath and holds it for a few seconds, then lets it out slowly.
“You guys did what you needed to do, okay? And thank you. Really… Thank you, from the bottom my heart. I don't know what Gus and I would've done if you hadn’t been there. But it's over now, right? You can get on with your lives.”
Tek circles to the left while I edge slowly to the right. I don't want her to feel cornered, but I kind of want to corner her. Chasing her ass all over this damn house doesn’t really seem like the way that I want to spend the rest of the evening.
“Charli, I need to ask you something,” I start. But her hands fly up and she shakes her head with her eyes closed.
“Pleas
e don't, Nico,” she pleads. “Please don't ask me.”
It suddenly makes sense. She can't tell me the truth yet, but she will. But worse, she couldn't tell us the truth back then. As soon as we were gone, a baby would have put her life in danger. I don't know what she had to do to keep it all concealed, but I bet it was horrifying for her.
She's right, I really didn't take a lot of time to see this from her perspective. And now that I see what she's given up... what she has gone through... what she does to protect Gus... I know that I always underestimated her.
“Charli, you have to let us help you. Stay… Please stay. Let us help. It doesn't have to be like… Well it doesn't to be like anything you don't want. But let us help, please.”
Her eyes flash at me. “You know what, all this time and you still don't listen to me! I tried to tell you. It tried to explain to you that I don't need you to boss me around. I don't need you to tell me what to do. I had a plan, and I did it. I would do anything for Gus, but all you can see is some damsel in distress who needs saving. Don't tell me what to do, all right, Nico? I don't need an Underboss, okay? I will be fine. I'll be fine, on my own.”
“But —”
“— she's right,” I hear Tek say.
My mouth falls open as I stare at him. She's right? Just like that, he's going to give up? All of this… this connection, this perfect solution, he's just going to give it up?
I don't quite understand what I'm seeing as he drops to his knees in front of her. He holds out a hand to her and looks up patiently, just waiting. Just waiting… Humbly, I guess is the word.
His eyes flicker to me, and I see exactly what he wants to do. And it's perfect, totally perfect.
I dropped to the other side of her and take her other hand in mine. She trembles slightly, but she doesn't pull away.
“What are you guys… What are you doing?”
Tek clears his throat. I can almost hear the gears turning in his head as he tries to put the words together.
“Charli… Life doesn’t make sense without you, without all of us. I didn't remember what the world was like until you came back. Everything was just… Gray, and I can’t go back. So, please… Please.”
I nod my head. I know what he’s asking her.
“What are you saying,” she chokes out in a small voice.
“It's up to you,” I say slowly. “I'm not going to tell you what to do. But we need you. So, please. It's up to you... it's your decision. Let us be a family.”
She blinks several times, her eyes shiny, her cheeks reddening. Her lips open slightly and I see words swimming on her tongue.
“A family?” she repeats
“Yes,” Tek nods. “You… and Gus. You’re all we have left.”
He looks at me, and for once his eyes don't immediately rebound away. He really looks at me, like he used to. I suddenly realize that when we lost Charli, we lost each other too. That's why everything has felt so barren. I didn't just lose the one person that I love most in the world, I lost them both.
I feel a tug on my hand and I stand up. Her eyes follow me and Tek and we both stand there, waiting hopefully for her answer.
“You should kiss me,” she says to Tek.
“I should?”
“If you don't, I will,” I tell him.
She smiles just a little bit, lifting her chin toward him. He slides his hands over her jaw, tipping her face up gently, looking into her eyes. He pauses for just a moment, cradling her body just millimeters away from his. I can almost feel his anticipation, the way he is savoring this moment that we waited years for.
It's going to happen. Everything will be fixed.
DAY 8 CONTINUES - CHARLI
$75,000.
I just kept thinking about it. As Aldo was trying to catch my eye, I kept my head down. It seemed from the way Don Dante was talking that he had already heard enough from everyone.
He had heard about Sammy leaving in the middle of the afternoon, the scuff marks on the floor. He had heard about Salvatore, and the money that went missing. It sounded like Aldo made away with close to a quarter million dollars before Salvatore was gone. That's what was supposed to happen: Salvatore was on his way to deliver the weekly receipts to his boss. He never made it, and neither did the money. Tek and Nico were suspected, but there's no doubt my mind they had nothing to do with it. And there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that it was Aldo. If he never spent it, where is it?
Nobody can save me. Nothing that has happened changes anything.
I could feel his eyes burning into the bare spots on my skin. I remembered every cruel hint, every threat. I would be his, he told me more than once. I couldn’t run forever.
But I still have $75,000. I still have a way out. As Don Dante is talking, I am thinking about Bruno, wincing every time he moves. Aldo did that. I can see Derek's face in my mind, the way he stood over me, smiling over those small, round-frame glasses. The way he drank tea in the afternoons like a little old man. He was sweet. And he thought Gus was really special too.
But that was all playacting. This is real. I see everybody in this room, and it all becomes clear to me: this is reality. The Family drags you back in, no matter what. And as long as I've been alive, as strong and as willful as I've been, nothing is ever going to change as long as I'm here.
I know we need to go. We have to try again, me and Gus.
But I never thought they were going to fight for me.
As we shuffle out of the room, I immediately think about what we are going to do next. I ask Rita to take Gus so that I can figure out how we are going to get out of the country with the money intact, on our own.
This time, I know we are not going to be able to just drive across the border… Yeah, that was pretty naïve of me but I learned my lesson. Can we go to Canada? Maybe we could just go somewhere in the US, some small town and start over. I mean, I don't think that it's going to be like in the movies, where people just moved out west and changed their names and everybody just accepted it without asking too many questions.
There has to be some way. Charter a plane? South America? With enough money, it seems like all things are possible.
I didn't expect them to follow me. I stand by the window, my mind racing, my heart hammering my ears. When I glance up into Nico's eyes, I know he knows. I know that the one thing that I needed most to keep secret is not a secret anymore.
Gus is theirs.
Maybe one, maybe the other. It doesn't matter because they're twins, so we would never know. But it's been so obvious to me this whole time, watching him engage with people the way Nico does, watching him solve little puzzles way that Tek does.
Tek peers at me as I hold onto the window frame, trying to steady myself. I want to run. I want to run right now.
“Charli, we need to talk,” he says. The words fall individually like stones into water. I knew this was coming. I wish that it weren't, but here it is.
Not thinking about what I'm doing, I turn on my heel and just try to get the hell out. I trace my way back toward the front door, ducking into a doorway, trying to just head for sunlight. Cutting diagonally across a library, I yank open a pair of pocket doors, but they won't budge. The door is locked, and the handle won't do anything the matter how hard I jiggle it in the lock.
“Charli, please, talk to us.”
But I can't say anything. They start talking, and I'm so confused. The blood is rushing to my head: I have to get out of here. I have to make a plan. I have to figure out what's next. I'm alone in all of this, again. Like always. Like I should've always known I would be.
And then Tek drops to his knees. And then so does Nico. They’re holding my hands.
“Let us be a family.”
“Charli, please.”
I hear the words again: we should be a family. A family. The word knocks around my head like a pinball. A family? As in, stable, loving, supportive? Is that even possible? Do people even do that?
And yet, it sounds perfect.
“You should kiss me,” I tell him. I need to know, can he still connect with me?
Nico is still holding my hand gently in his as Tek cups me gently under my jaw, tipping my head back. He steps closer to me, and I see all of that hardness fall away from him. It’s like he's been concealed behind plaster this whole time, and it all just crumbles and falls away, and there he is. My Tek. His coffee-brown eyes, his square jaw, his soft lips.
For a moment I just inhale him. That smell: it’s so familiar it's like my own breath. The warmth of his hands, his fingers pushing into my hair as he draws nearer, it's perfect.
And then his lips on mine. Soft at first, he simply presses his lips against mine, stroking my cheeks with his thumbs. And then more of the barrier between us falls away and he pulls me to him, knotting his fingers in my hair, tangling me up in him.
Gently he sets me back on the floor, though I hadn't realized that I was up on my toes. He smiles, the first real smile I've seen from him.
“Like that?” he asks me.
I want to answer him, but I can't fill my lungs with breath so I just nod.
And before I know what I'm doing, I’m pulling Nico closer to me, tugging on his hand just like I used to do. It's all so simple. Everything falls into place, and I know exactly what I need, exactly how to perform this intricate choreography.
I slide my hand behind Nico’s thick neck and draw him to me, pushing up on my toes so that I can brush my hips against his, feel my lips against his. He tastes different than Tek: somehow sweeter, but robust like olive oil or something.
Tek steps behind me just like he used to. He dips his head to place a tender bite on the seam of my neck as Nico kisses me, completing the circuit with his tongue tracing the line of my teeth, his whispered words in my mouth.
“Say yes, please.”
“Yes,” I hear myself say.
“Yes?” Tek whispers against my neck, biting the top of my shoulder gently.
