The Way he loves

Chapter 4

Adrian's POV

“You are too young to understand this, but sometimes we need to make a few sacrifices for the greater good", Father said with an air of finality.

He was not going to change his mind. I had tried convincing him with logic, I had tried to appeal to his sense of pride. But father was adamant on marrying off Angelina to the Morettis.

Over the last few years, he had started taking my counsel and advice for all the important decisions. I had been able to sway his decisions in the past. But he seemed strangely certain about this. I had initially thought that he had just wanted to punish Lucas for his blunder. But now it appeared as if he genuinely thought that this was the best course of action for our circumstance.

“Father, you have always taught me that we need to be strong and crush our enemies. Fearing the enemy and accepting defeat like this is unacceptable!", I said, again trying to convince him.

“We also need to know our own strengths and limitations Adrian. I don't like this solution any more than you do. But we cannot let pride cloud our judgement. We will fight back, one day. But you know it as well as I do that we are in no position to fight them off at the moment. So until then, to buy us time, we need peace, we need truce. And what better way to call truce than offering them the daughter of my Consigliere?"

Consigliere was the word used in Italian mafia to describe the head's right hand man, his chief advisor. It was an esteemed position, as he was second only to the Boss himself. Over the last few decades, the word had fallen out of trend in our circles, but father was still fond of calling Lucas his Consigliere. He was not wrong in his assesment of the situation either. The past couple of years had been rough on us, we had too many enemies and very few allies. We had been losing a lot of money. Our two main businesses, gambling and drugs were not going too well because there was too much competition from other gangs and crime families. If we managed to make Morettis our allies, we would definitely be in a better, stronger position. But something about giving away Angelina as a token of truce did not sit well with me.

I did not understand my hesitation fully either. I had hardly interacted with the girl over the years. I had seen her quite frequently of course, because she had lived in the same house as my sister and my mother, but beyond occasionally exchanging pleasantries, I hardly had any interaction with her. Jessica and Angelina did not get along well at all and Jessica complained about her almost every single time that I visited. I generally made it a rule to dislike and punish the people who hurt or upset my little sister in anyway. But something about Angelina and her absolute helplessness and vulnerability brought out my protective side and I could not hate or dislike her. And that was why I was trying so hard to protect her from a marriage to our enemies.

Father noticed that I was lost in thought. The old man was still extremely perceptive, the result of years of practice at reading people's true intentions.

He looked at me thoughtfully.

“You know Adrian, if you want the girl to yourself then I have no problem in giving her to you instead of the Morettis.”

I gritted my teeth in frustration. Father had been on my case, insisting that I get married for a couple of years now. He was paranoid about securing his bloodline. It had almost ended with him when he had lost his son and his ability to father children.

His fear and anxiety would not stop until I had fathered at least two sons, an heir and a spare.

I did not want to get married, because I did not want to ruin a poor girl's life. My capacity to feel any affection seemed to be restricted towards my mother and sister. And sometimes, the monster inside of me, the one that generally lurked beneath the cold, composed facade threatened to break out and destroy everything in sight. When I was extremely angry, my vision went red and nothing could calm me down in that moment except for bloodshed and violence.

I knew that it was probably the result of years of trauma. But I had to deal with it in the only way that I could, as getting psychological help from a professional was out of the question in our world.

“I don't like her in that way Father. I don't want her, or anybody else for that matter. I am happier on my own", I told Father firmly.

“Well then, the girl's fate is sealed. We have nothing more to discuss. It is time for me to rest now”, Father sighed. His body had been growing frail and sickly over the last few months and he was always tired. Apart from the spinal injury, decades of smoking cigars had also ruined his lungs irreversibly. His kidneys were also failing quite rapidly and the doctor had predicted that he would need to be on dialysis by the end of this year. He was probably not going to survive for long.

I nodded and took his leave. As I walked out of his house and made my way back to my car, it suddenly hit me. My father was not going to survive for more than a year or two. He knew that, I knew that, the doctor had practically told us that. And after him, I would be the Boss.

So I had to somehow just buy time for Angelina. She was just nineteen and had two more years of college left. I could tell Father that I wanted her to complete college before I married her. He would not be too happy, but he did not have much choice at this point.

A slow smile spread across my face as I turned back to tell my father that I was going to get engaged to Angelina.