Chapter 62: Bad

"This is what I found in Fabio's office," Dante says.

We've finally arrived home, and the first thing we do is to eat lunch. After that, we go to my father's office to discuss Dante's findings at the Ricci's. What he found is proof enough that Fabio has been working with the Romanos. From what I've seen, Fabio has been making quite the arrangements with the Romanos. From illicit to legal partnerships, they do it together. One of the crazy but unsurprising things they're going to do is human trafficking, especially of children, which will be done in a few days. Despite our territory being between both families' territories, since the Ricci pretty much has access to it, it won't stop the Romanos from going through it, which is dangerous for us. We can't let them traffic children through our territory. Never.

"Child trafficking. No. Absolutely not. That's where we draw the line—no more contact with them. We have an agreement to never go to that territory. We need to stop them," my father says.

No more contact? I can't let him do that. Not yet. I still haven't gotten my answer and revenge. If we stop everything with the Ricci, my plan stops right here. After all we've done to get everything we have on the Ricci, stopping right now is foolish. We will only make more enemies for ourselves, and I don't think we're ready for that just yet. Even though the Ricci is now our enemy, on the surface, we're still partners in crime. Once everyone knows we're not allies anymore, everyone will try to bring us down right away.

"We can't stop now. I need to know if they're involved in mother's death or not," I say.

"Alessandra is right. Stopping now is a rash decision. Child trafficking is just one of the many things the Ricci and the Romanos will do together in the future. We need to dig deeper, and once we have enough information, not only can we stop contact with them, but we can eliminate them all," Dante says.

"What's your suggestion?" my father asks.

"We will continue with our current plan with Alessandra and Antonio. Antonio will have a birthday party next week. I think we can work around that. Other than that, Alessandra said Antonio wanted to take her on a vacation, and I think that's a good chance to get more information out of him," Dante says.

Thank goodness Dante has my back. My father can be hard to reason with sometimes. Since Giulio is no longer my father's second-in-command after he betrayed my father and the whole family, Dante kind of stepped up into the position, making his decisions matter more to my father. If Dante says something is important, then my father believes him.

"You barely get anything out of him," my father says.

"I know, I know, but I swear he's trying to open up to me. He's faltering. I think he's starting to like me for real. When I was at the Ricci, it sounded like he wanted to say something important to me, but he kept stopping himself. Who knows, he'll tell me whatever it is while we're on the vacation," I say, shrugging.

"Vacation? Only with him?" my father says, his gaze turning suspicious as his eyebrows knit together.

"That's what he said. Well, not really. Dante and Carlo could come and watch over me, but his family or anyone else won't come with us," I say.

"Where?" my father asks.

"Amalfi Coast. It's not that far, so you're fine with it, right? It's only for the weekend next week after his birthday," I say.

As much as I hate to go on vacation with Antonio like I hate raw garlic, I need to do it for my family's sake. I need to get whatever he has out of him, and this vacation is my chance to do it. I might need to take extreme measures, like doing a lot of touching with him, but I'll tolerate it for a bit. If it works, it's great, but not, well, at least I've tried.

"I have to think over it. The thing with the vacation is, he might've told you you'll be alone together, but who knows what's waiting for you there. Yes, Amalfi Coast is not that far from here, but it still takes time to get there. I'll give my answer after I know what the Ricci and the Romanos are planning with the children they'll traffic in a few days," my father says.

So, waiting it is. My father had better let me go. I don't think anything will happen to me while I'm there with Antonio. He probably just wants to spend time with me and kinda celebrate his birthday even more. However, if my father wants to spy on Fabio in a few days, I want him to let me go with him so I can see what he's up to with my own eyes.

"Alright. I'll wait, but I want to go with you to watch Fabio," I say.

"No. Absolutely not. It's too dangerous. I'll go with Dante and Enzo," my father says.

"You said you want me to be more involved with the family's business, so you should let me go with you. I assure you, nothing will happen. They'll be too busy handling the children," I say. My father stares at me for a while, weighing his options silently. Once he makes his decision, he nods at me.

"Fine. You can come with us," my father says.

At last, I can be involved in more stuff. If he keeps excluding me from things, then he doesn't really want me to lead the family, which I don't mind, but the thing is, he used to force me to act like the next leader, but barely lets me do what a leader will do, which is being involved in the family's decision-making and work. Now that he finally lets me go with him to work, I can finally see what's going on between the Ricci and the Romanos.

"Good. Just let me know the time," I say.

"I will," my father says. "You can leave now. I need to talk to Dante and Carlo."

Only with Dante and Carlo? What is he going to talk about with them? When I thought my father had finally started to trust me, he did shit like this. I hate that he keeps secrets from me like this. Why can't he just let me know about all the things in this family? It's not like it will hurt me or anything.

"Why can't I stay?" I ask.

"We'll only discuss boring stuff. I promise we're not hiding anything from you. I need to get their opinions on our next arrangements with a new family," my father says. Some part of me wants to fight to stay here and listen to their conversation, but the other part of me just wants to go to my bedroom and get some rest. I'm too tired to fight, so I'll go to my room now.

"Okay then. I'll be in my room if you need me," I say.

"Alright," my father says.

Things are starting to get interesting. What makes Fabio agree to do dirty shit like child trafficking with the Romanos? As much as I want to believe that he's as rotten as Alvaro, I still think there's something more than we know between their partnership. This is why we need to keep getting more information and not stop now, just like what my father said earlier. I really want to make sense of things because there's no way Fabio decided to work with Alvaro without a reason after being my father's partner for years. I mean, there's no way he betrays my father just like that after all that they've been through together. All I want is answers, and how I can get them is by keeping up with the Ricci.