This Thing of Ours

Chapter 11

Siena watched her uncle pace in his study. It was around quarter to eight in the night and after the day she'd had, she just wanted to rest. Her uncle wasn't helping either, with his restless pacing. He knew she was in the room with him and yet he ignored her as he continued to pace just before the wide glass of his study window that faced the front gate down below. Siena wondered what she'd done now.

The study was as it had always been ever since Siena's father had occupied it. The dark furniture was strong and sturdy; antique. The couches were soft, yet they adhered to the dark theme of the study. The study was small and cosy; it had always been. It just seemed to have a different aura with her uncle now occupying it as boss.

Siena cleared her throat and Agostino DiSuzzi turned finally to look at her.

"Uncle-"

"Siena!" Agostino said tightly. He looked disappointed as well as annoyed. "Where have you been?" He asked.

It was Siena's turn to look uncomfortable. "Nowhere," she replied, suddenly realizing that that question would make this conversation take a downward turn.

Agostino's silence only meant he knew more than he was letting on. And so, guilty, Siena was forced to say: "I was only out with Dale. We went out for dinner."

Agostino took in a deep breath as he walked to his desk and took a seat. He stared into the door far down the room like he could see through it. This behaviour was quite annoying to Siena. Unnerving too. But Siena saw that this was her uncle's normal tactic. He always did this to make whoever he was talking to finally crack or just plain make them uncomfortable.

"Uncle-"

"You're still seeing that man?" Agostino asked."We have talked about this severally. I told you that if you were looking for a man, you should find somebody in the business. Someone with stakes. Go after a non-mafioso and one day, he will be caught in fear and he'll bring the police to your door."

Siena sighed. "It's nothing serious," she informed her uncle. "I just needed the company."

"You needed company?" Agostino asked, aghast, wondering if that was a valid excuse. "Your recklessness is becoming intolerable. You need company; you get a random man." But Agostino paused, sighing.

"But that was not the question I asked," he said. " Where were you earlier before the dinner? What did you do?"

Siena's eyes widened in realization. She just realized that the don of the DiAmbrossis had had the nerve to report her to her uncle.

"Ricci DiAmbrossi messaged me," Agostino continued. "You must know who he is because you took his money. How much did you take?"

"Twelve million." The reply was short.

Siena had always done seemingly reckless things but hardly did they backfire because though they seemed reckless to everyone else, she had planned even the suddenness and spontaneity. She was a schemer, but this was one plan that she did not envisage the response.

Ricci DiAmbrossi had looked quite mad earlier. She should have expected a response, only that she had been too caught up in things to reason that. She had taunted him, she had bruised his ego and he was coming for payback. She could more than deal with any of that if not that her uncle was acting like the matter was more serious than it was. He was thinking about the family itself, like he did usually, unlike Siena who put herself first no matter what.

"Domani," Agostino said."Know your limits."

Siena tensed, annoyed. Domani was a name given to her by her mother. Apart from her mother who had called her by that name before she left, only her uncle did- when he was angry or serious about something- and that was hardly any compensation to make her positively disposed to the name. It only reminded her of her mother who was now gone from her life. Domani: 'tomorrow.' She had been her mother's tomorrow but her mother had gone without saying good bye.

Siena's fists tightened at her sides as Agostino continued speaking.

"This reckless behavior has got to stop. You're going around with a random American business man. Only a few days ago you set fire to a police inspector's house-"

"-He was lucky he wasn't in it-"

"-Focus Domani!" Agostino interrupted harshly. " A true mafioso knows where the limits of their power lie."

It was Siena's turn to be angry.

"Limits, limits, limits!" She said as she paced for a bit. "We do not go anywhere because we continue to cry limitations. We should be feared by our enemies in this damn city. They should not think of crossing us. They know we are powerful; they know we are strong and yet they disrespect us. They mock us. You only say these things because you don't deal with them directly. I am the one who sees them. I am the one they throw contempt at. Only today, Drusa Trebeschi tried to attack me. A Trebeschi! How dare she? The Trebeschi are falling under her reign and yet she has the guts. Uncle, the title of Boss is my birthright and I will claim it. I have to be a boss that will be feared when I ascend. I respect you a lot uncle, and I won't want to ever turn against you. That is only a battle between myself and my willingness to do so and not a question of capacity. And that is mostly because we share blood. Don't ever tell me to bow to any man. Don't ever say the DiSuzzis should bow. Limits only presuppose that someone limits us and we have to succumb. I do not succumb."

Agostino looked amused, yet impressed with his niece's outburst. He admired this in her- her relentless spirit, drive and passion for her family's legacy. She was very unlike his own daughter, Chiara, who just did not have the liver, but also wanted nothing to do with the dirty business of the mafia. Yet she gloried in the money and the influence.