This Thing of Ours

Chapter 12

While Siena had learned to tolerate Chiara, she always considered the latter a hypocrite.

Agostino clapped his hands then. Siena eyed him warily.

"Fine, oh mighty underboss," he said. "Fine. You have grown to be a very good philosopher; an addition to your stellar computer skills. Good work. I am impressed."

Siena rolled her eyes.

Agostino watched her in amusement. He loved his niece dearly, but there were certain things she still had to learn in the business.

"All actions have consequences," Agostino finally said. Siena could hear his tone lighten. He seemed drained now as opposed to angry when he sighed. "You have to face yours. Don Ricci DiAmbrossi has invited us. We are going to Sicily."

"What?" Siena answered, hardly believing her ears. "Why has he asked us to meet him in Sicily?"

"We'll find out," Agostino replied. "But it relates to what you have done, so we will see him."

"We're not returning the money."

"No. We will aim for appeasement," Agostino replied."He is promising blood if we do not meet him in a week."

"I don't know," Siena said thoughtfully. "A gang war would be some entertainment."

"-Siena!"

Siena rolled her eyes."I was only joking."

"Prepare," Agostino said."We're visiting Sicily in three days."

"He gave us a week," Siena replied." We shouldn't be so eager. We could go on the seventh day itself."

"I do not like your jokes Siena," Agostino said disapprovingly. "Stop them."

Siena strode out of the room. Agostino stopped her mid-tracks. "And I ask of you," he said, "to please be on your best behaviour when we see him."

Siena did not reply but strode on. His words annoyed her. So she had to be on her best behaviour to meet Ricci sake of he was the freaking Prince of Italy?

On the morning of their flight to Italy, Agostino sat at table to eat breakfast before leaving. Chiara sat with them as well as Agostino's right hand man-Enrico. Enrico sat with them and had breakfast with them as Agostino gave him instructions towards taking care of the family while he and his underboss were gone on their trip to Sicily.

"Why do you have to go to Sicily?" Chiara whined to her father.

Siena winced internally. She did not particularly hate Chiara, but Chiara acted most times like she was a child. She was twenty-four and literally the same age as Siena.

Also, Chiara had little wit and inner sensitivity despite her own delicate person, so it was common place for her and Siena to be involved in fights every once in a while to seal their peace and let out their frustrations about each other.

Chiara's whines stabbed Siena like nails that morning like they did whenever Chiara complained about how fast Siena drove for instance, or when she whined to her father to have her name legally changed to "Kyara" because people hardly knew that Chiara was pronounced that way when they saw her name written and they called her "Chiyara."

Her father had always told her her mother's name- before her death-too had been prone to misunderstanding. People pronounced "Alice"- her mother's name as it looked and not "A-li-cheh" like it was supposed to be pronounced in Italian. Chiara should either correct them or deal with it, had been the response.

Of course that did not sate Chiara, but that was story for another day.

Siena sighed as she reached for her drink of orange juice at about seven that morning. "Get over it, Chiara," she said. "We'll hardly be gone a full day. We'll be back today itself."

They will be back today itself...all things being equal.

"I wasn't talking about you, Siena," Chiara said. "I'm only going to be missing my father. I would actually like a break from you."

The guts.

Siena stopped eating for a second.

"I'm sure your father would like a break from your ceaseless whining too," Siena replied.

Chiara's face reddened. "Maybe," she said." But we all could use a break from not just your egomania, your underboss complex but also your anger fits."

Agostino looked about fed up with the trade of words, apparent in the frown that appeared on his face.

Enrico seemed to be pondering what an underboss-conplex was supposed to be.

But Siena? Siena looked angry. She hardly played the dozens. When she felt insulted, she reacted quickly, and violently; she hardly traded insults for long.

Now she banged both palms on the glass table as she moved her plate to the side and faced Chiara, her eyes blazing.

"Anger fits like this one?" She asked Chiara.

The action scared Chiara and the fire that was usually latent in Siena's eyes burned now. Chiara looked to her father for support.

Chiara might be as sharp-tongued as Siena, but she could hardly deal with what violence that came from messing with her.

Enrico sat quietly as his boss cleared his throat to speak. "I don't want any more of this nonsense," Agostino said. "I don't expect you to be best of friends all the time, but I at least expect you to be civil every once in a while. At breakfast for example."

He took a sip of water." Enrico, see to my meetings today and give me an account of every one of them. Chiara, behave. We will be back before you know it." Agostino got up then. "Siena, meet me by the car."

He left for his room to get a few things as Siena rounded off her meal. When she was done, she left for her room where she took up her phone and purse. She had already dressed for the meeting earlier, and even that was not much.

She wore plain jeans and a T-shirt even though these were expensive. She had her hair in a messy knot on top of her head with great wisps of it framing her face. A pair of sunglasses rested on her head.

The way she was dressed was deliberate. She was determined to treat the DiAmbrossis with contempt even in her own little way even though like her uncle said, there were limits. Limits, because the DiAmbrossis were quite powerful.

Because of that, she had been subtle. Her uncle as well as some of the men that would be coming with them were dressed in black suits and tie- standard dress code. But she refused to be formal and she hoped Ricci DiAmbrossi noticed the contempt, small and subtle as it was.

Siena strolled down the grand staircase of the DiSuzzi mansion, clutching her purse. it was just a few minutes to eight on the large, gold-bordered clock in the wide and heavily furnished living room.

She reached the landing and took a glance at the dinning area and saw that Enrico had already left to carry out the orders he had been given, as acting boss for the day. Chiara was still seated. She picked at her food while she pressed on her phone.

Turning her gaze from the dinning area, Siena hastened to join the jeep that was parked just outside the house, directly adjacent to the porch.