The Mafia's Legacy

Chapter 10: The Sinful King

Victoria P.O.V

Never in her life has she felt more betrayed than in this moment.

“Is this what everyone has been skirting around?" She accuses as her fingers flex on top of the folders. “This secret law firm is what has had Richard, you, and everyone else on edge the past two weeks?"

Giuseppe doesn't answer, he doesn't need to. Victoria knows the answer. She laughs cynically and turns to face the window behind her. She imagines her mother's eyes flashing before her, the black night reflecting round hazel embers of pain and grief.

She knew.

Richard, and the staff. The whole f*cking mafia family.

They all knew. Everyone.

Tears stream down her face in waterfalls. The family jewels, the dinner, Antoni at the Russo Law Firm. It was connected to this plan. She only started noticing it two weeks ago, but it had to have been longer than that, six months at least. This plan to upheaval her life doesn't seem to be something impulsive.

Knowing Dante, yes. That man is as impulsive and emotional as a toddler. But her father? Everything is a strategy to him, everything a well thought out design. It's how he's managed to keep the Russo family as number one in New York.

Victoria was under the impression that she wasn't a part of that family. That her thoughts and opinions mattered to him, just like his matter to her.

“Guess I was wrong." She mutters with a snarl.

“I do not know why you are acting so dramatic, Victoria." Giuseppe stands with a sigh.

“Dramatic?" Victoria bellows. The harsh light from the chandelier flashes across her face, sharpening the rage clawing out. “You've sold my life away without telling me!"

Giuseppe crosses the space between then in two strides, his finger pointed at her face. “You were to become a lawyer anyway, this is no different!"

“Yes, it is!" Victoria clenches her hands into fists at her sides. Her voice is shrill, but taunt like a bowstring as she sets her shoulders. The feeling of her fingernails digging into her palms is the only thing keeping her rooted in the moment.

“How? Eh?" Giuseppe spreads his arms wide, encompassing more space in the room. “Tell me Victoria, Enlighten your old father. Fill his stupid mind, since you think yourself so much cleverer than I."

Victoria feels her instincts kicking in, yet she fights against them. She keeps her jaw clenched tight, head raised and eyes glaring directly into her father's cold abyss. Rage unlike anything she has ever felt before slithers up her esophagus, its cold tongue flicking against her limbs.

She embraces its chill; its' dangerous cloak wrapping around her heart like a shield.

“I didn't say you were stupid, don't twist my words." She warns, voice low. “I've been studying law because it is what you wanted for me, and that's something I've known since I was a child."

“But this?" She grabs the tops folder on the desk and raises it between them. “Co-managing a Law Firm involves much more than just being a lawyer. I feel like everything I've been working toward has been for nothing now, all because you didn't tell me about this, about any of this."

“I didn't need to. I am your father, and you will do what I tell you to do." Giuseppe snatches the file from Victoria and places it back on the table before grabbing all the files and walking toward the black wooden bookshelves on the opposite wall. “This is good practice. One day you will take over for me, completely. It will be up to you to make sure that our men – and out client's men – are kept out of jail."

Victoria licks her lips, her shaking hands raising to press on her temples. She scrambles for something to say that will make him understand. A new angle, a different combination of words. Something to make him realize her pain and frustration.

Anything ... Anything ... Anything...

“And what of Antoni?" She rushes to her father's side at the bookcase, the thought sparking renewed vigor in her limbs. “He has a degree in business, not law. He won't be able to become a co-managing partner."

It's a lie, her heart knows it. She doesn't know Antoni as well as when they were kids, and the Amato family has nothing to do with protecting the law, no one in their family has ever gone into civil law work. But Antoni is more than capable than running a law firm, even without her there to help him. This is merely a way to keep her father talking. A small piece of hope that could help carry her voice across the muddy chasm between her and her father.

Giuseppe doesn't falter as he finishes placing all the folders on the bookcase. His lips press even tighter together. The anger tensed around them doesn't impact the steadiness of his voice, “Antoni has taken the bar exam and passed with flying colors. He even spent the last year practicing law while he was overseas in Italy. He is fully capable."

Victoria clicks her tongue, “Bu-"

“Victoria stai zitto!" Giuseppe slams his hands against the bookcase, shaking the whole thing. His eyes zero in on her, sharp like a spear. Victoria snaps her mouth shut so quickly her teeth clack together. Her throat drops to her stomach as more tears run out of her eyes in shock.

Victoria looks at the man in front of her. Shadows wrap around his dirty blonde and grey hair like a crown. The multicolored case files rise behind him like a throne, a record of every criminal he's kept out of jail.

This man ... he is not one who enjoys creating new candle scents and drinking hot chocolate at dawn in winter, one who never raises his voice at her.

No. The man before her now is not her father.

He is a king of the underworld. A monarch of criminals and undesirables. A man fighting against the law simply because he can, not because it is in the best interest of the people.

And he has trapped her within that darkness alongside him.

That is the true issue – the reason her heart sits in shards by her feet. Working with Antoni forever, having her choice taken away, and then having both those kept from her are just small stabs into her heart. Excuses she lets irritate her to avoid facing reality.

Lady Fortuna Law Firm isn't a new kingdom dawning upon the world. It is a prison cell that Dante and Giuseppe have just trapped her, and Antoni, into. Forever.

“What is going on here?" Elina stands in the open doorway, her words like a flash of lightning. One hand clenching her fluffy white robe closed across her sternum while the other holds a candle in front of her.

The candle isn't dancing, it's flame like a straight rod of lava. Victoria doesn't spare her a glance as she storms past. If they are going to treat her like the daughter of a sinful king by signing her career off to a beast, then so be it. She'll play her part well – damsel sprinting away in distress and all.

“You are my daughter, and you will do what I tell you, Victoria. I will lock you inside this house if I must, and you shall work from behind these walls!" Giuseppe screams after her, voice deep with dangerous intent.

“Go ahead and try." Victoria utters. To hell with that dark throne stained with blood, and that crown of shadows. She wants no part of his kingdom. “I'll be my own knight in shining armor."