The Seventh Family

The will

The members of Andy Family sat at the long table where they usual y had the family meetings when Barrister James Petch came in and sat down.

The seventy one year old lawyer had been Nicolas’s lawyer for forty years.

Present at the meeting were the three sons, and their sisters, and seven of the grown up grandchildren.

After all formalities observed, James went on, “I will read Mr. Nicolas Andrea’s will as written and signed by him. He even took an extra measure to make a video of himself just to support the will in case anyone has any doubt.”

Danilo eased his bulk. He was not after the money to be shared but the leadership of the family. They were all rich there but to keep getting richer, one had to be in control of the businesses.

“Mr. Nicolas , the testator, made his will which can be verified at the probate court and the details will be sent to you via electronic medium. He stated clearly that I, James Petch will be the executor to oversee the sharing of the properties. He wrote that his estate at  Davinson Avenue, New York will be shared equally by his daughters: Dorathy, Angela, and Gloria. They shall all have the sum of fifty million dollars each.

Sean, Harry shall have the sum of one hundred million dollars each and also take the building in which the Head Office is located at 4, Malbory Park, here in Philadelphia.

Each of his twenty three grandchildren will have the sum of two million dollars each except Camillo.”

Danilo glanced at Camillo.

“The Nicolas Estate which is referred to as The Family House goes to one beneficiary: Camillo Harry. He is also to have the sum of four hundred million dollars and he takes the position of The Head Of The Family which was last head by Mr. Nicolas himself.”

Danilo felt an explosion in his head.

“Camillo is to oversee the affairs of the family and he serves as the new CEO of Andy and Sons which is the head of all the Nicolas companies. Thank you very much. If you have any doubts or inquiry, you can visit the court. I was mandated to share the video Mr. Nicolas made himself to read everything that I have said..”

“We are doubting what you have read.” Danilo said. “We are just doubting the state of mind he was at when he did that. What did they do to his brain to make him do that. We have to check his mental state of mind. He was over ninety years old,”

“This video was made six years ago and he looked very normal.” James said.

“Look normal? Are you a medical doctor? How many damn sick people look normal?”

“I have done my job Mr. Danilo and I still have a job to do as an executor. If you have any doubts, take the appropriate steps but count me out of it.”

“Thank you for coming, Mr. James.” Sean said. “We will always respect our father’s  wish.”

“You are welcome. I will take my leave. Thank you for listening.”

He got up and left the room.

“There is something fishy going on.” Danilo said. “I do not recognize you as the head of the family. There is no way father would do such a thing. How can he cross over his children and hand over to a kid?”

“Al Capone was only twenty four years old when Johnny Torrio handed the Chicago Outfit to him.” Sean said. “It is not about age and father did whatever he did with wisdom. We have twenty years old that reason like sixty years old and we have sixty years old that reason like twenty years old.”

“What are you trying to insinuate, Sean?”

“I am trying to say Camillo is the new Head of Andy Family.”

“I do not accept it. I don’t care about the money. This family needs to hold on strongly and Camillo can’t do that.”

“I pledge my allegiance to Camillo.” Sean said. “He is the official Padrino of the Andy Family.”

“I remain loyal to you, Don Camillo.” Harry said.

All of the daughters side the same things including some of the grandchildren except Michael and Nicolas Jnr. Who were Danilo’s children.

“Thank you very much.” Camillo said. “This is a heavy task put on me but with your support, the Andy Family will be stronger, more united and more prosperous.”

“Now that we have heard about the will. We know that is from the money Father set aside for will. The family business treasure has one  billion and eight hundred million dollars. I will still run the family business and you run the family matters.” Danilo said.

“I am sorry Uncle but I am the CEO and I run the business but not alone. It is a family business and I won’t run it alone but I have got plans and these plans had been precipitating since grandpa was alive.” Camillo

“Who is going to run the white powder wing? I am the one who knows the right channels. Before father died, I was about to get a supply of sis hundred million worth of stuff from Colombia because part shipping is more dangerous and expensive.”

“We are suspending cocaine deals for now.” Camillo said.

“Why?” Harry asked. “You know we are the biggest suppliers here and that our main source of income.”

“I know dad but we need to calm down. The police are seriously working on us.”

“The police have been working on us for over sixty years.” Danilo said

“That is the reason we need to lie low for a while.” Said Camillo. “I got reports that the new Chief is the son of the old Chief of Chicago police and he is trying to dig up old files. The days of my great grandfather. He wants to trace their activities and he knows who we are.”

“Bullshit!” Danilo exclaimed. “We do not hide our identity. They all know who we are.”

“They may have no proof against us but that does not mean they are stupid. Lots of cops had to give up because they had no evidence but they suspect us.”

“Yes they do but that is all bullshit. After everything Al Capone did, he was not jailed for bootlegging, murder, extortion but tax evasion because no one can prove that he committed those crimes. They mention his name when they talk about the Saint Valentine’s Day murder but no one has any prove so to hell with speculations.” Danilo said.

“I do not see us or you people acting as smart as they did.”Camillo said.

“You don’t speak to us that way!” Harry retorted.

“I am sorry but I do not want us to argue about this. We will not deal in cocaine for the next two years and I won’t change my mind.” Camillo said assertively.

“What plan do you have for the business, Camillo?” Suzan asked.

“That is a good question.” Sean agreed.

“Thank you.” Camillo said. “We are going to make cool money for the family in simple manner with less risk.”

“We asked you about plans and not the risk or whatever…”Danilo interrupted.

“They asked and not you, Uncle.”

“You don’t speak to my father that way!” Michael snarled.

“Calm down.” Lisa cautioned.

Camillo was silent for a few seconds before he raised his face up.

“It is imperative I make something clear here. I am sitting on this chair and it not about me but the chair. The chair Don Andrea sat on. The chair Don Nicolas sat on so do not see me as that thirty year old nephew or cousin or son of yours. I am the Capo now and I will take decisive action on anyone, irrespective of who is he is, if he tries to disrespect this chair. We all know what decisive action means in our family. I have the power to disown anyone whom I perceive as a threat to the family progression or unity. I can make you leave the estate and the business forever and if you try me, I swear I will kill you! The next time you speak to me like that, Michael, I will deal with you and that goes to anyone who is trying to take advantage of age or whatever relationship exists between us to intimidate me. I must warn you and your childred Unxcle Danilo, if you are not okay with anything we do here, you can leave. You have your share of the will so go run your business alone with your children but not as part of the Andy Family.”

There a few seconds of silence and tension. Camillo’s eyes had tuned into a thin vicious line and his lips twitched. There was something very dangerous about this boy they never saw. Nicolas chose him for a reason and being able to handle them was one.

“This is my plan.” He went on. “We all know about the Ditcoin cryptocurrency we have been talking about. We are going into it with full force. People deal with it. They buy and sell apart from other transactions. We are going into six African countries. Each country will have a family representative who is willing to do that. The women would be fully involved now. We are starting a cryptocurrency scheme where we get investors from the African countries to invest in our scheme. The details of how we run the business is not important to our investors. We will not make an online presence. We will have physical appearances in each country with offices in various states. We will register legally and even make adverts. Each country will have a stooge representing us and he or she would be a citizen of the country. He would be the CEO while we control everything from behind. An investor gets 100% profit of whatever amount he invests by the end of the month.”

Danilo laughed.

“Seriously? What kind of magical business would give an investor a 100% profit within a month and we will still make money of it?”

“None.” Camillo said, “the magic is we will pay the money from the set capital and this would go one for six months. We will be paying and losing money and gaining their confidence. When even the common man tries it and gets paid, h would tell the next man it is for real and the more you invest the more you earn. We know the human nature of greed and love for quick and easy money. After three months, most of them would stop the monthly withdrawal and calculated the progression of their money for months. We will get more investors and by the seventh month, we will announce a boom and make profit 150%. That will be that last time we will pay a dime. We would have made thrice of what we invested and we will simply announce a massive loss that will drive the company into bankruptcy.”

This sounds very clever but do you think we will just we are bankrupt and that is it?” Sean asked.

“Yes. The registration will have twenty pages with the ‘I agree; column at the end of each page. 90% of those who sign online agreements do not read every detail and one of the conditions that will be on the 18th page is when there is a loss, the company is not responsible for paying back an investor. Every business has its level of risk. I promise many of them won’t read that part. Plus when millions of people have been making money from us, the new investors will rely more on eh live testimonies of friends and not the details of the form. There are smart ones that would invest just once or twice and leave. Those would be the lucky ones but trust me; we will have more victims than the smart ones. I did my intelligence and psychological survey. So we will pack up and leave and all of the transactions will be via Ditcoin. We do not have any business with any central bank. We are safe…”

Danilo agreed within him that this was a smart idea but he did not express that. He could see why this boy was chosen. Nicolas sw things in him they did not but that did not mean that he was okay with the idea. He would fix him, he knew that. He would act normal for now because the boy could not be intimidated. To get him, he had to calm down.

“It is a nice idea.” Danilo said.

“Yeah, a good one.” Sean agreed the most of the members of the family agreed.

“I will send for Jayden Rogers. We need his expertise but he has no business with the details.” Camillo said.

“I understand why Papa was killed and even his corpse burnt.” Danilo said

“On the day his corpse was blown, all of the corpse of the dead heads of the other families were blown. Did we all do this? That is my first task. We must call the other families and discuss our common enemy. I guess they came for a reason. Those can’t all be a coincidence. There is someone or some group of people out to destroy us. The pieces will add up but we need to work as one for the purpose.” Camillo said.

“Father will never support this!” Danilo said. “We all know that the six families were not united.”

“The more we stay apart, the more the mysterious enemy infiltrates us. We need information, I mean collective data so we can analyze.” Harry said.

“I asked about their presence Uncle Danilo and you told me that you allowed them come. Why are you saying this now?”

“I allowed them come because they made a suggestion and I wanted them to come and pay the last respect to father. Our family is the greatest…was the greatest because with the recent developments, I see us fallen already.”

“That is your opinion, Danilo.” Suzan, his younger sister said. “You took the decision without informing any of us. If you were made the head, we will fall the next day.”

“You don’t interfere where men talk!” Danilo snarled.

“That shows how misogynistic you are and archaic.” Lisa, another daughter of Nicolas said. “We are part of this family and have every right talk. Laura was the Head of her family for years and did a good job of it.”

“We will not let the killer of father go unpunished.” Camillo said. “And had the effrontery to come right to the funeral and blow his coffin. Have you not noticed the word love day appeared any time the heads of the family were killed? How did he kill grandpa?”

“You are right, Camillo.” Sean said. “And all of the families lost money.”

“Before grandfather died, he mentioned all of the names of the families.”

“We know little one.” Danilo said. “I met them all. I met grandpa, Diego, Santana, Mario, Didi, Frank, and Giovanni.”

Camillo looked at him.

“I only know of the six families.” Camillo said. “I did not know about the Angelo Family: The seventh family.”

It was like a nickel was dropped.

Danilo looked at his two brothers.

“s**t!” Sean exclaimed in a low tone.

*****