A Man of Honor.

Chapter 56: Acting Don Arc.

"I'm in the Gotti Family; my wife's the boss." ~ John Gotti when questioned about being boss of the Gambino Crime Family.

"Hold up!" Victor cried, standing up from his chair. Everyone looked at him, a few stood up themselves. Some I figured were going to make their way across the room to kiss my ring and swear their allegiance like Paulie had just done, others seemed to be shocked by Victor's outburst and looked like they might be confrontational. Others still remained seated.

I was still stunned by Neo announcing me as Roman's successor and having Paulie recognize me as Don but I tried to shake away the shock. I couldn't appear too passive as a leader in front of these people.

"Is there a problem Victor?" I asked him, taking my hand back from Paulie and folding it in my lap.

He glared at me for a long moment, clearly considering his next words carefully. The wrong ones would be very dangerous for either of us right now.

"Roman never announced you to be his successor." Victor stated. "He never once spoke a word of it."

Neo glared at him as did Paulie.

"Are you calling Neo here a liar?" Paulie asked immediately in a dangerous tone.

Victor flinched realizing he had left himself open for that accusation and took a second to calm himself.

"I am saying no such thing." He said looking to Neo and opening his hands to her. "And I apologize that my words were misunderstood in such a way."

"So what are you saying Victor?" Tony asked, he had remained seated at the table with his hands folded looking at all of us. "If you believe that Roman did name the Gentleman as his successor then I fail to see a problem."

"As I said, Roman never announced this to us." Victor explained to everyone. "This was never made official."

"Let's not pretend that we didn't see this coming." Paulie said, he didn't sit back down in his seat, instead he remained standing by my side which was a comfort and a clear sign of his allegiance to me. "We've all thought this, ever since Jaune here got made we knew he held a special place by Roman's side, we all believed this was possible."

"I am not interested in what rumors we whispered." Victor said to them.

"This isn't a rumor Victor." I said, speaking up once more and trying to gently put him back in his place. "You acknowledge that Roman named me to Neo. So I fail to see what your issue is."

"My issue is that it was never made official!" Victor hissed, slapping his palm against the table.

"What are you a bureaucrat?" Bruce asked him from across the table. "Do you want the Gentleman here to submit the proper forms? Signed and stamped in triplicate? Do we want to bring in a notary?"

Most of the room had a good chuckle at that.

"What I am saying is even though Roman intended to name Mr. Arc here as his successor and our future Don I think it is clear that it was Roman's intention to announce Jaune as his underboss and would have spent years preparing Jaune for this role. Mr. Arc here hasn't even been here for a full year. He's not ready for this position."

A few of the capos around the table looked at me and gave nods of understanding.

"Victor has a point." A capo by the name Carlo commented, I had hardly interacted with him before so he was a bit of an unknown to me. "Don't get me wrong I believe Mr. Arc here has shown himself to be quite capable in this business but he hasn't even served as a caporegime."

"Hasn't he?" Bruce asked from his seat. "He was given control of Sal's men and rackets when the war started and he has managed them all throughout this conflict with the Atlesians and he was instrumental in helping to broker this peace. Mr. Arc may not have an official rank but I believe he has done more than many of us in this short time."