Breakfast on Tuesday

34. The girl

- Dante -

I stood in the foyer of the house I grew up in, watching how empty the coat closet was now that Anna and I no longer lived there and my mother... well, she would never wear a coat again.

The young maid in front of me took my coat just as I was about to hang it up and carefully draped it over her arm on top of Anna's coat and scarf.

She smiled at me. "I will hang these up for you, sir. You can let any one of the maids know when you're leaving and we will have your coats ready for you."

I studied her face in the foyer's soft lightening and she didn't look familiar. She had a heart-shaped face, curly black hair, and a dozen piercings in her ear, nose, and eyebrow combined. I wondered what happened to Antonia. She would have known not to take my coat. Last I checked, I had two fucking hands that were in perfect working condition.

"Father!" I yelled, striding across the room behind Annabella who was busy typing away on her phone while she walked.

Based on the dreamy smile on her lips, I knew she was on the phone with her ex-boyfriend. The same man I had forbidden her to continue seeing for her safety. He was the one who ordered Santiago's son and Elisabeth to steal the drugs that led to their deaths.

I had to have a talk with Annabella, but that was a matter for another time.

I turned around a corner and then another before bursting into my father's study. "¿Dónde está Antonia? I don't know who that is who greeted us at the door, but she's not Antonia."

My father stopped scrolling on his tablet and slowly lifted his head. Dressed in a dark blue suit and dark orange tie, I knew he was ready to talk business. His expression was as serious as ever, and although I couldn't see the outline of his gun through his expensive suit, I knew he carried one on him always.

"That old bug Antonia was loyal to your mother, not me," he said.

"I wonder why that is."

"Your mother was the sweet one, and in my line of business, I can't afford to be sweet to people. They tend to take advantage. Antonia had to go."

"That woman has worked for us for thirty years and she never stepped out of line. I knew she blamed you for our mother's death. Is that why you fired her?"

He shrugged. "I needed a new start. Just like you, except I didn't run away from my responsibilities." He reached over and grabbed a skull-shaped decanter with amber-colored liquid in it. "Whiskey?"

I nodded. "Don't say it like that. I left to protect Annabella."

He grabbed two glasses and poured the whiskey over frozen whiskey rocks. I never understood people who used whiskey rocks, but my father didn't believe in diluting his drink with ice.

Looking up at me, he offered me a glass. "And you almost got her killed. I can protect Annabella. I have people to do that. Do you want to protect your sister forever? Or do you want to step up as the next Don and protect and provide for this family?"

I took the glass from him and set it down on the table before me. "You couldn't keep your wife safe, so don't give me this bullshit about hiring people you don't trust to protect Annabella."

"Your uncle and I cannot run an organization as big as this if we trust no one. That's no way to live, my son. We trust you."

"I don't count. I don't know how you and uncle Mathias can sit around and watch the women in our family suffer. Whenever something goes wrong, they target our women. They are and will always be our weakest link. Mathias's wife is paralyzed and your wife is dead."