Dear Jolene

Chapter 2.

Marco Russo is an Italian man in his late twenties living on the 17th floor of the Silver Lining Apartments, room 21A. People around the apartment building respected him because he would smile and wave at every person he would come across. He worked a simple 9 to 5 job, was single and only had a goldfish called Lisa to keep him company.

However not all is what it seems, on every second Saturday of the month he would visit a casino in the heart of the city, 'Marigold'. He loved poker, but the game required luck which he did not have. He played once, twice and thrice and in came his addiction to gambling. 

To pay the Casino, he borrowed money from someone people shudder at the thought of, the Capo of New York City. The past-Gambling Marco would have killed himself rather than taken such an irrational decision of borrowing money with an interest rate of 20% per month.

Although he had locked his door, somehow he was here, inside his bedroom, making Marco kneel in front of him and face the barrel of his gun.

Andrew Knight held the entire New York City in his fists and now Marco Russo, who still hadn't paid his debt. It had been 6 months overdue and Marco had ignored all his calls.

Saying that Andrew was furious would be an understatement.

"Marco, you ignored our men, our calls, you haven't paid a single penny and your debt keeps rising, what do you want me to do?" Andrew asked.

Marco was shaking in fear, he had never seen a gun let alone be held at gun point. His chances of survival were nil as he saw the men surrounding him.

"I..I'm sorry, p-ple...please give me s-some more time", Marco begged.

Andrew made a thinking face and removed his gun from his forehead. He turned around and walked away. Marco naively thought this man would show him a little mercy but suddenly something hit his right shoulder, making him roll on the ground in pain. 

After firing his gun at Marco, Andrew removed the suppressor from the gun and tucked both the gun and suppressor in his pockets. 

"John and Michael, you know what to do", Andrew said and left with his other men. 

It was his youngest son's birthday and he wanted to make it home in time. Andrew straightened his coat and rushed to the elevator. He hated doing these kinds of menial tasks, but sometimes he had to show his face to establish that he hadn't lost his touch.

As soon as the elevator door opened he crashed into a petite woman carrying 2 extremely heavy-looking bags.

Andrew helped the woman up and said, "I am sorry, I should have seen before entering the lift".

"Yes, you should have", a voice said whispered.

Andrew would have left by now but he wanted to know the source of the voice. He was shocked to see the little girl, something tugged deep in his heart as if he knew her.

Suddenly, the woman who he crashed into said with a wide smile, "Both of us are at fault, it's just our apartment is a little far from the elevator so I rushed out".

Andrew had never seen such a pure smile. He felt a sting of guilt on receiving such a smile after sentencing a man to his death. To calm his soul, he offered to help.

"Jo how can we-", the woman tried to say something but he cut her off and said, "Of Course, Ben, Sam, Anthony, you heard the little lady, get those bags, and Ma'am, let me", he took a bag out of the woman's hand and gestured her to show the way.

"By the way, My name is Andrew", he introduced himself.

"Well, I'm Emily and this is my daughter Jo", Emily said. In a way, he was relieved to know that she had a husband to keep her safe; safe from men like him.