ANGELS WEEP || bruce wayne

the ending

TWO YEARS LATER

🦇

The room was just how she requested it. Upholstered, luxurious chair that had to have come from the director's office, a plush, silk pillow, and a small table, each of these items straightened out to precise angles; exactly the way she requested it.

Salvatore Maroni watched that chair in a heavy silence, unwilling to think that the person who had requested such a chair would be above him. They were visiting him, not the other way around. He held the power.

But, still. The presence of the chair perturbed him.

The Don wasn't used to waiting. There was something about it that made him feel lesser, like whatever the person was doing before was more important to them than their Don. That usually ended with a gun to their head.

The thick door on the other side of the visiting glass opened, a guard standing in front of it, more alert than any of the guards before him.

Sal could hear a whisper from the guard's mouth to the person in the shadows of the doorway. He was thanking them for something. Money, perhaps? My, have the grace of men fallen for so little, Sal thought.

Heels snapped against the rusted floor and the person emerged from the shadows, rippling streaks of light forming into a halo.

"Ah, cara mia, it's so good to see you," Sal breathed in a sigh of relief, opening his arms in a gesture he thought was welcoming.

Stacey placed herself in the armchair, taking it up, filling the empty space with her presence. She stayed silent, carefully unfurling a piece of paper and setting it on her lap.

Her gaze leveled to stare at him and Sal gulped, scratching the back of his head. Sweat beaded around his collar, wetting the top of his jumpsuit.

It was a long moment before she replied, taking the time to slide the newspaper in her hands into the slot.

"Papa."

"To what do I owe the pleasure of your company, cara mia? Did you find my money? Did you you take up the business? Can you pay my bail with the money you have made?"

She looked down, pointedly, at the piece of paper.

Sal took it in his hands. On the front page, it read: PRICE AND PRINCESS OF GOTHAM MAKE IT OFFICIAL; WEDDING DETAILS!

He looked up at her. "Oh, gioia, you are to be married? Why did you not tell me sooner?"

Stacey tsked slowly, adjusting herself in the chair. "So many questions, Papa." She let out a fake sigh, looking at her nails in disinterest. "Which do you prefer I answer?"

A smile crept onto Sal's face. "Ah, I knew you would make a good Donna. I ask if you have enough money for bail, but married to that boy I assume-"

"You assumed correct," Stacey's lazy drawl overpowered his, and for the first time, Sal felt... Small. Meek. "I have enough money for whatever I want."

"And you want to pay my bail." His voice attempted to regain his power, but Stacey tsked one more time.

"It's time to answer one of my questions now. Why would I? So you could take what I've built for myself and call it your own?"

They sat in silence for a moment, Stacey poised, awaiting something.

"I do want an answer, you know."

"I only want to join my family in celebrating my daughter's marriage, is that too much to ask?" His already scratchy voice broke even more, and salty tears mixed with the sweat on his cheeks. "My little girl is a woman now, I want to-"

"Your little girl is a Donna now, Papa. And what I do is for the interest of the family. My family." She stood, leaning down to whisper: "and it doesn't include you."

"Cara mia, I have only wanted what is best for you!"

But the dishonored Don was shouting to her back, her hand reaching to knock on the door so the guard could escort her out of Blackgate.

"Tace, I have only wanted your love! I wanted to prepare you to become Donna!"

The door opened, the guard still alert.

"We are such things as dreams are made of... " She said, low, and Salvatore reached out, the newspaper clutched against his chest.

Her voice was a mere whisper: "and our little life is rounded with a-"

The door slammed closed, and Salvatore Maroni was left with only himself and the ghosts of the church where he uttered those words which would seal his fate forever.

He watched his Stacey pass the doorway, imagining her taking the elevator, getting in Bruce's car, arriving to her office in the Iceberg to make deals.

To take over the business.

To become Donna.

🦇

Thank you so much for reading my story! I had a really great time writing it, and though I had more ideas to go off of, I wanted to end it to more on to other things!

Please let me know what you think, and follow me if you enjoyed it/ want to see what I write in the future!

Thank you!