Welcome to The New Classic, where the past and the present merge, to form a new future.
Once that no one can see coming...
Join Angelo, Vanessa and the rest of the gang three and a half long years after that fateful night.
Lo kept count. V didn't...
Moodlist Salvatore - Lana Del Rey Make A Smile For Me - Bill Withers In A Sentimental Mood - Duke Ellington & John Coltrane Like A Tattoo - Sade
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He made the right choice by waiting.
If he had come to me immediately after he found out about my part in Vanessa's departure, things would have gone awry very quickly. And our respective roles as Don and Underboss would have gone flying, alongside furs.
The somber look on his face now transported me back to when it all first happened.
He was already a favourite of mine, when he was still Capo Regime, but after my new consigliere revealed how she came to be his woman, his standing with me took a hit.
As the leader of Cosa Nostra, I'd seen a lot. A lot of guys came and went, and a lot of scandal and drama followed them.
But there hadn't been a debacle anything like Angelo and Vanessa's relationship and eventual breakup.
They were the IT couple. Individually, they broke the mould. Angelo was a black guy, a sight previously unseen in the position he held. His rise to the top had been on the right side of tumultuous, but when his assistant joined the operation, she was able to narrow his focus from a spray of light in a million different directions to a discreet laser beam. With her at his side, Angelo soon hit his stride, and the profits were the evidence of it. A handsome, wealthy and ruthless man, with a beautiful, intelligent woman on his arm, he quickly became the envy of the congregation.
She captured the attention of many of my best guys, because she was the antithesis of what they thought they wanted in a woman.
Most of my peers married women many years their junior. They were drawn to reserved and "innocent" seeming Italian-American girls from around the way. The kind of ladies that only spoke when spoken to, and didn't acknowledge the illegal activities their spouses engaged in.
Hindsight allowed me to understand that Vanessa's unorthodox introduction into Angelo's life wasn't particularly romantic, so she never had the chance to indulge in the bliss of ignorance.
She was involved, no implicated, from day one. She was in the rooms, and part of the conversation, an incredibly attentive presence through most of Angelo's dealings. From what I observed, at first she was timid, looking to be seen, and not heard, but as she got comfortable, she started doing what she would become know for.
Making things happen.
She wasn't aware of her perceived signature at the time, but it became somewhat of a thing.
While keeping a watchful eye, from her seat next to him, if she heard anything that roused a suspicion, she would lean over slightly, to express her concerns in hushed tones.
Angelo's opponents unilaterally hated the lean.
It meant that something that was supposed to be a sure bet was about to get much more difficult that they'd hoped. And as we started working together, she lent me the same level of attention to detail as my advisor.
