Embers Of The Remembered

Chapter Three| Jax

Chicago, IL

Jax

Every morning, I panic when I reach for Sam, but I can't find her beside me. I hate it here without her. It takes me ten minutes to sit and stare at the wall every day before I put on my "act" and join my father's family.

They have breakfast every morning in the formal dining room. How fucking weird is that for a mafia family?

I can't believe it's been two weeks already. Time is slipping by so fast, and I haven't accomplished anything yet.

Vinny is biding his time stalling on giving me the money and sending me off, and I'm still playing at that being all I want, but it's all kind of a moot point. Vinny doesn't believe my story. On night one, I overheard him talking to his wife, Meredith, about it.

She was stunned, and not in a good way, when she walked in and saw me in her beautiful gold and white living room.

It didn't help that she walked into a tense moment with her daughter...

"Holy shit, this place looks like a fucking museum." We step off the elevator right into the penthouse, well, the entryway of the penthouse, which has marble floors and a huge chandelier lighting up the space.

Vinny leads us into a living room, where the shiny hard floors transition into a soft and fluffy white carpet. I am horrified to realize I'm standing in my dirty boots. Neither Vinny or Tori took theirs off, but they both have dressy, clean shoes on.

I kick my boots off quickly, but then I'm unsure of what to do with them, so I find myself awkwardly holding them.

"I can take those," Tori offers with a friendly smile.

"Uh, thanks," I mumble as I hand them off to her. She nods and shuffles back out towards the entryway with them.

I hear the dinging noise of the elevator and then muffled voices.

"That's probably your other sister Gina and her boyfriend Mikey." As Vinny says it, they emerge with Tori. 

Gina looks a lot different than Tori. I can see each girl must take after the opposite parent. Tori has thick dark hair like Vinny's, and she shares a lot of his and ironically my sharp facial features. Whereas Gina has golden blonde hair and much more delicate features, but she has those blueish-grey eyes that me and Vinny both have. Smoky eyes are what Sam always called them.

I notice Gina is really tall as she takes another step closer, almost the same height as me. She's wearing a knee-length skirt with a tucked-in blouse. The look ages her quite a bit. I assume it's intentional. Her boyfriend, standing rigidly behind her, his eyes trained on me, looks much older than her, just like Franky had said.

He looks like a Vinny want-to-be in his grey slacks, button-down shirt, and lame-looking tie. He's got his hair all slicked back and shiny like a douche too. I already know I don't like him, and it's clear the feeling is mutual based on the vibes I'm getting.

"Dad?" Gina looks from me to Vinny, who steps closer and gives her a relaxed smile.

"It's alright, Gina." He chuckles just slightly as he looks at the guy behind her. "Ease up, Mikey."

Mike does relax somewhat, but I still feel the tension coming off him and even more so from Gina.

"I suppose it's time to make official introductions," Vinny continues. "This is my son and your brother, Jackson. I've told you both about him many times."