Familia

Tony's visit

  Helena was in the kitchen preparing family dinner when she heard car doors slamming outside the house. Leonidas was at home, so this could only be Timothy, she thought, but the sound of footsteps on the grit gave her the impression that there were several people.
'Perhaps Tim has brought some friends of his' she presumed before realizing how absurd this idea was. The last time Timothy brought some friends at home Leona was 19 and his friends wouldn't stop gazing at her. Since that moment, Timothy has brought no more friends at home.
'Ah, boys being boys' thought Helena while stirring her pasta with pesto. But wait, she realized that she still didn't know who were these people who have just arrived outside of her house. Her curiosity led her to approach the window and look outside. But what she saw suddenly froze her. That was him, Antonio D'Angelo,also called Tony. Dreaded by the cops and even more by the people. Leonidas has told Helena about him a couple of times; a 32 year old Italian, self-made man, who came in the city from Italy, having nothing but a friend from his hometown, Cesar, by his side, who basically was in the same mess as Tony. But gradually, they climbed the ranks of the underworld, Tony made his name in the dirty business,and now he was one of the most powerful drug lords of the city, if not the most powerful. Helena didn't like the idea that her husband could have something to do with outlaws like him, but she knew that everything Leonidas was doing was for the sake of their family, always, so she completely trusted him, no matter what. However right now, what she didn't like was the fact that Tony D'Angelo and two of his men were standing at the door of her house, with guns at their belts.
Leonidas has already told her what to do if this kind of situation were to occur, so Helena quickly drew the kitchen curtains, stopped the cooking of allthe dinner meals, and just stood silently next to the worktop, pretending shewas not here, ready to listen carefully to every word of the discussion to come. She was standing here, silent and focused, but inside she was beyond worried. Not only she feared what could happen to Leonidas, but she obviously thought about her children. 'Who's in the house?' she thought, 'who's indanger?'. So she started to list in her head each child and what they were doing. Timothy was out with some friends, that was a good thing, he was out of danger, Tia and the twins were with their aunt, in the house next door, that made them safe too, since Tony wouldn't have the idea to visit the house next door, thought Helena. But what about Leona? Their beautiful eldest daughter? Helena paled when she realized her eldest daughter was in the house, preparing for going out with some friends including the boy she loved, Devon. Maybe she was already on the go, maybe she was in the living room, and maybe she was about to open the door...
Helena hold her breath.
 

****

    Hits rained down on the front door.
"Leonidas, my friend, open the door!"
"Animo!"
"Have you disappeared my friend?" Tony laughed.
But it was like nobody heard him and nobody was about to open the door.
"Presto!" he shouted, hitting the door harder.
"Now you gonna open the door you little shit!" he finally bawled.
Somebody finally unlocked the latch of the door and opened it.
Tony and his guys saw a beautiful and gracious creature, apparently ready to go in some fancy place , who was peering them with her light blue almond shaped eyes.
Leona saw a bunch of starving hounds dressed into flashy suits staring at her. They were tall all three, but the one in the middle was shorter, he was holding in his mouth a large Cuban cigar which was almost falling down.
"Is that a way to knock on someone's door?" she said on a cold tone.
In the kitchen, Helena almost had a stroke. Why was Leona always ready to face the danger instead of just running away from it?
Tony took some time before answering her, as he was too busy eying her from head to toe.
"W-We didn't want to bother, we just want to see Leonidas, sweetheart"
"What for?" she asked, ignoring the inappropriate nickname he had just gave her.
"Talk! To talk! We just wanna talk to him, like friends, ok?" he said while smiling and showing his surprisingly white teeth for someone who smoked huge cigars.
Leona lifted one of her already well arched brown eyebrows and gave Tony and his friends a skeptical look.
"Dad!" she finally called, not taking her eyes off of Tony and his clique.
Leonidas walked into the living room, and immediately went to the door as he saw Tony and his guys standing behind Leona.
"Tony I thought I told you not to come to my house to discuss business. I left you my number." He firmly said, stepping between Leona and the three outlaws.
"I've called you once, we've made a deal, and I wasn't satisfied by how you didn't fulfill your part of the deal. So since then I decided to come to see you in person" Tony replied, his cigar between his teeth.
"Tony, let's talk about it in my..." started Leonidas.
"Why don't you introduce me?" Tony interrupted him, while gazing at Leona?
Leonidas sighed.
"Leona, this is Antonio D'Angelo, a...collaborator of mine. Tony, this is my eldest daughter Leona."
"Nice to meet you" said Tony to Leona, smiling and showing his whitened teeth.
"Okay" she replied without really paying attention to this man who has disgusted her by his behavior so far. Then, feeling that her father and these men were about to talk business and that she would not be helpful to her dad, she turned to him and said:
"I'm leaving now dad, I'm having a dinner with my friends tonight."
As Leona turned back to Tony when she spoke to her father, D'Angelo could admire her long golden curls cascading down her soft and graceful back uncovered by her backless bronze color dress. Tony thought she looked like a jewel, a work of art.
"What dinner Leona?" asked Leonidas.
"Dad I've been telling you about this dinner for a week, this is a dinner to celebrate the end of my third school year of medicine!" reminded him Leona.
"Right, right...then have fun my darling" he told his daughter and gave her a kiss.
"Thank you dad, bye, I'll be back before midnight anyway." She said after kissing her dad.
Even though Leona was almost 21, when she was going out she used to come back home pretty early contrary to most of young people her age. It was like she didn't want to miss her duty as the eldest sister –aka home ruler.
"Hey Cinderella" Tony apostrophized the girl when she was on the door threshold.
"You look very fancy for just a dinner with friends" he hinted with a smirk.
Leona interrupted her walk and turned around to face Tony.
"Leonidas you should watch if she hasn't found a prince!" he laughed.
Leona hated how this cocky guy here from out of nowhere made her look like a child with his silly jokes. So she retraced her steps and came back in the house to face Tony.
"Mr. D'Angelo, could you mind your business?" she requested on a bitter but polite tone as she came close to Tony.
This girl definitely had spunk, Tony thought, not many people he knew would tell him such words, standing that close to him, knowing he has a gun in his belt, and so do the two guys with him. Actually the only people who could have done this were some very powerful gang leaders. Leona was an exception. Leonidas knew that too and judging by his look Tony could guess that the father was very worried for his daughter. Let's just not talk about the mother, who hopefully could not see the scene from the kitchen but who got shiver all across her body just after hearing Leona tell those words to Tony.
"Calm down, sweetheart, I'm just joking, I'm a funny guy. Have fun with your friends!" said Tony against all odds. But Leona remained unmoved by his words.
"You come in my father's house with your friends while you're not expected, you hit the door like animals, calling my father with disrespectful names he doesn't deserve to be called, then you make your silly jokes and give my father advice about my education, and finally you're calling me 'sweet heart', like you're a close friend of my family. But I've never heard about you Mr.D'angelo. However what I see is that you are some very disrespectful man. So now I'm gonna go to my 'dinner with friends', in my 'fancy' dress, and when I leave I hope you and your friends will show some respect to my father and my family as well." Leona said calmly and firmly, as she used to do with her siblings.
'My daughter has just scolded Antonio D'Angelo' thought Leonidas.He was screwed.
"Good bye Mr.D'Angelo." she finally added while leaving the house for good.
Tony's guys were dumbfounded by this little chick who has both, confidence and class.
"You can call me Tony!" he shouted to her as she was slamming the door of her car.

***

    As soon as the car with Leona disappeared, Leonidas ran his hand on his face.
"I'm sorry if my daughter's behavior offended you Tony..." he started.
"That's what you're sorry for? Really? What about the fact that you told your guys to let me down and to desert the Mexican fucking border?" Tony snarled.
"I did tell them to forsake the mission as I realized we didn't only risk our reputation, but their lives, their family lives could be affected" acknowledged Leonidas,"my guys are not like yours, they have family lives, they're not used to do this kind of 'dirty work', not all of them are good liars...The cops would have probably found out about the cocaine and both of our sides would have been affected! Plus there were more than 25% chances that this part of the border would have been controlled this day" explained Mr.Banks.
"Hey don't speak to me as a honest man Banks, you've just chickened out! You and your guys! If you didn't want to do the 'dirty business ' you should have told it before! You should have refused my help for the political campaign! You should have refused my help to expand your business in Italy!" bawled Tony.
"Mamma mia! Now I've just asked you to help me to pass some coke from Mexico, and you say ok Tony, ok, but at the end of the day you fucked me up, Leonidas!"
"I'm sorry Tony, I know I screwed up, I didn't measure the risks beforehand, but what could I do..."
"You're sorry?" Tony interrupted him, "I hope you're sorry, but don't be sorry for me Leonidas, be sorry for your guys 'cause my guys have caught them, yeah Leonidas, now your guys are safe with my Mexican friends. But for how long? It depends on you. Their lives rely on you ,Mr.Banks." he warned.
"No Tony, no don't harm them, they are really good men, I-I..."
"Yes , so good they didn't do their dirty job..."
"Tony, I beg you...I don't want them dead, at least I don't want to be responsible for their death, I've known some of those boys for decades...please Tony." He begged.
From the kitchen, Helena realized that was the first time she heard her husband begging someone, and when it came to business above all! However she understood that was deeper than just business, that was about those young boys' lives, and their families, and of course that was also about their own family, what will happen to their family's honor if Leonidas' hands become stained with his coworkers' blood? Helena gradually realized the horror of the situation.
"You beg me...you seem to be aware of your mistake, I like it, but what do you have to offer me for your coworkers' lives?" asked Tony.
"Anything you want" simply responded Leonidas.
"Anything?"
"Yes Tony, ask anything" he answered in despair.
"Fine. Your daughter, Leona, I like her, she has spunk or something...I want her." demanded Tony.
Leonidas paled.
"What? Y-you want to marry Leona?"he asked in despair.
"I don't know if I want to marry her yet. But I want her to come with me and live with me. I know it's not easy for a father, but I will treat her good don't worry" he said in a kind of 'soft' tone.
"But Tony she's my daughter, my eldest daughter, you can't..."
"I know who she is. What , you would have preferred me to go with your youngest daughter? She's 12 right? What you think, I'm a pervert? No I'm not a pervert! Plus I choose Leona because she's the one I like. You said I could ask for anything, that's my choice, your daughter. Now what's your choice, your coworkers' lives or having your daughter by your side?" questioned Tony.
Leonidas sighed. After a moment of silence he had finally made his choice.
" You can take Leona with you" he said unwillingly. These words made his heart break right after he has pronounced them.
"Good" said Tony with a satisfied grin.
"But let me explain her, and wait at least her 21st birthday, now she's just a baby.."
" Ok, ok, how long do I have to wait? I won't wait too long, I need her now!"
"It's in one week only" said Leonidas, dejected.
"Okay! Bene! Then we have a deal my friend" exclaimed Tony as he was happy and satisfied of this unbelievable deal.
"I hope I will be invited at the birthday, though!" he laughed, while getting out of the Banks' house with his two friends.
Helena was silently crying in the kitchen.

(to be continued ;)  )