Page 4 of Ruthless Rival

When Lorenzo and Adriano arrived, we sat in the living room together with glasses of Scotch in our hands. After everything that happened, a drink was nice. I sipped on the room temperature liquid, feeling it burn down my throat. “The house will look normal again soon,” I told my sons, who lounged on the sofa adjacent to the armchair I sat in.

“It’s already looking much better,” Lorenzo replied with a reassuring nod.

“It was mostly just the trees,” Adriano added. “They’ll grow back.”

I nodded, knowing they were right. Things would go back to normal. Things would heal. “Right. Anyway, we should focus on business. We can’t be distracted,” I told them. The Castillos wanted to break us down piece by piece, but I refused to let my family fall apart. We were stronger together than apart. “Renzo, talk to me.”

“We could continue to expand some of our businesses. Maybe look to the West Coast,” Lorenzo suggested. “New York doesn’t have to be our only outlier.”

I tapped my fingers against the armrest of my chair. As appealing as it was to expand more outside of New Orleans, I didn’t believe it was a smart idea to turn so much attention outward when there was too much to monitor right at home. “Perhaps at another time,” I replied. “With the Castillos trying to make their move here, we need to protect what we already have. We need to tighten our hold here.”

Lorenzo looked over at Adriano and motioned to me. “Tell him your idea,” he encouraged his youngest brother.

I peered at Adriano curiously. If I had to choose, he was certainly the cleverest of my children. His mind worked outside of the box, while Lorenzo and Marco stuck to traditional ideas or followed someone’s lead. There was no issue with either.

“We need to find someone in the governor’s office and put them in our pocket,” Adriano said as he lifted his head up, seeming confident in his idea. “If we really want to secure our hold here, we need the governor on our payroll.”

“If only it were that easy.” I shook my head. “He refuses every single time we offer, no matter how much money we put up. Something about morals. Like anyone in politics has any.”

The corner of Lorenzo’s mouth curled up in a faint smirk. “Even the most stubborn people can be broken down,” he pointed out.

“So, someone in his office?” I questioned Adriano, wanting more details. I liked doing things my way, but we were a family. I treasured my family’s opinions and ideas, so I took them into account whether I ended up using them or not. It was only fair and I wanted to be a fair father.

Adriano nodded. “I don’t know who yet, but we need to pick someone close to him. He’ll be more convinced to work with us if someone he trusts suggests that he does,” he explained.

He had a good point. It needed to be an indirect approach and we would hardly have to do any heavy lifting. “I’ll keep that in mind,” I replied with an intrigued nod. I was interested in his idea. We already had so many people on our payroll to help us out with small favors, but if we wanted someone with true power, we needed to go to the man who ran the state.

“How is Melly?” Lorenzo asked Adriano.

“Yes, fill us in. I can imagine the two of you are upset about your wedding being cut short,” I added as I peered at my youngest son. I already knew he was going to downplay his feelings about it.

“The wedding was almost over anyway,” Adriano replied with a shrug. “I made it up to Melly.”

Lorenzo cocked an eyebrow at him, trying to hide an amused smile.

I gave my oldest son a pointed look before turning back toward Adriano. “I’m just glad everyone at the wedding was okay. It was a wonderful ceremony.” I cherished my family’s special days and I was grateful that I was still around to enjoy them.

“Thank you, sir.”

The fire wasn’t the only odd thing that stuck out to me on the day of the wedding. My mind shifted to Mrs. Mora, the dark, mysterious beauty on the governor’s arm. She stared at me as hard as I stared at her, like she meant to look my way. I hadn’t met her yet, but I found myself wanting to.

Who is she and how does she know the governor?

“Go about your days,” I told them with a dismissive nod. “We will address this later.” I’d heard what I needed to and was satisfied with the possible ideas to try out. For my family, I was willing to try everything.

Four months later….

On the cusp of nighttime, my children and their little families filtered into the healing plantation house, taking their seats at the Mancini dining table. I sat at the head. Alessia, my sweet angel of a child, sat to my left, while the rest took their usual seats.

My gaze swept along all of their familiar faces, including some of the newer ones. Eva, Storm, Melly, and Michael had become part of our family. They accepted us for who we were, and they were loyal. That was the most important thing.

I looked upon my grandchildren with gentle eyes, feeling my shoulders relax. They were the next generation of our family, and the Mancini legacy would bear weight upon their shoulders. My goal was to leave this world better than it was now, so my remaining family could live in peace and prosperity.

“You are absolutely glowing,” Marco told Alessia.

I turned to Alessia, who blushed with a warm smile on her face.She looked radiant in her pregnancy. I prayed heavily that she wouldn’t meet the same fate as her mother had during labor. My heart ached at the thought of experiencing such a loss all over again. “You do look beautiful, mia angioletta,” I assured her. We will do everything in our power to help her.

“She’s not a little girl anymore. She can do this.” Guilia, with all of her boldness, jumped to her sister’s defense with a pointed look on her face. She turned to her twin with a crooked smile. “Your little angel is tougher than you think.”

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