Entering Angelo Manzini’s estate was reminiscent of a certain scene from the old movie Blood Diamonds which captured the heavily guarded conflict diamond fields in Africa. Moira had never seen so many armed security guards in real life, at anyone’s residence; not even the president’s. It was like they were entering some kind of bandit army base.   At first she tried counting the guards but she lost count before the car went past the entrance. The guns scared her; and she wondered if she would be able to sleep at all for the next six months. Moira certainly didn’t need anyone to convince her that the next half year was likely going to be the worst in her entire life.   All the way from the chapel, nobody spoke a word. Angelo’s phone had rung a couple of times but he ignored it before switching it off altogether. Moira expected him to say something… anything… even if it was just to pretend to make her mind a little settled. But Angelo just sat

“How hard can it be to …” the line suddenly went dead as Tony frantically tried to convince his girlfriend to get aboard his escape plan. “Moira! Can you hear me, Moira?” He checked the little screen and the standby display confirmed that the call had indeed ended.   “What the fuck, how do you hang up on me while we’re having the most important discussion of our relationship? And I’m just trying to help you out!” Jumping onto his feet, Tony cursed into the phone as though Moira was still on the other end. Out of frustration, he almost smashed the phone into the wall but quickly reconsidered that action when he realised that he still needed Moira to call back on the same phone.   But Tony was up all night waiting for that crucial call which never came. He kept coming up with all sorts of possible explanations why the call got disconnected right when Moira was obviously annoyed by his suggestion to escape Angelo’s captivity. Whichever way he l

Still a good distance away, Angelo’s driver slammed on the brakes when he noticed that there was some sort of commotion at the gate. He could see that there was a car blocking the way, just outside the gate; and several armed guards seemed to be arguing with the driver of the car. Angelo’s driver stopped the car in the middle of the driveway and signalled Angelo to take a look at what was happening up ahead. Seconds later, one of the guards approached and informed Angelo that there was a young man who was demanding to speak with him. “Who’s it?” Angelo asked calmly. “It’s that De Luca kid, boss. He says you might be interested in what he has to say about recent developments in your personal life.” the guard said. “Luke De Luca’s kid, you said? That’s odd.” Angelo remarked, unable to hide his surprise. It was no secret that Luke De Luca despised every

Having tried in vain to reconnect with Moira through the burner phone, Isabella could sense that things had gone off rails. With absolutely no clue what could have happened for the call to end so brusquely, all that was left was space for Isabella’s imaginations to run wild. Instinctively, she called her husband and explained what had happened. However, because she had not told Mario about the burner phone, Mario could not really understand what she was talking about on the phone; so he rushed back home to interrogate his wife adequately. Isabella quickly narrated to her husband how Tony had dropped off a burner phone, how Moira subsequently called then hung up , the weird call which was picked up but nobody spoke and the subsequent unavailability of the number.  “I’m telling you Mario, I have a strong feeling something has happened to our daughter. We need to check with Angelo, just to be sure.” She concluded.

From as early as she could remember, Moira Viscoli- the only child of Mario and Isabella Viscoli; had it hammered into her DNA that the Manzini name was synonymous with blood and the darkest evil imaginable. Her father had made it his parental duty to teach her never to get involved up with a Manzini man, particularly Angelo Manzini who had just taken over from his father as the boss of the mafia empire. He figured that Angelo, being young, rich and powerful; could easily lure young ignorant girls into his world of drugs, crime and every social vice conceivable.So growing up, Moira was never oblivious to the evil that Angelo and his family were responsible for all around the country. It seemed like wherever she turned, someone was bitterly complaining about being hard-done by Angelo or someone within his organised crime syndicate. Her father’s warnings about Angelo were proven with each one of these sad incidences; and she had grown to respect her father’s judgement of character.But