Home / Betting Over My Grief / Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 9

Lahat ng Kabanata ng Betting Over My Grief: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 9

9 Kabanata

Chapter 1

Antonio's POV"Why?"I forced the word past the knot in my throat and held down everything clawing at my chest.Elena frowned. There wasn't a trace left of the tenderness she used to show me."Antonio, when are you going to grow up? You're the illegitimate son nobody's supposed to talk about. Why do you keep trying to take the succession from Luca?"My father ground his cigar out on the burial-at-sea contract lying across my desk, burning a black hole through the paper.Not one of them noticed what the contract was.Not one of them noticed the urn sitting beside it."These five years were meant to grind that temper out of you," Dad said. "To teach you your place. Luca is the legitimate heir to the Leo family. That seat was never yours to fight for."Be smart about it. From now on you're Luca's cleaner, and you're done scheming."Scheming?My mouth twisted into something that almost resembled a smile.My heart felt as if someone had fired a bullet straight through it."I've

Chapter 2

The next morning, the burial service delivered my monitor band.It sat over the old scar on my wrist and covered it exactly.Rain started tapping against the window.It took me back to another rainy day five years earlier.My engagement night with Elena.Luca had told me he was putting together a surprise.I waited in the banquet hall all night.The surprise turned out to be a call from the police.Their car had exploded.The only thing recovered from the wreckage was a ring engraved with my name.I got to the scene and dropped to my knees when I saw what was left of it.Gianna cried until she had no voice left. Then she pointed at me and told the room I'd killed them.The whole family whispered behind my back.Rain mixed with blood and ran down under my collar that night.I carried that cold in me for five years.Now I knew every one of those tears was staged.They'd blown up an empty car themselves.No wonder the kitchen kept turning out Luca's favorite spicy dishes

Chapter 3

I beat on the door until both palms were slick with blood.Nobody answered.But I couldn't die yet.I still had one encrypted flash drive on me, and it had to go out to the place I'd arranged months ago.I don't know how long I kept at it.Eventually the steel door opened.Elena stood in the doorway.The moment she saw me curled on the floor, something like panic went through her eyes. She crouched and put a hand to my forehead.The heat startled her badly enough that she snatched it back."You're burning up. How did it get this bad?""Medicine," I managed. "Coat pocket."Elena went straight for my coat, dug out the bottle I used for the gunshot wounds, poured water, and helped me sit up."Take it. It'll stop the pain."I'd just swallowed the pills when Luca walked in.He looked at the bottle and frowned, all exaggerated disappointment."Tony, why would you lie to us? Those aren't painkillers. Those are the stimulants you took off that rival crew last time. You've been f

Chapter 4

Three days later, there was a gang shootout between the Leo family and a rival crew at the docks.I was crouched behind a shipping container swapping magazines when Luca came around the side.He was wearing a nasty little smile."Tony, how are you still alive? You know Elena still has your engagement photos on her phone? Makes me sick every time I see them."I ignored him and turned to go.He caught my arm and leaned in close to my ear."Cosimo, five years ago. That was me. You've carried it long enough, Tony, it's time you handed it back. Go die."He shoved me out from behind the container. He lost his own footing as he did it and went down on the concrete.Then he screamed at the men behind us."Help! Tony's turned on us! He's working with them, he's trying to kill me!"Dad, Gianna, and Elena came running with armed men behind them.Not one of them looked at me first.They all closed around Luca."Luca! Are you hurt?"Elena pulled him against her, her voice shaking.Gi

Chapter 5

Third-Person POVThree days after Antonio went into the river, the study at the Leo estate was thick with smoke.Don Salvatore Leo sat behind the mahogany desk with a Cuban cigar clamped in his teeth, rapping his knuckles against the wood as he gave the order."Turn this city upside down and find that ungrateful son of mine. He threw in with the Costas. When you bring him back, I'll deal with him myself."Gianna sat nearby, cleaning Luca's custom handgun."Three days in the basement cell first," she said coldly. "Then we'll see if he ever runs again."Luca sprawled across the leather sofa, turning the emerald ring around one finger, playing peacemaker."Papa, Mama, don't work yourselves up. Maybe Tony just lost his head for a while. He'll come home once he's thought it through."Not one of them thought he was dead.They just thought he'd run because he was guilty. Sooner or later, once things quieted down, he'd come crawling back to ask forgiveness.Elena stood at the window

Chapter 6

Elena stopped the car at the Harozon River docks.Rain hammered the windshield with the same rhythm it had carried on the night of the engagement party five years ago.Her hands shook as she pushed the flash drive into her laptop.It was password protected.What would he have used?She typed in her own birthday.The drive opened.Her eyes went red all over again.At the top of the directory was a folder marked RECORDINGS.She clicked it, and Luca's voice filled the car, thick with malice."That's the plan. Blow up an empty car, let everyone think Elena and I are dead, and that bastard carries it for the rest of his life. Every day of it, thinking his job got us killed. He'll turn all that rage and guilt into taking ground for the family, and when he's done the hard part, I come back and take everything."The staged deaths. Five years ago, on tape.She went cold all the way through, and kept scrolling.The recordings came one after another, each one going in like a knife.

Chapter 7

The Leo family's quarterly dinner was already at its height, the crystal chandeliers bright enough to hurt, every cousin and elder and inner-circle man in the room.Don Salvatore Leo stood at the head table with a champagne flute in his hand. He cleared his throat and smiled at his younger son."I want to take this occasion to announce something. My son, Luca Leo, will be formally installed as the future Don of the Leo family. From tonight, every part of this family's business answers to him."Luca, in a custom black suit, raised his glass to the room and let the congratulations wash over him.Gianna watched him with open pride.Then the ballroom doors banged open.Elena walked in soaked through, black coat clinging to her, her face like ice.She carried a silver tray with a tablet on it. The sound of her heels on the marble silenced the room table by table."Elena, what is this?" Gianna said, frowning. "Come here. The announcement is nearly finished."Luca went to meet her, s

Chapter 8

Elena collected Antonio's ashes from the burial service.There was no funeral. No priest. No family.Only her, alone at the docks, following the instructions in Antonio's journal as she let the ashes go a little at a time into the cold Harozon.The wind carried some of it back against her face, where it mixed with the rain."You're free now," she said quietly to the water. "No more carrying what isn't yours. No more walking on eggshells around any of them. No more bleeding for people who never earned it."She had the flash drive with her name on it made into a pendant and wore it at her throat.Then she put his sketchbook in order and started planning an exhibition.Back at the estate, the Leo family was coming apart.Luca's shoulder stayed bandaged. With the succession gone, he spent his days breaking furniture and screaming at whoever was closest.Half the roses Antonio had kept for five years died in the garden. Nobody looked after them.There was nothing in the kitchen bu

Chapter 9

In the end Luca did exactly what anyone should have expected.While Salvatore slept one afternoon, Luca went into his study and took his signet and the deed to the east-side docks.He ran into Gianna in the hallway.She opened her mouth. For a moment it looked as though she might stop him.Then she saw his bloodshot eyes, and once again she chose to say nothing and let him go.Luca took the deed to the underground casino the Costas ran. He put the east-side docks and the old Leo house up as collateral and walked away with ten million dollars in chips.Sitting at the table, he told himself he could take it all back in one night. He'd have the succession again. He'd rebuild everything. Elena would come back on her own.By morning it was all gone.Marco Testa, who ran the floor, slapped the collateral agreement against Luca's chest."Under the contract, Mr. Leo, the east docks and the Leo house belong to the Costa family as of today. You also owe us three million private, and the

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