FicWad

Thanks to everyone who's been following my erratic posts and break-down moments, you are the apples of my eyes. :D Thanks especially to these peeps for they really know how to get a gal's spirit up; FaithSlayer gcmestsp luckystars4XO Hottgrl89 letter_bomb GreenDayCrazy romanticchick Black Orchid XrayPineapple k8ie p_xox_p ColdHardBitch slacker0 Popciclegirl, danni & Andie Francis. +2 points for you if you went through that horrible notice from me, I hate getting a discontinue-ment notcie from an author that's why I'm back.


Chapter 006

[Fast-Forward]

I came to shortly after my father's revelation and after a while the shock began to wear off only to be replaced with confusion, frustration, and a bit of anger. However, he was patient and did not mind repeating and explaining more as I pressed him for details on every aspect of the family.

[Play]

He watched me, hoping I'd say something anything. It was as if I was the parent exacting judgement upon him, the child. A paradox, really. I took pity on him, partially because he looked so old and worried and partially because meniscus of tension between us was just about to break.

"Tell me everything. About how all this" I motioned haphazardly at the air around me, " was kept from me or even mom. About the family I didn't know I had." I decided that, even though we hadn't been getting along so well, I would let him speak and that I would listen with an open mind. As I've always believed, "Everything happens for a reason." Everything has happened and here's my chance to find the reason.

His expression relaxed from the shred of acceptance in my voice. And without so much as a prelude he set off.

"Long before I met your mother, I was an FBI agent. I'd been working for the FBI for about four years to keep the government's nose out of my family's business. In other words, I was a double agent who's loyalty always and only lay in my family. But after an accident, they had me doing desk work for quite a while. That's how your mother's case landed in my lap. Angelina Glass, your mother, had witnessed a murder by the Corleone family, a rival of my own in many industries. She had reported the murder to the police and, being that the murder also tied in with several drug dealing rings, the FBI stepped in to handle the case. But her confession was leaked to the Corleones and the bureau needed someone to protect her, the sole witness so that she could testify and I was eager to leave my desk, so I took up her case, not knowing how much work it was going to be.

"Soon I was briefed on the case in finer detail and was told that, in order for me to protect her fully, I would have to go deep under cover. By deep under cover they meant I had to pose as a boyfriend or love interest of some sort to have a good amount of time in her day and access to her personal surroundings. I agreed, knowing that I had no romantic ties to jeopardize and there was no way I, a thirty-year-old FBI agent, would fall for someone nine years my junior and a college student at that." Giuliano said the last part imperiously, puffing out his chest proudly as he did so.

"But you did, didn't you?" I stated bluntly; this comment made my father de-puff.

"Well, yes." Then added hurriedly, "But not right away!"

"Uh-huh, keep going." I was eager to hear more but remained monotonous as I always did when speaking to him.

"Er, right. So, according to the plan that Angie had helped draw up with the bureau, I 'met' " he finger quoted, "her at a coffee shop. It was pretty believable to nearly everyone, my family included, who knew about the whole operation but, actually began wondering if I actually taken a real liking to her and urged for me to bring her around. After a while I did, to make it look real to anyone else who could be watching, namely the Corleones. They didn't know I was in the FBI, all they knew was that, apart from their rivalry with my family, they had yet another problem on their minds, their eyewitness, Angie, who's testament would seal the fates of two Corleone family members. So they definitely made a number of attempts to have both of us murdered just so they wouldn't be convicted and their whole family's operations to be pulled under investigative eyes. But all of their plots failed and soon the trial was underway.

"It was during those grueling months of the trial in which Angie and I began really trusting each other and spending day and night together. She later confessed that it was at that time when she started developing feelings for me." He stopped, looking as old and tired as ever as he rubbed the furrows along his forehead. For a moment, I thought that was it until he spoke again, rubbing signs of heaviness from his eyes. "Anyway, by the time she graduated from university, she had testified and helped convict the two Corleones to life sentences in prison. After the trials she was supposed to move away, enter the Witness Protection Program to hide her status, and we'd never speak again. But she had other ideas in mind and so did I. We eloped and moved to California where I was transferred to the LA branch of the FBI."

I stared at him letting the information of my parents early years as a couple. This was how my parents met? All my mother ever told me was that they met at a coffee shop somewhere in Montclair in her last semester at university and that they eloped because her father didn't like who she was seeing. I felt stupid, so stupid for never seeing through the superficial answers, as they seem now, that my mother fed me to pacify my curiosity on how they met. "So mom knew you were a double agent for you family and the FBI and she was okay with that?" I managed to croak out after a minute's pause.

He grimaced as he shook his head. "No, no she didn't know, not until that summer you went away to camp when you were twelve. She put it all together after she heard a phone call between me and my father, telling me that while one of the Corleones had died in prison, the other finally got out on parole. With him out of prison, there was only one thing on his mind which was vengeance. Of course your mother was level headed about it and let me explain everything. We never fought over something we knew we had no control over. And all those time you ever heard us fighting, it wasn't about me being a double agent; it was about your safety and the possibility of moving back to Jersey. Believe it or not, she was the one who wanted to move back because she knew my family needed me there. I refused because I didn't want to immerse you in the dangerous lifestyle that accompanies your family name."

"Then why did we move after she died?"

"That car crash, as I later found out, was carried out by the Corleones in retribution of her condemning testimony. It was murder. But there was no way we could make a case of it and, quite frankly, I'm through with that kind of justice. In other words, for revenge of your mother. They took away from me, my wife, from you, a your mother. And that, for me, is more than enough reason to, well, get back in the business, if you know what I mean. Enough of that..." He saw my look of sheer panic and he knew what it was for. My father was a murderer too. "Don't look at me like that Andie." Giuliano sighed exasperatedly. "You've watched the godfather before, haven't you?"

"Yes."

"Then, this shouldn't be a shock to you."

"It's just different." I replied, trying to collect my thoughts. "I always thought you were just a business man, never a mafia man."

"Now you know why I didn't want to tell you about this part of my life unless it would affect you. I didn't want to give you more reason to distance yourself from me. But, in light of recent events, I've decided to tell you about this meaning that this life of mine will affect yours." He paused and rose, leisurely making his way to the door as he continued speaking. "Remember how I introduced you to the men who were making sure you were safe at all times in Belleville?" I nodded then realized they hadn't been in the room with us since I came back into consciousness. "Well, they were just regular, everyday people to you; the mailman, the fed-ex guy, the deli-guy, the bum at the corner of you street. They all reported back to me to tell me how your were doing." He smiled his proud smile at his own stealth, I guess it comes with his years with the FBI. "That was for you worldly safety, your private life was a different story. I thought I wouldn't be able to look into those details without making it direly obvious. But someone called me the day they spotted you at registration for your senior year to tell me she'd take care of you." He opened the door to reveal the one and only Jamia Nestor. "She's your cousin."

My 'breast friend' (female term for 'best friend') was my cousin? Oh hell, this night can't get any crazier. I had half risen out of my chair when she swooped me into a hug whispering, "I'm sorry I never told you. I didn't think you'd want me in your life if you knew that I was passing info to your dad."

Knowing I could never be mad at one of them only people I trusted in the world, I hugged her back. "I know. I know. I understand."

She pulled back to ruffle my hair the way she always did, this time with a sad smile. "I'm going to miss you so much."

Confusion ensued within me. Why was she going to miss me?

What do you mean, where are you going?" The question hung in the air, Jamia openly gaping between me and my father. "Dad, where's Jamia going?" I turned to my father, hoping for an answer I was already afraid of even before its utterance.

"Jamia's not going anywhere. It's you who's going." And he raised a gun to my forehead. BANG.

JUST KIDDDING!!!! (LOL, Got you good!)

"Jamia's not going anywhere, you're the one who's moving." Giuliano stated.

"Back home?" By home, I meant Newark, the home I shared with him prior to my move to Belleville with Frankie, I was okay with that, it wasn't unbearably far.

An uneasy look passed along my father's face as it did Jamia's. "No, Andie, I'm relocating you to Seattle to be with your grandfather Tommy.

Anger rose in me once again at this new information. "Dad, I'm not fourteen anymore, in case you haven't noticed. I'm an adult, I can make my own decisions. And that means I'm staying in Belleville." Who did he think he was, relocating me at his leisure?

He opened his mouth, no doubt to snap at me, but Jamia stepped in. "No, uncle, I'll explain it to her." She offered softly. He nodded curtly and left the room.

"Jamia, why does he want me to leave?" I asked of her as she sat me down to where I had just risen up from. Pulling up a chair to face me, she took my hands into hers.

"The very same people who murdered your mom are after you too. They want to ruin the family that ruined them. After the trials and convictions, the FBI, on your mom's tip, found the illegal drug operations going on behind that family's prestige and it ripped them out of the comfortable lifestyle their family had been accustomed to."

"Then why not just have me housed with him? And what about you?"

"Me?" She laughed. "To them I'm just your friend. But that brings me to my other point. To have him house you but leave a trail to Frankie and Mikey's families doesn't bode well for any of them. You have to understand that in a mafia rivalry, especially as old and sensitive as this one, all murder is done in cold blood and without thought. If your really care about them, you'd know better than to expose them to this danger." She sighed before continuing. "That's not the only reason I support your departure, though, and I already really do. I don't want you to suffer anymore of this abuse that Mikey has already dealt you. No, let me finish." She instructed the last part as I made an impede upon her speech. "Now, I don't know how long this has been going on, Andie, but I know, even though I only found out recently, that this has been going on for a while. This isn't good for you."

Jamia's statement, as a whole, made me feel naked and ashamed, so much so that my gaze faltered to rest on my denimed lap. "He doesn't meant it, Jamia. I just do stupid shit that makes him mad. He doesn't mean it." My tone didn't even convince me so there was no chance it'd fool her.

"It is what it is Andie, you have to recognize that he's hurting you. Not only on the outside, but in there, too." She tapped my forehead lightly. "You're a smart girl and him calling you a 'dumb bitch' like I've heard that he does makes you only feel that way about yourself."

Then, out of nowhere, the tears came and kept on coming as Jamia held me comfortingly. My chest ached with long-held anxieties over Mikey and things that had transpired with him. I knew she was right. He'd always call me a 'dumb bitch' or 'crazy' and over time I had learned to admonish myself with the same terms, to state the facts he would say to me.

Looking back on this moment years form now, I realize how lucky I was that Jamia found out when she did and to have her there to help me come to my senses about Mikey, even though it all meant letting go.

[Fast-Forward]

After my session with Jamia she also explained that she didn't tell my father about what was going on between me and Mikey. God knows how mangled he'd be once my father and his henchmen were through with him. I ended up agreeing to leave on the condition that someone would make sure Frankie and Mikey's families weren't hurt while I was gone.

It was lucky that Frankie got called in to cover the graveyard shift over at the cemetery and that Mikey had gone back to his parents' house by the time Jamia and I were chauffeured up to apartment to get my things. After all, I had to catch a red-eye to Seattle in an hour and a half.

[Play]

"You have your ticket and everything?" Jamia fussed at the gate of my flight as she rabidly went through a mental checklist of carry-on's and such.

"Yeah. It's all here." I tucked the hand-knitted scarf that Mikey's Grandma Elena had made me for Christmas last year further into my purse and away from Jamia's eyesight. She had, with great difficulty, convinced me to leave everything Mikey related behind so I could healthily move on. But it was something I couldn't part with along with a photo booth strip of pictures I had taken with him in happier times.

"This is it." Jamia stated bluntly, never one for fanfare. "Call me as soon as you get oriented over there." I nodded soberly, seeing her eyes fill up with tears as mine began to do the same. "C'mere, you old breast." She laughed, pulling me into one last hug. In those moments of peace we both knew nothing needed to be said as all our plans were set in stone. She'd tell Frankie and Mikey everything so they could understand, verbally bash and harass the latter for hurting me, restrain Frankie so he wouldn't kill one of his best friends, and all-in-all, update me in the on goings of the our family and friends.

"Take care of yourself." I said pulling back to wipe away some of my tears.

"Ditto." A squeeze for good measure and she was replaced by my father.

"Your grandfather is already expecting you. I suppose he'll have a room made up for you and everything by the time you get touch-down." He said, spinning his fedora in his hands. I only nodded. "Back at the restaurant, you called me 'Dad', not Giuliano as you've defiantly done so since your were fourteen. Be that it was a mistake or not, it meant a lot for me to hear you say that, albeit angrily."

I shrugged nonchalantly, remembering that I had said 'Dad'. "I meant to."

"Right."

"I'm sorry." I whispered. "I mean that, too."

With a quick pat on the head and an awkward hug of sorts he nudged me towards the gate. I felt a sense of relief, hope, and guilt all swirled up inside me. Relief for being able to escape Mikey's possessive clutches. Hope that one day soon I'd see everyone again. And guilt for leaving the world I knew to do battle while I moved on with my life.

Five new NON-ORIGINAL CHARACTERS, meaning more REAL PEOPLE, in the next chapter. You probably listen to them already. Two clues. Hmmm, I wonder wonder wonder wonder, what's in the next chapter?

1 October 2006/ 1056p