The Prodigy | ✔︎

40

"Your job is done," I informed her, grabbing her hand. As I brought it up to my lips, I placed an envelope full of money in her hands. She smiled.

It wouldn't hurt to keep her around Dante and Tino. However, Tino was much wiser than his bsurd son. The way her and Dante's relationship was moving, it wouldn't take long for Dante to try to show her off to his father as some trophy to gain Tino's respect. Tino would immediately connect the dots, and begin to suspect her as someone working for me. It was a risk I couldn't afford.

For now, she did well.

"I'm not sure if you'll be done with Dante. So, tell him you're going out of town for a few weeks. Don't lose complete contact with him until I let you know otherwise," I informed her. She nodded her head curtly just before returning to her food.

"Also, Tino wants to arrange a meeting with every crime family in Chicago. You should be expecting a call soon," she said.

***

After dinner, I drove back to my house. There was a lot I needed to update Reyna on.

Just as I stepped out of my vehicle, my phone began to ring. As Savannah promised, it was from Tino. I answered the call and pressed my phone against my ear.

"Saint! My dear friend!" Tino chuckled. "I hope you enjoyed that present I sent you. Consider it an early Christmas gift!" he said. I chuckled, knowing the true reason why he sent that money.

"Why have you called?" I asked.

"Getting straight to the point, I see. Don't you remember when I took you in when you were just a small boy? You and Dante practically grew up together! I introduced you to this new way of life, and I know I have never said it before, but I wish you were my son. I'm proud of how far you've come, my boy," he said. My eyes narrowed as he forced memories back up that I really preferred locked away.

Tino did take me and Adriano in. I always wondered how he found me sitting on that quiet street, but now it made sense-he worked for Viktor. He knew what I had done.

That day, both Adriano and I were glued to eachother's side as Tino showed us the world of organized crime. He taught me how to shoot my first gun. He taught me how to stay clean and professional. He showed me how to get away with almost anything. Tino wasn't the reason I became who I am today, he just showed me how to get there.

If only I didn't consider him such a bastard, I probably would be working under him, hoping to one day take over his organization. Instead, I built my own and created my own legacy where Adriano later joined me, and a couple years after that, Giovanni came along. I never needed Tino or Dante. I only needed me.

So, to hear Tino spew out such idiotic words almost made me want to kill him. However, I only chuckled on the phone. "I'm glad to hear that," I said.

"I've already gathered Rubino and Santoro, the other crime families, all we need now is you. We are going to have a meeting to discuss this Red business. Unless, of course, you have a problem with that," Tino said.

He didn't give me much of a choice. I didn't want to go to a meeting to talk about my woman, but if I disagreed, he would know that Viktor was right about me-I had Red.

"I will be there. When is this meeting taking place?" I asked.

"Tomorrow at my place at noon," he said.

"I will see you then," I stated. Removing the phone from my ear, I ended the call.

I stuffed my phone back into my pocket and strolled in my house. Rosalinda was sitting on the couch, knitting to her heart's desire. She smiled welcomingly at me. If only the old hag knew just how much I wanted to grab the knitting needles and eye-fuck her sockets with them.

"You and Reyna seem to be getting along quite nicely, hmm?" she wondered.

Completely ignoring her, I made my way to my bedroom where Reyna was still occupied with her computer. All I saw was a bunch of 1's and 0's. However, it seemed to be the most interesting thing she had ever seen.

Her hair was a mess and she was still wearing the same clothes she had on the day before. When I walked in, she didn't even bother to look up at me. All she did was push her glasses further up her nose and continue typing away on her keyboard.

I stood upright behind her and softly caressed her shoulder, finally grasping her attention. She jumped and turned to face me, her eyes widening in surprise.

"Take a break," I ordered.

"I'm almost done with rebuilding my firewall. This is the best I've ever done. No one will be able to find me." She smiled mischievously, a glint of darkness coating her eyes.

"Finish it tomorrow," I said, leaning down to kiss her skin. My lips wandered up her neck. "We have a lot to discuss."

-
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Happy fortieth chapter! I always celebrate milestones like this because writing a book is actually so hard and I feel like many people often forget the difficulties. There's so much going on, a lot to remember, having to always think of the perfect play of words, trying to be all characters at once, having to make sure the plot flows, having to make sure the story stays interesting. Not only that, but also juggling with motivation and writers block, hating our work and giving up, never feeling like we will be good enough and all this work we are putting into our story will all be for nothing, and facing a lot of criticism and negative comments that make it even harder. If being a writer was as easy as it looked, everyone would be doing it. Not only that, but also don't fail to realize writers have lives outside of writing.

So, be kind to your favorite writers. Understand when your favorite writers decide to stop writing a book, taking long to update, or if they do the opposite like publish their hard work or take it down so they can make money. It's not easy. It's their hardwork. It's their dream. If you're a writer reading this right now, keep up the good work. You are doing amazing.

Question: if I were to change the title of The Prodigy, what is something you'd suggest?

Thank you for reading. Please vote!