ANGELS WEEP || bruce wayne

the seventeenth

Stacey shrugged. "We can talk in Italian if you're worried."

He nodded. "Tuo padre si è fidato di me con queste informazioni. Ha detto che dovevo dirlo a te e solo a te, e solo quando hai deciso di intraprendere l'attività di famiglia. Non tradirò la sua fiducia." Your father trusted me with this information. He said I must tell you and only you, and only when you decided to take up the family business. I will not betray his trust.

"È perché ti sta ancora pagando con quel fondo?" Is it because he's still paying you out of that fund?

Yes. He had a plan in case he was ever incarcerated, money is still flowing in and out of that fund.

In?

Lorenzo raised his eyebrows. Yes, in. The Don was the king around here, and he prepared for his successor well. He knew they were after him, so he funnelled all of his information into a highly secret account that had multitudes of passwords and encryptions and account spanning off of that. He still pays the private bank very well for doing such a task.

He handed her an heavy, unmarked envelope. Your father's consigliere gave this to me before he, too, was locked up. It's been collecting dust in my basement's lockbox for ten years. But I knew you'd come back.

There was a pause in the conversation as they watched the sun crest over the opposite rooftop, bathing them in a red haze.

Stacey's next words were said through tears. "How much of my life right now is still controlled by my father?"

Lorenzo turned his whole body to look at her, taking one of her hands in his. "You make your own life, angel. You just had some help along the way."

Stacey looked at him silently, demanding an answer.

Lorenzo leaned back. From the fund, payment for half of this apartment. He didn't want you to be suspicious when you came back, you see, so he said that I should make you comfortable, but not poor. Also, I schedule payments to the people of interest who come in to receive treatment so they will not come back, and basic protection of your apartment from any unwanted visitors. He paused for a moment. But, the fund is waning. It needs a Donna to take over, to bring more money into it. I am very thankful that you came at the time you did.

They sat in the heavy silence, Stacey absorbing his words. She thought she had created her life from the ground up, she thought she had made her own choices and planned her own destiny-

Something caught her attention.

"My tuition? My debt?"

Lorenzo shook his head. "No debt. He instructed me to keep it a secret as long as possible. That you would not need to worry about your education. I made the final payment last night."

She should've been angry. She should have refused, should have demanded to pay her own way.

But all she could feel was relief.

She slumped down into her chair, stress floating off her like water running off cobblestone. Closing her eyes, she let out a few deep breaths in and out... Feeling the freedom.

But at Lorenzo's next words, the illusion came crashing down on her.

Donna Maroni, I pledge my allegence to you. He was now kneeling before her, holding her hand in his, kissing the knuckle.

She glanced down at him, alarmed. "What..."

In life and in death, I am here for whatever you need. My home is your's, and I am bound to do as you wish. Donna Maroni.