Diavolo

xi

PRESLEY

After the weekend of a fiasco I had, I packed up my bags, requested my days off and traveled over to Chicago to visit my family. More specially my sister, Lotus.

I'd taken out of my braids the night before and I was now rocking my natural hair in its big, curly state. Every few minutes I'd have to gently detangle curls from my various ear piercings which seemed to be constantly getting tangled.

I was dressed professionally, fitted in a white dress shirt with a low V-cut and a plaid pencil skirt with black stilettos.

The flight time was about two hours and I knew it was best to be dressed professionally to avoid the stares of strangers as if they'd never seen a woman in their life before.

I checked in my bags, and prepared to check the status of my flight when I'd been notified my seat was upgraded to first class.

Walking over to the desk, I asked the flight attendant about it but she confessed she didn't know the details and it was an higher-up decision. Regardless I was grateful but still perplexed.

What kind of flight company handed out first class seats that easily?

After finding my extra-large seat, I relaxed under the blanket provided and began to do some work Desmond had asked me to follow through over my day off.

At first I'd been pissed he would have thought to still tie me down to the company when it was my day off but upon looking over the topic, I didn't mind.

The flight attendant came around with some food options but I'd requested champagne since I wasn't in a eating mood.

He wanted me to research a bit about this mysterious Mr. Darhk and scribbled in his numerous notes that this was the Capo of the New York crime family—or at least one of them.

I struggled a bit reading Desmond's handwriting but nevertheless I managed to retain a bit of his notes.

There was a problem. Whenever I searched up anything regarding the name or any syllables, the Google page automatically came up blank. Perhaps it was the Wi-Fi especially since we were about to liftoff.

A wild thought came into my mind and I followed through on it, searching Octavius' name. Images of the company he owned or companies appeared. Nothing more.

There was an article at the end of the page about the unusual influence and secrets of his family that'd run through New York and was decades old.

Frustrated, I typed Silvio's name into Google and it came up blank. It said it didn't match any document. This was weird because I knew Silvio was now in charge of Octavius' companies and he was the CEO.

Then I typed in Silvio's last name and the Google page told me I didn't have a stable connection.

It was a bit perplexing because I'd connected to the computer using my hotspot but regardless I exited the tab. I breathed a deep sigh shutting my computer with a hand and relaxed against the seats.

I planned to get a bit of shut-eye before I had to face my mother.

A few hours later, I arrived in the city of Chicago. The first thing I did was notify Lotus I had made it and then walked to the baggage claim area.

Even though I was only staying for a few days I came with everything I knew I would need. I was always like with packing, I didn't know how to prioritize clothes over other important things so I always brought it all.