Gabriel & Athena, Book One: Fate (A Wattpad Featured Story)

CHAPTER 7: PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE

            I shuddered.  It felt like I was listening to a summary of the latest Scorsese film, except this wasn't a movie.  It had been Gabe's life.  These were memories he lived with everyday.  "What about you, Gabe?  Were you and Ikey close before he died?"

            "Not really," he answered.  "We were just two very different people.  I have always despised the life my father leads.  Ikey couldn't wait to be involved because all he saw was the power and supposed respect.  But I always saw the truth of our world, which is nothing but violence, fear and......"   His voice trailed off.

            "And?" I pressed.

            "And the way it destroys people," he said angrily.  "Especially the way it's destroyed my mother.  Not physically, but emotionally.  She sacrificed a lot to be with my father.  Her family disowned her for marrying a mobster.  She never went to college and never had a career of her own.  She's spent her entire adult life taking care of us and it has cost her almost everything."  He paused for a moment, closing his eyes and shaking his head before continuing.  "You know, up until Ikey's death, she was indifferent to what my father did for a living.  She acted like we were the Cleavers, always insisting we eat dinner together every night and asking us how our day was."  He chuckled.  "My father never answered that question.  Guess his line of work wasn't really appropriate for the dinner table."

             I reached across the table and took one of his hands into mine, squeezing tight.  His eyes locked with mine and I could see the shock in his face.  I was shocked by my own action as well.  I hadn't meant to do it, but the urge to comfort him was so strong I hadn't given it a second thought.  I awkwardly released his hand, not sure what to say.  Fortunately he began speaking again, carrying on with his story.

            "After Ikey's death, my mother started to resent the business.  She blamed it for taking Ikey away and no one could argue with that.  It was the truth.  Her façade of having a normal life had been shattered.  She wanted my father to pick up the pieces, but he was too concerned with avenging Ikey's death," he said, his words clearly filled with bitterness now.  "He had also become fiercely overprotective of me.  He took me out of private school and had me home-schooled.  He rarely let me out of the house and when I was allowed to leave, bodyguards were never more than a few feet behind me.  Looks like I have the secret service tailing me no matter where I go."  His mouth formed a lop-sided grin, his perfectly-lined teeth barely visible.

            I smiled back at his attempt at a joke, but then my face became solemn.  "Were you lonely?"

            "There were times when I missed my friends and Ikey.  Then one day I discovered a room in my house where there were so many people to keep me company that I didn't know who to give my attention to first."

            I looked at him, confused.

            "I found our library.  Don't get me wrong, I had always known it was there, but I had never cared to go in it.  When I found myself with nothing but time in what I liked to call my own personal fortress, I tried to find something to occupy myself with.  I found books.  I still remember the first one I read in that library."

            "What was it?" I asked, extremely curious.

            "A Wrinkle in Time," he responded. 

            I couldn't believe it.  The very book that had started my addiction had been his first foray into the world of fiction as well.  "Not exactly what I would picture in the Valente literary collection," I remarked, giving him a small grin.

            "The library in my home in New York is a large one, goddess, holding within it all kinds of books, old and new.  I could just see you holed up in there for days."