Rose Among Thorns

I

EDITED

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple."

-Oscar Wilde

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LUCIANO ESTATE [NORTH VERONA, ITALY 2007]

One dark room, a thousand secrets.

That was what anyone who'd ever visited the estate said about Don Moretti's study. Inside it were spoken hundreds of threats, deals and words of reconciliation.

Only the loyal came out alive, and for those who weren't so lucky, vanished without a trace.

Even though Valente Moretti had his own study, he liked the Don's better. There was no particular reason. Maybe it was because the room had a scent of ancestral lineage, a sacred link to past reigns.

It was in this very room that the previous Dons had legislated, executed and acted as justice.

The hard corners whispered deep dark chronicles of dead men. If one were to be illusionary impaired, he'd almost witness lines of red dripping down the walls where blackish grey portraits of his late ancestors blanketed as though some kind of royalty, though they definitely weren't less than one, including a coloured version of the present Don. Their cold, hard eyes penetrated through anyone who entered the room.

Some of the men would almost cower in front of the pictures.

Valente had to agree, even though no longer breathing, they looked absolutely regal, a legacy.

Someone who commanded, even after death.

That was authority,

That was power.

~~~

Valente was leaning against the gigantic window of his study, with a pensive look on his face. Luca and Marco sat on the plush recliners while they discussed their views regarding the meeting which was to take place in an hour.

The two boys were his most trusted confidant. Valente didn't do friends, acquaintances were easy to come by given his status but nobody truly cared to know him. He was layers of personalities blended into one. There was hardly anybody who could say for sure that they knew who Valente was as a person.

He was aloof, yet easy to anger.

He was calm, yet ferocious.

Luca Conti and Valente shared a bond-deep and strange. A memory, a moment of vulnerability was all it took for them to deepen what they had. As kids whose fathers worked together and belonged to the same family, Luca was around, always, lurking in the background. He was not showy or chatty; rather, he was subtle and discreet. He was this obedient kid while Valente rebelled at every chance he got. He was an angry kid, always destroying and scheming.

Valente hated everybody.

Well, there was a point in every person's life where they hated everyone.

Nobody tried to find out the reason behind such viciousness because all the men and society cared for was their opinions.

Or maybe nobody cared enough

I think

I believe

I heard

Fuckity was humans.

Fuckery was the whole damn world.