Page 88 of Christmas with the Mafia

He puffs smoke rings into the air as the fire crackles in the grate, the snow falling outside the window creating a dramatic backdrop for what will certainly be no fairy tale.

He leans back, shifts one leg over the other, and grasps the crystal tumbler of ten thousand dollar bourbon and settle back in his chair.

“Once upon a time, deep in the mountains of Sicily, lived a family. They were very secretive, more than most, and what went on there was the subject of speculation but not fact. The head of the family was a businessman, Enrico Zafferelli, who was reputed to be so cruel even the mafia gave him a wide berth.

His fortune was the stuff of legends. He owned diamond mines in Africa and Russia. His wealth propelled him to become the second richest man in the world, but he wasn’t happy with that; he wanted to be number one.

Subsequently, he wanted to marry into wealth to inflate his own. His first wife was Sarah Goldsworthy, the heir to the banking dynasty. She bore him one daughter and then died mysteriously when her car crashed in the mountains.

He married shortly after, to Edwina De Vere, the heiress to the hotel dynasty. Two years later she took her own life, leaving him a widower once more with one more daughter to care for.

He married for the third time exactly six months later. Priscilla Van Der Hudson, the daughter of the oil billionaire, Walter Van Der Hudson. They were married for three years before she ran off with a business rival and left her only daughter with her husband. They divorced, but Enrico never married again. Perhaps he had no need to because he was now indeed the richest man in the world.

His children grew up protected by an iron security detail, never leaving his estate in the mountains, home educated and locked away from the world.

Enrico took a mistress, Morgan Sorcusi. A cruel, calculating mistress who wanted nothing more than to become his wife. He resisted every attempt, and to appease her, he drafted his last will and testament, including her in it.

Enrico suffered a heart attack ten years later, and Morgan was named as the guardian of his estate, which included his beloved daughters. However, Morgan was a cruel mistress and had no time to be a mother to them, so they were sent away to boarding school while she enjoyed more wealth than anyone in the world.

She was appointed the guardian of the trust funds Enrico set up for his girls. She would have no right to their inheritance unless they failed to meet the conditions of Enrico’s will.

Once they reached the age of twenty-five, they were to be married and with child in order to unlock their inheritance. If they failed, the money reverted to the estate, which Morgan had full control of, largely due to the fact she fired the trustees and appointed herself head of the board. Enrico, as it turned out, was a shrewd businessman but sucked at subterfuge, and that was something Morgan excelled at. When he died, she surrounded herself with the best criminals in the land and altered his business to remove Enrico’s trusted advisors and replace them with her own.

However, three problems remained. When the youngest daughter turned twenty-five and was pregnant, Morgan would have to relinquish her position and move out of the estate. She was provided for in the will and would never be destitute, but she is a greedy woman and hatched a plan to seize it all.

She sent her men to bring the daughter’s home,intending to lock them away until the date had passed. But when they got to the school, they discovered the daughters had fled. Morgan used all her resources to locate the girls, but to no avail. They were lost.”

He breaks off, and a slow smile spreads across his face, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand to attention, and says huskily, “Until now.”

I swear we all lean forward collectively as we wait for him to continue.

“As it turns out, your mother had a call from a friend of hers from her days at the elite academy, Canton House. Her friend had left and joined the Order of the Holy Mother of God. She spoke of three young women who sought refuge there a few years ago. They have been living in the convent and intend to make their vows to God. Your mother was approached by her good friend Sister Agatha Maria, who is concerned for the young women. She worries that their decision is taken without knowledge and would like to set each of them a test before they make their final decision.”

He smiles, his cigar a welcome reprieve from his monologue, and as he follows it with a shot of bourbon, we wait for the conclusion of his story.

“The young women know nothing of her intentions. They have agreed to leave the convent for six months on secondment to work in the real world. If at the end of that they wish to return to the convent and pledge their lives to God, they will be accepted with open arms. If their decision is to leave, then their inheritance is available for the luckyman who fulfills their father’s wish and marries the daughter and provides her with a child.”

My brothers shift anxiously on their seats because we all know where this story ends, and once again, I sigh with relief knowing my own future is set.

“You may think this is an easy task. After all, they are being offered to us on a plate, but we are not the only ones aware of their story. Every bastard out there will be hot on their trail, and they may not make it to us at all. So, this is the challenge I am setting you this year. Find, protect and seduce these three women and the diamond dynasty will be ours.”

His cunning gaze settles on my brothers, who lean back in their chairs with a sense of defeat. They will have no say in the matter; their future is set because if I know my brothers at all, failure will not be an option.

The End

For now!