All Chapters of THE MAFIA’S FORGOTTEN SON : Chapter 51
- Chapter 59
59 chapters
After the Last Laugh
“What just happened out there man!?” Calvin asked.The question hung in their living room like a loose wire sparking in the dark.Dante was leaning back in a battered wooden chair, one boot resting lazily on the edge of the small table between them. The place smelled faintly of dust, old leather, and gun oil. A single yellow bulb hung from the ceiling, swinging slightly from the breeze creeping through a cracked window.Outside, the night had settled deep and silent and forgotten what happened earlier.Inside, Calvin stared at Dante with the bewildered expression of a man who had just witnessed something that made absolutely no sense.Dante rubbed his jaw slowly, as if replaying the scene in his head.“Honestly,” Dante said finally, “I have no idea.”Calvin blinked.“No idea?” he repeated. “You saw the same thing I saw, right?”“I was there,” Dante replied dryly.Calvin leaned forward, elbows on his knees.“Then explain it to me. Because I feel like I just watched the strangest emotion
Cold Silence Between Us
Two days had passed since the night everything cracked open inside the team.That’s how long it took for the silence to become unbearable.Marco Bellanti hadn’t returned to the apartment he shared with Elena Rossi.He didn’t need to explain himself.Everyone knew why.He had no intention of walking back into that space, not with the echo of her voice still ringing in his head nor with the memory of her tears, her anger, her rejection, all tangled into something that refused to leave him alone.So Marco did what men like him do when the world cuts too deep.He disappeared.He found a place where no one asked questions (He finally found the perfect place). A secret club in the city, hidden where he drank his life away.He drank like a man trying to drown a voice that refused to stop speaking inside his head. Glass after glass, bottle after bottle, until the burn in his throat felt better than the ache in his chest.Women came and went around him. Laughter filled the space. Music pounded
Fragments of Truth
The phone rang while Dante was still staring at the ceiling, his mind drifting somewhere between exhaustion and uneasy thoughts he could not quite name.The sound cut through the quiet room, sharp and insistent.He turned his head slowly, eyes narrowing as the vibration continued against the wooden table beside him. For a moment, he did not move. Something about the timing felt off, as though the call itself carried weight before he even answered it.Then he reached for it.“Elena?” he said, his voice low, controlled, but edged with curiosity.There was a brief silence on the other end, the kind that stretched just long enough to make a man aware of his own breathing.“Yes,” she replied softly. “I need to talk to you. Alone.”Dante sat up, the tension in his shoulders tightening almost immediately. Elena was not someone who asked for private conversations without reason. She was careful with her words, guarded even among them, and whatever had pushed her to call him like this was not s
Patterns and Suspicions
“Dante.”Calvin had entered the room not long ago with boots heavy on the floor, and Dante was lost in thought.But there was no answer.Calvin stepped closer. “Dante!”Still nothing.Calvin moved right up to him, leaned in, and barked, “DANTE!”Something about the sudden urgency snapped him out of his trance. He jumped as if someone had hit him in the chest, his hand instinctively gripping the nearest object—the heavy book that had been resting on the desk—and hurled it behind him.Calvin ducked with reflexive ease, letting out a sharp laugh. “Damn! You really do scream like a girl! You should check your gender again, just to be sure!”Dante froze for a second, then burst into a short, tension-filled laugh of his own. The moment was absurd, ridiculous even, but the release was immediate. Calvin stepped closer, leaning casually against the doorway, the smirk on his face wide and knowing.“You ever do that again, I’ll break your neck.”Calvin wiped tears from his eyes. “I’ve seen newbor
You Can’t Fix What You Don’t Understand
Dante arrived at the rooftop bar just off the Stradun, ten minutes late. The place was Elena’s choice—quiet, hidden behind a narrow staircase, with a view of Dubrovnik’s old city. She was already there.Sitting in the corner booth, back straight, hands wrapped around a glass of ice-cold lemonade that had begun to sweat on the wooden table. She didn’t look up when he approached. Just kept staring into her drink like it held answers she wasn’t ready to face.He slid into the seat across from her.“Sorry I’m late,” he said, shrugging off his jacket. “Had to finish something up.”Elena lifted her gaze slowly.Her eyes were sharp, unreadable. “You’re never late. So don’t pretend it was work.”Dante didn’t flinch. “Then what should I say? That I got lost in thought?”“That would be honest,” she replied.Silence settled between them, like a heavy air before a storm. It was sort of awkward (the whole situation was awkward).The city moved on like nothing ever happened, tourists laughing, music
Instinct over pain
Dante stepped into the house quietly, shutting the door behind him with a soft click. The warmth inside hit him almost immediately, chasing away the sharp cold that had followed him through the streets. The place was dim except for the yellow light hanging over the sitting area, where Calvin sat sprawled across the couch with one leg thrown over the armrest and a half-empty bottle resting on the table beside him.The television was on mute.Some late-night football replay flickered across the screen, but Calvin clearly was not watching it.The moment he saw Dante walk in, his face lit up with amusement.“Well, look who finally returned.”Dante pulled off his coat slowly and tossed it over the chair nearby. “I was gone for barely an hour.”Calvin looked dramatically at the wall clock. “Exactly my point. I was expecting at least two hours. Minimum. I thought you’d be longer.”Dante narrowed his eyes slightly. “What exactly was I supposed to do with Elena for two hours?”Calvin grinned s
Agreement
Dante blinked, and the day was here.One moment he was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling fan’s slow rotation, exhaustion pulling him under like a riptide. The next—he was stepping into the light of a new morning, coat in hand, the weight of the meeting pressing against his chest like a second heartbeat.Time hadn’t passed. It had vanished and now it was the day they had all agreed on.The meeting day.The day everything that had been left unspoken between them would either settle or break completely.He was surprised that the day of the meeting was finally here. Just like that, without warning or sense of time. It felt almost unreal, like time had slipped through their fingers while they were still trying to hold on to everything that was already falling apart. Calvin had been the one who called Adrian earlier.It wasn’t a long conversation, and it wasn’t the kind of call that carried urgency in tone, but there was weight behind every pause.Adrian had answered on the first ri
Meeting of Strangers Wearing Familiar Faces
Against all expectations, the meeting at the coastal villa ended without violence and the problem plaguing the team had been handled by the ever-benevolent Dante and Calvin.Benevolent my ass!And then the villa was empty again.Like nothing had happened there at all.Anyway, they all left the old building behind, knowing they had to be more careful with matters of the heart from now on and keep emotions far away from business.In truth, not much changed after that. Marco and Elena were still not talking, but deep down, Elena prayed her past would not catch up with her so soon. At least not now.Dante, Calvin, and Adrian tightened security monitoring around their operations, fully aware that they could not hide forever. After all, they were foreigners building an empire on another man’s land, and sooner or later, they would have to move again.But Dante’s investigation was far more secretive. Ever since seeing those files earlier, he had become obsessed with uncovering the people behi
No Longer a Factor
The rain began seriously as Swag walked back to his car.He'd just played a dangerous game with Vitale, and won. Or so he thought.As he slid into the driver's seat, he checked his rearview mirror obviously not for traffic, but for tails. He saw nothing. Very good. The Valenti man, aka Ricardo Vitale had been clean too, nobody suspicious following him to the meeting. That meant Vitale either had exceptional security or he was as invested in secrecy as Swag was.Swag started the engine, wiped the condensation from the windshield with his sleeve, and drove toward Palazzo DeLuca. He knew Salvatore was there, probably with others to discuss their next move.It didn’t take 30 minutes for Swag to arrive there with his men. However, he was the only one who went inside while his men stayed outside.The room where Don Salvatore De Luca chose to meet was too clean for a man like him. Polished wood, a long dining table, glass fixtures that reflected too much light. Everything inside felt control