“This is the complete staff list?” I asked him, lifting the tablet.
“Yes, ma’am.”
I nodded, looking over to Gigi as she worked on her letters next to me. Putting my hand on her head, she looked up. Smiling at her, I tapped under her beautiful eyes. I loved that they were different colors. Even if it wasn’t my eye color. The very fact that she had her father’s and her grandmother’s was good enough. “Are you happy, cuore mio? That you get to live here now? With Papa?”
“I’m happy!” she said before getting back work. She was very serious about it, too.
“O’Phelan,” I called out him.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I know you don’t know me or exactly what I have done to get here,” I said as I softly brushed my fingers through Gigi’s hair. “But you, I’m sure
you are smart enough to know it wasn’t easy or pretty.” Or bloodless.
He didn’t reply, but he stood a bit straighter, his eyes hard…he knew.
“Working for me is very simple.” My eyes narrowed as he watched. “Never question me, never fail me, and never make me doubt your loyalty to me.”
“I understand.”
“No.” I shook my head. “You can’t possibly understand. You were hired by Melody, Ethan’s mother, correct?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And since then, you have been an unwavering servant. Do you know what that tells me?”
“No, ma’am.” He frowned, clearly not sure what I meant.
“It means you are an old dog, loyal to an old master. It means I already do not trust you. It means if you cannot live up to what I have asked from you, say so now. Because I will offer you only this one chance to retire and go live out your days somewhere by the beach.”
He nodded. “Thank you for your offer, ma’am, but I enjoy my position. This old dog would rather be put down than sent to a useless beach.”
“I trust you won’t let me down then. Because I’m very good at putting down dogs.” I smiled, writing down on the paper what I needed.
“No, I will not.”
“I will see about that,” I replied, handing him my directions. And so it begins…or ends.
Everything was about perspective.
“Enjoying yourself?”
His voice was like rain on campfire and spiders on the skin. Sitting up straighter, I turned to see my grandfather as he walked on to the patio, dressed in a suit though he had nowhere he needed to be going…or at least, nowhere he told me he was going.
I nodded for O’Phelan to leave and he did. My grandfather tapped the top of Gigi’s head before he took a seat in the chair across from me. His old foggy eyes glanced over the phones, the cards, the list, and whistled. “Gifts to the new Mrs. Callahan. How nice.”
“Some call it gifts, others call it work,” I replied.
“So long as you know the difference,” he stated, reaching for the list of guards. “So long as you remember gifts can be taken away, and whom you work for.”
“I work for myself,” I stated.
“As all Orsinis should.” He chuckled.
I said nothing, because there was nothing I could say. I could feel it, exactly what he was worried about but would not say. The last time he trusted anyone…It was Orlando Giovanni and, in the end, my grandfather got screwed over to make sure his precious daughter could be married and live happily ever after…the irony. All the Orsinis had sworn then that they’d never work for another Giovanni again, let alone a damn Callahan.
I couldn’t help but shake my head. Just a few minutes ago, in a simple bath washing the blood off of me, I had felt like a human again…a mother, the new head of the house…the Mrs. Callahan. Then he came and reminded me that I had so much more blood to stain my hands with. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, shaking the guilt that tried to rise in the pit of my stomach. I’d already come this far. I’d already lied and betrayed this much so far.