章節 171: Chapter 171 - A Rock And A Hard Place

But by that same vein I understood that people have been seriously hurt by those involved in that life. It was not glamorous and the struggle of survival is ever apparent.

"Papa Benito..." But he clicked his tongue in disapproval interrupting me. He is as stubborn as a mule. He rarely gives in to things and I doubted a single conversation would make him change his mind. "No no no, I do not approve of you dating him. You could marry a commoner for all I care, anyone but him."

I sighed heavily and rubbed my brows as I attempted to reign in my emotions to stop me from saying or doing something I would regret. This conversation was ridiculous. The complicated part is that while he has no real technical say in who I date, it is more so marriage that he becomes important, if I continue onwards the betrayal he is perceiving is then real.

I would be directly disobedient as I knew how he felt and still went forward.

Just as I was about to try and placate him I heard some scuffle over the phone. "Hello?" It was slight bickering and cursing in Italian before my grandmas voice sounded over the line. "Hello dear. Hopefully you are doing well, um how about we call you back another time yes? This is a lot for him right now so give him some time."

She hung up after saying her piece. "I don't have much time though." I mumbled to no one in particular. I closed my eyes to just reflect on what just happened and a few things stood out. For starters, the fact that my grandma did not jump on board to my grandfathers opinion meant maybe she is comfortable wit Dean and I dating. Secondly, it seemed he did not mind Dean as a person but rather his last name.

It was a start and if we had more time maybe I could convince him. But that was a resource that was drying up fast. Now that this has been out there for a few days the frenzy has gotten deeper and more steady.

People wanted answers and while we intended to give them, I was now stuck between a rock and a hard place. It was not like I did not understand the concerns my family had. Despite what television and books say about crime families, in real life it is not a hot dream but a nightmare. So having those ties is less than ideal. But we cannot be the first ones to cast a stone when we too are not fully innocent.

As moral and ethical as we tried to be, we too have done things in the past that would turn some heads. And the argument for why the elders seem to say we are on a high horse is that the actions we did were normal at the time.

A product of its time does not excuse its failures. It simply explains them.

My parents who stood by my door awkwardly shuffled away after seeing the absolute train wreck that phone call was.

I texted Dean the update regarding my family and decided to just call it a night. His texts have been far and few than normal. But the few texts he did send would consist of paragraphs of how he was feeling and responses to my questions. So I was not too upset over the decrease in communication.

I never intended for things to get complicated. Nor did I anticipate for things to get complicated at this point in my life. I fully thought I would either be single or married to some man my parents chose.

And though I tried to sleep, my mind would replay everything and the anxiety would build.

This went on until Dean came back.

His face looked worn and tired. The three days he was gone seemed to have aged him a bit. But when he saw me his eyes lit up and that aged look went away. "Hey princess, I missed you so much."

We could still not meet in person but we video called one another.

"Hey tiger, how was it? What ended up happening while you were there?" He started undressing to get ready for bed. It was late in the evening when we called one another. "So basically remember how I told you about my late aunt Kit?"

I recalled him bringing her up and wondered how this was connected. "Yes I remember you mentioning a bit of her story to me a while ago." He nodded. "So get this her ex-husband who for context is part of organized crime started causing some problems. He was in prison for a longtime and just recently got released. He recruited his members and started territory claiming."

Territory claiming is a means of land that a mob will 'run' and members of rival gangs are not allowed to enter into that territory or they risk being harmed. So for hotspot locations this often meant very bloody battles and wars over ideal property. "It was not really an issue at first since it was in the outskirts but they started to harass other branch family members at the main house which freaked some people out."

"The main house is located in a very wealthy city and they were being forced out through intimidation and violence. It was apparently enough to make them want to retaliate quite heavily. So the reason I went is because my tattoo artist buddy has a cousin who I guess is involved with the ex-husbands group."

"Oh wow! The odds of that." At this point he was now dressed and moved to his bed to lie down.

"Yeah so I managed to get in contact and in exchange for protection he ratted the other guy out. Supposedly he has been doing a shit job running the group and was losing it mentally. Prison was not kind to him."

He brushed his curls back and rubbed his eyes. Sleep now starting to take over. "We got a deal in place and I resolved things. In terms of us I told my grandparents and because of the favor I did they did not blow as big of a gasket as they could have."

I was envious.

"I wish things on my end were as neatly wrapped as yours. My grandfather just about disowned me. It is making me concerned about how to move forward because I neither want to upset him or you."