Chapter 8: Empty.
It was a surprise to everyone... because Jelena did not hit him, nor said anything, she just stared at him, after the second time calling her a bitch, because it was clear to her that it was a ragebait. Yeah, she could see that he doesn’t fear death. He doesn’t fear what others fear the most. No... it seemed like he wanted it. He wanted to be shot. He wanted to be dead. She needed to be careful because it wasn’t that she or them were playing with him, but rather then Joseph himself was playing with them.
Yeah, he was baiting them to finally end it all.
But no, no, they needed to get the clear answers, she needed to get a clear answer.
"What does it mean?" She asked again as she looked deep into Joseph’s eyes.
"You know, Jelena..." He looked at her while the bleeding finally stopped. "When I was arrested on charges I didn’t do, there was one thing that surprised me... that account, that card... 970 million dollars went missing from it." He said with a faint smile as he shook his head.
"What?" Vincente asked because it was an unbelievable number, but not just that... there is no way a homeless man can get that much money out, there is no possible way... yeah, for a homeless person, there is no way...
"Offshore account, shell companies... the money went through all of it, and ended up in the pocket of somebody... they were furious." He chuckled. "They were actually furious. Where is the money? How did I spend it?... I loved every moment of the despair in their eyes... but I realized too what you just realized... how can a homeless guy do something like that? And—"
"How can they kill off the biggest gangsters in the city..." Gabbana finished Joseph’s sentence, because now it started making sense, all of it.
Joseph was never at the family dinners, he was nowhere to be found when they were teenagers, he lived on his own and they clowned him for that. Even when his name was brought up, his father simply answered, "He’s not my son." Yeah, Gabbana finally started to realize that it was real, that he technically had no hand in massacring everybody... it was just a mistake that he gave the card to those people... but who are those?
"Do you actually believe him?" Jelena asked as she looked at Gabbana and saw he was starting to sweat more, and he was visibly frozen as he thought. "He is lying, it is obvious! He says things that don’t make sense." She turned toward Vincente. "How can he say things and know about them when he was in a concrete fucking cell for ten years?! He’s saying things that are impossible to know!"
But Vincente too thought about what Gabbana and there was no way Joseph could’ve done it, but also he was debating it at the same time, because, just looking at him, he was representing his father. That smile on his face, the ten years behind bars made him into a monster, and Vincente could see it. Even if it wasn’t him, he was on the path to becoming something like his father or much worse than that. A normal person wouldn’t smile, but would beg for his life and would say everything straight. But him?
No, he decided to tell it like a fucking fairy tale... no, he is precise with his words, doesn’t rush it, and the most telling thing is that he is controlling his breath perfectly, like he was tortured before. He knew how to stay up. He was fighting to stay up.