The Scourge of Angelo Bruno "The Gentle Don"

Chapter 3: This is the Fool!

Angelo slowly regained consciousness, finding his baby sister beside him, tears streaming down her face. He held her hand, thinking her distress was about him.

"Stop now, Annabel. Am alive, not dead. Or at least not yet."

Annabel, attempting to mask her unease, was relieved to see her brother awake,

"Angelo! Thank God. I didn't know what to think but I've been praying." She hugged her brother in her excitement not minding the pain it caused.

"Okay. Okay. Easy girl. You don't want to send me back to a coma now, do you?" Angelo's groans in pain jumped her attention back to his condition and she immediately pulled back from him, still feeling excited to see him awake.

Angelo had been in a coma for 48 hours with the doctors and nurses doing all they could to make sure he survived. Their efforts did pay off. His waking up was not without questions in his mind, although Dirty Dog had destabilized his system, his memory was still alive to figure out things.

"Where is Cortez? He brought me here, didn't he?" He asked to confirm his last memory of the scene at the bar was right.

"Yes, he did," Annabel answered him while yet trying to conceal the details of the events that happened at the hospital from him. 

Although she tried to keep the information from him, yet, she couldn't fully conceal the turmoil that unfolded during his unconsciousness, especially regarding his wife and his best friend. And she couldn't dare let him know about it now because it would only worsen his situation. Cortez had been his only friend since childhood, they grew up together in the same orphanage and he has been a tremendous source of him to Angelo and his sister, Annabel.

"Okay. But what about Trisha, did you hear from her?" He inquired knowing that his wife would be worried sick about him.

"Yes. She's fine, she came to see you earlier but left not quite long to attend to some urgency." Annabel continued hard, trying her very best to hide her fright and pain. Angelo knew her too well, and with a little show of emotions, he would suspect something was wrong. So she put in much effort to conceal her emotions but knew her brother may continue to trouble her with questions, so she made her escape.

"Can you ca—" Angelo tried furthering his concerns for his wife but Annabel cut him short with her escape plan.

"Let me get the doctor to come check on you." She interrupted sharply and quickly exited the room.

As Angelo recovered and was discharged, Annabel escorted him home, dodging his persistent inquiries about Trisha and his best friend. She planned to wait until he improved before persuading him to leave Sicily.

However, her strategy crumbled when Angelo received a phone call. 

"You bastard, I heard you're alive and discharged. You were quite lucky on this one because we were merciful. You might not be so lucky if you fail to do what am about to tell you next." The voice from the phone hailed at him.

"Who am I on to, plea—? Angelo made an effort to verify the caller but was quickly trumped by the voice which raised even higher and harsher.

"Shut up you prick. Now listen to me and listen very well because your life very well depends on it. A vehicle will arrive at your shithole apartment in 20 minutes, do not hesitate or struggle. Quietly get on it and come with them."

"Sorry, what vehi—" The caller hung up the call before he could ask his questions.

The Rodriguezs were informed of Angelo's discharge from the hospital. And Angelo figured out the voice was Jack's, Trisha's eldest brother. This wasn't the first time he had called him to threaten him in his usually harsh and rude manner. 

But Angelo suspected something wasn't adding up, he tried calling his wife but the response on the call made him even more suspicious.

"YOU HAVE BEEN BANNED FROM CALLING THIS NUMBER."

"What the fuck?" He let out as he dialled it over and over again only to still get the same response. He quickly called for Annabel to enquire about what was going on.

Angelo pressed Annabel for the truth, forcing her to disclose the events that happened while he was unconscious. The news of Cortez's death and the violent persuasion by his in-laws to make his wife sign the divorce papers left Angelo seething.

Ignoring Annabel's protests, Angelo hailed out to wait for the vehicle that was coming to pick him up. The vehicle arrived shortly and it was Dirty Dog and his boys, he hopped in without resistance and they headed to the Rodriguez residence, leaving his sister behind for fear of the unknown. 

At the mansion, security guards escorted him to the living room, where he was met with a shocking sight—Trisha was seated next to a man he had never seen before but was familiar with the name.

He looked at her with pains in his heart and his body but even more pain could be seen in Trisha's eyes as she was forced into what she didn't want to do.

"So, this is the fool?" The strange man who sat just beside Trisha spoke up in such a powerful voice that exuded his status as a rich and powerful man. 

Angelo never expected to see what was before him right now, on their way coming he had hoped to meet with his in-laws and talk things out with them despite all they did to him and the people in his life. But the presence of this strange powerful man was about to make things even more impossible for him.

"Yes, he is the fool." Baron Rodriguez answered the man who inquired about Angelo.

"Welcome back from the dead, Angelo. This is Don Romero. We know your sorry life hasn't had the pleasure."

‘What? The infamous notorious Don Romero? How? What does he want? This won't end well for me now’

Angelo soliloquized, the identity of the man causing him to tremble in fear.

"Don Romero is Trisha's soon-to-be husband."