Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85569 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85569 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
And when my mother fell ill and my father insisted on sending her away, I used my own money to upgrade my mother to a much better mental health facility than the cheap flea-ridden one he wanted to send her to.
So there was no great debt that I owed him.
To top it all, I understood that getting involved in Tommaso’s business was like climbing into a snake pit. My father had shown me no love. He had never attended a school meeting, taken me on a single social outing, or shown the smallest bit of interest in me or what I was getting up to. It wouldn’t be a lie to say he tolerated me as if I was a necessary evil to keep his family-man image intact. And over the years I found myself feeling remarkably detached from him.
But even more important than that. Arianna was pregnant and I had my unborn child to think of. The last thing I wanted to do was plunge myself and my family into this monster’s world to save a man who cared not one bit about me.
Chapter 15
Cole
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KamNmbN0YHo&list=PL1_7zfY1M9t9RcyYQczlfGt1PF8kRQJZx&index=7
-speak softly-
(Italian version)
“I’ll think about it,” I said slowly. I already knew I was going to refuse, but I had to consider carefully how I did it.
“This was actually your father’s idea,” the Don interjected softly. He had scented victory and his eyes glittered like a rat’s.
I shook my head at my own naivety. Of course, it was my father’s idea. He was willing to sacrifice his own son to save himself.
He smiled cunningly. “You will be a father soon, I hear. God has blessed you with a daughter.”
My blood ran cold. Very few people knew the sex of my child. I recognized his statement for what it was. A threat. In exactly the same way he advised people not to worry because he was a nice guy before he slaughtered them.
“Yes. A blessing it is,” I agreed, trying not to show the fear churning inside me.
“Perhaps you might want to see this … venture I’m offering … as an opportunity that will pay handsomely,” he said persuasively. “As an occasion to use the gains to build an education fund for your daughter if she turns out to be as smart as you.”
He believed I needed his blood money to educate my daughter. He’d be very astonished to know I was already many times richer than him, and in a few years, I would be worth billions. Many years ago, while I was still in school, I secretly bought as many Bitcoins as I could.
To me, it was a no-brainer.
The coding was perfect and the scarcity factor was even more amazing. There would only ever be twenty-one million coins. I understood immediately that there had never been an asset like it, and probably never another one like it in my lifetime. I was willing to bet everything I had on it. I borrowed money from anyone who would lend it to me and bought twenty thousand coins at the price of nine cents each. I’d been buying more ever since and my secret stash was now pretty impressive.
But that money was of little use to me now. He wanted me to work for him and he was unsubtly telling me if I didn’t, he was willing to hurt my unborn child. I felt trapped, furious, and impotent. I hated being in that helpless position, but there was nothing I could do.
Not at that moment, anyway.
He was a dangerous, duplicitous snake, but even a King Cobra had its enemies. In seventy-five to eighty percent of the fights between Cobras and mongooses, the venom-immune, fast-moving creature darted at the snake with Ninja-like speed, forcing the reptile to repeatedly strike at it until the snake was completely exhausted. Then the little hero crushed the cobra’s head in its jaws.
By asking me to move his money he was allowing me to make many little strikes and get close to his most vulnerable parts. Once I was inside his books, I would forever have the means of destroying him, and I would be able to do it without him ever suspecting I’d done it.
“Fine. I will work for you.”
He smiled victoriously. “Bravo, Luca. I always knew you were a smart kid. You’ve just made a wise decision.”
Yes, good. Keep thinking of me as if I was still the kid by the swimming pool.
“I will work for you until my father is released, but after that, I never want to see you again.” Even as I said the words, I already knew it would never be over with him. He would never let me go. I would have to find my own way out.
“Of course,” he agreed slickly.
I opened the car door and stepped out.
I would be trapped for seven years, but after that no matter what I would make sure I set things up in such a way I would free myself.