Celeste led the adults down into the finished basement. She pressed the security code to get into the boardroom. The walls held family portraits for each branch of the family. Only three singular portraits were on the walls; Gino, Fernando, and Antony I. There was a long table that held fifteen chairs for all of the adults in the family, one was empty as a sign of respect for the first patriarch, Antony I. There was a large screen that held five different screens. Three of the screens would connect to Lila’s brothers’ and her sister’s families, one of the other screens would connect to the main family that was held in Italy. The last screen was reserved for anyone Celeste’s family had to make contact with in the cases of shipments, bargaining, and the more occasional blackmail. There was a map of the United States where each warehouse was with different pins to show what the warehouse stored until a shipment was bought. Each of her siblings took care of a particular department in the business:

Lila’s role in the family slowly started to decline when she was at the ripe age of 49; Alzheimer’s was a slow way for her to die. She knew that before it got any worse that she would have to do her family a great duty and pass on the head of the family to her first born. The Alzheimer’s was slowly eating away at her and her memory. However, she enjoyed her retirement thus far. No more assassination attempts against her life, no more cover-ups with the law, no more stress of running the entire workings of the family. Lila could walk about in the gardens, go to the park with fewer guards, read more books than what she could when her mind was fresh and youthful, and learn more and more about her grandchildren and her soon to be great-grandchild. She gave all of her knowledge as humanly possible to Celeste about her new responsibilities. Celeste has taken on everything by storm, surpassing even her own numbers when she was the head of the family.

Celeste ran the family business from behind the scenes. She knew what to say and when in public appearances; the Martha Stewart routine was so unnatural to her that it gave her horrid headaches each time she put on that face. When that mask was on she had to go to pie baking contests, book club in the park, decorating various parties that she threw for charity events or for the city. Behind the mask she was ruthless, a killer, and in some cases she has heard her family call her Antony I reborn. Bruno met her at these parties. An up-and-coming doctor who was just as handsome as he was then as he is now. Bruno chased after her, and she had no clue of how to reciprocate this sort of love. Love was a foreign emotion to her. When they started their engagement, Bruno helped her play along with the ruse. His part was the good doctor, giving away free surgeries to children who could not afford them. The man with the large laugh never wore a mask, he naturally came off as the family man. His mask was when he had to do the nasty deeds on the operation table, his own personal specialty. Patrizio even followed in his father’s footsteps, wanting to make this his specialty. His first lesson was when he was sixteen. Rivals slowly learned that going to the hospital needs to be only an emergency; when it wasn’t they would most likely die out on the streets with infection of improper treatment. Jessica has not even started off on her training, she was twenty-two and has only had focus on her English degree at NYU. She had to learn sooner or later, and Celeste would be damn well sure that it will be sooner.

Emmanuel was in charge of accounting and the family money. He ran the money gained through the profits at Catio’s, G&F Club and Casino, and the various other clubs that were in the City. He also found the way to channel the illegal money through their dealings on the black market with weapons and arms trading, assassinations and spying on whoever was the highest bidder. Emmanuel was able to hide the money well, about twenty percent of the profits were funneled into the charities that the family ran to keep what the family actually does under the radar. That’s how he met Antonia. She came into his office, when he was just an intern, asking for financial advice for her mother concerning a divorce. He waited and waited, even a year after her parents’ brutal divorce. Eventually his waiting paid off and she accepted his proposal for a date. Soon they came to fall in love. When it came to it though, Emmanuel could shoot anyone or anything from a mile away with the right rifle. He taught all of his children how to shoot in the case of an emergency. Antonia provides extra cover for the excess funds by placing them in the accounts set for all of the children in the case of an emergency with her job at the bank. She knew her technology well and uses this to her advantage because she refuses to kill anyone, just like Emmanuel. Antonia could never shoot anyone after what happened with her last husband. When it came down to it though they would both kill to protect their family and children.

Anna-Maria main focus was in the kitchen. She ran every kitchen that the family owned. Clubs, restaurants, and soup kitchens all ran under her. Marie never allowed anyone to eat small portions for large amounts of money. Each person ate the amount she thought would fill them up for the night. For the soup kitchens there were healthy meals filled with nutrition with five courses and even dessert. No one ever went hungry as far as she was concerned. She ran a tight kitchen and each day she was the master chef for the kitchen of her choosing. Anna-Maria knew how to wield a knife as much as she knew how to cut chives with it. Any sharp weapon was practically an extension of her own arm. When she married Vincente she knew that he had the same passion for knives as she did. She met him at a charity event for when he was just a simple coffee boy when she was at the ripe age of sixteen and he was matured at twenty-five. The torrid love affair was hard enough to cover up, the family was able to keep his wife at the time quiet enough where they kept it secret until she was of legal age. A politician in the family meant that laws, media, and specific taxes could help conceal certain conspiracies that came with a job.

Antony III did not even plan on meeting Bianca. He was a famous athlete at their private high school. He played basically every sport that he possible could without interfering with his academics; football, baseball, track, and swimming. In order to continue with baseball in the spring he had to pass his biology midterm. Bianca was assigned to him as his tutor. He never really meant to fall in love so quickly, then again Antony III was always rash with decisions like these. Before they knew it they were secretly engaged by the time it was finals. He graduated and told his family the truth of their relationship. He never felt more proud of anything in his life. They both waited until Bianca graduated in order to finally get married. With Antony’s brawn and Bianca’s brain, the two became the most requested interrogation couple this side of the world. She could depict anyone lying, and he could beat anyone into telling the truth.

Anya was certainly one of the most integral persons who worked within the family business. New to the police force, Anya’s first case was questioning Gerald after he was “attacked”. He had to be rigged to sit upright in the bed due to horrible lesions that defaced his back. Anya witnessed his own wife leaving him with his five daughters. When the case was closed, Gerald finally told her that it was Celeste who gave him the punishment that day. Anya immediately enveloped into the family. When a job got a little messy, Anya would be the first one to go clean up the scene in the way that the police would see a murder or a suicide. Eventually she created her own spy ring with the contacts she still has from Russia and brought them to the United States for the use of the family. She had worked her way up the ladder where she became the captain of her own precinct. She had the entire police force in the palm of her hand, leading them away from suspicion to the family the family business.

“First order of the business,” Celeste started the meeting when she sat down on the head of the table, “we shall discuss how the restaurants are doing and the clubs.”

“We have increased profits again by twelve percent this month at Catio’s giving us an estimated two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars in profit for the month after the costs and upkeep. However, due to the extreme weather from last year the roof to the G&F Club we need to repair that first before we can bring in any more singers for the club,” Emmanuel continued into various finances and costs.

Celeste sat there and enjoyed hearing how well all of the businesses, but she never had the patience for finances and money. That was never what her mother prepared her for. Most of this speak was white noise so she focused on reading Bruno. He was still very angry at her, but he would soon have to get over it. The letter has already been sent along with various condolences and Marie sent over a weeks’ worth of casseroles and cakes. How could he be angry with her for doing the right thing? She protected the family from a crucial threat. She knew that he was the leader of a rival family. Anya was the only one who knew about this other family. Nipping the weed in the bud before it grew into something actually dangerous.

When Emmanuel finished his part, the real meeting could begin. “So we have found the shipments that were stolen from the warehouse,” Celeste started, “We need to discuss who we are going to sell the weapons to. Our options are: The Boerio’s, Quattrocchi’s, and the Russian Mafia. We shall call for a vote.”

“I say since we are using the spies from the Russian Mafia I say sell the weapons to them,” Anya spoke first. Bianca, Vincente, Anna-Maria, and Patrizio all raised their hands.

“I say that we can re-establish more trading with the Boerio’s. They have a large reach just as we do. That can open us up to more markets and bring in more money and clients,” Emmanuel placed his vote. Antonia, Isobelle, Clyde, Gerald, Antony III, Lila and Bruno raised their hands in agreement.

“Jess, what do you think would be best?” Celeste always weighed everyone’s opinions. Jess needed to know what she was getting into when she eventually took over the family business.

“The Russians need to see that we appreciate their business enough. On the other hand, we have the Boerio’s who can open up new trade centers and make our power even greater. How many shipments did we buy?” Jess asked.

Emmanuel checked over the charts, “We have about two-million dollars’ worth in the warehouse as of today. But tomorrow we will have an increase of an extra four hundred thousand.”

“Then I think that we should do is sell half of the shipments to the Russians and Boerio’s.”

“I am in favor of this new plan,” Celeste placed her judgement, “Everyone else who agrees raise your hand,” the family all raised their hands in agreement.

The rest of the meeting the discussion of the various propositions for spying on politicians, assassinations and then the invitation from the mayor about the family receiving the Key to the City.

Oh the irony, Celeste thought, if only they knew what really was behind these cold brick walls.

“How are we going to start including the Estar’s into the family?” Celeste brought up the topic, flinching on the inside at the look that Bruno gave her.

“I think that we should have them come over to the house for actually meeting us. So that we can make a real vote on bringing them into the family or not,” Bruno glared down the table.

“We can arrange that around your schedule of course, would you want to have a dinner? Or should it be something more casual like finger foods and sodas?” Anna-Maria chimed in.

“I believe that we can arrange something more casual because I do not believe that they are not sure what this will mean for them yet.” Celeste determined, “We shall schedule something for next week, try around six o’clock on Thursday.”

“And can you explain exactly how we are going to deliver all of this news to them?” Bruno implied, “Can we at least send a letter to them describing the nature of why we are taking interest?”

“I think that we can do that, write something to make our intentions clear,” Bianca said.

“You mean the only reason why the most affluent family in the entire state of New York is taking interest in them is because we killed a husband and a father in cold blood,” Bruno shot directly at Celeste.

“I think I need to speak alone with Bruno for a moment, this meeting is adjourned. Bianca send the letter and arrange the time for Thursday as discussed,” Celeste dismissed everyone with her hand.

Everyone walked out of the room and Bruno sat against the table and crossed his arm.

“What is the matter with you?” Celeste shut the door behind her, the room was sound-proof and no one could hear them.

“What is the matter with me?! What is the matter with you? You always tell us about these decisions, never once have you not told us, especially me or Emmanuel anything like this. You always need to know what others think before making your decisions. Yet now you have been very rash with your decisions and not consulting any of us on anything.”

“I had to think on my feet in that moment, you do not understand why I had to do what I do. Anya knew what had to be one and she was the only one who I had to consult on this because I did not want to worry anyone on what might have happened,” Celeste looked right into his eyes to let him know that she was sincere with what she committed.

“Then tell me, I need to know what we are getting into. When I laid eyes on you, for better or for worse I decided to take you as my wife. Never let me stay in the dark again. Tell me what has happened.”

She sighed, “Sam was a ring leader for a new mafia, that was very threatening to what we have built. I had to cut off the snake’s head before he bit one of us.”

“What do you mean before ‘he bit one of us’?”

“He sent Anya a letter addressed to the police station, it had pictures of the children. On the backs it had their schedules, which of the Teppistas follow them around and the time shifts when they change. I was terrified, he threatened my babies. I knew you would have done a lot worse to him if he ever came into the emergency room,” Celeste had tears in his eyes.

Bruno took her into his arms and hugged her, caressing her hair. She cried into his chest until she had no more tears to give. “I have not seen you cry like that in a long time,” Bruno looked into her eyes.

“I do not want to cry like that again.”

“Just know that you can tell me anything, we are married for life, my soul mate. You can cry with me anytime,” Bruno kissed her on the forehead and walked up to the main floor with her.