Where is my money?

Danielle - Present

“Hey, are you even listening to me?!” Loredana kicks Roberto’s leg who is absorbed by something playing on Giovanni’s phone. 

At the impact, they both direct their attention to Loredana and Roberto snarls, “Yeah, we heard you, we‘ll be there too.”

Giovanni just grunts in response and Loredana celebrates, clapping her hands. 

“Yay, that’s going to be awesome! Are we getting a lounge, guys?” 

Giovanni talks even if he is engrossed by his phone with Roberto again. “I’ll organize something.” 

I’m a bit jealous of Loredana who gets to speak to him in such a carefree manner while I can’t even remember when I got to talk to him normally. 

Usually, he just graces me with an annoyed frown or utters some deprecative comment.

But I’m the creator of my own downfall as I left the territory for a few years just to return clean and feel brand new, just to be confronted with the guy who broke my heart years ago. 

He even came to pick me up from the airport. And from there it just got worse. As usual, we got into a fight right from the start. It seemed just like it was when I left the country, but I was wrong. 

Apparently, he wasn’t a dealer anymore and was even less appealed to take my disrespect than he was before. 

The positive side was that everyone welcomed me back home as if I had never left. I started my studies, and can’t actually wait to be able to leave again. Especially because living at home is a living hell. 

The thing I had feared the most was to see Giovanni with Federica. The woman I saw him making out at the club with, and also, the last picture of my crush that got burned into my brain. Loredana had filled me in about this fiancée of his, so this is how I got her name. But as I came back she was nowhere to be seen, and I didn’t want to talk about her to anyone to prevent people from thinking that I was still interested in Giovanni. 

Everything would be just fine if it wasn’t for my family, or the entitled asshole messing with my life. 

“I’ll get an iced tea. Would you like something too?” Loredana shakes her head while Roberto and Giovanni, not that I’m really surprised about it, ignore me totally. 

Alessandra, on the other hand, gets up from her seat. “I’m coming with you.” 

“Bring me a beer, Dani.” Valerio is playing with his cap, practically lying in his seat. 

I step out of the back room with the lounges through an arch in the wall connecting it to the front bar. 

Descending the few steps, I walk to Stefano, who is talking to another customer behind the bar and looks at me expectantly as we approach him. 

“Sté, a beer, an iced tea, and…” 

I turn to Alessandra who completes my order with a sing-song “I’ll take an iced tea too.” 

I smile as I turn back around with a smile. “A beer and two iced teas, please.” 

He grabs the beverages from the fridge standing next to the big mirror adorned with shelves with crystal glasses and bottles of alcohol. “Here you go.” 

I pay him, and we get back to the lounge. 

Handing the beer to Valerio, he smiles brightly, thanking me. 

Everyone is already talking about the evening they want to spend out in the club and I drink my iced tea silently, listening to the discussion between Loredana and Roberto. 

Suddenly, Loredana squeezes my knee with her hand to get my attention. 

She clearly would not have to do it, as she already had my attention, but she is really touchy, not that I would mind it, as I have known her all my life since our mothers were already childhood friends. 

“Are you bringing Carlo?” She asks, and I look at her wide-eyed, and not only because she used the most annoying increasing tone to ask me. 

I’m just about to form my answer as everyone else, well, except for my ice-man, pushes out a long “Uuuuh”. 

Giovanni looks at me frowning as Roberto asks, “Who is that?” 

Once again, I’m too slow to speak as Loredana talks before I can, “Her university sweetheart.” 

Making yet another wave of “Uuhs” and “Oohs” resound, she grins at me happily. 

I slap Loredana‘s arm playfully while the girls giggle. 

“He’s not my sweetheart.” 

Turning to face my friends, I add, “It’s just a guy from uni I met a few weeks ago. We went on a date or two.” 

Alessandra gasps audibly and smiles happily. “Look at her, getting an academic date.” 

I laugh at her remark while rolling my eyes. 

“Where is he from?” 

Silence falls as Giovanni’s deep baritone rumbles through the room. 

“Not from here,” I answer, knowing exactly where he wants to get to. 

We live in a small village that is part of a territory controlled by two families that share their business districts. 

We don’t mingle with them associated with the other family much and even less with outsiders. 

We all, more or less, work for the families. 

While Alessandra and I have jobs that are not directly related to the businesses of the controlling families, Loredana works as an escort and Roberto deals. 

On the other hand, we stopped knowing what Valerio and Giovanni were doing as they got ‘promoted’ from time to time. 

All we know is that, firstly, they are carrying guns and that, secondly, Giovanni is known to even get invited into the Bosses house and is apparently one of his most trusted soldiers. 

“Lose him.” He just states annoyed. 

Wow, his loyalty is really boundary-less. 

“Sorry, what?” I ask back provokingly, making him look at me nearly disgusted. 

The nerve of me to have the guts to answer him. 

“You heard me, Danielle, don‘t make me repeat myself. You aren‘t that illiterate, are you?!” 

I sigh irritated. The fact that he even uses my full name, just like my mother would, hurts me more than his stupid order. 

“You can’t be serious.” 

“Come again?” he growls, and I shift in my seat. 

I feel Alessandra tense next to me and shake my head, tearing my eyes off him to look at Loredana. 

“No, I don‘t think he would like to come.” 

She just nods, casting me a worried expression. 

“I’ll bring my woman if that‘s okay,” Valerio says leisurely, dissolving the build-up tension slightly. 

“Sure!” Loredana squeals, while squeezing my hand gently. “It would be nice to see her again.” 

“Yeah,” Alessandra butts in. “She is working too much lately.” 

She pouts while crossing her arms, and we laugh at her sweet gesture. 

This brings us back to being able to chat lightly while Roberto and Giovanni redirect their attention to that stupid phone. 

Finishing our drinks, we get out of the bar by saying goodbye to Stefano. 

We are about to get into our cars when Roberto approaches me cautiously. “Stellina, can we talk for a minute?” 

My friend is the only one who still calls me by that silly pet name, but I can’t get myself to loathe it. 

Growing up, everyone called me that. 

It got to such an extent that even people close to my family forgot that my name wasn’t actually Stella. 

Unfortunately, we all grew up and everyone stopped calling me that around the same time my father was incarcerated and my mother stopped using that pet name. 

“Sure, what’s wrong?” 

He grabs me by my arm and steers me a few steps out of the hearing range of the others who stare at us questioningly. 

I get a little scared by that gesture as we usually don‘t have that secrecy between us. 

“Oh my God, Robby, what’s wrong? You are scaring me.” 

In my peripheral vision, I can see Giovanni perk up his ears. 

Ah, that one got your interest, didn’t it, big boy? 

“Listen, your mother has not paid me for a bit, and I would hate to stop selling to her. You know at least what she gets from me is safe.” Roberto does everything in his power to talk with a caring tone, but I know that he would get in big trouble if he didn’t deliver the money he gets. 

His bosses could get the impression he keeps it to himself, so having someone sell you drugs on credit is a huge token of confidence. 

And I didn’t know my mother had it as she certainly wouldn’t deserve it. 

“Robby, no. What… Why did you sell her the stuff without any payment?” 

He holds out his hands before him, gesturing nervously with his palms up like he was begging me to understand him. 

Well, it’s not me that is going to cut your fingers off.

“She was out of money one night and needed a dose urgently, but she didn’t have any money, and I didn’t want any of the things she offered me. Sis, she is your mother, I couldn’t send her away.” 

I close my eyes at this blow and thank the heavens that I have some friends with at least some decency. 

“How much?” 

He sighs as he lets his arms slump. “About 2.5” 

Driving my hands into my hair, I take in a shaky breath “God, Robby, tell me you are talking about 250.” 

He shakes his head slowly, and I gasp for air as I feel like drowning. 

I don’t know why, but I look out at Giovanni, who is still staring at us. Seeing his handsome and sculpted face helps me calm down a bit. 

Turning to face Roberto again, I speak lowly, afraid that he might catch what we are talking about. “I don’t have that kind of money, Rob. I’m broke. Where should I get that kind of money?” 

Roberto shakes his head agitatedly. “I don’t want your money, Stellina. I want your mom to pay me. Maybe you can talk to her.” 

I have to push down the urge to bark a laugh in his face. 

Sure, I’ll put up some nice cup of tea and tell my mom she should pay you. You‘ll get paid tomorrow, my friend. 

Just a few days ago, my mother found my hidey-hole, where I was keeping my savings from 6 months of work, and took everything. 

Hell, I wonder what she has done with that money.

So, I couldn’t help him even if I wanted to. „

“You can’t make me the interlocutor. I can’t…” 

Roberto puts his hands up once again. “Don’t worry, I get it. I’m really sorry I asked you about this. I’ll come by one of these days and talk to her, OK?” 

He grabs my hand, squeezing it reassuringly. 

I nod, fighting my tears back and whisper a “thank you” before he takes his leave. 

That is going to be fun.