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ONLY LAUGH WHEN IT HURTS
By Wayne Webb
CHAPTER 30
“Where do you
want to go next?”
Tony shrugged, he
was at a loss. Where could he go that would not bring problems of
their own. There were plenty of places in the world where he could
just disappear, be unknown or uncared about. The third world for
example would be an easy place to fade into, it would be cheap and
easy to get whatever he wanted, the money he had would buy him
whatever he wanted and whoever he wanted. It came with a downside,
security and opportunity were the two biggest issues. He could not
leave Aida behind, he had come to not only accept his feelings for
her and the fatherly emotions towards her children, but also depend
on her for that communication that couples share, the unspoken and
all-knowing (most of the time) wordless conversations that took
place.
He had been
wondering about her position in his life and now she was virtually
embedded in it, inextricably attached to him. He felt some guilt
about the speed and pressure of that change in their relationship and
how she was almost choice less in the matter. She could have left him
high and dry, but she still would have been pursued along with her
children, the more private Tony wanted to be, the more that people
wanted to break that seal and look inside. It was easier and better
for her to stay with him, have access to his resources and security
to ensure the safety of her family.
And she liked him,
may have gotten to love him on her own before this dropped out of the
sky on top of them. She understood his secret keeping, it made
perfect sense, but it was out there anyway, impossible to guess or to
know what may have happened next. Now of course it was all about
closing ranks, shutting the gaps and moving on where she could. The
kids had private tutors come to the house to teach, vetted and
screened meticulously by Tony's people.
Tony had people,
many more at his disposal than he even realised. There had been a
machine working away at his empire, managing and guarding capital,
employing and nurturing as a prime directive. Now it was payback, and
the generosity they perceived to have been showered upon them was to
come back in kind. In reality of course he had divested himself of
most of the reminders and trappings of that life, made sure he was
cared for financially and then shared the rest out to as many people
as he could in kind. Not out of a sense of altruism or moral compass
points, but out of a sense of fear and loathing for a man he could
not know, living a life no one in their right mind could understand.
No one needed to know that, they just saw the money, the support and
the belief they wrongly attributed as motivation.
“We can't stay
here, it will ruin the village for everyone.”
Tony raised an
eyebrow just a fraction.
“WE, yes I said
we. You know I'll go with you and we can hardly leave the kids to the
wolves can we.”
Tony looked at the
floor, and more to be avoiding the feeling he got when he thought
about the impact on the children. They had everything they wanted,
needed and desired within reason, but had lost their freedom to live
without a spotlight on them.
“Vito will be
fine, he's already working in a studio, one you bought for his band
to work in, he says thank you by the way.”
Tony looked up at
her questioningly.
“You bought a
studio in Rome, acquired some staff and started a record label on his
behalf. You have some people running it remotely and their only
clients are us. So far, you don't object if they take on more do
you?” She was enjoying this, playing Pepper to his Iron Man, life
for her had become this comic book-esque tableau and she had embraced
it, used it and revelled in the freedom. She had no boundaries except
the underlying goodness of who she was, which drove how she did
things.
Tony nodded
congratulating himself on such a job well done, it was like someone
read his mind and before he thought the actual thoughts, took them
out and made them a reality. He did not reach these conclusions on
his own, yet they all sounded like the things he would do if he could
easily.
“Yes, you were
very magnanimous with the Rome studio. Vito is very happy, he loves
the apartment too.”
One down? A slight
tilt of his head as he looked about for signs of the other child.
“Oriana, is a
little more difficult, she still feels her conscience stopping her
from moving on. I have spoken to her every day, we have been over and
over it, but until she hears it from you.... which of course is not
going to happen. She stays.”
He nodded and said
nothing, felt nothing but waited for whatever was going to happen
next.
“You're being
sued, there's a dozen legal cases pending, the lawyers are confident
they will lose all of them, they are frivolous, and they are designed
in order to make you respond, put more details about you in the
public record, put you in the legal catch-22 if they can.”
Tony rubbed his
chin, thinking.
“No, we will not
settle them to go away. Stop thinking that.”
He had been
thinking just how easy it would be to make them go away with a small
settlement that was nothing to him but loads to the litigious types.
“There's also a
competition to see who can figure out how you faked the lightning
strike. A million dollars to anyone with proof that you did, iron
clad and irrefutable, but already those wannabes have settled into
the village, they comb the streets looking for clues that can help
them win the million.”
That was pointless,
it's suggestion of a prize for a thing that did not exist, the proof
that could never be found was a good plot to get people on your side.
It had to be someone close to him, or close enough to get a sense
that it was in fact real, why offer a million dollar prize unless you
know for sure when and where it is going to go?
“Stop thinking
about it, they won't find anything, we both know it.”
They both knew it,
they both knew it. It made too much sense now.
“Yes.” They
stared at each other hard and long, she defiantly and he accusingly.
She was an immovable object and he was never going to win an argument
with her ever again, even if his voice was back in his head.
“We could go
anywhere that we won't be known, but we'd stand out like sore thumbs.
We can take a tutor, Annabel her acting governess is willing to stay
on permanently after we had to get rid of the last one. We have not
made the same mistake with Annabel, she is whom she says she is, but
aso Oriana has connected with her, bonded.”
Aida tapped the
side of the table where Tony was sitting , looking at the door and
wondering what or who would come through it next, one of his own or
an interloper.
“We just need a
direction.”
Tony thoughtful and
serious looked at the atlas on the desk, the world was an open book
to him now, but all the pages meant the same thing, new life killing
off the old and replacing it. It was hard work, and it was a grieving
process to let go of precisely why you held on so fast.
“Let go and
pick.”
“We're ready to
go when you are. We just need the where.”
That was the
question, not to be was an option he had taken up years previously
but now it was a competition and an industry backing him up.
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