CHAPTER 5
Brian gestured to a chair across the counter. “You want to be a professional cage fighter and you have the talent; it's there.” He started after examining the young man in front of him for a few minutes. One problem instead of harnessing your rage you let it rule you.”
“It's easy for you to talk.” Lazzaro bitterly replied, letting his frustration out “The fucking Mafia didn't put your father behind bars, then have him killed. You were pampered by mommy and daddy, not brutalized in a goddamn orphanage.”
“I'm sorry for what happened to you.”Brian calmly spoke. “You must think my life has been easy but it hasn't. “He swallowed hard a few times before continuing. “When I was twenty, I met a man named Cole, who abused me for four years. Three years later, my brother was abducted, and I heard it happen. Heard him screaming for help.”
“That’s…” Lazzaro gave the librarian a sympathetic look. “Did you eventually find him or was it too late?”
“I looked and looked.” Brian continued his story in a faraway voice. “The nightmares tore me apart; I would wake crying and calling my little brother’s name. My ex despised me for what he called whining and sent me to another room, to calm the fuck down, as he put it, and, if I didn't go quietly, he'd backhand me.” The librarian let out a long, heavy sigh. “It was becoming too much; I almost committed suicide at twenty-three, but something, or better said someone, stopped me.”
“I had it pretty rough, too, but it was nothing compared to you.” Lazzaro shook his head. “Where were your parents during that time? Or did you keep things hidden from them?”
Brian ran a hand over his face. “The second version. You see, when my brother was kidnapped it took a heavy toll on my parents, and they decided to divorce, so I didn’t want to add to their heartache. Anyway, one day, Cole backhanded me too hard and I took my cat Daisy, packed my things, and left him. For the next two years, I wandered in a way. I had an apartment, but I couldn’t keep a steady job, so I eventually got evicted at the age of twenty-six.”
“Man, life really didn’t give you a break, huh?” Lazzaro slowly shook his head. “The hand you were dealt was even shittier than mine, and that is saying something.” His eyes sparked with interest and curiosity. “How did you manage to get out from under that mountain of shit piled on you and get here?”
“My dumb ass went to a bar with what little money I had to drink until I didn't know who I was.”Brian smiled fondly at the memory. “Two men saved me from that fate and helped me get a job here at the library. I made a lot of friends. The nightmares still ate at me, so I barely slept or ate. Then Bart, my beloved husband of eleven years, came to The Base, and it seemed that my life finally made sense and was headed in the right direction, when all the stress, overworking, lack of sleep and food finally came to a head. I collapsed and ended up in the hospital with a broken arm. Bart was the one that found me, on the day he graduated high school.”
“All's well that ends well.” Lazzaro sighed in relief, only to frown shortly after. “Wait, why do I have the feeling this is not the end of your misfortunes?”
“Good things started indeed to happen” Brian continued his walk down the memory lane. “Julien, The Base’s computer expert, who befriended me almost instantly, found my brother Edward, and the rescue crew brought him here; Bart and I were deeply in love and were going to have our first child. I thought things were going great.Then, Cole came back, and I foolishly let him back into my life.”
“Son of a…” Lazzaro censored himself. “The guy really had the nerve to come here, after everything he did to you. Please, tell me you didn't leave your pregnant fiancé, boyfriend, or whatever that Bart guy was to you at the time, and walked into the sunset with that abusive bastard.”
“Long story short, he came after me several times but the last time he threatened to kill my family hurt my children. I was going to leave with Cole, if it wasn’t for Malaspina, who stopped him as he dragged me out by my hair. He was sent to jail, but escaped, and no one has seen him since.” Brian stopped to catch his breath. Then the boys started showing up. I adopted a boy named Gabriele because he thought no one would want him but I did. That's one of the reasons Malaspina saved me from Cole.”
“Gabriele…I’ve heard this name a lot, from the very first day of my stay at The Base.” Lazzaro frowned. “People spoke it with utmost respect, almost with veneration. What’s so special about your adoptive son?” His voice was filled with curiosity.
“He and the other boys who showed up after that, all in dire need of protection, were Mafia heirs. Back then, I didn't know I myself was Mafia, but I fought to find them and bring The Council of The Ten back into power.” Brian took another short break to catch his breath. “I eventually found out I was the descendant of the prominent Cavallieri family, who were thought to be long dead. Speaking of, I have died four times in my lifetime fighting for these boys and friends because I love them. I speak to the dead, and I help all the kids from here as much as I can. My life is far from easy. I've met trouble at every turn but I'll keep going no matter what.”
“Well, I guess I don’t have the right to complain.” Lazzaro grinned sheepishly. “Not after listening to the story of your life, anyway.” He shook his head, eyes filled with admiration and disbelief. “Man, you had it rough, but managed to put everything behind you and built a life with the one you love. I’m starting to get your philosophy about not letting anger control you.”
Brian ignored the younger man’s words. “And now, comes the hardest part.” He ran a hand over his face and sighed tiredly. “The ones who put your father in jail and had him killed and the owner of the cage fighting ring are not Mafia; you are.”
“How can I be Mafia?” Lazzaro stared at the librarian in disbelief, then vehemently shook his head. “They are killers, plunders, all kinds of predatory beasts. I'm sorry about what you went through, but we can't be friends. You are too proud of your mafioso status.”
“You are Don Giovanni Sforza's nephew.” Brian calmly spoke. “The words you used...not all who are in the Mafia are that way. At least I'm not; I'll never hurt an innocent.” He inhaled sharply. “I'm proud of my status because I can use it to rescue and help children and other innocents.”
“Who is this Don Giovanni fellow?” Lazzaro frowned in confusion. “I remember my father mentioning a few times that he had a cousin in Italy. He planned to take me and mom there one day, so I could meet my cousins Ottavio and Martino. Dad told me once that the Sforzas in Italy were very rich, influential people.”
“I didn't know Don Giovanni in life, only death.” Brian’s voice, barely above a whisper, was tinged with sadness. “He is a great man, so I have no doubts he was an amazing man in life. Martino is here, at The Base, but sadly Ottavio is gone from this world. And yes, the Sforzas are still rich and powerful.”
Lazzaro was happy to hear that, but he also wanted to know who killed his uncle and cousin and why. He asked Brian if it was the doing of a Mafia rival, to which the librarian sighed and, after a long moment of silence, answered affirmatively, but added that the matter was very complicated, especially for someone from the outside.
Brian started to tell Lazzaro about the origins of The Old-World Mafia, the Laws its members obeyed, and why The Council of The Ten was so important for the members of the organization. The young man listened carefully and in silence; he suspected the librarian had a good reason to tell him all those things, especially the part about the Laws and his comment that some of them needed to be changed, at least partially.
Suddenly, Brian fell silent, and stayed like that for a few seconds, then revealed the name of Don Giovanni’s killer, none other than his firstborn, Ottavio. Lazzaro stared in shock and disbelief at the man behind the counter, unable to understand why a son would want to kill his father. After all, as the oldest son, he would have inherited the biggest chunk from the family fortune, and would have followed in his father's footsteps as The Council’s next War.
“Love,” Brian answered with a sigh, “can make someone act unpredictably, and it can change them forever, sometimes for the worst. Ottavio was in love with a young man full of qualities, and the feeling was so strong, he wanted to change the Laws for his lover. However, the other one only saw him as a good friend.”
Besides, Brian continued the story, for some reason, Don Giovanni was disappointed in Ottavio and preferred his second son, Martino, who he named the main beneficiary of his will. The mafioso’s decision to marry him off to the young man his firstborn had feelings for made Ottavio see red and sealed Don Giovanni’s fate.
At that point, Brian tightened his jaw and clenched his hands into fists under the counter. It wouldn’t have gone that far, were it not for a sinister creature known as Il Burattinaio, the Puppeteer. He speculated the tense relationship between the two Sforzas, father and son, the jealousy and envy Ottavio felt for his brother Martino and the love bordering obsession he had for that young man.
That monster took all those emotions and twisted them into a rope he used for tying Ottavio to him. Alternating between flattering and praising to mockery and belittling, Il Burattinaio brought to the surface all the young Sforza’s hidden ambitions, fed them, and made them the central point of the younger man’s existence.
Soon, Ottavio saw Il Burattinaio as his best friend, the only one who listened to and understood him, trusting the greedy, perverted beast with his best-kept secrets and dreams. The pervert reciprocated, confessing that he lusted after Martino, only sixteen at that time, and promising to help Ottavio change the Laws if he got the boy as a reward.
At that point, Brian stopped, not sure if he wanted to continue; after all, Ottavio was Lazzaro’s cousin, too. It was bad enough that the young man would remember him as the one who killed his own father; there was no point telling him about all the horrible things he did and the pain he caused to so many people, including the librarian himself.
Brian used the story of Ottavio’s dramatic transformation to show Lazzaro that, in the wrong circumstances, even the most noble intentions can be twisted into something evil, and the purest of emotions can be used to trap one and turn them into a monster. The librarian thought the young cage fighter got the moral of the story, so he decided to stop.
He is hiding something from me, I can feel it , Lazzaro thought, as he examined Brian’s expression, in an attempt to decipher it. I wonder what it is , he continued his internal monologue, trying to figure out the answer. Most likely, Ottavio did even worse things than killing his own father.
Lazzaro shrugged; no matter what crimes his cousin committed, he paid for them, and was now laying in the same ground he put his victims in. The young cage fighter decided he wasn’t going to ask the librarian what happened next. There was, however, a question that was bothering him, and he wanted an answer to it.