Freedom

A story about a lawyer who tried to save a girl from the hold of the strongest mafia in New York City. But the relationship between the girl and the mafia had a deep secret. Can the girl be saved?

                Where I am now and my situation would be because of my own doing. Being one of the best lawyer in New York and an apprentice of the best of the best lawyer in New York City would get you to a place like this. Frederic Rocco had 98% of successful rate, and thousands of people would kill for my position.

                After finishing law school at Harvard with one of the best scores in my year, I applied to a law firm and won my first ten cases.  I earned all my promotions and by the end of the tenth month I held some of the most important cases to date. Then, one of Mr. Rocco’s assistant called me personally and I was taken to his office. I was told that from then on I would be one of his law firm’s board members. He said, everything was taken care of back in my old law firm and starting next week I would be working under his name. I was only twenty three, and I felt like on top of the world. Little did I know.

                Frederic Rocco himself is a big guy with a sinister looking smile. He has thick grey beard and mustache, he smokes cigars everyday and he doesn’t shake other people’s hands. His deep vocal chords has the most charisma out of all his features.

                I only knew that he was involved with mafia after working for three months. Georg, one of the board members, and the only young board members other than me, told me about his involvement after the Magnolia case happened. The Magnolia case is where the three heads of mafia families in New York killed each others’ mistress for threats. The murders were solved, however somehow no one went to jail.

                After the Magnolia case, we hold the most important case in mafia history, and somehow I was in it. The election for NYC mayor was coming up, and the mayor to-be, Ben Dreslin, was found murdered in Bilottis territory. The son of Bilottis, Colin Bilotti, was the suspect because of the DNA found on the murder scene.

                Somehow, Mr. Rocco found me eligible to handle this case alongside him. So I was taken  personally with Frederic to the Bilottis homebase.

                You see, what I expected from a head of a mafia family was a fat thick bearded man, short tempered and shouts a lot, spends most of his time sitting in a big cushioned chair behind his big wooden desk in a dimmed light room. You see that I was very wrong. The old Mr. Bilotti was dead, and his eldest son is now the head of the family. Thomas Bilotti was the complete opposite of what I had pictured him. He was tall muscled man in his 30s, very good looking with a calm charismatic aura about him. Colin was another copy of him but much younger with a more baby-like face, but he was taken by the police as a suspect, so he wasn’t there.

                Thomas stood up to welcome me and Frederic, he sat on his desk as Frederic kissed both his cheeks and hug him as if they’re brothers by blood. I followed along and only had the privilege to shook his hand. He was as tall as me but his eyes eyed me down somehow. I feel like a tiny piece of an unused bullet for him, and I get this feeling that I want to do my best to make him proud. There was only six people in that room; Thomas, Frederic, his personal adviser Howard, his brother Darren, a girl, and me.

                That girl is the only odd thing in the room. Everyone moves and breaths normally around Thomas, but that girl stood silently in the corner of the room with eyes fixated only on Thomas. She was a tough looking girl and I know muscles when I see them. She looks like a bodyguard but she eyed him and saw Thomas as a mistress. I know that she’s not his wife because as far as I know Thomas had never been married. She looks like she exists in that room only for Thomas and not anyone else. I only realized I was eyeing her nervously after Thomas offered his hand when the business was over.

                “Try and get familiar with this place, you’ll be coming here a lot, Henry,” he said to me. I bowed my head and smiled. Submission.

                Next day after that, Frederic sent me and Georg to the Bilottis to consult them about the case. For our arrival, the girl from the other day welcomed us in. She was wearing a tight long satin black dress with her hair untied, unlike yesterday, she was looking a bit more feminine.

                “Gentlemen, my name’s Veronica, and I’ll be escorting you to the garden,”  so we started following her without any question. She was very beautiful, her full lips and her dark green eyes were sad and gloomy but her full face was like a face of an angel. She looked like she was only in her twenties. “Thomas will be coming late, he has business downtown and asked for you to wait in the garden. I’ll be serving you some coffees. He allowed me to be interviewed first,” she said as we arrived in the garden at the back of the house. A tent was set up nicely next to the fish pond and there were very tall and big trees so we wouldn’t be very hot in suites, especially that it was summer. “Go ahead and take your seats, I’ll be right back.”

                “Hey Georg, who do you think she is? His sister?” I had to asked from the least possibility.

                “No way, have you seen him? They don’t look anything alike. She’s his mistress, his lover, or something like that,” said Georg nervously. “They say that this girl is very precious to him, but no one really knows who she is, that’s why she survived the Magnolia case. The ones that were killed was Thomas’s mistresses that were seen outside with him. But no one outside have ever really seen Veronica.”

                “So she’s his wife?”

                “No, Thomas never gets married. He has one child from one of his mistress but never a wife. Ever.”

                She was back when I was trying to ask about the child, so we were silent and awkward all the time she’s preparing the coffee. She took a sit in front of me with the most undoubtful grace I’ve ever seen. She was silently looking and staring at the pond, with only the left side of her face visible to my eyes, the other was taken by the shade. We both took a sip and opened up our notebook to start questioning.

                Throughout the interview she was very discreet about her relationship with him. She only told us that she works for him, mostly she was his personal assistant, she requires each of his needs, but she only works at home. Thomas never took her outside with him for business. We couldn’t get much information from her, but she doesn’t have any alibi since she was alone at Bilottis homebase by the time the murder took place. The interview went on until Thomas, Howard, Darren and some other men that personally works for him came to get interviewed. It was a long day, and Thomas haven’t told us who did it, but he made it clear to make his name clean from any murder.

                The next day, a witness came to the police and stated that the last person that was seen with Ben Dreslin was a woman. It was no surprise since Ben had his reputation with women. This was bad news for Veronica, she was the only woman known to be close with Thomas other than his mistresses. Colin wasn’t married, and Darren’s wife had a solid alibi. There were Darren’s mistresses but she hardly fits the profile. Colin’s mistress was a bit more fit, but Veronica had the most shaky background. I requested a meeting with Veronice to Thomas. Thomas immediately sent her to me in a dark black sedan.

                I told Georg about this and he immediately remembered about some rumours within the family. “Henry, someone that was inside of the family told me a story about a kidnapping of a girl eleven years ago. It was a daughter of a judge that sent Theodore Bilotti, the brother of the head of the family back then, to prison, an enemy to the Bilottis. The Bilottis brothers were the suspect but the case was never solved because there are evidence that the girl was already dead. But there was never any dead body, Henry. They say Veronica is her, but the girl’s name was Clare. Then, Thomas was already about nineteen. The story fits, Henry, the story fits,” said Georg. Speechless as I am, I thank Georg anyways for the information.

                As soon as i stepped in the car, her face was the only one I’m seeing. There were Thomas’s personal bodyguard with her, but I barely saw him. We drove for a while and stopped in front of a kindergarden park, Veronica asked the bodyguard and the driver to step out.

                She was silent, so I took the lead, “Clare, is it?” It was probably me, but I saw a hint of surprise in her eyes.

                “It’s Veronica, Henry,” she said, convincing herself and me.

                “Look, you’re on dangerous grounds here, Clare. I need to know everything about you. Let’s start on how you end up here.” I can see she hesitates but at least, she looked at me in the eyes. “Let me tell you this, Clare. It’s not just about the interview or the case anymore. I’m concerned about this beautiful girl who spends her time everyday around one of the most dangerous man in New York, and how you stay inside all the time. Tell me, are you still kidnapped? Even now? Because I see no freedom in your eyes, Clare.”

                “So what if my life is fixated on this one man? The one who feeds me, took me in his care, and saved me from myself?” I can see that she regretted it as soon as she said it.  I don’t stop her, I can only saw her with non judgmental eyes.

                “So it’s true then, you’re kidnapped?”

                “No, I wasn’t.. you don’t understand. I wasn’t kidnapped. To be honest, I don’t remember much from my childhood. Thomas’s dad took me home. He was the cold and cruel one, but Thomas has always been nice to me. He feeds me when I can’t even as much look into anyone’s eyes. Thomas can be cruel, but that’s not his fault, I like to say that it’s his father who made him that way. As a scared little child, I pushed him away many times, but he still took care of me. And now, I have to take care of him, no matter how many times he pushed me away,” she said with this stubbornness look in her eyes. Can’t she see?

                “Can’t you see, Clare? That’s the worst kind of kidnapping there is. His dad told him to be nice to you. I believe that’s the story. I agree, Thomas’s dad was very cruel, he made a bond between you two, a bond that can’t be broken. A bond between a victim and a savior. There’s a saying that a victim, if kidnapped too long, there is a point in which they can’t even tell what’s good or bad anymore. All they know is that their kidnapper is the single source of life. And so the victim fell in love with their kidnapper. Making a bond that is tighter than a bond of a God and his creation. But you see, Clare, the kidnapper remains free, but the victim can no longer know what freedom is.”

Author's Note

All the names in this story are fictional. This work is an amateur, and I apologize beforehand for the mistakes in this story. Thank you for reading!