I stand next to my father as he has a few conversations with a few of his political colleagues who have brought their fake condolences, and their fake sadness.

I wish all of these people didn't come. They didn't know my mother and I feel like they didn't deserve to be at her send off. But, lo and behold, she had a husband, and he made all the decisions.

I don't even know why my father tolerates all these people. Most of them he didn't even look like he likes at all, and some he got away from as soon as he humanly could.

When we finally drive back to the manor after and we don't say anything to each other in the car, but I see his furrowed brows. It is just me and him. The boys disappeared sometime, I guess to give me and my father space with the new people in our world.

When we drive in at home, we find the cars of the other families and I feel a sense of dread. It feels worse than 9 years ago, granted none of us knew what was going on then. I feel like whatever will happen today I know it'll change the course of all our lives.

It feels like its part 2 of what happened 9 years ago, and I can't believe they had to wait for my mother's funeral. I try to stomp on my own feelings, fearing what he could discover I did from the other fathers inside. I put on my brave face. The dominoes will fall where they will and there is nothing I can do now anyway.

My father doesn't seem fazed. Like he knew they'd be here. We walk inside the house, and we find them comfortable in the living room. The fathers all have drinks in hand. The boys are on the couches.

Mason and Leo's father are at the large window overlooking my mother's rose garden, and they are talking about something that seems serious. Bas's father is sitting on the bar stool with Bas and Jose's father is at the couches with Mason, Jose and Leo. All eyes snap to us when we walk in. I do notice that none of the mothers are here.

"I don't remember inviting you for the after-tears." My father says and the head housekeeper comes with a worried expression, I'm guessing to explain them, but my father dismisses her with his hand.

"Last time I checked we didn't need invites to each other's houses, brother." Jose's father rises from the couch and approaches. The other fathers do with the boys in tow. It feels very much like an impending showdown.

My father sucks his teeth before he heads to the bar.

"So, are you here to dry my tears or are you here for something else." My father turns with a whiskey in hand and a glass. He pours his drink without even looking at it

"Always so arrogant, Sean. You could never see even when you had a bad hand, and you were losing. Your hubris is your undoing." Bas father says

"Let me guess, you are all here to hand me my ass.' He looks at everyone in the room. "Well pray tell, what grand scheme have you cooked for me this time?" his gaze lands on me and I flinch. He looks away from me and I hope he didn't notice.

"We aren't here for all that but we do want to bring a...business opportunity for us all." Mason's father says, all business like. I want to run and hide myself because this is it. what will my father think? How angry will he be at me for letting my guard down and handing people who want to harm him leverage on a silver platter?

My father chuckles and it fills the vast space. "Nathan, you can stop all that proper business etiquette, why don't you tell me why you motherfuckers are here and how you used my daughter to get it."

The whole room goes silent,

"We haven't used her," Mason says

All eyes turn to me, and I want to hide my face.

"Then tell me, Spark, what is the proposition that couldn't wait even a day after I buried my wife?" my father raises his voice

Silence.

"Tell me how you plan on screwing me the fuck over using my own child, you sick fuck."

"I wouldn't shout so loud if I were you, you don't have the power here, Brain."

"And I guess you do?"

"We don't have to do this, dad." Bas says looking at the fathers

"Oh no but we do. I'm sorry you lost Marcy, but she was our friend too once. But this isn't about that. You are announcing your intentions in a week, and we are here to collect what you owe us." Mason's father says

"Collect? Owe? From me? Do you fucking hear yourself?" he pauses. "I just lost my wife. I know we aren't anything anymore, but fuck. Are you seriously doing this?"

"Wasn't it you who always said to strike your enemy at their lowest?" Bas's father says

"Not...we...." My father blows a breath. "We used to be brothers."

"And you betrayed us. Tammy almost died because of you." Jose's father accuses

"But she didn't! She didn't! And have you ever asked yourself why the Russians failed on that job?" my father throws the glass on the floor and the sound echoes the whole grand space.

The other fathers and the boys look confused.

"The local gang wa..." Jose's father attempts, but he doesn't look that sure,

"There was no fucking gang!!! You think those fuckers would have helped you after what we did? That was me! I sent the snipers. I!" my father shouts.

The air gets zapped out of the large space, and it feels like a small elevator. A few seconds of utter silence pass. It is the calm before the dam breaks.

"No, that's impossible. It couldn't have." Bas's father says as if he's contemplating it.

"Why? Because I betrayed you?" my father asks incredulously

"You...?" Leo's father speaks for the first time, and he comes forward. "Brain, what the fuck did you do?"

My father just pants, and he doesn't answer. Everybody waits on bated breath for his next words. None of us know what's going on. Only he has the answers. He sent the snipers that killed the Russian attackers that cornered the Cabrera's in Cuba? What does that even mean? What does all of it mean?

"Brain, you....you lied to us?" Leo's dad asks as he stands a few feet away from my father and the one closest to him.

My father shakes his head like he's said something he wasn't supposed to.

"Fuck..." he mutters and rubs his eyes

"Brain, what the fuck did you do?" Bas's father gets closer and so do the others and so do I.

"I got intel, an international broker...information. We had made so much noise internationally that the American bratva, the London yakuza and the Sicilian mafia were all after us, you remember. They knew we were coming for them. They knew about the plans to close and take the south, there were leaks. It was bad, it was worse than we thought. None of us would have made it. but not just them, the government too. The contract had been issued and had a date... the government had the files, but...." He pauses and goes behind the bar. I hear him talking but his sentences are incoherent; he isn't making any sense.

No one moves as he pours himself a drink.

"I never betrayed you. At least not in the way you think. I was...I had to save our lives. We were all gonna either end up dead or in jail. It was over." He says vaguely

"Tell us everything, Brain."

"It doesn't matter anymore, Jamie. It's the past. You are alive. You can say thank you." He opens his arms, mocking but his face communicates much more sadness and pain than he could say.

"Brain!!! You better fucking tell us everything." Jose's father says

"You owe us, and our kids the truth." Bas's father says

"After whatever you sent your deepshits to do to my daughter you think I still fucking owe you, mother fucker?" my father's voice comes out hard.

"Well, we wouldn't be here if you just came to us!"

"You wouldn't have what? What the fuck did you have your boys do to my child?" my father comes around from the bar.

"Tell us the truth, Sean." Leo's father says in aa calm tone, trying to deescalate the situation.

"Tell us!!!" Jose's father shouts stepping closer to invade my father's personal space.

"Fuck you, asshole." My father dismisses him, and Jose's father is on mine at lightning speed, but Mason and Bas are on him, and they grab him away from my dad who doesn't even flinch.

"Collect your kids and get the fuck out of my house." My father glares.

"Tough shit cause we not leaving till we solve this. I don't hear you talking."

"What the fuck do you want, Nathan? You want me to show you my book of poems I've written about you? Fuck off." My father pours himself a drink.

Mason's father tilts his head, and they all stand, waiting for him to continue.

After minutes of a standoff my father empties the half glass of whiskey in his mouth in one go. He shakes his head as he places the glass on the table.

"What did you do with the hard drive, Sean?" Mason's father asks. I guess that has been a question everybody wanted to know.

My father stares at his brothers then the boys then lastly me and I see the years in his eyes. He's weary. Like me, the years without his best friends has been hard on him.

"That was to keep you in line. You dickheads would have never understood, I had to get something to get you to back off from me. I knew..." then he trails off

"We wouldn't be able to see past you betraying us." Leo's father says in a low voice

"I don't understand. You didn't giv-""

"No, it was never for that. I still have the damn thing in a box."

A heavy silence descends on the room.

My father's throat bops before he continues, "When the alphabets were closing in on us, I knew we were in shit. I saw what they had. There was nothing we could have done. Because of my involvement as a mayor, the investigation was going to be big. But I had garnered the public support, the vote they needed, I wasn't that easy to get rid of, it was going to look bad for the organization too, remember election time, we were going to take them down with us. So, I negotiated a deal for us with the political kingmakers. In turn, they locked me in a contract. You continued with your business, and I..."

"The political puppet." Leo's father finishes.

It happens in a blink of an eye and Jose's father punches my father. My father staggers back but he recovers and blocks the next one before giving one back. The other fathers nor the guys don't seem that interested in separating them this time.

"Fuck is your problem, Mateo?" my father spits blood and Jose's father does the same

"We fucking owe you, mother fucker."

The air is deadly tense after and all the fathers stare at my father, so do the boys. We all process my father's confessions.

All this information overwhelms and twists my brain.

My father never betrayed them.

All this shit was for nothing.

I have suffered for nothing.

Bile rises in my belly, and I empty my stomach on the floor. Hands steady me and someone holds my hair. I pant when I finish.

Fuck.

I hope no one thinks anything of it. I look up to see all their worried looks and without thinking I run upstairs. I can't be around that many stares.

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