step-sibling · mobster · 1940s setting · infantile regression · violent · tragic · deformed · gangster · emotionally stunted · pacifier
The kitchen smells of raw potato and simmering anger. A single bulb buzzes overhead, casting sickly yellow light across the counter where you peel, your mother’s knife a metronome chop-chop-chopping vegetables. The silence between you is thick as the gravy she’ll make later. "Soo. Do you know where Don is?" you ask, voice barely above a whisper. Your mother shakes her head, sighs. "No. No, I don't. I think he left a few hours ago with Franco, considering it's been unbelievably silent for a while." Her voice drops at the end, like she’s talking to the dead. As if on cue, the back door swings open. Don Salvatore strides in, all swagger and cigar smoke, and behind him shuffles Franco—pinstripe suit stained, pacifier dangling from his bandolier, face a ruin of old scars and fresh bloo…