Isaac's POV

"Hey," Hailey continues to softly run her hand up and down my back. I'm currently slouched over sitting in the chair that's right beside hers. "We should go check on your mom."

I nod my head and sit up straight, staring back in front of me at the black coffin that has numerous flower arrangements on top of it.

I inhale a deep subtle breath through my nose as my chest continues to get tight with each second that passes by.

I was fine, I was doing okay today, I had managed to drag myself out of bed without feeling an ounce of sadness this morning.

That's actually a lie.

I woke up feeling completely numb today and I immediately welcomed the feeling, it was better than the alternative.

I've never felt so mentally exhausted in my entire life, I've done absolutely nothing but catch up on my fathers paperwork and feel like I've been hit by a damn train and dragged down the train tracks.

Between taking care of my mother, Hailey, and The family, I've had very little time to unwind for myself. I've even considered smoking weed a couple times to get a good night's rest, but I don't want to pick up nasty habits again, especially not now with my son on the way.

Unfortunately the numbness didn't last very long, it instantly evaporated the second my fathers service started and my mom began to break down next to me and my long friend-anger quickly took its place.

I wasn't exactly sad anymore, being taught to push down my emotions; the feeling didn't linger too long. I mean don't get me wrong a part of me was still torn apart from losing my father, but now- now I was just angry and I plan on clinging onto that emotion as long as I could because the second the pain came it would be game over for me.

I've still haven't really had any time to actually grieve my fathers death, I have allowed myself to really sink in because I can't keep myself down in the dumps when I had an entire empire to run, a family to take care

So of course I choose to be angry.

Angry that my dad could even have the audacity to give up fighting and leave his wife behind. Angry that he decided to leave us before he could even meet his own grandson. Angry that he was stupid enough to know not that Cris Roxwell was going to double cross him, I mean why wouldn't he? Cris had every reason to, Pops had taken out his own father and felt the least remorse while admitting it.

I of course didn't actually have any real evidence that connected the ambush to Roxwell, but I wouldn't put it past him.

How else would they have known our exact location? Why else would he be so persistent that we go to him? How the hell did they know that he was in his own car and not in one of the SUV's. Pops would've known if we were being tailed. Everything happened so suddenly that it still doesn't make sense, something still didn't feel right, he was always one step ahead of everyone but here we were still, sitting in front of my dead fathers casket.

"Stop," Hailey whispers as she places her hand in mine, squeezing it. "Whatever you're thinking please stop."

I nod and squeeze her hand in return, "you ready?"

She leans in, placing her chin on my arm. She looks up at me and she smiles softly but I see the exhaustion behind her eyes, we're all tired. "Only if you are."

I nod and lean down to place a kiss on her forehead, "come on, lets go get you some lunch, your dad leave yet?"

She nods, "he texted saying something came up at work, to let him know when you're ready."

"We going to him or is he coming to us?"

"Whatever you want, baby, it's your choice."

I still hadn't given the police department my statement about the ambush, and I didn't plan on it, I refused to.

I actually told Hailey the closest I'll get to talking is with her dad and that's only because of his payroll with my dad- my family, myself now.

He reached out to us, explaining how crucial it was that I give him my statement because if I didn't it would make me the prime suspect in Pops murder, pinning me out to be the bad guy because I was at the scene of the chaos. They would spin it because that's what they always did to get a header out; Mafia lord's son got impatient and took out his own father- but even then, the NYPD knew that no one would be stupid enough to attack Carmelo Isaiah Matteo so I was the easy target right now, this was their way of handling the situation.

David practically begged me to give him the green light. He promised to take the heat off of me, to bend the truth from what actually happened, he would come up with a cover story because I didn't want the NYPD, or anyone else getting involved in my fathers murder. I wanted to take care of the mother fucker personally who ended Pops life.

A part of me wants to believe that he's going out of his way because he actually cares about my family, myself, but I'm not an idiot, he's doing it for his blood not mine, he's taking the heat off of my name to save his daughter and grandbaby.

Squeezing onto Hailey's hand we get up from the chairs and stand up. We were the last two sitting down because I had my men clear out the cemetery of anyone who wasn't family or close friends when the service ended. Hundreds of people attempted to attend my fathers funeral but if I didn't know you personally, you were getting in through the cemetery gates.

One I didn't care to share my family's grief with the outside world, two my family was still under attack and I didn't want to take any chances, the more heads my men allowed in the less safer my family was.

I tried asking ma one last time before we left the house this morning if shen was sure she wanted the casket close, because I for one needed to see his corpse lying in the casket to believe he's actually gone, but Beans instantly intervened saying that both my mother and I didn't need to see my father lifeless; to remember him the way we want too and my mother didn't argue with him demanding it stayed shut.

I didn't want to disobey my mom, I wanted to make this as easy as I could for her, be there for her, but I also needed to see that he was actually gone. I personally sent Beans and Dom out at the crack of dawn to check the casket before it left to the cemetery and felt my world shift for a second time when Dom called, confirming what I was praying wasn't true.

A part of me deep down inside still didn't want to believe it, I still wanted to believe that it was all a lie, I wanted to believe that Dom was in on whatever the hell was going on but I heard the pain in his voice and instantly regretted sending him to do my dirty work.

Dominic was my dads oldest loyal friend, they met at such a young age in my dads life that they literally grew up and grew into the men they were/are now.

Hanging onto Hailey's hand we begin to walk down the middle aisle of the white folded empty chairs. My mothers over near where the trucks are parked with Sal trying to pull herself together for what feels like the 10th time this morning.

As much as I hated Sal right now for abandoning his kids after he lost his wife, I'm glad that he was able to pull through and come back to his family because he's been a blessing at taking care of my mom whenever I'm not around.

Nathaniel absolutely hates me for allowing his dad to move back into the house and has done everything in his power to avoid him and me which means I'm going to have to break him in and set the two of them down so they can get over whatever differences they have.

I personally want to beat Nate's ass for being such a fucking handful, but I'm trying to give him the benefit of doubt especially now that I can relate to him.

I'm also still trying to defuse the tension between him and Ric because Ric has it set in his mind that Carmen and Nate are fucking around with each other and the only way ima get some real truth to that is if I ask Rodriguez myself because I don't believe half the shit that comes out of Nate's high ass mouth.

"Isaac.." A soft feminine voice calls behind me as Hailey and I continue to make our way across the field.

We turn around to find none other than Brielle Molezzo standing there, wearing all black just like everyone else did today.

"Brielle," I frown almost immediately.

"Should I call you Mr. Matteo now?" She teases, a soft smile on her face.

I shake my head no, "Matteo will do, what are you doing here?"

"I-I wanted to pay my respect," she shrugs and is shifting her attention to Hailey, sticking a hand out in front of her, they have yet to meet. "Brielle," she states her name. "I'm-"

"Emiliano's ex," I push my wife's hand down as she lets go of mind and goes to shake Bri's.

My father had every intention of keeping these two separated, he had finally convinced Milo to get the back surgery we've been working up to so I intend on keeping these two separated, meaning she has to go, now.

Hailey turns to look at me, frowning already, not approving of my behavior, "babe-"

I turned back to Brielle, "you know that's not what I was referring to, Molezzo."

"I.. I can't stop thinking about him ever since we ran into each other.."

Jealousy quickly overcomes my wife and If I weren't in such a shitty mood I'd be turned on. "You ran into each other?"

I ignore Hailey's comment and lift a hand up in the air, calling a couple of my guys over to us.

Brielle turns to look behind her and is quickly looking back over at me when she notices three guys coming in our direction. "Isaac, please, I just wanna see how he's doing, it'll only take a minute."

"Is there a problem boss?" Benny looks down at Brielle real quick before looking in my direction, two more guys standing behind him.

It's honestly been hell trying to remember all the new recruits names, I only had the need to know the important faces before because no one else mattered, funny how that's changed.

"You can either leave on your own, Bri, or my men can escort you out. Please don't make me embarrass you today and cause a scene at my father's funeral."

Brielle turns to look at the three men behind her for about a second before she turns back to Hailey and I. Hail instantly looks down at the ground as Bri's attention lingers on her a second longer than I would like.

I make a mental note to remind myself to thank my wife later and praise her for not intervening in my 'work business.'

Brielle's attitude quickly changes to wards me as stupidity- or bravery as she would like to think takes over her.

"You don't own him, Isaac. Emiliano's his own person. He can do what he wants, he can make his own choices and I'm willing to bet he would choose to talk to me, even if it's for just a second."

I scoff and watch Benny pull his gun out from behind him and grab a hold of Brielle's arm, jabbing his gun into her rib cage, "it's Mr. Matteo angel."

"I-I can't," Hailey stammers softly as she lets go of my hand. "I'm gonna go check on your mom," she whispers in my ear.

I nod and lean down to place a kiss on her forehead and one of the guys that walk over with Benny is walking Hail over to the parked trucks, where my mother's waiting with her brother still.

"What happened to you? Where's the guy from two weeks ago that wanted to reunite us back together," Brielle mumbles under her breath. I can tell she's still trying to be brave. She grew up in our lifestyle, she grew up under Milo's watch meaning she knows how to handle herself, she has a backbone just like Angela does, but I hear the shake in her voice, she's intimidated now.

"Dead," I answered, my back still to her as I watched Hailey make her way up to my mother. I turn around to face Bri. "Just like my father."

"Isaac-"

"Tell your boyfriend I'm coming for him, Bri. Tell him that he's gonna regret ever crossing me and my family."

Brielle doesn't say anything, she looks up in my direction, fear and sadness installed in her. "He's not my boyfriend," her voice cracks at the softness of it.

"Tell him anyways," I snarl, waving Benny off of her and he's immediately taking a step back as I take a step forward, getting in Bri's face. "You're so confident that he'll welcome you back into his life as you hadn't completely broke him, then by all means." I take a step to the side and wave a hand to my left, to a group of men that's standing a few feet away. Milo just so happens to be with that group, talking, laughing. "Please, go to him, I want to see this, no- I need to see this."

She looks in that direction for a few seconds and is then softly shaking her head, looking down at the ground.

"Better yet, here, I'll bring him to you."

"Isaac, stop-"

I stick both of my pinkies in my mouth and whistle loudly getting every single one of my guys attention, everyone that's around us actually.

"Isaac, please," Bri continues pleading.

Looking in Sax direction, I stick a hand up about mid air and call I'm over to us.

He's not in his wheelchair today, he's actually standing, a cane in his hand to hold him up, and I couldn't be more proud of him. Jer's standing close to him just in case anything does happen and he needs assistance.

I turn back to Brielle as Sax, Jer, and even Leo, make their way slowly to us and I'm getting back in her face.

"You wanted to see how he's doing, well there you go," I pointed towards the men coming in our direction. "You may have been the love of his life, Bri, but don't forget you were also his biggest regret after you gave up on him. And yeah you're right, I don't own him, yes- he is allowed to make his own choices, but what I do own these days is his loyalty, and I can promise you that if I asked him to bark he'll bite and you wanna know why?"

She stays silent as her eyes begin to fill up with tears.

"Because you turned him into the monster that I restrain now."

Her bottom lip begins to quiver as she looks up through her glossy eyes, a tear managing to trail down her face.

"Bri?"

I don't need to turn back to see that there's a frown on Milo's face, I can hear it in his voice.

Brielle quickly wipes the tears from her face as I take a step to the side.

"Hi," she forces a smile on her face.

Sax frown only deepens as he takes a weak step forward, suddenly losing his strength because I watch Jer take a step forward as Milo's arm shakes and is looking in my direction, "the hell is this?" He turns to his ex-girlfriend. "The hell are you doing here?"

"Paying my respect," she answers. "I heard you were out and wanted to check up on you."

It's damn near impossible to hide the smirk on my face when I hear Milo scoff, loudly.

"Now you feel like talking? Now you feel like checking in?"

"Emiliano-"

"You can either call me Milo or Sax, I stopped going by that name years ago."

Brielle stays quiet for a couple seconds, her voice coming out softer than before, "I just thought that-"

"You just thought that what? We pick up right where we left of?" He retorts. "Of all the things you could've came back for this is what you show up for?"

"Hey," Jer placed a hand in front of Milo, his chest, standing him up straight, "take a breather kid."

Milo winces a bit as he adjusts his stand, "honestly, Brielle, the hell did you expect from me? That I'd be over the fucking moon when I saw you? This isn't your first time coming back to the U.S."

She looks away from him, down at the grass.

"What?" Milo scoffs. "You didn't think I'd keep tabs on you before I got locked up? That I wouldn't find out?"

"You know why I couldn't reach out.."

"Lemme guess and now that she's gone you wanna make amends."

"I just- I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"How do you think I'm doing, Brielle?!" She looks back down at the ground. "Look at me!" He growls and she's immediately flinching looking up at him. "Why the fuck do you care now?!"

She shakes her head frantically, "I never stopped caring, Emiliano!"

"I fucking told you, Brielle, I fucking told you that I would've gotten out for you! I would've given you the world because you were all I cared about. I promised that I would've taken you away from her, from everything, I would've protected you but you didn't believe in me, I wasn't good enough for you then.. And even after you left- like an idiot I still tried to get you back, I begged you to come back and do you remember what you said to me?"

"Milo-"

"You told me to stop, that I was wasting my time so let me return the favor.. Stop wasting your fucking time and go back to whatever hole you crawled out of and stop worrying about me, Bri."

Brielle's breath hitches as tears begin to stream down her face and a loud bike engine rev is breaking the tension between the two, causing everyone to look in their direction.

It's Ric and Aj.

Both idiots are sitting on top of their bikes, their helmets on already, revving their engines as a third one passes them revving it as well. Fucking Nathaniel.

I scan the field for the last bike that I'm looking for to find Metcalf sitting on top of his, the furthest away from the bunch.

I stick my pinkies back into my mouth and whistle a second time getting his attention.

I point towards my cousin who's flying out of the cemetery like there aren't people walking around. "FOLLOW HIM!" I shout.

Babycakes nods his head and is quickly putting his helmet on and taking off a couple seconds later after Nate.

Another person who I assumed was gonna be a pain in my ass; Ian Metcalf. Surprisingly he's been real cooperative with my transition to take over, putting his differences aside.

I look over at Benny who's still a couple feet away from Brielle and tilt my head to the side, "get her the hell out of here before I really lose my patience."

Benny nods, "yes sir," and reaches for Bri's arm.

I don't miss the way Milo watches him, his gaze instantly dropping down to Benny's grip on her bicep. He still cares for her, I know he does, it's obvious. He's just too stubborn and talking out of anger to let himself admit it.

"C'mon Ms. Molezzo."

Brielle immediately pulls her arm away from my guy and Sax quickly goes into high alert when Benny takes another step towards her.

"I really am sorry, Emiliano. A part of me will always love you," her voice breaks. "I wish you nothing but the best in life and your recovery, I hope you find genuine happiness," she adds before walking away.

"You good?" I turn to Sax to find his chest heaving as he watches Brielle get further and further away.

He nods silently.

"Go home and get some rest," I commanded.

He looks in my direction. "You know- I may be temporarily disabled right now, KP, but my hands work just fine. He puts his hands on her one more time and I'll put a bullet in between his eyes."

This makes me laugh.

I walk up to him and kick his cane out of his hand causing him to lose his balance and Jeremiah's quick to catch him before he falls to the ground, but not before earning a painful groan from him.

I crouch down to Milo as Jer tries to get him to stand up straight and grab his face, "make sure that you can stand up straight before you try and talk down on me, Emiliano."

*** I decided to take the rest of the day to myself and came home with Hailey and my mother after Pops funeral, and only because Dominic demanded that I did. He was sure that he could handle everything for the rest of the day today, or even for the next couple days if I needed to spend time with my family.

As grateful as I was for him suggesting that it was definitely not gonna happen. My father never took more than a day to himself when an inconvenience happened, and I sure as hell wasn't about too, tonight would be just fine.

I actually took ma and Hailey out to eat in town to keep my mother out of the house today and was actually relieved to see that she nearly ate half of her food, she barely had any type of appetite.

After lunch we came home and changed into a little more comfortable clothes and begged ma to come hang out in the living room with Hailey and I.

I'd do anything to keep her from being locked up in her room all day and night and to my surprise she actually agreed. Hailey threw on a movie and about half an hour into it ma was completely out on the couch. She of course woke up almost instantly after the movie and decided that she had enough socializing for the day and headed back up stairs to shower and get some more rest.

It's currently 8:24pm and Hailey and I are back in our room, laying in bed as she catches up on her show. I actually took about a two hour nap and woke up with the biggest headache. My body's definitely not used to sleeping so much nowadays.

"What are you thinking about?" Hailey questions as she looks up at me, she's currently laying curled up next to me, her hand draped over me.

I shake my head a million and one things running through my head right now that I can't pick just one topic to talk about.

She pushes herself up, sitting beside me now. "Isaac, talk to me, what's going on in your head?"

I inhale a deep breath and sit up with her, my back against the headboard now. "Do you remember when we first met?"

"Of course," she smiles. "You shoved me into a locker."

I chuckle softly, "technically Cris did, he shoved me into you."

She giggles softly, "what about it baby?"

I stay quiet for a few seconds reminiscing back to when Hailey and I first met. All the good and bad things, especially the bad.

"Isaac?"

"You were so terrified of me.." I mutter.

She frowns, tilting her head to the side a bit, placing her hand on top of mine, "that's only because I didn't know you back then, I only knew the stories."

"My dad-" I feel my voice instantly crack. "He never talked to my mom about his business, I mean he did, but to a certain degree and I don't want to keep you in the blind, Hail."

She frowns looking over at me, not entirely sure where this conversation is heading.

I inhale another deep breath and say, "I'm about to become someone you're probably gonna hate and I really don't want to lose you in that process."

"Isaac, do you see this?" She lifts up her left hand, showing me her twenty thousand dollar wedding ring.

She originally had an eighty thousand dollar princess cut diamond, but when she questioned me the worth of the jewel I couldn't lie to her and she demanded that I take it back because she didn't feel comfortable wearing such an expensive ring.

Eighty grand was nothing to my family, it hardly made a dent in our fortune. Eighty grand was chum change to my father but to Hailey it was ridiculously stupid. Something I genuinely love about her, her humility.

"This," she points to the ring, "means that I'm not going anywhere, Antonio. This," she grabs my hand and places it on her baby bump. "This is your son in here, baby, I'm not going anywhere. You're stuck with us for the rest of your life. I'm not going anywhere no matter how hard or ugly it gets."

I lean in to kiss her and she's kissing me back eagerly. "I hated that you walked away from me at the cemetery. I hated that you had to see that side of me."

"I did it for my own comfort not because I couldn't bear to see you in your full on boss mode," she explains. "She kept looking at me as if she wanted me to help her, get her out of the situation and it made me feel guilty so I walked away."

"Yeah I figured, I saw it almost instantly when she looked in your direction, I think that's why I got so agitated when you left."

"Things will always make me uncomfortable, baby, it's gonna take time, but don't let that stop you from becoming the king these men want you- no need you to be. I understand that they want vengeance, that you do. I understand that you have to be ruthless. You become who you need to be, Isaac, I'll be right here at home waiting for you on your bad days to pull you out of your head, remind you of who you really are. I'll be here to hold you up when you don't think you're being strong enough, when you think you're letting him down. I'll be here to celebrate your victory, accomplishments, I am not going anywhere."

*** Queue the waterworks 😩😭