Chapter 163 - An Explanation

Lena couldn't tell by the expression Jovani's face if he was being serious when he said this about Marco or if he was making some kind of joke. 

"In what way do you mean when you say that?" The princess clarified as her mind started turning on what this would mean with everything moving forward. For one it meant that she was going to have to be very careful about who was invited to the engagement party. She didn't want to deal with another situation with someone who had the potential to be more threatening than Jovani was. 

"I mean in the sense of someone who would be willing to do irrational things to get what they want because they think that their views and values are the absolute right way to live within the mafia lifestyle." Jovani replied as he fiddled with the sheath of the knife still in his hands. 

"I can't exactly say why or where it started since it came from his father but he didn't used to be that way until he got older. It could be said that in some ways the Vedova Nera is a rather harsh group to work with in the way we run things, but we do things straight forward and upfront." He explained. He was trying to think about the best way to explain how they operated. 

"Marcus's father was Francisco. For a long while he and the head of the family worked well together considering that they were brothers. One of four brothers to exact." He paused again as he set the knife down. 

"I'm not exactly sure what caused him to change, I think that it was the frustration that there were other groups encroaching upon the family territory and rather than 'dealing' with them, the head of the family worked to create treaties with them so that they shared the territory rather than continued to rule it with an iron fist. Francisco didn't agree with this method as he thought the end result of this would be that it would make the family appear weaker and decrease the chance of being able to handle an attack." Lena listened quietly as she was processing everything he was saying.

That was certain something that had never been a problem within her family before.  Julia and Zane had always worked well together and shared a lot of the similar views and values. Certainly her father worked hard to change some things once his father had retired and he was in complete control, but the changes he made were softer changes to benefit making the Red Scorpion harder to those on the outside but more careful of those within the family. 

"What did he do then in response to what he didn't like?" The princess asked, Jovani sighed in response to this question and rolled his eyes. 

"He thought that he would be able to successfully stage a coup if he waited long enough to prove that his complaints and concerns were warranted by what would come in the months after they began to share their territory. They didn't of course as the head of the family knew exactly what he was doing." He answered. 

"This didn't satisfy Francisco either though, because he was upset about the lower approval rate that followed his baseless claims within the family. He didn't really have much of a leg to stand on when it came to trying to overthrow his brother, that didn't stop him however and the end result was that he was excommunicated." 

"It wasn't just because of that however that he was excommunicated. Behind the scenes Francisco was trying to take into his hand to use underhanded methods to eliminate what he perceived was potential competition among other families. This included innocent members of family that could be used as bait if and when necessary to get what he wanted. 

"That would create a reasonable explanation as to why Marcus is doing what he is doing, for revenge is it?" Samuel asked. At least what he understood from his perspective it sounded like a sun who was trying to get revenge for his father who had been wronged. 

"Not quite." Jovani corrected as he folded his hands on his lap, looking over at his cousin as he answered his question. 

"It would certainly make sense for what he's doing to be actions rooted within the desire to get revenge for what happened to his father. The problem with that however is the fact that he used to think that father was wrong when he was younger as well."

"Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that crazy runs in that side of my family from the mother's side or something. But as Marcus got older he started to think that maybe his father wasn't wrong in what he wanted to do. Maybe it was time for a change to the way things had always been one. One that relied on a harsher set of rules and a different way about handling situations." Jovani had honestly been disappointed when Marcus had started talking to him like this. His once sweet cousin who had promised to take over the family with them and run it together in the right kind of way was becoming like this father.

"I would like to say that it is water under the bridge for us now that we both decided to go our separate ways. That was until he found out about Samuel and reached out to me with the bet."

"You never really did explain what the bet was." Lena pointed out, interjected into what he was saying. 

"I suppose I didn't did I?" He answered back thoughtfully. 

"It was a pretty straight forward bet honestly. He was one who originally found out about Samuel and after not hearing from for over a year, he sent me a text and his picture. The bet was basically whoever managed to get to him first and convince him to come back to the family would be the next in line to succeed the current head of the family." The unspoken part as he looked between them was clearly saying- "And you can see who won that bet.". 

"Why did the bet become about me though considering I have never been a part of the family?" Samuel then asked. This was something that Lena had been wanting to understand as well. 

"Complicated matters that will be explained to you once you come back with me and I can better explain things with the help of other members of the family." Jovani replied brushing off his question. He had his own reasons for not wanting to say anything yet and he hoped that there wouldn't be too much pressure for him to have to say anything before he got to do what he wanted to. 

"Since you won though, why doesn't Marcus just accept the fact that that things turned out this way and let everything be." Jovani let out a sharp bark of a laugh in response to Lena's question.

"That's the part that I think you're not understanding princes- he might've lost the bet but in his mind it isn't a good enough reason to drop everything. In his mind he probably thinks that I cheated in order get ahead, but fact is I just happen to be a better strategist than he is." It was one of the few qualities that he was proud of when he was younger. 

As a kid it made him look impressive because when he and his cousins would play games such as Risk or War, he was always the one to win or last longer than most of the others. He knew how to think ten steps ahead and how to make feints as well to get people to believe what he wanted them to. He had tried to teach Marcus what he knew, but the other never became quiet as good as him. 

"While I don't think that he's going to start anything anytime soon as he's probably still nursing his wounds from such a blow to his ego. I can't speak of what he might do in the future. I can't even say currently where he and the few members of the family who decided to leave with him went. I would assume though that he still resides somewhere with Jersey since he came to visit you Princess, but where exactly is something that I can't figure out." 

That news didn't bode well with Lena. She didn't like having an unknown potential enemy so close to the family. If it was true that he was potentially a sociopath, he wouldn't exactly be that easy to pin down either. 

She would have to find a way to address this problem before it became too big. The Vedova Nera and Red Scorpions weren't the only groups such a person could latch themselves onto if they requested assistance with something.. Who would be the most likely was the question that she would have to look into later.