Chapter 3 - The Phone in the Paper Sleeve
Jenny remained completely frozen in front of her son’s sofa, her dark, tired eyes wide with absolute shock and lingering terror.
She had absolutely no idea who this tall, terrifyingly handsome man in the expensive coat was, or why he had just saved her.
Marco took a slow, deep breath, instantly forcing the dark, violent mafia boss deep down inside himself to avoid scaring her further.
He slowly reached into his deep coat pocket and gently pulled out the familiar brown paper bag from the pharmacy.
He carefully placed it on the small, scratched wooden coffee table directly in front of Jenny.
“There are three maximum-strength inhalers in that bag,” Marco said softly, his deep voice carrying a strange, completely unexpected gentleness.
Jenny stared at the brown bag as if it were an absolute miracle, her hands shaking violently.
She immediately dropped to her knees, tearing the bag open and pulling out one of the plastic inhalers.
She turned to her struggling son, pressing the device to his pale lips and instructing him to breathe deeply.
Marco stood completely still in the corner of the room, watching the little boy take a long, desperate breath of the lifesaving medicine.
Within seconds, the terrifying, agonizing wheezing sound stopped, and the heavy, painful color slowly returned to the child’s small face.
Jenny collapsed against the edge of the sofa, burying her face in her hands as she finally broke down into heavy, silent tears of sheer relief.
Marco felt a sharp, agonizing ache in his chest, a profound emotion he had not allowed himself to feel in over a decade.
He walked quietly over to the small kitchen counter, making absolutely sure his heavy footsteps did not startle her.
He gently placed her cracked, blue-cased iPhone down on the chipped formica surface.
Next to the phone, he placed the exact one hundred and eighty dollars in cash she had received from his pawn shop.
Jenny wiped her eyes and slowly stood up, looking at the familiar phone and the money with absolute confusion.
“Why are you doing this for us?” Jenny whispered, her voice cracking heavily with exhaustion and raw emotion.
“Nobody does something like this for free in this city.”
Marco looked deeply into her beautiful, exhausted eyes, seeing the exact same fierce, desperate maternal love his own mother had possessed.
“I am not asking you for anything, Jenny,” Marco promised quietly, completely ignoring the fact that he was breaking every rule of his dark world.
“Just focus on keeping your son completely safe.”
He turned around and walked out of the apartment, the heavy door closing silently behind him.
Jenny rushed to the window, pulling back the faded curtain just in time to see the imposing man climb into a massive, armored black SUV.
She slowly walked over to the kitchen counter and picked up her returned phone, her hands still trembling from the adrenaline.
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Tucked neatly inside the frayed blue case was a crisp, completely black business card with a single name printed in silver ink.
Marco Vitelli.
