Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 505 -

*Tallon*

"Welcome your new Don, Tallon."

As the words echoed through the air, in and out of the ears of all fifty people who had been waiting all night to hear who would lead them after Giovani, I wondered a little hysterically, if it was possible for a heart to beat out of a person's chest. Surely, it was impossible. Right?

Because there was no way the rhythmic pounding in my head, similar to a drum line of the repetitive songs they play at the clubs, was actually my heart trying to rip through my ribcage and onto the dining table. That would have been awkward.

I didn't think anybody would want a gross bloody mess of an organ on their dessert plates.

And I was no doctor. Didn't pay five minutes of attention in health class except to doodle penises in my textbook for the fun of it, but I'm pretty sure a person couldn't live without their heart. Not even vampires can live without their hearts, and they're undead. Though I was pretty sure zombies could.

But again, that was beside the point.

Said point was now staring straight at me in the face, a smirk on his lips as my eldest cousin gestured for me to get up and say a few words but honestly, who could follow that?

"Tallon? Is this a joke?"

"The second son?"

"Isn't he too young to be the Don?"

"Why would Giovani pick him over the other men?"

All around me, the whispers spread like a disease. I flinched at every mention of my name as they spouted it out of their mouths like it was a dirty word. There were pairs of eyes all around me, staring at me and judging my worth, comparing me to my brother and father.

A few sent me congratulations, real smiles on their faces. Old Joe, a hearty man who sat near me, slapped his hand over my shoulder with a friendly grin.

"Congrats, son! Or should I say, Don!" he declared for the entire room to hear, bursting into laughter at his bad joke.

No, no you should not, Joe, I thought.

I swept my uneasy glance over the room, meeting the eyes of those who wore expressions of admiration and respect, even happiness for my new title. But most of the gazes upon me were not friendly.

Uncertainty and skepticism had taken root, and it was reflected back on the faces of those around me. Even I was feeling like there was some kind of mistake made.

I wasn't a leader.

I wasn't like Giovani, who always kept his head cool in a crisis, and I wasn't like Dad, who took charge of everything with an authority people always listened to. And I certainly wasn't like Alessandro, who protected the people he loved with everything he had.

I was just... Tallon.

I finally met Giovani's eyes. He stood firm, unaffected by the sudden storm of whispers and confusion his announcement had made. Like the epicenter of an earthquake, the shockwave had started from him and now, it was finally hitting me. Giovani had named me his successor.

My eyes growing wider at the realization, I stared at my older cousin, a small part of me hoping he could call out a, 'Psych!' or, 'It was just a prank, bro,' but I knew he wouldn't. That wasn't the kind of man Giovani was, and he would never name me the successor if he didn't mean it.

But me? The Don?

It was an impossibility that no one had ever considered. It had always been Alessandro who had been next in line for the Don position, not clumsy, clueless, carefree me. Speaking of Alessandro....

Stiffly, I glanced over at my brother beside me, but Alessandro's eyes weren't on me. They were staring straight at Giovani. His fists clenched tightly on his lap, and his eyes spoke of a seething murderous anger that even I hadn't been expecting.

"Alex?" I asked quietly.

Alessandro only stiffened beside me, not meeting my eyes as he glared at his plate as if it had personally offended him. My eyes flicked to the knife sitting by his plate and I wondered, briefly, a little hysterically, if Alessandro would be insane enough with fury to actually kill me.

Or Giovani.

I didn't want to entertain the idea, didn't want to think he was capable of it, but I knew how much he had wanted the Don position, and how long he had tried his best to become a good leader worthy of the position. Though he had his failings, I always believed it would be him who would become the Don next.

But to have it ripped away not just once but twice... and given to me, his little brother at that. It was laughable to say it stung. It would have been like calling decapitation a paper cut.

I glanced nervously at my older brother, his eyes filled with such an unadulterated fury as he glowered at Giovani as if he had just crushed him under his foot. But I knew my brother, and I knew that his anger was fueled by the hurt. Giovani, on his part, looked completely unaffected by Alessandro's anger. He simply kept his arms crossed, paying him no mind like a mother trying to ignore a child having a temper tantrum.

It would've been funny had I not known how much this had meant to Alessandro.

"Alessandro, I didn't-" I whispered to him, hoping he would listen.

But he turned his fury-ridden gaze upon me and I flinched back at the murderous energy. Deep in his eyes though, I could see him wavering, the raw pain more than I could comprehend. "Don't," he bit out harshly.

I lowered my head, silently, feeling like a piece of shit as Alessandro's chair screeched across the floor as he got to his feet. He let out an uneven breath, glaring at Giovani one last time before he stormed out of the room. The silence that followed him was deafening.

I almost wanted to follow him to make sure he was okay, but I knew I was the last person he wanted to see right now.

I sighed, unsure of how to fix this.

Giovani glanced around at the crowd, many of whom were on the side of my brother, and only sighed before smiling and saying, "Enjoy the drinks, everyone! And speak with your new Don. Tallon, you can take it from here." Wow.

I was not expecting to see the undercarriage of a bus that day, but Giovani had promptly thrown me under one anyway.

I sent him an incredulous look, unable to believe he'd literally fed me to the wolves as he took a step back from the table and the army of family went to their feet, huge smiles and unhappy frowns surrounding me like piranhas after blood in the water.

I saw him slipping away out the door that Alessandro had run out of, and though I was glad someone had gone after him, I wasn't sure Giovani would be the right choice considering things, especially when the family was so eager to wring more information from me.

"Congratulations, Tallon! I can't believe you're the new Don." Matilda grinned, reaching forward to pinch my left cheek.

"I can't either." I pretended to laugh, unable to pull myself away from her firm grip. She was going to rip my cheeks off at this rate, and I would just have to stand there and smile like an idiot.

"Seems only yesterday James was bringing you over in diapers and you and Dahlia were sharing a bath-"

"Okay, thanks, Aunt Matilda." I hurriedly cut her off, pulling my cheek from her grip and stepping away. It was red and no doubt going to be bruised later, and I rubbed it, only to run into even more of the family.

"You think you've got what it takes, huh?" Old Man Jen bit out roughly. "You're still too wet behind the ears to run things if you ask me! That's why you need-"

He was shoved away by yet another family member who burst out with a wide smile. "I always knew you would be the perfect man for the job, Tallon!"

I sent him a hard look. Not even an hour ago he had been kissing my brother's ass, telling him he knew he would be the Don, and now he'd changed his tune?

"Sure," I said bitterly, turning away from him.

But there was no end to the amount of people surrounding me. I swallowed uncomfortably, unsure of what to do.

What had Giovani been thinking, making me the Don? I couldn't even manage to entertain my own relatives, let alone an entire mafia. Ten minutes in and I was already a failure.

But then I remembered what Giovani had said, only a month ago.

"You handled this like a real leader."

I glanced around at the eager faces before me, the dozens of men and women counting on me to become their next leader. Giovani trusted me to be the one to lead them, to succeed him as the Don. I wasn't going to let him down, not now.

I plastered on my best grin, relaxing my body as I thanked the nearest person.

"Congratulations, son," the nearest relative said with a grin. "How's it feel to the boss man now?"

"Eh," I shrugged playfully, giving him a grin. "I might go mad with power later, but for now, I'm kinda just chilling."

He barked out a laugh. "I'll be sure to knock some sense in ya if you do!"

"I'm counting on it." I winked at him.

"How do you expect to be our Don with that nonchalant attitude?" one man huffed, crossing his arms.

"Well, I'll have Gio and all of you fine gents to guide me," I smiled amicably. "I doubt anybody expects me to be the best Don right out of the gate. I'll have to learn like my dad and Gio did."

He raised an eyebrow but I kept my smile, not hesitating one bit. He smirked, nodding in approval as he backed down without a fight.

"Aye, we'll see about that," he remarked.

I grinned, buzzing with excitement as I found my spark again. I dove into the conversations with the family, entertaining them to the best of my ability with the playfulness I was best known for. Sure, I may not have felt like the Don right then, but to enter a lion's den, you had to convince them you were one.

I still couldn't believe that I was the Don, that I had been given this honor and burden. But as long as I was still breathing, I knew I would do my best to be the leader they deserved.

I could only hope that with time and some space, that Alessandro would forgive me at some point. No matter how much he hated me, I still wanted him to be by my side.