< Second Chance for the Mafia Prince
Vovoi Part II
Original composition by Tatienne Richard exclusively for My Fiction. If you’re reading this elsewhere it has been stolen from the platform.
“Mom!” Kaylee frowned at her, “it’s okay. I want to know.”
“There are things which are meant for adults only.”
Mitsos spoke up, “my dad sometimes has blood on his clothes, but he never has cuts.”
Kaylee looked at Gulliver excitedly, “do you get blood on your clothes?”
“Gulliver, I will personally make you bleed if you let this conversation continue.”
Gulliver laughed at looked at his parents, “see. Protective. That’s a parent. Take notes.”
“Not funny,” Avner glowered. “I agree with January. This is not appropriate conversation for mixed company and children.”
“Mixed company?” Thisbe snorted. “Dad just because I have a vagina doesn’t mean I don’t know what my brothers get up to or what my grandfather does. I don’t bring less to the table because I don’t have a penis. I’ve done work for Gulliger. Who9
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do you think helped him trap Duchess?”
“Someday Kaylee,” Gulliver squeezed her and stared into her eyes, “you will learn how to be the boss of our family. It means being able to keep secrets and learning how to fight and how to beat people up if they hurt our family.”
“Really?” she was scrambling to her knees to cup his cheeks with her hands and staring into his face, “do you promise? I can be the boss when I grow up?”
“Do you want to run our dangerous family, Kaylee?”
“Yes!” her teeth were gritted tight and her eyes glittered excitedly.
“Then I will make that happen for you. Your first lessons though are learning to not share the things we talk about with anyone. If the police tell you that you need to tell them things or you’ll go to jail, you keep our mouth shut.”
“Hey, there’s different ways to word it.” January growled.
“I’ll keep my mouth shut, Dad. I will. I can keep secrets.”
“If you ever get taken to jail for not talking, I’ll come get you out. If I get taken to jail, Glenn will get me out. Deal?”
“Deal!” Kaylee turned to her mother, “Mom, did you hear that? 2/6
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< Vovoi Part II
I get to be the boss someday.”
“Vovoi.” Gulliver said seriously. “That’s the name of the person who runs our family. Right now, it’s Grandfather. He is our vovoi.”
“Someday soon, your father will be vovoi.” Grandfather added, “hopefully sooner rather than later because I am growing tired and old.”
“We can discuss that later,” Gulliver shot him a look and he nodded. “One of the things I think is important though Kaylee is for you to learn how to speak Greek. Do you think we can work on that?”
“Yes! I’m not very smart though.”
“You are very smart. I think,” he looked at Glenn, “you learn differently than other kids do and it’s why you don’t get the best grades. I think we need to adjust the way you’re learning in school. Your uncle,” he pointed to Glenn, “also didn’t have the best grades but we figured out in college that he just learns different. I think you might be like him.”
“How?”
“Well, I think you have a bit of trouble staying focused on one thing at a time. It’s why you sing in class. You need to focus on what you’re doing but you find it boring and so you fill in the
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< Vovoi Part II
gaps with things which are fun for you, like singing. Sometimes it’s hard to sit still so you bounce in your seat but that gets you in trouble. When the whole class is loud, you can hear what everyone else is doing, like the pencils on paper or kicking their feet or breathing too loud.”
January stared in awe at Gulliver, who was pointing out things she’d never considered about Kaylee.
“Glenn has something called attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and it makes him struggle to focus on one task at a time, so he’s always got a lot of things going on in his head at
once.”
“Do you sing when you’re supposed to do spelling tests too?” Kaylee spun her head to look at her uncle.
“No but I used to tap my pencil all the time, and it would piss my teachers off.” Glenn shrugged.
“You think she has ADHD?” January asked quietly.
“I think it’s possible.” Gulliver shrugged. “Regardless, Glenn was our guineapig. We know who to go to for learning aids and assistance. I wouldn’t want to see Kaylee medicated unless she was struggling in a way that she was failing out in school and that is not the case. She’s not at the top of her class but she’s not at the bottom either. She’s not failing because she’s smart, but, if she’s going to be vovoi we need her to be her brilliant 4/6
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< Vovoi Part II
self. We’re going to find a way to help you learn the way you need to learn, Kaylee.”
“Glenn doesn’t have ADHD.” Avner said quietly. “Do you?”
“Well yeah, Dad. I do. You simply thought I was dumb because I couldn’t compare to Gulliver, but I mean who could. I could put a book in his hand right now, point out one page and he’d have it memorized in under an hour with the ability to recite it back to me flawlessly. Nobody is that smart in comparison. I was never dumb, Dad. You simply never cared enough to find out why I was struggling. You only cared I wasn’t enough.”
“Am I enough?” Kaylee asked seriously.
“You sure are,” January assured Kaylee. “If your dad thinks you can be vovoi when you grow up, then he will make sure it happens. You’ll need to work hard though.”
“I’m going to be the best boss.” She looked at Mitsos with glee, a cackle escaping her lips, “we can be partners and rule the whole world!”
“And now we’ve created a monster,” January huffed but couldn’t stop the smile tugging her lips.
“I have a question,” Kaylee asked. “If you can do bad guy things and not go to jail, why don’t you just beat up Davis and his ugly friends and make them go away.”
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