The Mafia's Son III

Chapter Twenty Three.

Happy Friday babies 🖤

Isaac's POV

"You're up early," I say as I walk into our home gym.

My dads already down here, running on one of the many treadmills..

"Couldn't sleep," he says, not bothering to slow down his pace.

I peek over at his timer once I've climbed onto the treadmill to his right to see that he's been running for almost an hour now. It's only 6 am.

I don't engage him in any more conversation after that. I turn my machine on increasing the speed and begin to run along beside him.

About fifteen minutes pass by when I'm breaking our tedious silence,  remembering to keep my promise to my wife, that I'll attempt to try and talk with him. "Mom talk to you yet?"

He shakes his head silently.

"Hailey and I are moving out by the end of the week."

Pops smacks his hand on the emergency stop button, bringing his treadmill to an immediate stop.

He puts both of his hands on either side of his torso, attempting to catch his breath, "now why the hell would you say some shit like that?"

I look away from him, continuing to run, "because we have a life of our own, dad."

"As if I just didn't tell you that this family is in danger, Isaac."

Now I'm the one slamming my hand on the emergency stop button, "if there really are moles in this family then we're no safer here than we are in our own home."

He drops his voice to an almost whisper, "this is your home.. I just- I just got my family back, please don't leave son, I'll never get you back if you walk out of these doors."

I inhale a deep breath bitting the urge to say some snarky, petty, shit.

"That's exactly why I need to leave.."

He frowns.

"If I stay under the same roof as you then you definitely won't get me back. I need to leave in order to forgive you, Pops. I need mom to forgive you and let you back in because she wants to. She's only giving you the cold shoulder because I'm here, because I'm around."

"Isaac-"

"You weren't here!" I quickly talked over him. "I saw the instant relief in her eyes the second she saw you. You weren't here to see just how bad it was, how bad she was. I know for a fact that she's probably dying for you to hold her, dad.. I need to leave in order to save the family you left behind. I need my son to have both of his grandparents in his life. I'll be damned if we have to split holidays and birthdays because I couldn't learn to forgive you. I need to save my marriage while I still can, I need to put my wife and son first."

Pops nods his head quietly and is switching the subject, "I saw the log sheet for the cells last night.. You have Nathaniel down there?"

"Why the hell are you checking my log sheets?"

"Paper work," he shrugs. "Working on documents, they always brought the edge down when I had a shitty day. I didn't expect the login to work to be honest."

"I didn't have the need to change it, the only other person that knew them was dead."

"What's going on with your cousin? Why is he down there?"

"He won't stay in rehab so I created his own personal rehabilitation facility."

He snorts softly, "that's only gonna aggravate him even more, son. The second you let him out, the second he gets his freedom he's gonna go back down that same road. He needs to want to change for himself."