Don Corleone [Michael Corleone] DISCONTINUED

Chapter Eight

The telephone that rang, echoed through the apartment, waking Fiona from her slumber. Her arm was soar and her wound throbbed. She ignored it and covered it with her shawl. She made her way to the telephone sleepily. "Hello?" Fiona's was still laced with sleep. 

"Fiona? Fay! Fay..oh god Fay!" A panicked Fredo's voice traveled to her ear and filled her head with his voice. "Fredo? Fredo whats the matter? is everything alright?" Now, Fiona's heart began to jump. 

"Its- Its- Its papa..." Instantly, Fiona's eyes widened. At the news, she ran to Roberto's room to tell him and instantly, he was up on his feet getting dressed. Fiona ran back to the phone, forgetting the pain in her arm and instantly dialed Michael's number. 

"Hello?" Michael said. 

"Michael, its Fiona." Michael took notice of her panicked voice. 

"Fay? Fay whats wrong?" 

"Its...Its papa, they shot him Michael. Michael you gotta hurry, they gunned him down." 

The news of the Don going to pull through after he was shot by 5 bullets brought a little bit of comfort to Fiona. 

In the office is where she was with the rest of the Corleone brothers except Fredo, Roberto and 2 other associates, they were all sat on the comfy leather sofas, Michael was sitting on the chair that faced his father's desk and Fiona was standing against the wall- she couldn't stop fidgeting. 

As Tom was speaking about Vito and his influence and how if he would die, majority of their strength would be gone, Fiona didn't pay any attention at all. Her eyes were strictly glued to her shoes and the floor, Michael took notice of it and instantly kept wondering about what she was thinking, he wanted to read her mind so badly but he knew he couldn't. 

The knock on the door startled Fiona and instantly she was on her feet, forgetting whatever was occupying her mind. Paulie came in the room and stood by the doorway. "Hey Paulie, I thought I told you to stay put." Said Clemenza. 

"Well, the guy at the gates, they say they got a package." Paulie answered, his voice a little hoarse. Was he sick all this time after all? Fiona didn't buy it anyway. 

"Yeah? Tessio, go see what it is." Sonny ordered gently. 

"You want me to hang around?" Paulie coughed. 

"Yeah hang around." Sonny's eyes squinted. "You alright?" 

"Yeah, I'm fine." Paulie answered too quickly for Fiona's liking, he must've been defensive or started to panic that maybe, just maybe, Sonny caught on to his bluff. Paulie wiped his forehead with his napkin and started fidgeting in his spot. 

"Yeah? There's some food in the icebox. You hungry or anything?" Sonny asked. His cross around his neck was glittering from the pale orange light in the room. 

"No, its alright thanks." 

"How 'bout a drink? How 'bout a little brandy? Thats good to sweat it out." Fiona, for some reason, caught on to Sonny. He was being too generous and too nice to Paulie. Fiona figured that, Sonny, after all, did catch up to Paulie's bluff. 

"Alright sure." Paulie said weakly. 

For a second, Michael and Fiona locked eyes, giving each other a small comforting smile before looking away. 

"Go ahead." 

"That might be a good idea." Paulie said before finally shutting the door behind him. 

"I want you to take care of that son of a bitch right away." Sonny said to Clemenza and Roberto in a hushed tone. 

At Sonnys suggestion of involving Mikey, Tom came to Michael's defense. "Maybe we shouldn't get Mike mixed up in this too directly." 

Sonny nodded his head in agreement, taking back his words. "Yeah.." Then, he thought of something else. "Listen, uh...Hang around the house on the phone. It'll be a big help." To Fiona, she remembered the time when Sonny suggested the same to her, she was utterly offended and couldn't stand him for a week just because he said that to her. Nevertheless, Fiona proved Sonny wrong and for a strong reason, she felt that Michael would do the same too. 

However, Michael didn't burst out in anger. Instead, he nodded his head and tried to dial Luca's number when Sonny told him to. 

Tessio barged into the room with a brown paper bag in his hand and instantly Fiona took a whiff of rotten fish in the room. Tessio placed the package on Sonny's lap, utter confusion spread across Sonny's face. As he opened the package, the fishes were wrapped inside Luca's thin bulletproof vest. 

"What the hell is this?" Sonny said in surprise

"Its a Sicilian message." Clemenza said in defeat. "It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes."