I didn’t want to go to the hospital. Hospitals always put me on edge. And this was definitely not going to be a pleasant visit. Mom had been trying to put on a brave front for my sister and me, but it was obvious that my grandfather, Nonno Stefano, wasn’t doing well. I’d overheard her telling my Aunt on the phone last night that the doctors thought it would be a miracle if he was still alive next week. I hadn’t seen much of Nonno in the past couple of years but I had a lot of fond memories of playing at his house with my cousins when I was a kid.
Mom glanced back at me from the driver’s seat of the car. “You’re being very quiet back there, Nico. What’s on your mind?”
My sister, Sofia, smirked at me from the passenger seat. “He’s probably thinking about how he’s ruined his entire future.”
“Seriously? You’re a year older than me and you’re still acting like a little kid?” I glared.
“I’m just astounded by how much you screwed up. You’ve always been a screw-up, but this one is on another level,” She said.
“Sofia, knock it off. I’m sure he already feels bad enough about what happened,” Mom said.
I sighed. “Yeah…”
Ugh. My sister was severely lacking in tact, but she wasn’t wrong. I was fucked. There was no other way of putting it. I’d fucked up badly. Mom had always been a big believer in the importance of education, so I went away to college even though I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to do with my life. I ended up majoring in Business Administration because I figured that it would be easy enough to coast through the classes.
I was right. The concepts they taught us in class felt like common sense and I was acing all my classes without even having to study. Honestly, I was bored out of my mind. One of my classmates asked me to look over a paper he was working on and give him some advice. After he made the edits I suggested, his paper got an A and he gave me $20 to say thanks.
Other classmates started coming to me for help and before I knew it, I was making over $1,000 a week selling papers and test answers. I saw that there was a demand for high-quality essays and answers to upcoming tests and I was there to supply what people were looking for. If anything, I was putting what I learned in school into practice.
Unfortunately, my professors and the Academic Integrity Committee didn’t see things the same way when they found out. They kicked me out of school when I was only three months away from Graduation.
The worst part was that I wasn’t caught because of any mistakes I made running my business. I always vetted my clients carefully to make sure that they would be discrete and tailored my essays to fit their writing style. I added little mistakes in certain places where I thought that they would’ve messed up so that the quality of their work wouldn’t be so good it was suspicious.
I even had a network of freshmen and teaching assistants working for me who helped me acquire tests and churn out papers. We communicated using an app that deleted all of our messages after a certain amount of time. But all that work went down the drain when my ex-girlfriend squealed on me to the Dean out of spite after I broke up with her.
Scratch that. The worst part of the situation was the look on my mom’s face when I came home and told her what happened. I’d gotten into my fair share of trouble over the years, but I’d never seen her so disappointed in me in my entire life. She’d always told me that she wanted me to get a degree and make something of myself.
She never said it out loud, but it was obvious that she didn’t want me to end up like my Dad. It was her dream to see me walk across the stage and get my diploma. And I’d let her down. That was only a week ago, so things were still awkward. Between that situation and what was going on with my Nonno, this was shaping up to be one of the worst weeks of my life.
The car stopped, jolting me out of my internal pity party. I’d been so lost in thought that I didn’t even notice that we’d driven into the hospital’s parking garage.
“Let’s all try to make this a nice visit and stay civil,” Mom said, looking at Sofia. Sofia sighed but nodded.
“Sounds good to me,” I said.
“Nonno has been asking to see you for weeks, Nico. So maybe you… being back here is a blessing in disguise,” Mom said. She smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes.
We got out of the car and headed into Baptist Hospital. I’ve heard that it’s supposed to be one of the best hospital systems in Miami, which made sense. Nonno always made sure he got the best of everything. Both the exterior and the interior of the building looked expensive and clean. That didn’t do much to take away from the unsettling feeling I got whenever I entered a hospital. Sofia and I grabbed a couple of seats in the waiting room while Mom got in the line by the front desk to find out Nonno’s room number.
It didn’t take long for us to find our way to Nonno Stefano’s room. A couple of guys who worked for him were posted outside his door, probably to make sure nobody suspicious could get to him. I nodded at them and they smiled as they let our family into the room.
I knew that things were bad, but I was still unprepared for just how bad it was. The strong, lively man that I remembered was replaced by a frail and sickly old man. There were a million tubes connecting his body to machines and he wheezed with every breath. His thick, silver hair and beard had mostly fallen out. The color had completely drained from his skin. It was clear that he was on his last legs.
Nonno’s eyes lit up when he saw us. With a monumental amount of effort, he managed to sit up in his bed. “It’s so good to see you all.”
A young nurse with long hair looked up from some charts that she was holding and smiled at us. “Hi, you must be Mr. Moretti’s family. I’ll give you some time alone but make sure that he doesn’t get too excited. It could be bad for his condition.”
“Of course, thank you,” Mom said as the nurse gave us some privacy.
“Hi, Nonno. How’re you doing?” Sofia asked, leaning down for a hug. It looked a bit awkward with all of the tubes in the way.
“I’m still kickin’, so I can’t really complain,” He said.
Mom smiled. “You seem like you’re in a good mood today, Papà.”
“I’m always in a good mood when I get to see my family,” He said. “I can’t remember the last time I got a visit from Domenico.”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
I walked over to the bed and kissed him on the cheek. “It’s good to see you too, Nonno. I’m sorry that it’s been so long since I last saw you.”
“It’s alright, kid. I’m sure you’ve got better things to do than hang out with an old man,” He chuckled and it sounded like a car engine that wouldn’t start. “Enjoy your youth while it lasts.”
“How have they been treating you here?”
“Not bad. The food could be better, but I like the scenery.” His eyes drifted to his nurse who was standing out in the hall.
The random pervy old man stuff was grossing me out but I didn’t know what to say, so I just laughed politely. Mom and Sofia just rolled their eyes. Even on his deathbed, he was still a wild character.
“I hate to be rude, but is it alright if I catch up with Domenico alone for a few minutes?” Nonno said. “I feel like we have a lot to talk about.”
“Sure, whatever you want, Papà,” Mom said. “If you need us, we’ll be right outside.”
Nonno waited for the door to close behind them before he gestured for me to sit down in the chair next to his bed. I plopped down and turned to face him.
“Tell me, Nico. Do you know the truth about the family’s business?”
I wasn’t sure if this was some sort of test or not. “The real estate company?”
Nonno rolled his eyes. “I’m talking about the other business.”
I snickered. “No offense, Nonno, but I would have to be a complete moron to not know about the “other business”. Are you sure that it’s alright for us to be talking about it though? I thought everyone in the family likes to pretend that it doesn’t exist. I can still remember the spanking Dad gave me back in second grade when I asked him if he was in the mob.”
Nonno waved me off. “It’s fine. Nobody is listening. I just thought you were old enough now that we could get everything out in the open. What do you think about our business?”
I mulled it over for a second a weighed my words carefully. “I don’t know all the particulars about what the family does, but I do know that you’ve always been able to provide for us even after Dad died. That seems like a good thing to me. Then again, the business is what got him killed.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat. “I’m grateful for what the money has done for us, but I just don’t know if it’s worth the cost. How could anything be worth what we’ve lost?”
Nonno reached up slowly and wiped a tear from his eye. ”What happened to Adriano was a shame and I’ll never forgive myself for not protecting him. I’ve asked myself that same question many times over the years. Is it worth it? Honestly, I don’t know. But I can’t imagine any other way that I could have lived my life.”
Neither of us spoke for a while after that. I didn’t want to blow up at him for involving my dad in the bullshit mafia lifestyle that got him killed. I knew I’d regret it if those were my last words to him. He seemed lost in thought about the past.
“Do you mind me asking what you want out of life?” Nonno said, finally breaking the silence.
That caught me a bit off guard. I fidgeted with the sleeve of my shirt. “Um… that’s kind of a big question. I’m not sure how to answer that.”
He smiled a toothy grin. “Oh, come on! You must have some dreams for the future. Think about it. A million years from now when you’re my age and you’re looking back on all the things you’ve achieved over the years, what do you see? What type of man do you want to become?”
I took a minute to consider it. I’d never been one of those people who had some burning desire for their life. Up until then, I’d just been drifting along and going with the flow. My “plan” had been to get my degree, land some office job, and just work my way up the ladder. But I was pretty sure that nobody was going to hire me now that I’d been kicked out of college. If I wanted to make money, my options were severely limited. It seemed like the only way I could make a living was if I found a way to work for myself.
“I think I want to be like you, Nonno,” I said after some more thought. “My feelings about ‘the business’ are complicated but I do admire the fact that you’re your own boss. You’re wealthy, you’ve got a family who loves you and so many people look to you for guidance. I want those same things for myself.”
“Well said,” Nonno chuckled. “If anyone else had told me that I would assume that they were just kissing up to me, but I can tell that you’re being sincere.”
He locked eyes with me. “What would you say if I told you that I could give you the tools to make your dream a reality?”
“I’d say that I’m not interested in reading any self-help books.”
He hit me with an intense glare. “Quit being a wiseass! What I’m about to tell you is going to change your life forever.”
“Sorry, sorry. Alright, I’m listening,” I said.
Nonno had another brief coughing fit before he continued. “This story will sound like the mad ramblings of a senile geezer, but I promise you that it’s one hundred percent true.”
I sat up in my chair a little bit. I had no idea where this was going, but it was already off to a great start.
Nonno lifted his right hand into the air. He was wearing a golden ring with a mesmerizing red gem on it. “This ring has been in our family for generations. The way I heard it, your great great great grandfather found it one day back in the country. He was a farmer and stumbled upon it while he was digging up the ground to plant some crops.”
“He had no idea where the ring had come from, but everything changed the moment that he put it on. You see, this ring has special abilities.”
“Special abilities,” I repeated. “Okay…” I tried my best to keep my face and voice neutral but I don’t think I succeeded.
Nonno rolled his eyes. “I told you that this would sound crazy, but just hear me out a little bit longer.” I was skeptical but motioned for him to continue.
“Where was I? Right. This ring gives whoever wears it power beyond their wildest dreams. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I wouldn’t be the man that I am today if it wasn’t for this ring,” He said.
“You’re a good kid, Domenico. You’ve still got a lot to learn, but I see the potential for greatness inside of you. I think that you’re the right person to pass this ring onto. Will you accept it?”
I shifted in my seat. “Are you sure you want to give it to me? Wouldn’t you rather give it to Uncle Luca or one of my cousins? I don’t know if I deserve something that means so much to you.”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my entire life. I want YOU to have it. So what do you say? Do you accept? Don’t say yes unless you mean it.”
There was an intensity in his eyes that wasn’t there a moment ago. It felt like his gaze was piercing my soul. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. That entire story sounded like nonsense but I could see how important this was to him. There was no way I could turn him down.
“If you’re that sure about it, then yeah. I’d be honored to have it. Thank you,” I said.
Nonno grabbed his ring and said, “I transfer ownership to you, Domenico Moretti”.
It seemed like a strange thing to say, but this entire conversation had been strange so I decided to let it go. With a bit of effort, the ring slid off his finger. I might have imagined it, but it looked like he became weaker the moment that he took off the ring. His hand was shaking like a leaf in a storm as he gingerly placed the ring in my palm. I carefully place it on my ring finger
Nonno’s whole body began to shake, but he still managed to plaster a smile on his face. “I know you can make the most of it. Good luck, kid.”
Before I could reply, he closed his eyes, and the EKG that he was hooked up to flatlined. I jumped out of the chair so fast that it fell to the floor. “Nonno? This can’t be happening? Nonno?!”
Tears streamed down my face as I raced to the door and swung it open. “We need a nurse or a doctor in here! He’s… He’s…”
A sharp pain shot through my head that felt like my brain was being stabbed by a thousand needles. I screamed and collapsed to the ground. My vision became blurry and the sounds around me were distorted like I was underwater. I could just barely make out my family rushing towards me to see what was wrong. Just before I passed out, I saw the strangest thing pop in front of my face.
SYSTEM INITIALIZED. WELCOME USER [DOMENICO MORETTI]