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“Your mother would never agree to this,” he insisted.
“But I would, and I did,” Caroline insisted. Leo hadn’t heard his mother come into the office behind him, and when he noticed the gun in her hand, he worried that she was going to do something foolish that would end up getting them all killed.
“What are you doing here, Mother?” Leo asked.
“I’ve come to end this mess,” his mother hissed. “I know that you don’t believe that I was trying to save you from ending up dead, but I was. Your good-for-nothing father assured me that if I helped lure you out of hiding, he’d spare your life.”
Leo could tell that his mother was telling him the truth, but a part of him was still angry with her for ever trusting his father.
“You know, better than anyone, that Dad can’t be trusted. You said so yourself when you came to the club to tell me that he was missing. You’ve known all these years that he’s been cheating on you. Why would you take him at his word now?” Leo questioned.
“I was foolish,” his mother whispered, “I didn’t want to believe that he could actually harm his own son, but you’re right, I should have known better.” His mother broke down sobbing and his father seemed to take that as his sign to interject.
“I didn’t want to have to do it, Leo,” his father insisted. “I had no choice.”
“Because I’m gay, right, Dad?” Leo asked. Ross took a step toward Tony and Leo grabbed his hand, stopping him. “There is nothing wrong with me, Dad. Ross and I are together now, and there’s nothing that you can do to stop that from happening. We’re happy and you can’t stand that, can you?” His father lived under the assumption that if he wasn’t happy, no one around him should be happy.
“I can’t have you running the family if you’re gay, Leo,” his father insisted. “How will you produce an heir to be the next to take over if you are having sex with a man? Your mother did explain the birds and the bees to you, right?” his father asked.
“I understand how reproduction works,” Leo spat. He and Ross hadn’t really talked about raising a family together, but even thinking about it now had him wanting that with him. Leo never thought about what their family would eventually look like, but he wanted one with Ross—a house with a picket fence, a minivan, and lots of kids if Ross was on board.
“Gay men have families all the time,” Ross insisted. “We can have a surrogate or even adopt. The kid will be ours no matter what you think, Tony. As for taking over the family business, we’re merging our businesses, and Leo, and I will decide if our children should be forced into taking over as we were. I think that we’ll both agree that our kids should be able to decide for themselves.”
Leo was still holding Ross’s hand, and he squeezed it, letting his guy know that he appreciated the support. “You want kids?” Leo whispered.
“I do,” Ross admitted. “Do you want them?”
Leo nodded, “I think I’d like to have kids with you, babe.”
“Fucking hell,” Tony spat, “you can’t see how unnatural this is?”
“It doesn’t feel unnatural to me,” Ross insisted.
“Or to me,” Leo agreed.
“I think it’s nice that our son can finally be himself. If you had paid any attention to him over the years, you would have figured out that he was gay long before now, Tony,” Caroline said. His mother was right—the signs were always there, even if he tried to hide them from the rest of the world. If he was being honest, he had always had feelings for Ross, and acting on them now felt as natural as breathing.
“This is ridiculous,” Tony insisted. He pulled his gun from his hip holster and pointed it at Leo. “You can’t be gay if you are dead,” he shouted.
Everything seemed to speed up around him as he watched Ross push him behind his body, trying to protect him. Leo’s mother stepped in front of Ross, getting off a shot before Tony could, shooting him right in the chest. His mother had always been the best shot in the family, something that his father liked to brag about, but now, it was going to be his undoing.
“What have you done?” Tony breathed, staring down his wife. He clutched the red spot that was quickly expanding on his white dress shirt and sunk to the floor. His gun fell from his hand as he landed, and Ross quickly kicked it clear of Tony’s body.
“I did what I needed to do, Tony,” Caroline insisted. “I won’t let you harm our son or Ross. They are family, or have you forgotten that?” Tony’s security team stormed the office and Joe took the gun from Caroline, asking her to have a seat.
“What happened here?” Joe asked Leo.
“My father tried to kill Ross and me. He had a gun, but my mother shot him first.”
“The gun is over there,” Ross said, nodding to the corner of the room where he kicked it. “He tried to shoot Leo, and I got in the way. When he pointed his gun at me, Caroline shot him.” Leo looked over at his mother who was still shaking with the gun in her hands and he worried that she was too emotional to answer any questions right now.
Leo crossed the room to stand in front of his mother. “Ma, let me have the gun,” he insisted, holding his hand out to her. “It’s okay now,” he promised.
“He’s right Mrs. Capo,” Joe agreed, “your husband is dead.” He was kneeling by Tony’s body and Leo could see the worry in the guy’s eyes. “We’re going to have to call the police to come in and ask you some questions. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, Joe,” Caroline insisted. “I’ll tell them what happened. I killed my husband to save my son and Ross. I’d do it again too.”
“How about you don’t say that last part, Ma,” Leo insisted. “I’m not a lawyer, but I’d leave that part out of your statement.”
