Chapter 1.5 - Familiar Voices & New Enemies

  I went for a walk the next morning and ended up stopping in front of the Bridgeport Eternal Rest Cemetery. As I walked inside I began to think of my mum. I thought about all of the good times we had and then I remembered that horrific night. Up until now I was trying my best to put aside what had happened and not let it interfere with my new life but this brought it right back. Not only did we have the I.S.S. coming after us but the Italian mafia was coming after us (before my mum died) because neither if us wanted anything to do with them anymore. Of course they did not agree with that because we knew all of their secrets. Throughout those next few months we received a lot of threatening phone calls and then of course the I.S.S. caught up with my mum at our house.

  As i stood there remembering the things that I had done with the mafia, I saw Richie Striker and a lady walk into the cemetery. While the lady was mourning I struck up a conversation with Richie. I learned that the lady was his wife, Stella.  He was also rich and he worked as a Starter at LlamaCo. Stadium. While we were talking, Stella came over and looked very pissed off.

"Umm, can i help you?" She asked me.

"No, why?" I said.

"Because you seem to be getting a little too friendly with my husband," Stella said "and honestly I already don't like you."

"Well, i'm sorry but you don't know anything about me and Richie and I are just friends."

"I don't care, if I see you talking to him again i will come after you."

"Alright, Stella, whatever you say,"  I laughed "Richie I will talk to you later."

  As I walked away, i heard Stella start arguing with Richie. It made me laugh a bit because a girl i went to high school with said something very similar to me once. That was when I was still apart of the mafia family and it was my job to get close to a guy and spend a lot of time with him while they got to his parents. At the time i thought it was great because of the money and power but now I was a little ashamed of what I did. But I still wondered if maybe it was better being a part of the mafia, partially because of the protection they would have given us from the I.S.S. As bad as I wanted to contact Antonio Russio, the boss, I knew it would be a bad idea because if they said no to me coming back then they would come after me and no one even knew where I was.

  As I was on my way back home, I got a call from my agent and he told me that all of my work making friends with celebrities was paying off. I was now a Renowned VIP, a 4 star celebrity. I didn't sleep very well that night because I was excited about being almost to the top of the celebrity totem pole. I played a racing game on my computer for a few hours, read the newspaper, and then left for work. After schmoozing with the cast members and working hard all day I was asked to stay an extra couple hours to clean up a pie mess on one of the sets from a food fight they did for a movie. I could not believe the mess I had to clean up! But I did it anyways and it was a good thing I finished cleaning because i got a promotion afterward. I was now a Personal Assistant making §52/hour with a bonus of §432 and I still had the same work schedule. My job was to mix and mingle with celebrities and take care of tasks for my employer. When I walked out of the building i was immediately noticed by the paparazzi, and it felt great. But, even though I was getting promotions i wanted more. I wasn't making the money I wanted to be making and I knew that it was time to change jobs or maybe even do something a little more drastic.

I sat on the couch in my living room for almost 4 hours, thinking, before I decided what I needed to do. It was going to be extremely risky but it was for the best.

I got in my car and headed to city hall. I wanted to use their phone instead of my cell phone because the city hall phones were secured lines so they cannot be traced.

"Buon Giorno"

"Hello Antonio," I said

"Isa....Isabella?" Antonio said slowly.

"Yes, surprised?"

"I am very surprised," He said "We thought the I.S.S. got to you. Where are you?"

"I'm sorry Antonio but that's not how this is going to work," I said "I will eventually let you know where I am under a few conditions."

"Isabella, you know that's not how things work."

"Well, then I guess you don't want my help even though you would love where I am. Especially with all of these celebrities and..."

"Wait, you live with celebrities?" He asked "Are these celebrities very popular like me or what?"

"Most are and the others are worker their way up the fame ladder."

"Ok, Isabella," Antonio said "What are your conditions?"

"First I want §100,000 so I can continue the work on my house and the following vehicles: The Jamboree and The Empire Eidolon, instead of my crappy Retro Ride that is barely running now. I also want your word that the I.S.S. wont find out where I am and you wont send any of your boys to come after me."

"Isabella, I promise no one is going to hurt you or come after you. You are and always have been a part of our family. You will have the money and your vehicles by the end of the day but I do need to know where you are to make this possible.

"I am in Bridgeport in Simopolis. I am a personal assistant here."

"I never thought you would go to the states. Ok, I am going to get everything to you. But, aside from what we normally do there is one other thing I need you to do."

"What is that Antonio?"

"I need you to quit your job and get a job in the criminal career. I can pull a few strings to get them to hire you but you will be starting at the bottom."

"Ok, but why?"

"Well, it will pay a lot better and it will help you brush up on your skills for what our "family" normally does."

"Done. I will let them know tomorrow that I quit and I will call you tomorrow from my cell."

"I look forward to it and I am glad you are safe Isabella."

  I hung up the phone and felt relieved that everything was perfectly fine and I was back with my other family, even if they were mafia. I headed over to Aquarius and danced for a few hours as a favor to the owner of the club to help promote the club. When I got home I took a bubble bath to relax from my extremely long day.

The next morning I got dressed, checked my bank account, then looked out the window and saw my new vehicles sitting in my parking spots.

I knew today was going to be n excellent day so i got some things together and went to the backyard to start a garden. It gave me some alone time before going to work for the last time.

  After i finished planting the last seed I sold my old Retro Ride to a different car lot and got §3,000 in return. After I sold the car i still had 4 hours before work so I decided to jog to work to get some exercise.

  After I finished work that night I let my boss know that I quit because i was not making enough money. Everyone was sad to see me go but we all agreed to get together a lot. I left the backlot and headed to the bank to check my account again and was surprised to find out that there was an extra §42,000 in there. I immediatly called Antonio from my cell while I was on my way to marina Field to find out why he wired so much money to my account.

"Antonio, there is an extra §42,000 in my account," I said "What's going on?"

"Well, you know that everyone gets paid for doing jobs," He said "Normally we pay people after the job is done but I paid you now because I am happy to have you back."

"Wonderful Antonio. What is the job?"

"Do you remember that girl you went to high school with? The one that you had an arguement with about her boyfriend?"

"Yea, Stella. I hate that girl!"

"She is part of your job. You need to do whatever you can to break her and her husband up and then make her disappear."

"Sounds good to me considering everything she has done to me in the past. But if I may ask, why am I going after her?"

"Because her father disgraced us and after we took care of him she hired someone to kill me. Obviously it did not happen that way and now she is trying to plan something else."

"Well, consider it done Antonio," I said very pissed off "No one comes after my familia without sffering the consequences."

  By the time I hung up the phone I was at Marina Field and I sat down on a bench to think about how I should do this job.  As I was sitting there thinking I noticed that Stella herself just walked into the park with Richie. It was like a sign that I needed to start this now. I walked up to Richie and talked to him while Stella was talking to someone else. Then as I was chatting with him I suddenly thought of a way to start my assignment on the right track. I used my charm and good looks and I started flirting with Richie....a lot. Then right when Stella looked over at us I kissed Richie, then I convinced Richie that he needed to divorce Stella, and told him that he and I should go steady and it worked!

"You know, you're right Isabella," He said " Stella and I are done. She is going to be really mad at you though."

"That's ok, I can handle Stella."

After Richie walked away Stella came up to me extremely pissed off.

"What the hell is your problem? What do you have against me?"

"Nothing really, Stella Tancredi."

"Wait a second, how do you know my maiden name?"

"I know quite a bit. I'm sorry about your dad."

"Oh my....I know you! Isabella De Luca!?"

"Actually it is Abruzzi now. But enough of the small talk, we have a lot to "discuss" don't you think?"

Stella and I began exchanging words and then it turned into a full on brawl, natuarally I won.

  Unfortunately it ended up drawing a lot of attention up until our fight ended. I went back home to try to relax and got a good amount of sleep. The next morning I got a phone call from my agent.

  Apparently the paprazzi was at Marina Field last night and they caught all the action. They spread the word about my brawl all over the city and people were very ashamed of me. I went back to the park and just sat down by the fountain and thought about what had happened the night before and decided that I needed to go about this differently instead of just beating the crap out of her and making her my enemy.

  When I got back home I checked my mail, before putting my plan together, I got 9 skill plaques. I did some research on my computer and it did not take me long to figure out what to do. But first I needed to do some more work on my house.