Chapter 408: Something in Return.
Olivia answered with her truth, placing her morality and her beliefs in the first place, because that was the very reason why she even started her whole organization in the first place, and not to create soldiers out of the people she helped, because she clearly understood that this was what James was hinting at.
Though she made a mistake.
Every person who received a bag of grain or a bottle of medicine knew that the money came from the pockets of James Bellini because Olivia refused to let the government take credit for a kindness they never actually showed.
She chose to be honest because she wanted the people to stop looking toward the capital for help and she wanted them to see that the only hand reaching out to them was a hand criminal.
It was a dangerous and a senseless choice to make but she felt that the truth was better than a false hope in a system that had abandoned them a long time ago.
Moreover without James, it would have been impossible to help so many people, to provide food, free clothing, housing, medicine, and everything else they needed, and she believed that the best thing she could do was to be honest and tell people who made all of that possible, because they deserved to know the truth behind their survival.
She did not want them to believe that it was some politician, she did not want them to think that the people who were supposed to help were actually doing their job, because that was not the truth. She did not want to give them false hope about the system or about the people in power, so she told them everything. She told everyone that the money came from Bellini, from James Bellini, but she never explained who he really was, she left that part for them to discover on their own, and strangely, there was not a single voice raised against it.
The people did not care that the money was stained with blood because that same money paid for the doctors, food and for a life that is worth living.
Yeah, their hope slowly gathered around James, because they already knew him in their own way. They knew the man who gave work to those who were struggling, the man who paid wages that felt almost unreal, something they had never experienced before, the same man who helped families and gave them access to private hospitals, and that alone was enough for them to believe that James Bellini was a good man, even if they understood that he was not, but in the end that truth did not matter.
What mattered was what they experienced, what they saw with their own eyes, and the simple fact that he was the only person who ever reached out to them when no one else did.
It did not matter if he was a criminal or not, because he was the only one who helped, and in their eyes he slowly became something close to a hero.
This was the same thing Olivia explained to Linda, and that was what she meant when she said that everyone knows James Bellini. The people who were helped by him knew exactly who he was in their own way, and through that, Olivia also made it clear to Linda that those people would not hesitate if they were asked to act.
But at the same time, that was exactly what Olivia feared the most. She understood that James was not giving money only to help, but that he might expect something in return, and that something was people.
People who could become soldiers, people who could become workers for the mafia, and the truth was that this had already started to happen without Olivia even realizing it, and without James even needing to ask directly.
All of those people were ready to follow his orders, almost like they were following someone who had saved them and led them toward a better life, but Olivia could not accept that.
Helping others should never be about turning their faith and hope into weapons. Helping people should be about creating change, about pushing that change forward, and about showing what the country could become if people truly supported each other.
She did not help those people with James’s money to turn them into soldiers for the mafia.
"Nothing?" James’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts, and in that moment she understood exactly what she had just done.
She had said no to the Don.
She had said no to the man who reshaped the entire criminal underworld with his own hands, and that was exactly why she could no longer look into his eyes, why her gaze slowly fell away as if something was forcing it down, as she began to realize more and more that she might have just walked into her own death, believing for even a moment that the Don would help without expecting anything in return, when in truth it was never about helping in the first place.
"I like you." Laugh. Laugh came as James said it. "You are so pure in your motives, helping others means a lot to you huh?" He asked as he smiled and slowly stood up from the counter and walked toward Olivia and well she felt it.
Even if James laughed, his being was still just an anomaly.
The way he was walking toward her, the way the cane tapped in rhythm on the marble floor, the way he was dressed, the way the ring on his finger showed power, and the way his eyes were falling on her.
It was just pure pressure for her.
"It was more of a test to see what kind of person you are. I don’t need soldiers, I have enough." James continued, looking into her eyes. "You know I donated because I wanted to help people, and I still want to. What I ask for is to remember me."
"R-remember?" She asked back as she didn’t understand what he meant.
"Well, one day I am going to die." James said, always still staring into her eyes. "I want to be remembered, at least by one person. That I tried to do right."
She didn’t understand it at all, what was happening and why... but she felt that what James was saying was the truth coming from deep down inside him.
"So I will give you money, but before that..." He reached into his pocket. "Heads or tails?"
"I-I’m sorry?"
"Well, you broke in." James said with a single emotion in his voice. "So, heads or tails?"
