The discovery surprised her. She had been under the impression that John was into blondes like her, despite her being bleached. She had not thought that he would find any colored girls more suitable than her. Edina associated with colored women when she went out on social events, but they were never close to her. Edina became angry. Her competition was at his place of work. No wonder he loved spending time there, she thought. Edina knew more than ever that in order to fix things, she would have to get to the source. It was time to make her presence known at Chimera. She had nothing else to do besides be a professional socialite.
Jerome headed to Atlantic City to meet with Luci Graziani. After Graziani and John’s discussion at Bernie’s funeral, they had decided to pull their resources together. Jerome met with Graziani on a Sunday at the Little Belmont Club on Kentucky Avenue. Besides talk, they wanted to catch a breakfast show. Jerome had heard about this club because of its rich history. It was frequented by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Cab Calloway, and Frank Sinatra. During their conversation, Graziani suggested that since Chimera was currently short staffed, they should team up with the Jet Mafia family in Philadelphia. Many of the helpers that the four guys in Chimera had hired left when Bernie passed away.
The Jet Mafia was an all-black crime family on the rise in the city. They were known to have a tight grip on the drug trade. Graziani insisted that he was in good standing with Jet and that they were willing to work with Chimera because of the group’s connections in New York City. The Jet family wanted to expand, so this was a partnership of convenience. Graziani would tip them off to crime families and their shell businesses, and the Jets would rob those businesses for a small cut. The Jet Mafia were very violent and had a reputation for extortion, murder of rival dealers, and the dismantling of other criminal businesses. They were planning a hit on one of the businesses, disguised as an antiques shop, that the Donati family, a top crime family in Philadelphia, owned.
Graziani thought that all of them together would make a strong enough group to rival the other New York and Philadelphia families, as he felt that they were just as deserving of the piece of the Atlantic City pie as the rest of them. Jet had the funds and the firepower; Chimera and Graziani had the connections and brains. The planning was successful, and Jerome returned to New York to update John. They decided to continue to head into the Atlantic City gambling race with Graziani as their anchor.
Edina suspected that John was involved in illegal activities. She had heard whispers about his activities when she attended social events. All types of moneyed people in the city, including those who had ties to the mob, attended the same events. She only had faint information about the Ambrosino family, but she ran across a few of the wives at the same functions. The women never discussed tensions between the families, but they were nice in general. They had no idea who Edina was or how she was connected to Chimera. She decided to see what she could do to put Chimera in a better position. She knew that John and the others were having a difficult adjustment period, and she wanted to see if she could help save the situation and become the hero.
At one of the lunch social functions, Edina pulled aside Roma Ambrosino, Dante Ambrosino’s wife. Roma was a delicate-looking woman. She was tall and waifish, and her brunette hairdo consisted of a French roll on top, fringe, and an upward flip at the bottom half of her hair. Edina had always thought that this woman had too much going on with hair, and her furs were too big, but she found her to be pleasant. Edina spoke to Roma, bringing up the idea that their families could work together. She figured that if they merged, they could become powerful together. Edina wanted to meet with the bosses on her own because she knew that John would never go for it. Edina had to get into the offices of Chimera to see how the whole thing operated so she could report back. When she came up with a solid plan, she would present it to John. She figured that he could not refuse such an idea. It would be too profitable to turn down. It would be the most peaceful solution for both parties.
Things moved quickly, and Roma took Dante aside that same night and told him what she had talked about with Edina. Dante thought about this and figured it could work, although he did not like Chimera. They could buy out the competition, dismantle them, and possibly take out any Philadelphia speedbumps, mainly the Jet family.
The day after their meeting, Edina showed up at the Chimera offices for only the second time in their entire existence. John was out when she arrived, and she met Ben first. Ben had never been introduced to her formally, and he made sure to mention that John never talked about her either. Then she met Jerome. John always said he had a best friend named Jerome, and she finally put a face to the description. She had seen him briefly at the funeral but didn’t think much of it. Edina thought Jerome was OK, but he seemed common to her. In the back office sat Celia. Edina walked right into Celia’s office as if she were cool with the place and the person in it. Celia was surprised to see her.
“Hello,” Celia said.
“Hi,” Edina responded curtly. “I’m here looking around. I am John’s wife. We’ve met before, at the funeral.”
“I do remember. Nice to see you,” Celia responded. Edina eyeballed the office.
“OK, you can get back to what you were doing,” Edina said. Celia sat there dumbfounded. It sounded as if Edina was ordering her around.
Jerome contacted John and informed him that Edina was in the office. John flipped out on the phone. He did not know why she was there. She had never warned him about her arrival and told him her reasons for showing up. Before John arrived, Edina walked in and looked around his office. John had taken over Bernie’s space, but he had only commingled necessary items from his old desk to Bernie’s. He thought it was important to keep everything Bernie had intact. She looked at the photos in the room, which Bernie had left. He had a copy of the group photo with all five of them framed on his desk. There was also a picture of Bernie and Gina together. She continued to look around to see if John had put photos of Celia in there too. Edina did not find any.
When John walked in, Edina was sitting in his chair and leaning back on it with her feet propped on top of the desk. He hated body parts on the desks unless Celia was sitting her butt on it. He did not mind that. “Why are you here? Why are you sitting in my chair?” He asked her.
“I’m your wife. I can’t come and visit you?” she responded in a cutesy way.
“Well, no, you can’t,” he responded.
“What?” she said.
“You can’t just be showing up here,” he said. The conversation was just loud enough for everyone to hear. Jerome and Ben watched as John closed the office door behind him.
“The hell is going on here?” Jerome asked Ben. Ben responded with a shrug.
Celia came out of the office, walked over to Jerome and Ben, and said lightly, “She burst into my room and was just, I don’t know.”
Jerome responded, “Something is going on.”
“Do you want something?” John asked Edina.
“I want my husband’s company,” Edina said.
“I am OK; I’m not lonely here,” John responded.
“Oh, I bet you aren’t,” Edina replied.
“What is that supposed to mean?” he asked her.
“Oh, nothing,” she said. “I am here because I know you need help, and I am here to help.”
“We are not hiring,” John said.
“I am not asking for payment. John you are so funny sometimes. I have ideas that will help the company. You are running it now, and I feel that my input would help us make this place great,” Edina said.
“Us?” John interrupted.
“Yes, us. We are a union. Or have you forgotten that?” Edina said to him in a cross tone.
“Look, if you want to help, you can get lunch for everybody. Did you at least bring food with you?” John asked her.
“You can eat me,” she said in a sexy tone as she opened her legs slightly.
Blank-faced and
repelled, John responded, “Well if you are not going to get any food, I still have time to get to the diner down the street before it gets crowded.”
Shortly after the New Year, the Jet Mafia, assisted by information from Luci Graziani, conducted a hit on the Smith Antique store in Philadelphia. The Donati crime family owned the store. The Donati family had attempted to kill Graziani before for his dealings with New York crime families. The scene at the antique shop was so violent and gory that it made national news. The employees in the store had been stripped of their garments, hog-tied, forced to lie down, and whipped with a pistol and rope. After they had cleared the safe of thousands of dollars, the Jet Mafia burned the place down with everyone in it. The Donati family in mourning declared an all-out war on anyone who may have been involved.
Months passed after the hit from the Jet Mafia. Graziani was at Club Harlem, a nightclub in Atlantic City, having appetizers with his date and enjoying the entertainment. A gunman entered, took aim, and shot Graziani in the head at point-blank range. The bullet went through his head and hit a shot glass on the table next to them. Security fired back, and the gunman continued to shoot, killing Graziani’s date and wounding the security guard. The gunman was also shot to death. The rest of the patrons ran out of the club. Upon learning of Graziani’s sudden death ordered by the Donati family, the Jet Mafia family and Chimera quickly became full partners, sharing resources among New York, Philadelphia, and parts of Atlantic City. John felt that the manpower from the Jet Mafia would help Chimera tremendously.
Graziani was out of the picture, which left the Jet Mafia and Chimera on the radar of the Donati and Ambrosino families, who were working together. They had a deal to work together in Atlantic City. The hit on Graziani simply eliminated competition. Graziani was the common denominator.
Soon after the hit, John and Ben began to get harassing phone calls at the office. Ben was not sure who had it out for him. He assumed that it was one of his dealers, whom he owed money. Ben had been dipping into the company funds to pay them, but it had become increasingly difficult to do so. Celia was now in charge of finances, and despite Bernie’s reassurance, she remained suspicious of the past activity that she had tracked from Ben. She was strict with funds and access to checks. John’s calls came directly into his office. He suspected that they were being recorded because he could hear a light clicking sound as he went back and forth with the caller.
“So why are you calling me and hanging up? Are you recording this shit?” John would ask.
The unidentified caller would occasionally respond, “Why are you worried? Gangsters don’t worry, right? You guys do the threatening. Is that what you people like to say?”
John would get irritated. “Now it’s you that’s threatening me.”
Jerome received harassing phone calls at his residence. The calls frightened Celia so much that she opted to work from home on some days until she thought it was safe to return to the office full-time. John had a few members from the Jet Mafia come to New York to work security for them and to protect her. The Jet Mafia family had about thirty members, so John enlisted ten of them to come to New York.
Edina often returned to the office, much to the dismay of John, who could not do much to stop her from showing up periodically. He locked his office door to keep her out of it, so Edina would linger around various sections of the building not doing much. They had a couch for visitors, so she would sometimes sit there until John arrived. Other times she would have conversations with Ben. When John came, he would acknowledge her presence and then retreat to his office, closing the door on her. Celia attempted to strike a friendly conversation with Edina a couple of times to break the ice. These did not end well. She felt that Edina was sizing her up, and a couple of comments Edina did say to her were patronizing and bordering on disrespectful.
After a few such conversations, Celia decided to pull Edina aside and talk to her woman to woman. Edina was always reluctant to speak with Celia. “Did I do something to you?” Celia asked.
“You can’t do anything for me, sweetie,” Edina responded snidely. “Look, I know that your people are fighting for their rights and access to everything; that’s wonderful. I support it, I do, but that does not mean you can infringe on others’ territory.”
“Woah, wait a minute,” Celia said.
Edina cut her off. “No, you hold on a minute, sweetie. I only tolerate you because everybody else likes you here,” she said. “You are screwing my husband.Here is not your place. John and I have been here from the beginning, and I just don’t think it’s appropriate for you to be even here.”
Jerome overheard the two women in a heated discussion and decided to interrupt them. The tone Edina used did not sit well with him. Edina snapped back at Jerome, “I don’t need your assistance. Don’t you have something to do?” Jerome looked at her in disbelief; she had some nerve to talk down to him.
“It’s OK, Jerome,” Celia assured him to get him out of the way.
“I know you guys stick together,” Edina said to Celia.
“OK, look, I’ve never slept with him. I don’t know what your problem is, and for your information, we do stick together. Jerome is my family. He is a good guy, and he doesn’t like disrespect. Plus you need to be reminded that you are married to one of us! I don’t get that,” Celia snapped back. Edina knew she was married to a man who had black heritage, but she did not see him as one of the “others,” as she called them.
John walked in and heard the commotion. “What the fuck?” he yelled. “Edina, go home. You can’t be here anymore. You can’t linger here all day; do something.”
“I can’t be here? I am your wife. How are you going to kick me out?” Edina yelled back at him.
“This is a place of business, and you cannot be bothering him or her,” he said.
“Who are they? Why aren’t you defending me?” Edina asked. “You and I were here first! If anyone doesn’t belong here, it’s her,” Edina said as she pointed to Celia. This made John angry.
“Go, Edina!” he said after a deep breath.
“No, you let her go. Fire her now,” Edina said. Celia looked at John, and he looked back at her.
“Fire her for what? I’m not doing that.”
Edina looked from Celia to John and Jerome, and then she walked out. Fed up with the situation, Edina made it back to her residence and dialed Roma Ambrosino. She wanted to discuss a deal with them.
Before they could deal with Edina’s appearances, Chimera had to solve the issue of the harassing phone calls. Jerome thought that the Ambrosino family was behind them. Ambrosino had been their chief adversary. The harassing phone calls to Jerome’s home had increased. The calls were used to taunt them. Mariana would pick them up, and the caller would insult her. She expressed concern to Jerome about the situation, as she had recently discovered that they were with child and did not want anything to happen to them. Sometimes the caller would refer to Jerome as a monkey and warn that he and the rest of their monkey family had better watch out if Chimera did not back down. This call was no different. Mariana called Jerome over to the line to help this time. Jerome took the phone from her.
“Luci was a waste. I never really saw the appeal of dealing with niggers,” the caller said and hung up. From that statement, Jerome knew whom he was dealing with. It was Dante Ambrosino. Dante had been the main voice of opposition to Chimera and their attempts to expand. He would often taunt Chimera as he felt that a group like them did not fit into the culture that the families had cultivated in New York City. He felt that the Cosa Nostra had no place for a mongrel group. The Ambrosino family did not want to take Chimera seriously, and they figured that the group would be easy to diminish. Jerome did not take kindly to threats to his family. He felt the obligation to protect them at all costs. He called John, and they got together, but not before Jerome had Mariana removed from the residence into a safer place.
A few days after the phone calls and the incident at the office, things returne
d to normal at Chimera. Edina’s visits had made everyone uneasy. They were smiling again now. Edina was only friendly to Ben and John. She was offhand to Jerome and Celia. Edina saw those two as a threat to her and John’s future. John had finally decided to make up his mind and begin the process of divorcing Edina. He was fed up with her. Bernie was no longer with them, and the lingering obligation to him regarding Edina no longer played a factor in the situation. John felt that he finally had an out. He knew that he would lose out big in a divorce financially. Edina had different plans. She thought if they had any chance to make it at all, Celia and Jerome would have to go, and she was determined to see that materialize. Roma Ambrosino put Edina in contact with the chief Ambrosino-family boss, Enzo Ambrosino, and they had a lengthy conversation.
John and Jerome decided to pay a visit to Dante Ambrosino themselves. They knew that his wife and children were out of town visiting another family. Edina leaked that info to John to make small talk with him and to ease him into what she was planning to do. John had never been interested in hearing what she had to say or learning about any of the Ambrosino activities until now. It was 10:10 p.m. later that evening. It was pitch black outside, so it was hard to spot them. The neighborhood was in a rural area in Westchester that did not have a lot of street lighting. John and Jerome staked out on Dante’s property, hiding in the shrubbery and massive snow piles that were left on the lawn. Both were dressed in all black from head to toe. They wore black face paint and ski caps to make sure they exposed no identifying characteristics. John then went and disabled the power on the generator outside. They knew Dante was in there alone. His wife had revealed to Edina that her husband liked to sit and drink alone in front of the fireplace at night.
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