TOM
  

There have been countless days of my life that have played out exactly like this moment. I sit in church pews that feel just as hard and uncomfortable as this one. I wear the same black coloured suit with a black shirt and a black tie; albeit the sizes have grown as I have aged. I hear the same words spoken in the oh so familiar eulogies, spoken through tears and heartbroken sobs. I keep the same sullen expression throughout these ceremonies to hide the sorrow I am feeling, appearing strong and stoic to those around me.

I soon came to realise that today's funeral was not like the others. This wasn't a typical mafia funeral for a member of The Family, this was a funeral for Robyn; the wife of my best friend. She was never initiated as one of our own, she never fought, she never killed.

It was heartbreaking to see Haz completely lose his harsh demeanor when he stood behind the lecturn, his hands shaking as he unfolded the single sheet of paper. You could tell he had been re-reading the same notes over and over, trying to find the perfect words to say to give Robyn the farewell she deserved. It's never been Harrison's strong point, you know, being eloquent with his words... Let alone giving speeches. As the Godfather, he asked for my advice in speaking publicly, I told him to note down some broad topics and to speak from the heart.

And he did, he spoke directly from his soul and beautifully summed up the short but well lived life Robyn had with all of us. His piece of paper only had a few bullet points to jog his memory but he rarely had the urge to look down at them:

My Love
· Our little man
· Our wedding vows
· Our future

As Y/N wept softly beside me, she held Oliver in her arms whilst he slept. I gripped her hand tightly with her fingers intertwined with mine. She had lost her best friend and she felt an overwhelming guilt for her death. Without her coming back into my life, Priya would never have killed Robyn.

Or so we thought.

What was brought to light in the two weeks after her death was as confronting as it was upsetting. Of course in our line of business, we had our own internal mafia contacts to "take care of things" after these sorts of situations. We have our own cleaners, our own morticians and our own medical professionals; they just didn't work legally nor with the government.

We discovered that Robyn had overdosed on her own prescription sleep medication that would have taken a significant time for the body to absorb and slowly lead her to her death. And by looking at the phone records of when Haz called her and the particularly fresh bodies of both Matìz and their nanny, it seemed that Robyn had ingested the medication at her own free will.

As much as it shocked us, we came to two separate realisations. The first was that Robyn would have had hidden Oliver in the laundry basket herself to protect him away from her. Secondly, after finding out that Priya was inside the house, she then killed herself to stop Priya from finding her and Oliver if they were together and killing them both.

She killed herself protecting their son.

As the ceremony finished, Harry moved to Robyn's parents and her sister, thanking them for attending and apologising that they had to reunite under these dark circumstances. They had flown into London from Newcastle last night for today's funeral and hadn't seen Harrison since the birth of their grandson.

"You're so great with him," Mum said walking over to us, smiling blissfully at Y/N who was gently holding Oli up against her chest.

"Oh no, they're pretty easy once they're actually asleep. It's just getting them to that point which is the hard part," she laughed, kissing Mum on the cheek to say hello.

I then kissed mum as a greeting and hugged her tightly. She rubbed my back soothingly before pulling away, smiling straight back at Baby Oliver asleep in Y/N's arms. Mum's are always like that with babies, they just fall in love with every fucking baby they see. Maybe she missed when her own boys were that small and not wreaking havoc on her life. I'm sure we wouldn't have gotten into as much trouble back then.

"When are you having one of your own?" She pried, raising one of her eyebrows and looking at Y/N with a hint of hope.

"Not until we actually spend time with one another away from all of this shit, like spend time together without people always trying to kill us," I interjected with a chuckle.

"Don't wait for your life to start after that stops... It never stops when you're the Godfather," Mum said with a sigh. I couldn't tell if it was a sad sigh or a contempt sigh, but she sighed.

Mum excused herself from us when she recognised a friend across the room, telling us that she would see us later and that we both looked good with a baby with us. I don't really know what sort of compliment that is but it was kind of nice nevertheless.

"My friend is here! Oh I'm so happy she was able to make it," Y/N said carefully using one of her hands to check her phone and respond to a text.

"Oh! The uh, the doctor friend who worked with babies?" I questioned, knowing Y/N had briefly mentioned it earlier this week.

"She worked with me in prison. She helped the pregnant inmates after their births and shit. She's great, I told Haz that she'd be more than happy to look after Oli a few days here and there so he could start getting back into work," she smiled, turning towards the door to try and spot her friend.

"How do you get pregnant in jail?" I said screwing my face up.

"Conjugal visits mostly, the women get a few hours in a private room or private one bedroom unit with their partners and you know, sex isnt something that's widely accessible in jail," she shrugged.

"Oh trust me, I know," I joked.

As her friend spotted her, she walked over to us nervously and Y/N introduced us. She was a little nervous but I could understand why, she was meeting a potential client for the first time at his dead wife's funeral. If I had to have a business meeting at a funeral I'd be quiet too.

Y/N waved to Haz as he finished up a conversation with yet another group of Robyn's relatives, motioning for him to come over to us. He took a deep breath and wiped underneath his eyes before saying "fuck me this is a rough day" quite loudly to us.

"Harrison, this is my friend I was telling you about. She's open to being Oliver's new nanny if you think she'd suit you guys," Y/N smiled, watching her friend shake the hand of our deeply depressed friend in mourning.

Haz instantly turned into professional Dad mode, asking about her qualifications and experience. She responded with an extensive list of accreditations, degrees and certificates in prenatal and postnatal care, knowledge in the duties of an obstetrician and of course, the healthy development of a new baby.

Haz explained that he would need a live-in nanny and that she would be provided with everything she could need. She would have her own quarters in his house, all food paid for and all amenities covered. He also asked the subtle question of "have you got a criminal record" which most nurses would respond to with a look of disgust. This girl on the other hand, simply smirked and said "who doesn't."

It doesn't surprise me that Y/N knew another dirty government worker that could help alleviate some of the problems within the mafia. I mean, Haz is my best mate, he deserves the best of the best. And with Y/N's connections I knew this chick would be great.

"I'm so sorry, please forgive me. I didn't ask for your name," Haz said scoffing to himself.

"No please don't apologise, we were just too busy talking about your precious little guy. I'm Grace," she smiled.

Y/N pulled me away from the two of them slowly to leave them to talk, mostly because it was a really boring conversation to have and I didn't understand the majority of the words they were saying to each other. I put my arm around Y/N as we watched Haz smile for possibly the first time in weeks, laughing with the girl he'd just met. It was nice to see him look happy.

"So... What do you think?" She whispered.

"This is probably the worst moment to say this because it's Robyn's funeral but he should totally shag your friend Grace," I muttered quietly under my breath to Y/N.

"Oh he definitely should," Y/N chuckled back.