As usual, the night shift was rather uneventful. Today, I had only served two drinks, and they were both to the same person who appeared to be on an excruciatingly long layover, just two hours apart.
I had been working on an assignment that was due in next week that I was yet to finish, but now that was done. I was officially ahead of my reading and up to date with all of my assignments which felt like a true accomplishment.
The only assignment that I had left was given out by Professor Lockhart this morning, and that was optional and due in four weeks.
Since I had nothing better to do to pass the last few hours of my shift, I put in one earphone and started my research on that assignment.
I knew the mafia existed, but I didn’t know their name. And after a quick search, I was surprised to learn that there were four mafia families in New York.
I typed: The Mancini Mafia into the search bar to narrow down the search some more.
Most of the articles were about the recent case concerning Fabrizio Mancini and the Huntsberg’s, and I opened one up to have a read. I had picked up a few bits here and there from all the gossip and commotion around campus today, as well as snippets of news that I had seen, but I hadn’t yet pieced together the whole story.
Immediately, I was greeted with two separate pictures of Fabrizio Mancini and Natalya Hunstberg – neither of their pictures all that flattering – stood side by side to each other and with a large question mark going down the middle.
On the night of August 30th, Fabrizio Mancini was found at the scene of the crime. At Nolan Huntsberg’s deceased only moments after he had been killed. The scene was bloody and the circumstances strange, but Fabrizio Mancini maintained his innocence the whole time.
The two detectives on the case, McGuire and Caddell committed several blunders throughout the investigation and in preparation to the trial which gave Fabrizio’s defence attorney, Benedetta D’Angelo, a stronger case to work with. But ultimately, it was Natalya Huntsberg’s confession in court, driven to it by Benedetta’s intense questioning, that she murdered her brother by mistake which set Fabrizio free.
It may have been proven that the Mancini Mafia may not be behind this particular murder, but just how innocent are they? Just how many skeletons do they have hiding in their closet?
Many of the following articles that I read up on the case were similarly written and all using the same words, just spun in a different way. Some had a little extra by mentioning Francesco Mancini’s previous romantic involvement with Natalya, but even those ones weren’t all that believable. There wasn’t much information about the murder, other than the fact that Natalya claimed to have shot her brother by mistake, thinking it to be Fabrizio.
When I eventually got a job in journalism, I wouldn’t allow any of my articles to be this rubbish and void of factual information. Some of them were laughable with the speculation and allegations they were making, and I sincerely doubted any of those writers would say or write the same thing if they were actually in the presence of one of the Mancini’s.
Sources say that Natalya Huntsberg was coerced into making a false confession in front of the judge and jury. After all, the Huntsberg are common people compared to the Mancini’s and the power that their mere name holds.
The Huntsberg name which had been established from generations of wealth was left bankrupt and meaningless over eight years ago when the Hunstberg company went out of business. This left the Huntsberg, including Natalya and her twin, Nolan, vulnerable alongside their parents and extended family. And the Mancini’s were able to exert their power and wealth over the Huntsberg to not only get away with the murder of Nolan Huntsberg, but forcing his sister, Natalya Huntsberg, to take the blame for it al.
Another source states that it was actually Fabrizio Mancini who was dating Natalya Hunstberg before he broke up with her and broke her heart which eventually drove her to madness. Her plan was to murder her brother and allow her ex, Fabrizio, to take the blame for it, but it didn’t quite work out that way.
If you ask me, she should have been subject to a psych exam and proved unfit to take a seat at the witness stand.
A tertiary source states that it was actually the infamous Francesco Mancini that murdered Nolan Huntsberg, the twin brother of his recent ex, Natalya Huntsberg. Fabrizio Mancini was truly in the wrong place at the wrong time as he testified and planned to cover for his brother, but they were forced to play dirty when Natalya Huntsberg emerged as a witness to the murder of her twin brother. How Francesco’s name didn’t pop up in court more than it did, I have no idea.
That article made many allocations but didn’t cite any of their sources.
Even though I knew it was a waste of time and most of the information was either fabricated or incorrect, I just couldn’t stop reading. Very quickly, I found myself down a rabbit hole, reading about all sorts of theories and conspiracies regarding the case. Before my head could start hurting from the influx of information, I closed up all the tabs and opened up a new fresh one.
Other than making a few notes of things that I could possibly follow up on and may prove to be worth something,
The truth was, I wasn’t interested to learn about the Mancini vs Huntsberg case. I was more interested in learning about a certain Mancini.
I mulled over the thought for a few moments but when my innate curiosity got the better of me, I typed Massimo Mancini into google and waited to see what came up. To my surprise, the first link was to his Instagram.
Perhaps it was silly of me to think so, but for some reason, I didn’t think that the mafia boss could be found on Instagram. Well, it appeared that I was wrong.
However, I was quickly overcome with disappointment when I found for his profile to be private. Well, I guess that made sense.
My lips tugged down in a disappointed frown, but it was quick to turn into an expression of wonder as I stared at his profile picture. His hair was just as messy as I remembered it, and he looked to be wearing the same outfit that he had been wearing when I had last seen him, minus the suit jacket. And what I could only assume was the vanilla latte I had made him was held up as he gazed up at it.
If it was someone else, I would have thought the picture was a little cheesy, but I quite liked this one. Perhaps because this was evidence that he loved the latte as much as he said he did, or perhaps this way, there was a small part of me – a very minute part of me – in the picture with him. And then I cringed internally at the thought. That was far too cheesy for me.
When another idea came to mind, my fingers quickly typed away at the keyboard. First up was Fabrizio Mancini who had a rather questionable username which made me chortle. Thankfully, his profile was public and from there, I was able to find most of his brother’s profiles. It appeared that Massimo’s was the only one that had a private profile, but even then, all of theirs wasn’t as colourful or beautifully decorated as most people’s profiles were these days. They had fewer pictures than most which also made sense.
It appeared that they all valued their privacy which I guess made sense since they were the face of one of the most powerful mafia families in not just New York, but the country. It made sense since they probably had more to hide than most families.
It didn’t take long for me to come to the conclusion that all the Mancini’s, old and new, were all ridiculously handsome. Like all normal men, none of them were flawless or perfect, but they were all very unconventionally handsome in their own way.
And while they all looked like siblings, they also didn’t at the same time. A quick google search told me that they all had the same papa, Dario Mancini who came from a long line of Mancini men that the mafia boss title had been passed through. It appeared that Dario Mancini had worked his way through women until finally, after becoming a father to his seventh child, he had decided to put his hat in. Or perhaps he was just on a break or on the search for his next baby mama.
The information online on the mafia family was very basic and I quickly found myself bored before I returned to Instagram. And then I found myself back at Massimo’s private profile once again.
Ugh! Why did his profile have to be private when it was the only profile that I was interested in seeing?
“Just send the request, Cara,” a familiar, deep voice sounded from in front of me, and I was embarrassed to admit that I gasped in surprise. “I wouldn’t dream of leaving you hanging, Cara. I promise I’ll accept it as soon as it comes through, and then you’ll be free to look at my pictures as much as you want.”
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Layla Knight
23.01.2022
