The small mistake they made was that, to not listen to Joseph, to not get every word he said, and even if they would, they wouldn't understand it, how could they?
They are young, they are selfish and egotistical, people who have a legacy, people who only love the money and the power they have. They would never understand the feeling of losing a child, because that's not the same as losing a father or a mother, a sibling… no, it's not.
The difference between the two is that they knew that they would die, they were mafia lords, Dons, the most powerful ones, but they knew it, that death is upon them and it can happen fast, and well, it did. But losing a young child is the greatest pain in the world. Even if it wasn't their child, they grew close and did everything to be kind and a father-like figure to her.
She suffered a lot, but in the end, she smiled, and that brought the biggest pride in their heart, and at the same time, they got loyal, they chained themselves to Joseph because in the end it was him who made it possible for her to smile.
Maybe there was something else too, maybe they were ready to go down the road of criminals, because they were just like Joseph, no way of living a normal life after all the things they did. They will be eventually hunted down… so why not help and serve the same man who helped them?
Their lives are nearing the end and they knew it too… so why not actually use their skill, their experience in the field, to help him?
They are going to die, then die for something… and that something was also Joseph. Yeah, it's better to die for some cause than just wait until they will be found and shot dead, just how their colleagues were… even those who never got bribed.
Everything was stripped from them… then when the opportunity was given to actually make their life better, their child was stripped too… they are ready to die and that's how they were in the last years. They were building up a whole ass family for Joseph, they bought everything in the shadows through shell companies, through black market, through their connections. They bribed, they made everything work like a fine watch, but they did not act on it. They didn't make a name for themselves, because they waited for the exact moment for Joseph to get out of the prison… not as a young boy as he went in, but as a man who was engulfed by the same feeling as them… the darkness.
They knew it too, that if he came out of that cell after ten years, he would be the same, but the blood will chain him to his name, to his family, and to the pure purpose of the Cassian family… to be criminals, to be Dons.
And that's exactly what happened to him… they knew through the year who he changed, because one of the guards was bribed by them. It was a hard thing to do, but they did, and that guard was the one that leaked information to James.
But how did he do that?
Well, James still got food and to get the food the door was opened every time to give it to him, and somehow, in some way, the guard put sticky notes in his bread, in his food on the plate, with information about what is happening outside, what happened to his family, how they actively did and who did it.
Yeah, it was true as just Olivia thought it and Jelena, Joseph knew about everything but he never ordered anything, he was sitting in silence all of the year, eating and swallowing down the sticky notes every time when that guard gave him one, but after he knew his family over that everybody is dead, he didn't even bother to read the sticky note, he just put it in his mouth and swallowed it every single time.
Why would he read it when it just brought more chaos and problems?
Like the beating stopped, there was no more torture, but he knew that even if he somehow got out, he will be fucked, his life wouldn't be the same, and he felt it too that his mental is not stable, that something already broken in his mind, because he felt nothing, no emotion, he felt no remorse, no morality, he felt nothing like if the humanity in him just left.
But if he would have read those sticky notes he would have realized he is going to be released, if he would have read those, maybe some humanity would have stayed in him, maybe he wouldn't have turned into a real Cassian, because those sticky notes were about what are they doing outside, about that they successfully bribed the new justice minister.
Yeah, they actually did it, and that's why James got released.
At first, they thought his case would be automatically reopened after the new government and its reforms took over. But his name was never on the list. Hundreds of people were released, yet Joseph Cassian's name was nowhere to be found. Years went by with the DAG just waiting, until they finally had enough and decided to take action. And it turned out to be the right decision, because without it, Joseph would have never been released from prison.
The Justice Minister had no intent to let him out, because why?
Even if he didn't do it, he was still a Cassian and in her mind, every single one of them was a fucking monster on their own, not a single exception.
Well, her mind was changed when she woke up one night and two gunmen sat beside her bed and well… the next morning magically Joseph Cassian was put on the list and his case was reopened.
That's how Oliva was signed to it and they found nothing and his pardon was finalized.
Who knows what they had to do, maybe even bribe a minister, but they did it without Joseph ever knowing... Well, he would have known if he hadn't swallowed the sticky notes. But one thing he knew for sure, they wouldn't let him live a normal life.
He understood that if they killed him, they would be with him as soon as he steps out.
"Shoot my friend." Joseph whispered as he looked at Gabbana and his finger was on the trigger, ready to pull it, ready to end it, finally close the chapter that they waited for ten years.