Chapter 341: Feelings No One Quite Understands
"No matter what you say, from now on, Castle will be watching you," Frank said calmly. "You can forget about stealing cars. And if you keep screwing up, he'll make sure you remember the lesson."
"You son of—" Jimmy nearly exploded, but when he saw Fiona coming downstairs, he swallowed the rest of the curse. He slammed the door and stormed out of the house.
"What's going on?" Fiona asked.
Fiona wasn't some naïve girl who could be easily fooled. She'd been holding this family together since she was fourteen, raising her younger siblings in the chaos of the South Side. She could tell something wasn't right between Frank and Jimmy.
"It's nothing major."
Frank briefly explained Jimmy's situation.
He only mentioned the divorce and the car theft. He didn't say a word about Heisenberg or Nando. Those were things she didn't need to know.
"He got divorced?" Fiona froze.
"You didn't know? He didn't tell you?" Frank was genuinely surprised.
"He never said anything," Fiona replied.
Frank had assumed that the moment Jimmy finalized the divorce, he would rush to tell Fiona.
Apparently not.
"He told me before… that once he was divorced, he'd marry me immediately," Fiona said quietly, as if recalling something distant.
Frank fell silent.
Jimmy had said that. And to be fair, he probably meant it at the time.
But meaning something in the moment and actually being ready for it were two different things.
"Did you ask him about it?" Frank asked.
Fiona shook her head. "No."
"Why not?"
She hesitated, then gave a faint, complicated smile.
"I don't know… I just didn't."
That answer was simple—but layered.
Frank understood.
Fiona had waited for years for Jimmy to be free. Now that he finally was, she suddenly felt uncertain. If he didn't bring it up himself, what did that mean? If she asked, would it feel like she was pushing? Would it expose something fragile between them?
Sometimes love wasn't about grand promises. Sometimes it was about who spoke first.
And neither of them had.
"You still want to marry him?" Frank asked.
Fiona didn't answer immediately.
"I don't know," she admitted at last. "I love him. But… every time things seem like they're about to get stable, something blows up."
That was the truth.
Jimmy loved her. Fiona loved him.
But Jimmy thrived on chaos. Stability suffocated him.
Frank looked at his daughter for a long moment.
Feelings were the one thing he had never fully understood.
Money, survival, manipulation, risk—those he understood perfectly.
But love?
He had lived half a lifetime with Monica and still couldn't explain why he had loved her the way he did. Why he kept going back. Why he forgave things that should have been unforgivable.
Maybe people like him weren't meant to understand love. Only to endure it.
"Listen," Frank said finally. "I won't force you to choose. But don't build your future around someone who doesn't know what he wants."
Fiona lowered her eyes.
"And don't wait for someone to make a decision for you," Frank added. "If you want something, say it. If you don't, walk away. Life doesn't wait."
Fiona nodded slowly.
Upstairs, the house was noisy as usual. Down here, the air felt heavier.
Frank watched his daughter and, for once, felt powerless.
There were some battles he could fight with money. Some he could handle with threats. Some he could solve with planning.
But this—
This was her heart.
And that was something even he couldn't control.
It was obvious Jimmy had said those things back then just to soothe Fiona — to win back her affection.
At the time, he had no power to resist Nando. The only way he could regain his freedom was to wait two full years, until the Brazilian girl secured her U.S. citizenship.
Two years is a long time. Anything could happen.
So Jimmy made promises.
Now, because Frank intervened, Jimmy had regained his freedom ahead of schedule.
By his own words, that meant he should marry Fiona immediately.
And yet — he said nothing.
The divorce was kept quiet.
The rest of the family didn't know. But Frank had been involved from start to finish. If Fiona remained unaware, Frank would inevitably tell her. Jimmy had to know that.
So why hide it?
Did he assume Frank wouldn't live long enough to expose it?
Or was he trying to signal something else?
Was that earlier conversation with Frank a test?
No one knew what Jimmy was thinking.
Frank didn't particularly care.
He only cared about Fiona.
Fiona and Jimmy were already living like a married couple. The lines between "appropriate" and "inappropriate" had long since disappeared. Jimmy had been sleeping in Fiona's room for months.
And their emotional history was even more complicated.
Think about what Jimmy had done:
Courted her under a fake identity.
Disappeared for over half a year.
Reappeared already married.
Had his fake identity exposed — not by confession, but by being caught.
Then shamelessly came back asking to reconcile.
By any rational standard, he was irredeemable.
A walking red flag.
In most situations, someone like that should be cut off forever — slapped, cursed at, blasted publicly.
And yet Fiona had taken him back.
Frank had never fully understood that.
The only explanation he could come up with was one word:
Love.
Debbie had once told him that during the six months Jimmy was gone, Fiona secretly called him.
She had never truly let go.
Even while dating others, even without a "single" period in between, Jimmy remained in her heart.
Frank sometimes wondered — if Jimmy had vanished for even longer, long enough for Fiona to marry someone else… and then suddenly reappeared…
Would she still run back to him?
Like a moth to a flame.
Like Gretchen and another version of "Frank."
To be fair, Jimmy did have feelings for Fiona. That much was real.
When Nando had executed a man right in front of him and dismembered the body, Jimmy still secretly reached out to Fiona.
That wasn't casual flirting.
That was risking his life.
Which was why Frank had expected Fiona to jump at the chance to marry him.
Instead, she hesitated.
That unsettled him.
And judging by Jimmy's behavior, perhaps Jimmy wasn't eager either.
Frank found their situation hard to decipher.
Even though he carried the memories of the original "Frank," his mindset remained more Eastern — more pragmatic, less emotionally indulgent. Western romantic logic often felt… incomprehensible.
Still, when it came to his children's love lives, he had long adopted a hands-off philosophy.
Children have their own destinies.
But Jimmy's "re-education"?
That was non-negotiable.
Dirty hands lead to trouble. And trouble could drag Fiona down with him.
On that point, Fiona agreed.
Car theft was never a sustainable life.
Jimmy, of course, had no idea Fiona had effectively sided with her father.
---
That night, Jimmy sulked at the bar.
Castle sat beside him.
"Friend of yours?" Kevin asked as he poured Jimmy a drink, eyeing the silent man at his side.
"No," Jimmy muttered. "He's the enemy."
"A beer," Castle said flatly.
While Kevin poured, a man approached the counter.
"Svetlana, get me a few beers."
"Call me Anfisa," she snapped coldly. "Say that name again and I'll crush your balls. Fifty bucks."
She slammed the glasses onto the bar, spilling half the contents. Service with a snarl.
"Hey, it's all spilled! And why do others pay twenty?" the man complained.
"Drink it or don't."
"Okay, okay."
He paid quickly and retreated, whispering with his friends and occasionally glancing back at her.
"Your place seems busier lately," Jimmy remarked.
Kevin smirked, wiping a glass.
"Yeah. They're all here for her."
He tilted his chin toward Anfisa.
And Castle, silent as ever, continued watching.