January
Lucy's Age: 3
The operation against the Latin Kings was an even bigger success than I expected it to be. Not only did the tribe I hit pull back away from Imastious' pets, the Red Hand Consortium, they also pulled back slightly with regards to their ongoing harassment of the White Tears. I'd tipped my contacts in the White Tears off to the fact that the Latin Kings had experienced a reversal in fortunes recently and the White Tears had taken advantage of the commotion my operation caused to kill two of the tribe's lieutenants. There was some kind of collateral damage, I think one of the lieutenants had a family, but for the next couple of months I'll get a cut of the drugs moved in the territory that the White Tears just took over, which should amount to a tidy sum.
Given that I currently have no choice but to do all of the things that Imastious is unwilling to do himself, it's always nice when I can cash in on the work and get something out of it for myself.
In other news, I fully expected that Lucy would represent a significant change to my lifestyle, but I'm still surprised on a regular basis by just how much time and attention she requires. The first couple of weeks were nearly enough to cause me to rethink the child's usefulness. There was an alarming amount of tears and very regular temper tantrums, but I managed to procure a new apartment for the child and engage the services of a nanny, one Mrs. Clarissa Agosti, and since then things have settled down somewhat, albeit not completely.
A single woman in her fifties, Mrs. Agosti came highly recommended and seems to be making some headway with Lucy. It seemed as though Lucy was initially unnerved by Mrs. Agosti's shockingly white hair, but it appears as though she's gotten past that and is about as comfortable with her new primary caregiver as could be expected.
From a pure time-management perspective, it would be tempting to simply leave Lucy with Mrs. Agosti on a full-time basis, but I know that would be a mistake. The few hours of reading which I've been able to squeeze in around caring for the child has indicated that children bond best when they are younger. If I'm to expect Lucy to bond with me to the degree that I need her to, then I'll need to spend at least as much time with her as a father would.
I'm finding that feigning interest in Lucy is also much more difficult than I expected it to be. The things about which the child cares are ridiculous. For instance, last week she became quite overwrought because I couldn't tell her how many days it would be until her birthday. She seems convinced that her birthday is in January, so I held up a calendar of the month and told her to pick a day. From henceforth we will be celebrating her birthday on the twenty-fifth of January.
While this calmed Lucy down slightly, there has still been a distressing amount of tears even since then. I've told Mrs. Agosti that Lucy's parents were killed in a car accident, and that the child was trapped inside the car for an extended period of time before being rescued. The cover story of me being Lucy's uncle should go a long way towards heading off any questions that would otherwise arise about how Lucy came to be in my care.
Unfortunately setting up the new apartment, providing food and clothing for Lucy, and hiring Mrs. Agosti has cut much more deeply into my liquid capital than I expected it to. The payoff from the cocaine I lifted from the Latin Kings ended up being redirected to caring for Lucy rather than being invested as I'd originally planned.
Predictably the company in question has done very well over the last three weeks which means that I've forgone more than a hundred thousand dollars in profits by not following my original plan. It's not an insubstantial amount of money, but I continue to find that I'm unable to free up the time required to go out and recoup the shortfall via other means.