"Are they my brothers?" ✔️

Chapter Ten

Alessandro Romano POV-

        As I open my eyes I see la mia piccola farfalla (my little butterfly) snoring lightly next to me. A knock on the door brought me out of my thoughts, when I opened the door, Dante stood on the other side waiting for me.

      "Can you come downstairs, we wanna talk to you," he said, assuming 'we' meant our brothers, I followed him to the kitchen where Marcello, Elijah and Adriano stood.

     "What do you guys need to talk about?" I questioned.

     "Can we take Bella to the warehouse today?" Marcello asked me.

      "She just learnt about the mafia yesterday, I think it's a little too soon for that," I replied.

      "We'll be extra safe," he pleaded.

      "No," I said, standing my ground.

      "Why not?" Dante interjected.

      "Because you'll overwhelm her, she already took in a lot of information yesterday, you'll fluster her if you take her to the warehouse," I explained.

     "Please?" Adriano begged, making Elijah look at me with pleading eyes.

     "Please Alex?" Marcello said.

     "No," I said, sounding irritated.

      "Why not? We said we'll be extra safe," Adriano replied.

     "Yeah, and she's as much of our sister as she is yours, so I don't get why you won't let us take her," Dante explained.

     "No, she's my daughter and I don't want to overwhelm her," I stated, oblivious to the fact I had just outed my secret.

      "Daughter?" we heard Emilio ask while walking into the kitchen from the living room where he had fallen asleep last night.

      "Yes daughter, Bella is Alessandro's daughter," Adriano told him, while Dante and Marcello simply stayed quiet, taking in what they had just found out.

     "Wha- She's your daughter?!" Dante exclaimed, with confusion laced in his voice.

    "Yes-she's my daughter," I replied, in defeat since I had wanted to tell them in a better way.

    "W- why did you keep this from us?" Marcello questioned.

    "Partly because of Romero, and because I thought you guys would be disappointed in me," I said with a sigh. I looked up to meet their eyes which simply stared back at me.

   "Does she know?" Emilio asked, breaking the tensioned silence. I nodded in response before replying, "I told her yesterday,"

     "Speaking of Bella, where is she?" Elijah asked looking around to see if she had come downstairs.

     "She's asleep in my room," I said.

     "Did you tell her about the mafia too?" Adriano asked.

    "Yeah," I said.

    "Wait, Adri, Lijah did you guys already know?" Emilio questioned, since they were both unfazed while the others were confused.

     "Yeah, we did, the day that Bella and Alex went on that picnic, I remembered that when Bella was still living with us, they went on a picnic n and she told me all about her day, wasn't that the day you started called her 'butterfly,' Alex?" he asked me, I hummed in response and walked to the pantry to find something to eat.

      "Adri, how did you find out?" Dante asked, looking at Adriano tentatively.

     "I saw Bella looking through the family files in the library the day after Elijah found out, and I looked through them after she left the room, she didn't find out that day though, those files need to be updated Alex," he explained, looking at me while saying the last part.

    "I'll have them updated next week," I replied, opening a box of cereal.

    "Can I have some?" a voice asked from behind me, turning around I saw Bella who looked like she got up from a hundred year sleep.

     "Sure," I said, taking out 2 bowls from the cabinet.

    "Good morning guys!" Bella said before sitting on a stool.

    "What's up with you guys? Why are you so grumpy?" she said looking around the room, feeling the tension.

   I placed the bowl and a spoon in front of her before sitting next to her.

   "We found out the truth, by we I mean, me, Emilio and Marcello," Dante told her, while glaring at me.

   "The truth about what? That Alessandro here is my dad?" she said, nudging me in my ribs.

   "That exactly," Emilio said, looking at me.

    "I don't see a problem with it, I mean he had a valid reason for not telling you guys," she explained.

    "Oh and what was that?" Dante questioned her.

    "He didn't want you guys to be disappointed in him for having a kid really young," she replied before pushing a spoon of cereal in her mouth.

    "I guess, but I just want to stay mad at Alessandro longer," Emilio said, earning a snickers from Elijah and Bella. He also earned a death glare from yours truly.

    "Imma go with Emilio on this one, sorry Alex," Marcello said.

   "So what are we doing today Bella?" Adriano asked, looking at Bella.

   "Can we go in the pool today? All of us," she asked looking at me.

   "I have work," I replied, "I took the day off yesterday."

    "C'mon Alex take another day off, you're the boss," Bella asked me, showing me puppy eyes, which earned a chuckle from Elijah.

    "Fine," I replied, focusing on my cereal.

    "Can we order pizza for lunch?" Marcello asked me.

    Looking at the clock on the wall I replied, "It's only 9 am, I think it's a little too early to think about lunch."

    "It's never too early to think about food Alex," Bella scolded me.

    "Yessss, I love you even more Bella, food is life," Marcello told her, giving her a hug on her shoulders.

    "You can order pizza around 11:30," Elijah told them, giving them his credit card from his wallet. Which he just had in his pocket, for what reason, I don't know, I only had my phone on me.

    "Thank you Lijah," Marcello told him before waving the card in around like it was a valuable treasure.

     After a while everyone went back to their rooms to get dressed before going into the pool which we stayed in till evening.