Dive In

Chapter 35

•Nolani•

Once I'm discharged and Rome is moved to a private room, the days feel endless and I quickly grow used to the sterile smell of the hospital. Like Viola said some days are harder and others don't feel so hard, but most days during the first month are the hardest. Viola made the proper arrangements for Rafe's funeral, after the day we buried him I didn't smile, barely ate. I lost myself for a while until Rome was a little over a month and a half old and he successfully drank from a bottle. I cried tears of joy that day. Then finally after two months of staying in the hospital they discharge him and we go back to Giovanni's.

As much as I love being away from the hospital I'm overly paranoid without constantly being able to know the stats of his heart rate, if he's successfully gaining weight and whether or not he stops breathing when he's sleeping. I go through a phase of barely sleeping and when I do it's on the floor of his nursery, I'm way too terrified to even try sleeping in a bed with him. Giovanni must grow tired of my bitchy attitude from lack of sleep because he buys this little sock that goes on Romes foot that reads his stats and will send an alert to my phone when one of them drops and I'm finally able to relax a little.

Jade and Matteo are both fully healed and back to being their normal selves. Jades back to traveling and chasing stories as if nothing ever happened. She visits when she isn't busy and is the best Auntie to Rome. Matteo is his usual quiet self, going wherever Giovanni makes him. Giovanni told his family about Rome truly being his and he assured me Viola wasn't the least bit upset, she was happy for us since Rome would get to be raised by his father.

Giovanni started teaching me how everything in his world works. He told me about the girl who helped Alexei, Polina, and about the issues with Mikhail. Mikhail's son, Isay, raped Rafael's girlfriend and that was the reason Raf killed Isay a few years ago. Mikhail didn't care what the reason was, he swore revenge for his son. I told Giovanni about Dimitri's thought of Mikhail possibly being the reason Rafael's dead. He admitted it had been a theory of his own for quite a while.

It's so strange. Giovanni went from skirting around answering any questions I asked, to divulging the information without any questions at all. The mafia has layers and rules I never expected. They're more organized than I thought they'd be and there's even a hierarchy with multiple different ranks. Not just anyone can be the main boss or the Don, as it's apparently called, you have to move up the ranks one by one unless the Don promotes you. Instead of gangs they call themselves Families, going by the Dons last name, so even though they use the word Family they aren't all related. There are many Families across the world but the four Families that reside in Easthill are the DeLuca's, the Di Salvo's, the Accardi's and the Moretti's.

As I already knew Giovanni is the Don of the DeLuca Family but not only is he the Don he's also the Capo di tutti capi, which is the over boss or the boss of all bosses. He not only makes all major decisions for the DeLuca Family but also controls the Dons of the other Families across the world. If one Family feels the need to go to war against another mafia or gang they must have his permission first, if they go against his wishes the Don, Consigliere, and the Underboss are executed.

Nico is the Consigliere for the DeLuca Family, which is an advisor to the Don, someone they can trust. Riot is the underboss, the second in command. If anything happened to Giovanni he would take over just as Giovanni had for Rafael. Luca and a few other guys that I haven't met yet are Capo's. They lead their own area of the Family's businesses, they're also in charge of the soldiers which is the last rank that start out as made men. The soldiers do the dirty work, they hold very little power and any money they make goes straight up the ranks to the Don. There are also associates that work with the Families. Associates can be lawyers, politicians, cops, drug dealers, cartels— anyone who is willing to help the mafia with anything they may need done. My first thought was Governor Warren. Associates can never be ranked and only made men are protected from being taken out by a fellow Family member without the Don or underbosses permission, an associate can be taken out anytime unless the higher ups specifically state they can't be.