Taken from her family at age 2 Valentina has only remembered her mother. Her mom made sure she was loved. But what happens when one day she is told her mother is no longer with her anymore and she has to leave to Italy to live with her father and 6...
"Glad you like the view. It's private property, we usually come out here every so often. Well enough talking let's get you ready to move." He said and started leading the way to the trunk of the car and gave me my backpack.
I'm pretty sure the essentials like clothes, food and water were in the bag. Luciano gave me another one of my light jackets to wear right now. I wore my jacket then put on my backpack and strapped it from the front.
When we were all done Luciano shut the trunk and locked the car and led the way. I followed behind him, usually talking with Luca, Vince, and Marcello. We'd been hiking for about 30 minutes when Leo came up to me.
They seemed to notice and started walking leaving me behind with him.
"How've you been Val?"
"I'm good. I'm still getting used to a bunch of things though."
"I know it's a big difference from what you're used to and what I did yesterday didn't help you. What I want to say is I'm sorry. After talking with your dad and brothers I realize what I did made me look like an ass."
"You're right it didn't help. What you did reminded me of Michael and I'm not gonna lie it scared me. This is all new to me and I don't know what to make of it yet, so please give me the time and space to understand everything."
"Okay I can do that. If you need anything don't hesitate to tell any of us, okay?"
I gave him a quick 'okay' as we continued our hike. I spent the rest of the hike listening to all of them talk to each other. They tried keeping mafia related topics out of their conversations. Every now and then I would chime in.
It felt nice being able to walk without having to worry about what might happen. It was also nice to see these men forget their work duties and focus on enjoying this day. They looked like normal friends hanging out. They all seem relaxed.
Around 3:30 we got to a waterfall and decided to take a break to eat lunch. They all sat in a circle with me between Luciano and Vince. I was about to sit when Luciano stopped me. He took off his jacket and placed it down on the ground then told me to sit.
He then took my backpack off my back and took out the food that was in there. He handed the lunch bag to me then put my backpack behind us. While they were all taking out their food I opened my lunch bag to see that it was thermal insulated to keep the food warm.
I opened the containers to see that it was pasta with some steamed veggies. We all started eating and talking about things here and there.
After we were done they wanted to go swim in the lake at the end of the waterfall. They all started to get ready to swim when Luciano came up to me.
"Hey, do you want to join them or not?" I didn't want to show them all the scars on my body since I was still uncomfortable with it, so I made up an excuse.
"I would love to but I kind of can't." I said with fake sadness. I hoped he would get it since it was embarrassing to actually say it. And judging by how uncomfortable he got I think I succeeded.
"I sit here with you since I didn't really want to swim either. Although I do have something I want to tell you." We both made our way to sit back down.
"What about?" I asked.
"I want you to learn self defense. I'm not going to sugarcoat it since you know about our real business. It's dangerous and as much as we are willing to protect you, you need to learn to fend for yourself."
"Alright, I won't argue with you because I've been wanting to learn self defense. I just never had the time. But who will be teaching me?"
"Each one of us," He said pointing to himself and my cousins and brother in the lake, "will be teaching you. Saturday and Sunday are your days off other than that I will be teaching you on Monday, Leo gets Tuesday, Luca gets Wednesday, Marcello gets Thursday, and lastly Vince will have you on Friday. You get to end your week off with the more sympathetic one."
"Wow, that's a lot but I think I can handle it. What time will said training be?"
"Since you get off of school at 3 we'll give you a couple hours for yourself you'll start at seven. Also since I don't trust the people in the outside world you will be training in the gym we have a home." That seems reasonable so I told him okay.
"I also have one more thing I want to talk to you about." Luciano said. I turned my attention to him once more to see what he has to say.
...
So I don't know if any of y'all remember but in chapter 14 I said I was actually drawing something Val was drawing in the story. I finished it a while ago but I forget about it. Anyways if you wanted to see it, this is what it looks like.
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