Perhaps One Day

the call that changed lives

"At the moment her arms are scattered with bruises, along with a split lip and a bruise on her cheekbone. She also has an 18-month-old girl sleeping curled up on her lap, who she has refused to be separated from."

My eyes closed momentarily. This was all pointing to something I desperately hope wasnt true.

"Why does she have a baby? And why does she have bruises everywhere?" Rocco asked. There was thinly veiled fury in his eyes.

"In all honesty, I wouldn't be surprised if she's been physically and sexually abused by her adopted parents."

Keep it inside, Federico, keep it contained. Deep breath, just talk. You can't kill people over the phone.

Well... that's not necessarily true-

Shut it.

Right.

"and what about the baby?"

"I don't want to jump to conclusions, but Pavel and Anya never adopted another child after Giada, and they never had one of their own. The child also resembles Giada, so if I were to guess, I would say that Giada has a daughter of her own."

I couldn't think. My mind was clouded. My daughter - my 16 year old daughter - has a child of her own? What the fuck has she been through.

"You're saying that my 16-year-old sister has an 18-month-old daughter?" Gio asked.

"I don't know that for sure, but that would be my best guess, yes sir." We all have experience with babies, that won't hinder us from getting her back. If that child is truly hers... then we'll support her as much as we can. As much as she'll allow us to.

Getting my head back on track, I just wanted this call to end and my daughter to be here. "Alright, thank you sir, for everything. Will we be filling out the paperwork when you arrive?"

"Yes sir, we will. The three of us will be there in about 21 hours." That's too fucking long.

"Alright, we will see you then. I'll be sending you our address momentarily... thank you sir, truly, you have no idea how much this means to all of us."

"You have no reason to thank me. Thank you for taking them in. We'll be seeing you soon." I hung up.

A moment later and Ambra was sobbing into my chest as my arms wrapped themselves around her. A tear slowly made it's was down my cheek, it seemed like my body was catching up to everything before my mind had the chance.

"Dad? We're getting her back?" Viz's voice was so small, so unlike him that my head immediately shot up. All my sons were looking at me and hope was clearly written across all their faces.

I nodded, "We're getting her back."

We may be a ruthless mafia, but when it comes to our family, we don't hold back our emotions. And finding out that the one person we've been missing for 14 years is just 21 hours away... its daunting.

Rosana, my sister-in-law, spoke up, "And what about everything the social worker said? About... about what she endured?"

My mother responded, speaking to everyone, "We'll deal with that as it comes, but we have to let her open up to us. If she really was abused both physically and sexually, she's going to have trauma no matter what- no matter how strong she is. And if she really does have a daughter, then I sincerely doubt it was consensual."

"Youyou think she was raped?" my brother, Moreno asked, almost disbelieving. I didn't blame him, but what other conclusion was available given the information we were given. But fuck I hope were wrong.

"Possibly, yes." Her tone was resigned, none of us wanted to image that the bubbly little girl we all knew had been through hell and back while we were all living our lives together.

"We'll wait for her to open up to us, don't push her, alright?" Allesia, Remmi's wife, added. Everyone nodded agreement.

"Let's get to work on her room in the morning, just fixing it up and adding a crib for the baby. I don't want to set up a separate room for her in case it makes Giada uncomfortable." I said.

"Yes sir."

"Now lets go to bed, even if no ones going to get any real sleep tonight, and let's reconvene tomorrow right here."

"We're really getting her back, after 14 years, holy shit." Rocco murmured. He was always especially close to Giada. Taking care of her when we were busy even if he was only 7 at the time.

"I'm gonna be her favorite." Dante was very confident at that.

"Uh, no you aren't, I'm her twin duh." Viz rolled his eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N -

good evening, i know this is short but I'm trying to create the character boards and find faceclaims i can actually picture as my characters, which is considerably more difficult than i imagined it would be.

anyway, enjoy!!