15-year-old Josephine Parker just wanted to seek shelter in the old warehouse. Instead, she unwillingly overheard something she shouldn't have and therefore crosses the path of the Marini family. A family known for making people 'gone' and whose b...
"I think she'll be fine. You can connect your watch to it, but Valentino can show you that at some point. Like the watch, we can also locate the cell phone in an emergency and if you press the home button three times and once for four seconds, it will send a notification to Vito and me with your current location in case you need help. Do you understand that?"
She nodded and looked at the watch on her wrist. "You can locate me with this?"
"Of course," he replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and Josephine didn't dare say anything more. Her first instinct was to take off the watch. She didn't like that they could always know where she was. They had no right to do that! Did they not trust her at all? Probably as much as I give them. She suppressed her instincts. If she ran away, she could always take off the watch. Still, now that she knew it, the watch felt heavy on her wrist.
Vito tried not to roll his eyes. His brother sometimes didn't have enough empathy to understand why not everyone would be happy about being monitored. "We promise we'll only use this if you go missing. I have one of those too." He pushed up his sleeve to show her his watch. "And my brother also occasionally."
Domenico heard the undertone, but if there was one thing he could do, it was to ignore such sounds. "Speaking of brothers, have you spoken to them both?" he asked Vito. For him the issue was settled. Why bother anymore?
"No, I think it's Josephine's decision whether she wants them to know. It's her story, not mine," Vito replied, looking at Josephine to explain herself. "We haven't told Matteo or Riccardo anything about your past because I would like to give you the choice. But I think it would be easier for us to live together if you told them."
"Can I think about it?" Josephine asked, biting her lip. Vito's statement was clear: she should tell them.
"Of course. However, there is still one small thing." Vito took a breath. "The two of them assume that we only make our money by running nightclubs. They don't know anything about the other part and I would be glad if it stayed that way."
Her eyebrows furrowed skeptically. It was just hard to imagine that the two of them really didn't know anything. Everyone on the street knew the Marinis! "How could they not have noticed?"
"It's possible that they suspect something, but they're both too busy with themselves. Plus, they're not the smartest in our family, as you'll find out later. So, do you agree?" Domenico answered in his tactful way. Josephine nodded hesitantly. She was in no position to judge others, but she didn't like that so much of the older brothers' lives were kept secret from the younger ones. This inevitably led to the question of what else they were keeping secret.
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"Do you think she has an eating disorder?" Matteo wondered out loud as he laid on his bed and threw a ball up and then caught it again.
"Possibly. But if I'm honest, I find everything about her strange. Why is she here?" Riccardo, already bored with being trapped in the house, swiveled in the desk chair. The question didn't leave him. Ever since he found out about her, he kept asking himself that question. It didn't make any sense. If Domenico or Vito hadn't known her before, why take in a stranger who was clearly an ongoing problem. "Do you think she's our half-sister or something?"
Matteo caught the ball and stood up. He looked at his brother in disbelief. "You can't be serious. When did Dad manage to do that between Mum's death and his stroke?"
Annoyed, Riccardo turned in circles again and breath loudly. It was also clear to him that the timing didn't quite add up, but there had to be some explanation! He hated being so uninformed, always hated it. Even as a child, he always felt as if he and Matteo were left out of many things. Matteo called it paranoid. He was probably right about that. "Maybe he wasn't completely paralyzed. Maybe one of the nurses gave him a nice hour."
A ball hit him in the head. "That's ridiculous. Besides, even you might have noticed that she has absolutely no similarities to us. Dad loved Mum, he would never have slept with anyone else in his life."
Sometimes his little brother was so sweetly naive, Riccardo thought. He didn't want to spoil the illusion, but love wasn't necessarily important for sex. Someday, when Matteo lost his virginity, maybe he would understand. So instead of answering him, he took the ball in his hand and threw it back. "I'll ask her," he decided and stood up.
Matteo followed him quickly. "Are you crazy? Vito said we shouldn't do that!"
Riccardo shrugged carelessly and grinned before opening the door. "One more reason to do it."
They left Matteo's room together and Riccardo walked determinedly towards Josephine's room. He wanted answers and he was going to get them! After all, he decided, he had the right to know the truth. She lived with them and would probably continue to do so for a while, so he was allowed to know what the story behind it was. He entered her room without knocking.
It was empty. Riccardo looked around and was irritated to see that although there was no Josephine there, there was a thin mattress with a blanket on the floor. What was that supposed to mean? "Do you think she sleeps on it?"
"But why should she? She has a bed." They both looked at the bed as if that would answer something. But it didn't, instead another voice spoke.
"The bed is too soft." Startled and caught, the brothers turned backwards. Josephine stood in front of them with a bottle of water in her hand. "But Vito wants me to learn to sleep in a bed again, that's why the mattress is on the floor," she explained as she walked around the two of them into their room. Her room. Felt weird thinking about that, she found herself walking to the window to sit on the sill.
Matteo caught himself first. "And where did you sleep before?" he wanted to know, sounding so irritated that she had to smile. Of course, for him it was logical that you slept in the same bed. His world was just different than theirs. She breathed in and even though she thought she was excited or nervous, she felt calm within her.
"On the street."
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Hello there!
How are you? How do you cope with winter when the days go by so quickly where you live and it rains all the time :-) It annoys me, but I'm also looking forward to Christmas. If there is no update by then, I wish everyone a happy new year!
