Mafia Royalty

custody

Marisol 

I hated nothing more than to wear a fancy cocktail dress, some heels and have my hair tied back as if my hairline was receding along with it. I hated yearly mafia events, which meant the one I was currently attending. 

My aunt, Valentina had reckoned that it would be an enjoyable evening but she only said that because she was going to see her friends and gossip at the corner. My grandfather didn't say much about these events. He attended these and most younger mafia men would praise him for his work before he had retired. Sometimes I felt like he only came to these things to be uplifted for his past. My uncle, however, dreaded these things as much as I did. I knew that all he wanted to do was to curl up with his old fashioned pipe and a glass of whiskey. 

I just never understood why anyone would dress up to meet a bunch of cocky ass men talk about how successful they are or bitch faced women who babbled about how expensive their stuff was. 

Lorenzo did remind us that we would not spend more than 2 hours and that was enough to accommodate what I was doing tonight. 

I had taken Ashton to be my companion tonight as he had offered when I was complaining about how I didn't want to go, but that was before I got a crucial call that I had to be there because someone was going there. 

I wish I hadn't complained. 

"Ci incontreremo qui tra due ore esatte," Lorenzo announced, looking at all of us, once we entered the hall. "Non voglio spendere più tempo del dovuto." (Italian// We'll meet here in exactly 2 hours| I don't want to stay longer than necessary.) 

2 hours. It was enough for what I had in plan, but I needed to be quick because I didn't want to be caught. 

"Right," Mateo cleared his throat, once everyone else had left. "I'm off, loser."

"You know," I began. "I'd give you a nasty look, but looks like your face's got that covered." 

Mateo glared at me, grumbling. I smiled, triumphantly. I seriously had a gift of getting under people's skin. 

Mateo had been there. I really considered him a brother and even my aunt and uncle were  parent figures in my life. Yeah, Valentina was a pain in the ass and Lorenzo was demanding and wanted a lot but they really took it up to help me back on my feet after those years. I didn't even know where to start to repay them. 

"Do you want to go to the-" Ashton stopped when he noticed I wasn't listening. "Marisol?" 

I blinked back to reality, and looked at Ashton my eyebrows raised. "Yeah, what was that?" 

He shot me a smile. "I was asking, how exactly you wanted to spend the night."

I nearly forgot that I had to get rid of Ashton for at least an hour and I didn't know how I was going to do that. I mean, he was so kind to come with me here, I didn't just want to bruh him off like that. "Definitely champagne," I said, matching his smile with my own. 

He nodded, looking around the small groups of people. "I'll go find, be right back." 

I kept my smile as he turned his heel to the other direction and lowered it once he was out of sight. I pulled my phone out, and dialed a number.

"The number you have dialed is unavailable, please leave a-"

"È scortese rispondere alle chiamate durante gli eventi, Marisol," Mateo's voice whispered behind me, nearly startling the phone out of my hand. (Italian// It's rude to answer calls during events, Marisol.) 

"Oh, shut up," I said, quickly cutting the call and turning to see my cousin. His blond hair was trimmed over his forehead, making it look bigger than it already was. I didn't know when to mention it to him. "It hasn't even been a minute and you're back. Missed me?"