Mafioso

Prologue

~ not edited

Ludovico Provenzano's POV

-               I know –

She didn't know how much I needed to hear those words.

She knew I didn't do anything, as she likely knew my father wasn't involved either.

But she probably didn't trust my father as much as she trusted me. Or so I hoped, because I definitely would have trusted her with anything. She was like a sister to me.

We were at our place, the secret garden behind my house. Nobody came here, everybody knew I was the only one allowed there. I had been treated as royalty all my life, even if we were nothing but that. We belonged to the mafia.

My little brother and I grew up with Nicola and Aurora Sorrentino. We would have never wished for their father, who was like an uncle for us, to die. They were family, and it's been like this for at least four generations. But, alas, things happen. They killed Alberto Sorrentino. Now, the Sorrentino's had not actually blamed us, but there was some sort of tension between our families. It was like they actually thought we could have done the crime. There had been nothing but silence, even if my father sent a letter of condolences from my family to the family of his dear deceased friend right away. Alberto was assassinated a month ago, and still no reply to the letter. No invitations to his funeral. Silence, which made things even more uneasy. I was now talking to Aurora for the first time since the accident.

-               Ludovico? – she called me.

I shifted my focus on her. She was a few meters away, and I had just missed what she had told me.

-               Come lie with me –

The grass around her was covered in white lightly perfumed daisies, soothingly shook by the breeze. She was just about to sit when I nodded and went to stand next to her. She pulled me down, easing me down so my head was rested on her lap.

-               What's wrong? – she asked me while she played with my hair as I gazed at the white, puffy clouds.

-               Aren't you scared? How are you even holding up? –

-               I am scared, my dad– my hero is not with me anymore. But I know my brother is going to protect me now. And I know you will too, should it be necessary –

I hummed in response, but I still wasn't convinced. She sensed it as she took my cheeks with her hands, softly murmuring a gentle – Look at me –, not satisfied until my stormy hazel eyes fixated on her crystalline grey ones.

-                My brother isn't going to do anything to you now that he is in charge. He knows your family isn't involved. He's not naïve – she continued.

-               Then why did things get this way? Why is everything so unstable? As if a war could explode any moment –

Aurora didn't know what to answer. My gaze was still on her, and so I went on, quietly asking the one and only question I was concerned about – Why do I feel like we are not going to see each other again? –

She couldn't answer, and she couldn't divert my gaze. However, she did it, as soon as the pressure went too high, she got closer, closed her eyes, kissed my forehead. And thank God, she didn't answer. Words would have ruined everything. They would have made the tension lingering around so palpable, and too real.

We stayed like that for hours.

We knew that that could be the last time we saw each other for a long time, maybe forever.

And we were so right.

Her family departed the next week.