And then there was us ( Chris Evans as Male Character )

Chapter1-Somethin' outta nothing

Vincenzo (2020)
A moment of solidarity while i catch a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror. from my pocket i pull the monogrammed handkerchief that reads VNR to wipe the sweat from my face. It's the thing one she had given me that I always carry with me .
My clothes fly from my body as i stand nude staring into the bathroom mirror, the blood splatter now dried into my hands.

Tonight was unexpected and i had no idea that a altercation would completely get out of hand .As a capo i wasn't supposed to be getting my hands dirty anymore however, I had to make a example out of him .

I wouldn't tolerate such deliberate disrespect. I became well aware early on that success in this business was run primarily by fear. Once they feared you then the respect would follow .

A few minutes of washing up and nothing remains of what happened . That was the dynamic i had with Lottie now , me keeping the darkness away from her that i still immersed myself in in order to afford a better life for us. I had recently opened a new business which to her i guess represented me going legitimate, but that was hardly the case. I still have to sacrifice. I was in all the way now.

Away i place the thought as i rarely like to mix home life with work .

The whole ordeal was cutting into the night i had planned for us so i redirect my thinking to what i have to do right now . Quickly i put all of the items i had conjured up in there place and set the mood with the familiar red lights as Minnie ripperton's voice presides over the setting that I'm trying to create .

I refocus and she softens my conscious thoughts... my reason for all my choices as of late.She had entered my life in very subtle way , a cute mouthy kid who showed up without notice. Hell, i guess i wasn't much to look like at either ; a tall mutt of Irish and Sicilian with a chip on my shoulder. It's sad but through our struggle we became each other's safe place in that hell hole of a foster home that was run by a bastard of a man and his lousy drunk wife .

Soon i became her protector and she mine . It was different though ; i used my strength to guard her when the bastard would attempt to enter her room as she slept sweetly, or how i would ward off the neighborhood knuckle heads who aimed to take away her virtue as she walked the streets. She was tough on her own, carrying a blade and willing to fight for no reason but once she was around me , she didn't have to do that anymore . Her battles were my battles .

She guarded my heart , left a little space in it and showed me affection and was my only companion. We raised each other in that awful environment. She was only barely 15 years old then and I was almost 18.

I was just days shy of my birthday which meant I'd be a legal adult and tossed away like yesterday's trash but it wouldn't be as easy for her . I did what i had to though ... I had started lifting bricks . Yeah bricks . He wouldn't allow me to buy weights because i think he knew I'd get big and try to do something . The dumbass didn't realize that bricks were weights .

I got stronger  which made me even more mean . I could always fight even when i was smaller , but now i was a real problem . I remember his screams as i lay into him with the bricks  . His wife had tried to intervene, but i had to shut her up . I consider what i did to her collateral damage .

We escaped that night in a car that we'll just say i borrowed and never looked back . That was all of 8 years ago.

Setting up all of the mementos within our modest 2 bedroom home takes me back to each moment and despite the wild shit we've come out of , i don't regret a single moment . To me all of that was necessary to get us where we are now .

I slip out of sight and listen to her keys being thrown on the kitchen table followed by " what the hell ."

She can't see me as i hide behind the bedroom door . There she was, my soul alloyed within the most aesthetically beautiful features , her dress loose until the fabric reveals her oval tummy thats six months along with our child .