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Third Person
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The following week had gone by rather quickly, Donatello and Emiliano were due to arrive later this evening. Iris and Dante had made sure to stay clear of each other so they could avoid another argument, and all the brothers had began to spend more time with Nario they wanted him to have a good childhood and sometimes forgot that he had also undergone a huge loss at such a young age, even though he didn't really understand what was going on.
Iris was in the library, her fingertips brushing against the spines of the old books that sat patiently in their rightful place waiting for their stories to be retold. As she looked on the shelves she saw a smaller book sandwiched between all the others, clearly in the wrong place.
Pulling it out she inspected the leather journal that was safely enclosed by a single tie, as she undid it something silver fell to the ground. Bending down she picked up the silver chain with a moon charm hanging off it, identical to the one in the door at the end of the hall.
As she looked back at the first page of the book it read;
Journal of Alessandro Moretti
She knew she shouldn't read it, it was confidential and not to mention private. Iris knew she would hate if someone were to read her most delicate thoughts but her curiosity was slowly devouring her from the inside and she gave into her desires.
A single sentence was embedded in the first page and it was clear it no mistake it was a message, a warning.
Family is not defined by blood where your loyalties lie is where your family bonds are tied.
So many thought were ringing through her head but the most prominent one being 'what was it with these people and family'. Maybe it was because she had never truly had a family that she didn't understand what it was like to have someone out there you were willing to die for, no questions asked.
She'd never had a father to teach her the stepping stones in life, never felt the anger only a sibling could provide or the cousins in which the would discuss who the strictest aunties were and which uncle was the most fun.
The smallest glimpse of a family she had was Amalea, the woman who taught her about her first becoming of a woman, who bought her Valentine's Day gifts and taught her the meaning of self-worth so that she'd never settle for less.
Though some of the lessons Amalea had taught Iris had collected dust, she wasn't with Iris physically anymore and that allowed Iris to forget what she had been taught, she was only a child after all, and like kids do she needed the guidance to become the person she was destined to be.
So entranced by the book she hadn't realised she was now sat on the ground legs crossed, eyes dancing along the page eating up the thoughts of Alessandro Moretti. She'd never known what had happened to him, she could tell it hurt Amalea to think about so she never pushed.
But as she flipped the page it was if the secrets held between these family walls suddenly spilled out.
One of the most profound treasures of the human race is the power of mankind, we all have a light inside us waiting to illuminate the darkness in ways none of us could've imagined.
Most of us have the ability to decide freely, without conditions. 'Free Will' a gift we've all been blessed with, the ability to choose, to decide our own future to make a person we are proud to become. However some of us were stripped from this right, we have our futures chosen by our 'leaders', our society even our parents.
Given the chance to do my life all over again, I would have never joined the Italian Mafia, the wretched line would end with me. Not passed down from generation to generation a poison, a burden carried by my bloodline. And I intended to keep it that way have it die and end with me, but it seems other plans had already been made and everything changed when I met her.
Amalea Sofia Sontoro.
"Mafia, Italian Mafia," Iris breathed out. "I was right," she whispered shouted.
She got up and started doing her happy dance chanting 'I knew it,' but then she thought back to the words on the page. It was evident that he had fell so deeply in love with Amalea and she with him, and suddenly her heart ached for the couple who's love was cut short, but as she looked out the window an she saw the moon light up the sky, with the starts painted alongside it she knew that there love had never died.
"Moon, moon!" She repeated.
Looking down at where she left the book she found the necklace strung next to it and the she realised she had found the key, the charm whatever it was now all she needed was the star and then she'd be able to find what was behind the door.
As she held it she spoke to herself, "There better be gold bars behind this door," with all the trouble she was putting herself through she wanted it to be worth it.
Her nose caught sense of the food coming from the kitchen, grabbing the book and necklace she ran to her room and placed them under the mattress until she could think of a better place to hide them.
All those secret phones calls in Italian suddenly made sense, or there 'business meetings' they were always running to. She'd been here for almost a month but though she had her suspicions she never had enough proof to actually believe herself.
But as she walked into the dining room and she saw them all there, Donatello at the head of the table with the rest of the brothers alongside him it hit her, she was living with a Mafia family.
Only a small amount of fear creeped up inside of her, she knew that if they wanted to kill her they would have done so already.
'Unless they're waiting for the right moment' she shook the thoughts away now was not the time to start overthinking, she just had to act normal.
As she walked to her seat under their gaze she kept a calm front so they didn't suspect anything, no one paid much attention except Donatello. He was the don after all, and he noticed the falter in each step she took along with the way she looked at them all for a few seconds longer than usual.
Iris ate her food quietly having a small conversation with Nario and Lorenzo. Once they had finished Iris and Nario rushed out of the dining room claiming that they had to go a build a fort. The twins and Lorenzo went to go and play video games while Dante grabbed some drinks and followed after them.
"Somethings wrong with Iris," Donatello spoke.
"I thought so too," Nazaire agreed.
A small laughter broke them out of there conversation, as Emiliano stood there mimicking the two of them laughing to himself.
"You two are so formal, if you think something's wrong just go and talk to her,"
The two of them looked at each other, before looking back at Emiliano who left the room, and looked back each other again.
Both of the men were equally intelligent and successful but when it came to emotional intelligence they lacked knowledge. They knew how to be emotionally intelligent when they needed to manipulate some one but this wasn't a scheme, they had to truly mean it.
* * *
Iris and Nario had managed to build a fort and watch, almost all the Disney films they had at the moment, The Lion King was Nario's favourite but Iris argued that Bolt was much better.
She carried Nario up to his room and tucked him into bed before leaving, realising that she had left his blanket downstairs she went to go and collect it.
As she walked past the dining room she heard Donatello and Nazaire speaking in Italian, seeing if they would say anything about the Mafia she stayed back and listened.
"Tutte le spedizioni hanno avuto successo?"
"Si, li abbiamo ricevuti in tempo e non mancava nulla,"
"Sono contento che abbiano ricevuto il messaggio."
The more Iris thought about it she really thought she would catch onto the fact that they're in the Mafia all the secret talks in Italian about trades and shipments. Not to mention the file she sound with information on a spy in the Russian Mafia.
"Iris what are you doing?"
Her eyes widened as she spun round to face Emiliano, she knew Nazaire and Donatello heard to as their conversation had stopped.
She walked into the kitchen, with the gaze of the three eldest brothers on her, though they didn't look angry just curious.
"Well," Nazaire started.
"I know you guys are the Italian Mafia."
- x -
author's note: dun, dun, dunnnn.
Thankyou so much for 18K!!