FAMILY MEETING
"Come on," he yells from the top of the school building. There's laughter and amusement in his blue eyes, I can see it all the way from down here. "What are you waiting for?"
"Diana wants me to study with her." I complained as I shield the sun with my hand. I'm smiling at him even though the sun feels so annoyingly bright and harsh against my skin.
"Diana can wait, we have better things to do."
I scoffed, "Like what?"
A bubbly laugh like it's the most obvious thing to have ever been thought of. "Like plan our takeover of the world."
"Mr. Starring." We both freeze at Professor Cornelius's unkind voice. "Miss Deacon. How am I not surprised?"
I facepalm myself before shouldering my bag and turning to the teacher in shame. "Hello, Professor, lovely day for walk, isn't it?"
"Or a sunbathe on the top of the Erlius Building, Mr. Starring?"
"A delightful day for it, I'd say." He agrees with the pale skinned Professor. "Maybe you should give it a go, get some more color in your cheeks, sir. You look a bit close to death."
"Don't be smart," I scold him and he just grins down at me. "He apologizes, Professor, he didn't mean any rudeness."
Professor Cornelius eyed me before shaking his head in disapproval. "When are you going to stop cleaning up his messes Francesca?"
I look up at him, he was still smiling and grinning like no tomorrow. I shrugged and gave him a smirk to match his. "I don't think I ever will, it'll always be me and him, sir."
I looked back to Professor Cornelius but he wasn't there anymore. Instead there were a series of gravestones and the once sunny blue sky turned dark and gloomy. A coldness overwhelmed me and I fell to the ground.
I called out for him but I could only hear him laughing as I clawed my way to the gravestones. I needed help getting up. My body felt stiff and everything hurt so god damn much.
"You are such a baby." I could hear him chuckling out. "Diana isn't in charge of you, you know?"
"I know." I whispered. "I know."
"Neither am I for that matter." His voice was so loud. He wasn't even screaming but god it was like he was right next to me. "Gravestones? I haven't killed anyone yet."
"Stop it." I beg but it's no use, he loved to push and push until someone exploded. I can't move anymore and suddenly he is standing over me.
"Brooklyn Yates, Delphi Fox, Misha Lukist." He listed off the names on the gravestones behind me. "Well, well, well Diana Salvatore and next to her is her beloved innocent younger sister, Alana Salvatore."
"No." I croaked out as I sunk down into the Earth. "Not her."
"No?" He questions as he walks over to me. He has a shovel in his hand; like his hands, the shovel is soaked in blood. "Very well, you'll have to take her place then."
He lifts the shovel and when he comes back down with it everything begins to darken and I flinch awake.
My heart is beating out of my chest. I struggled to suck in a breath as I came to terms with that being just a dream. It was just a dream. I knew that but god it had felt so real. So prominent.
My shoulder is on fire when I come back to my senses. I groan as my eyes finally fluttery open. The world is a blur but it slowly snaps back into place. The dream lingered like a bad taste in your mouth.
I really hated being in this chair. My ass was hurting so much but not nearly as much as my shoulder. I groaned as my eyes glanced over my bandaged shoulder. As much as I hated to admit it, Luciano knew how to wrap a shoulder.
Luciano is standing against the freezer door. "What were you dreaming about?"
I look up at him as my patience is pretty much nonexistent from the constant stabbing and the nightmare. "Where's my fiancé?"
"You'll see." Luciano says coldly. "I guess now, that you're awake, Mr. Salvatore will see you now."
Realization hits me like a train on aderall.
"Oh you have got to be fucking me with an eraser! Nehemiah kidnapped me?"
"Yes, it looks to be that way." Darnell says with an apologetic gleam in his eye as he walked into the freezer.
I glared at the man. "Darnell, what the fuck man?"
"Luciano, what have you done to this young woman?" Darnell says in shock as he waltzes past Luciano.
"Honestly most of those bruises were because Draio and Nico dropped her coming out of the van."
My ribs throbbed like they were screaming at him in disbelief. No way in hell did I sustain my bruises from being dropped on the ground, once. Darnell and I shared a look.
I scoffed, "Drop kicked me left and right like they were having a tennis match."
Luciano snorted. "More like soccer."
"Haha, do you want me to bend you like a fucking pretzel?" I ask Luciano icily. "Is this because I shot your bitch of a leader?"
"Talk about my aunt again and I'll cut you up like a summer sausage." Luciano snaps as he flashes the knife in his hand.
Darnell pressed a hand against Luciano's chest. "We told you that she was a friend, not a foe."
"Oh I thought you said hoe."
I laughed for a second and then sobered when they looked at me. Funny was funny even if it was going after my character. Honestly, I was indeed a hoe though so I didn't take too much offense.
"Anyone ever tell you that you laugh like a distressed meerkat?"
I struggled against the ropes and the chair rocked with me. "Someone let me out of this chair so I can strangle him."
Darnell crouched down and loosened the ropes around my legs. The rush of circulation that I got was enough to make me even more lightheaded. My body was so cold, I felt like I was dying.
"What am I doing here? Why did Elaisa go through all this trouble?"
"We didn't know where you were." Luciano responds in a duh like tone. "So we tracked you down and kidnapped you."
"And why is that?"
"Mr. and Mrs. Salvatore have reconsidered their stance on the marriage between you and Alana."
"What did Scotty do?" I say with a smile the size of the moon.
"He threatened Alana's life." Darnell answered honestly.
"The abusive asshole cares whether his daughter lives or dies? I'm impressed."
"Uncle Nehemiah may be...aggressive and not at all kind when it comes to his children but it is so he can keep them safe." Luciano mutters. "He protects his daughters, above everyone and everything else."
"He just hates her for being gay and would rather force her to marry a dangerous man than be safe with me."
"Not anymore." Darnell argues. "You might not understand how deeply devoted our master is to Catholicism or why he is so adamant on keeping Alana pure from satan's lure but you should understand that he loves his daughters."
Luciano pulls me forward once Darnell loosened the last rope around my chest. I stumbled forward as the room trembled. I hissed say my feet crumpled and I hit the ground hard. The fire in my shoulder blazes like someone had set it on fire. Everything was freezing as I laid on the floor to try and steady my heart and mind. I felt like I was in a bowl of cold thick soup. Luciano chuckled before hooking his arms underneath my armpits and yanking me to my feet.
"Come on," he snorts. "You need to clean up."
The warmth of the hallway feels like the most amazing thing I think I will ever experience outside of Alana. My body tingled as Is tumbled forward, stiffly. Luciano guides me into a bathroom before slamming the door shut. I peel my clothes off slowly along with my white bandage.
I watch my wounds in the mirror. I had so many bruises and cuts lining my body. Everything was black, blue, and purple. I had galaxies of bruises blooming everywhere or exploding out of the cuts like spilled ink. The stab wound was stitched perfectly closed and I could tell it was done with skilled hands. I ran my hand down my abs and around to my back. My face was no prettier than the rest of my body. My eye was swollen and red like someone had hit me hard and purposefully just above my cheekbone. I was definitely going to kill them when I got the chance.
I take a half assed shower. Everything hurt too much to do anything really, especially with one working arm. After my shower, I poured alcohol over the stitches and massaged a balm around the edges before changing my bandages. It was not a painless process but I made it as quick and efficient as I could. I wrapped my hair with the towel before I walk over to the clothes that had been folded in the chair. "You have to be fucking kidding me."
A skirt and a tube top with a few lingerie undergarments. There was no way in hell that I was going to wear this. I would rather be naked as the day I was born. I threw the clothes into the toilet and closed the lid. Before knocking on the door.
Luciano opened the door with a cocky smirk, "Did you like the clothes I picked-"
He stared in shock at my naked body and I walked past him completely unbothered. I pull the towel from my hair and dry it softly. "I am not wearing that."
"Bro." Luciano said icily as he grabbed me. "You're not meeting my uncle naked."
"Then get me a suitable outfit, Lucy." I bark as I rip my arm from his grasp.
He sighs. "Can you wrap yourself up with the towel and I will take you to get clothes?"
I try not to wince as I cock my head to the side. "I'm sorry are you uncomfortable because I didn't want to wear the clothes you knew would make me uncomfortable?"
Luciano made a noise of annoyance before walking forward. I followed him up the stairs and onto the second floor. I swear this house was purposefully built like haunted jigsaw puzzle. "Where's Darnell?"
"He went to alert Alana that you were awake."
My eyes perked at the mention of Alana. I assumed she had been safe and well because it was her father who had orchestrated all of this but the knowledge of it gave me a lot more happiness than I thought. Especially the thought that in just mere minutes that I would get to hold her again.
"How long has it been since you kidnapped us?"
"Two days." He opens the first door and walks straight into a closet.
"Two days? That's a long time." I walk into the bedroom and look around in mild interest. It wasn't completely horribly decorated. "A little boring but what can you expect from someone who displays his personality on the walls."
"Shut up." I can hear him grumble from the closet.
It smelled like warm cinnamon which was surprising. I recognized the scent from somewhere but it was far too back in my mind for me to be able to name where it was from. A shirt and pants were tossed to me and I caught them without even having to look at Luciano.
I slipped the clothes on carefully before strutting over to a picture frame that had caught my eye. It was of Diana and Luciano kissing. "I don't know much about Italians but usually they don't kiss their cousins."
Luciano ripped the frame from my hands. "I am not their cousin. Nehemiah and Elaisa adopted me as their ward when my family was killed in the attacks on the Aredos'. Elaisa's sister adopted me when I was seven."
"You're an Aredo." I said actually shocked.
"Luciano Armando Valli Aredo II." He confirmed. "Which makes me higher up on the mafia chain than even you, Francesca Grey."
Well, I'll be damned, he was right.
I laughed and nodded. "Touché."
"Are you intimidated?"
"I can still kill you in less that fifteen seconds." I say walking out of the room. "So, no, not really."
Luciano snaps the door shut behind us before brushing past me. "You have a busted shoulder."
Speaking of.
I grab him by his shoulder hard enough that he tumbles back after I set my foot right behind his leg. He hits the ground hard and I stop on his chest before I straddle him. I punched him five times before he could even register to put his hands up in defense. I push myself up and grab his gun.
I point it at his chest and shoot twice.
"Fuck." He gasps as I pull off of him.
"Bulletproof vest." I grin. "Smart, boy."
Luciano sneers as he hisses in a long pained breath. "Why are you such a bitch?"
"You tortured me." I said before smacking the gun against his throat. He choked and grabbed at his throat. Luciano went into a coughing fit before he gathered the strength to roll over and heave giant breaths. "That was me being merciful because Diana loved you."
"How kind." Luciano barked as he pushed himself to his feet.
"Take me to your leader dickhead."
Without another word, Luciano guides me through the house. The dark hallways pressed on me as we made it up the stairs. Somehow we got to the room that I had walked into last time. The grand meeting room.
The doors swung open and I could hear the screaming and arguing more amplified as they did so. I knew it was Alana. "Angel!"
I pushed past Luciano into the room with guns drawn right at me. I saw nothing but Alana: light hair, beautiful eyes the color of warmth, and a face dusted with freckles. Alana was fierce and angry, screaming at something that I had no idea about. But when her eyes met mine, her face warped into an emotion that I couldn't quite understand in that moment. Relief? Happiness? Love?
I didn't take too long wondering what it was before she catapulted into my arms. I nearly stumbled back and fell over but she pulled me forward and saved us from that embarrassment. The pain was damn near unbearable but she was in my arms. Alana smelled like everything right in the world. I buried my face into her hair and she buried hers in the crook of my neck. Alana's rapid chest beating hard and furious matched mine.
"You're here." Alana cried.
"Awe, shucks, Angel, did you miss me?" I let her pull away from me and stare at her in the face. I cradled her cheeks before brushing away the few tears that had fallen down her cheeks.
"I thought they killed you." She pressed her head against mine. "God, what did they do to you?"
"Nothing of importance, Angel." I said with a bright smile.
"You claim to not love her and yet your actions say differently." Luciano mutter's icily. "The same woman that caused your sister's death."
"Shut up, Luciano." I snap as I wrap my arm around Alana's waist. This was the most affection I've ever gotten from her and here he was ruining it like a bad headache.
Alana pulled away from me softly, just out of my arms, but she didn't move away from me. Her body still pressed against mine. Her face went stiff and unkind as she looked at Luciano. "She's not-"
She broke off mid sentence like she didn't quite believe the words that were going to come out of her mouth. It didn't matter, though, I knew a part of her would always believe that I was responsible for Diana's death. No matter the amount of times that I told her it wasn't. Maybe the part of her that didn't believe me was also deep inside of me. The dream that I had earlier still lingered in my mind. A part of me was starting to know that I was the reason that Diana is dead.
Nehemiah cleared his throat and stole the conversation. "Our contract."
Elaisa held up the stack of papers and I traveled over to it. I took the papers before plopping down across from them. I didn't show that the pain from plopping down was damn near unbearable. "It'll take me a minute to read this."
"We can wait." Nehemiah grumbles before standing up. "Alana will let us know when you are finished, come along, my wife. You as well, Luciano. I need to talk to you about your uncle."
"Uncle Alessandro?" Luciano questions in surprise.
Nehemiah glanced at me nervously and nodded before strolling out of the room. Elaisa and Luciano followed suit. I cleared my throat before flipping over the first page. It took me an hour to read through the contract twice. It was pretty simple and didn't leave any room for surprises. I would agree to it.
"Do you want me to do this?"
Alana met my eyes once I raised my head to her. "What?"
"Do you want me to sign this?"
"Of course, I do, I need your help."
"I'm giving you an out." I said finally. "I'll help you but you don't have to marry me."
Alana stood up. "What? You'll lose your gang, if I don't."
I nodded. "I won't force you to marry me, any longer, Angel."
Alana stared at me in shock and surprise. "I-"
I dropped the contract onto the table. "No need for this contract anymore."
"Yes."
I looked up at her in surprise. "What?"
"Yes, Francesca, I'll marry you." She says beside me. "And not as a means to an end. I'll marry you because you have somehow made me not completely hate the idea of doing so."
I laughed, "No contracts?"
"No." Alana whispered. "None at all."
She kisses me, soft and terrified.
__________________________________
This doesn't fix everything between them but Alana isn't gonna hide anything anymore. She finally trusts her feelings for Francesca!