I looked at all those nervous faces for a second.
And another second.
And another.
And another.
Until I bursted out laughing, "jeez okay, good joke." I laughed out.
They all kept their serious faces, "oh shit your serious?!" I almost yelled.
They hesitated, but nodded.
"Oh-"
"-Well that's fine I guess."
They released those breaths they were holding.
"But-" they tended up again.
"I have a few questions" I continued.
"Okay, okay. Ask away, we'll answer honestly ." Dad said.
"Which mafia and like all of you? I'm confused."
" okay so, I'm the leader of the American mafia and Allesandro is the second in command." Dad spoke first.
"I'm the leader of the Italian mafia and Wayne is my second in command" said uncle Alpha
"And I'm the leader of the Spanish mafia and Ricciardo is my second in command." Said uncle Carlos
"Now mafia's have allies and enemies, we are all allies with many other mafia's, where I'm kind of the leader from. I make sure that there is peace between our allies and they need to listen to me." Said grandpa.
"Okay, so enemies?"
"Yes, so we all three have the biggest, most powerful mafias in the world, but we do have enemies. Non of them are a threat to us because we're stronger. But..."
"But?" I asked slightly panicking.
Dad looked at the others sadness filling his eyes. The others nodded at him encouraging him to continue talking.
"But the Russian mafia. Ranked 4th highest powerful mafia. He wants all the power and wants to be number one. We had an alliance, but they wanted more power, money,.. and broke the alliance for it. He euhm Vladmir is his name, he euhm he was the person who made them kidnap you. We tried looking for you as you know, but we couldn't find you. A few years ago, he wrote a letter to your mom, about maybe wanting to give you back too us. The letter also said to come alone, otherwise he would kill you. Your mom went alone and didn't inform us about the letter, she was a trained assassin so she knew how to protect herself and she just ran at the opportunity of finding you. ....Vladmir awaited her and took her, torturing her for days, never planning on giving you back. We had an encounter where he stabbed her in the chest in front of us, her last words were to make sure to get you back and to give you her love too. She also wanted to make sure too never think that this was your fault, it's Vladmir's. The building was going to blow up and we couldn't take her dead body with us to bury, she exploded in the fire the second we left the building." Dad said sadness and pain exposed in his eyes full with unshed tears.
The pain in his voice was clear too everyone in the room, I motioned for dad to come too me.
He did and sat next to me on the couch, I turned too him and hugged him tight.
"I'm sorry"
"It's okay, it's not your fault. She's watching over you and us from above." He sniffed.
I made sure dad was okay before asking some more questions.
"So, you guys kill people?"
They nodded still hesitantly, scared for my reaction.
"Only bad people, we've never killed innocents or children and aren't planning on doing so" Grandma quickly said.
From a book I'd read about a mafia stood that they did human trafficking.
"Human trafficking?" I asked quietly, scared for their answer.
Mafia, okay but human trafficking no, just no.
"No" They all immediately answered, making me release a nervous breath.
"Good" I muttered.
'No, we don't participate in those kind of things. In our mafia's, woman and children are respected. We try to take those human trafficking things down actually."
"Okay but what do you guys do, like don't you guys have all those hotels or..."
"No we do have them. We have illegal business aka the mafia but we also have many legal ones too. We own multiple hotels, restaurants, casino's, gym's, and a lot more where we get most of our money from. And in the mafia we do a lot, difficult to explain." Dad said.
"Okay,...So that's why Oliver and Maxim are my bodyguards, so your enemies don't kill me."
"Yes and no, even without the mafia you'd still have bodyguards because of the money and stuff. But they are definitely more needed because of the mafia. Enemies might come to harm you since your just a young simple little girl who doesn't know how to protect herself, that's how they think of you Val our enemies I mean. They think because of that, that they can harm you easily, that's why we also gave you bodyguards. But we all do, we all have our bodyguards for each individual person, and then the whole security team and our mafia men to protect you and us on top. You'll be fine, nothing to worry about. But you'll need to learn self defence and how to fight and on top of that learning how to use a gun and then keep it within reach just like your anxiety meds. I do need you to know that this is dangerous Val, this job, this business, it's dangerous and not just a game. People get killed, we can get killed if we don't watch and look out for our self's and the rest."
"Okay, so the basement and.."
"Yes, for the mafia, but we also have our offices for the legal once's. The third floor is mostly just business and some of our men, but the basement is euhm"
"Cells?"
"Yes, for the bad people where we need to get information from"
"Okay, so you all work in the mafia, and than the hospitals were like warehouses?"
"Yes there is a hospital and multiple offices and cells and some other things in every warehouse. We all know how to fight and use multiple weapons, and we have all fought in some kind of battle and done stuff for the mafia."
"Do I need to?, Do I need to kill people too?"
"You choose baby, you choose if you ever want to go on a mission with us and if you ever wants to kill a bad person, you can be in the mafia without killing others but it's hard. If you don't want to help or go on missions that's totally fine and okay with us, but we do want you to learn how to defend yourself at least. Okay?"
"Okay."
"If you were to decide that you wanted to help, with hacking, missions,... there are many things you can do, than you at least need to fulfil your training that we all did to even start."
"Okay."
There was a long silence that took over the room.
After a while Zane spoke up.
"Do you..hate us now?" He asked in a scared sad voice.
The others stiffened at the question that was asked, all the heads turning to me in anticipation and worry for my answer.
I looked at them all, one by one.
I honestly didn't feel any different, my love didn't disappear and I'd still die for them.
"No,..No I still love you guys just as much as I did this morning. Nothing will ever change that, I don't feel different to you guys. I'm not scared or anything. I'm kind of happy that you guys trusted this information to me, just like you did to the others at the same age."
Relieve took over everyone, their face going back too normal.
"One more thing, will that Vladmir guy want to try and take me back. I mean they died and now I'm here, but will he try to take me back. Is he going to kill me like he killed mom, just to get on top?" I asked fear evident in my voice.
"Honestly..
We don't know, he will always try to get on top and maybe he'll take you to get there. But we will do everything in our power to make sure he doesn't take you, but if he does we'll come for you, we will track you down by your bracelet and get you, but you'll need to remember to press it."
I gave him a nod, "Because of him I went trough all those years of abuse and because of him mom died. He killed her with his own hands." I spoke, voice breaking.
Dad took me in his arms and caressed my back, "I know honey, he will pay. When we get our hands on him, he'll wish he was never born." He promised.
"I want him dead" I spoke so quietly, that I'm not even sure if anyone heard.
But hearing agreements around the room proved me wrong.
"We all do honey, and he will, even if it's the last thing I do." Dad said ending the conversation.
I cuddled more into dad, my eyes getting heavy with sleep.
I snuggled my head into his chest and soon felt sleep take over.