Dantè Esposito (father) POV:
It's been 14 years since I saw my prinicipessa. 14 years since my only daughter, the light that was once in our lives, disappear. 14 years since our entire family changed. Since Alessandro became numb and buried himself into his work. Since Leonardo became emotionless and only talks to us if it's about work. Since Angelo stepped up to take care of his younger siblings, because his parents were depressed about losing their princess. Since Lorenzo let his anger consume and control his actions. Since Antonio became the goofy, funny brother who feels obligated to cheer everyone up. And since Luca lost his twin, his other half.
At the moment, Alessandro and I are in a meeting with the Koreans. We are talking about forming an alliance with the Americans. The Americans barely form alliances with anybody. Not that they have to, their mafia is bigger than the Italians and Russians combined. Nobody knows who the current Don is. Apparently he's scarier than the old Don and that guy is terrifying. And that's coming from me, a former mafia Don.
We're just about ending the meeting, when my phone rings out. Looking at the number, I notice it's a California area code. Weird.
I answer the phone with a cold voice. "Hello?" A woman's voice rings through my ears, "Hello is this Dante Esposito?" She says with a polite voice.
"Yes it is. Is there anything you want?" I say growing impatient.
"Uh yes actually. I'm calling to inform you that Cleodora Ferrari's mother and stepfather died from a car accident a couple of hours ago. We did a DNA test and found that you are her father and that you are currently looking for her, correct?"
I froze as tears brimmed my eyes. I could everybody in the room looking at me with confusion. Probably because the big bad Italian Mafia Don is on the verge of tears. I snap out of it when I hear the woman speak again. "Hello sir are you there? If you don't want to take custody of her, then we'll just put her in the system until she is 18."
"NO! No I'll take her in." I say, still not believing what I'm hearing.
"Great I'll send you the address to her school, and you can sign the papers and pick her up from there." She says, not waiting a second for me to respond before she hung up.
I hop up out of my seat looking at the Koreans, "Ok thank you for coming today old friend but me and my son must be leaving now." I say grabbing my son from the chair and dragging him out of the building.
Once we got in the car, I got my phone out and texted the family group chat.
"EMERGENCY MEETING. MY OFFICE. 10 MINUTES."
Alessandro looks at his phone, reading the message and looks back up to me. "What's going on dad?"
I look at him with the biggest smile on my face, "Just wait."
*******
Once we enter the office everybody is there as expected.
Leo texting on his phone. Angelo talking to my beautiful wife. Lorenzo looking irritated at his twin that's telling a lame joke. And Luca eating chips watching axel sign a story. Axel is deaf is his left ear. He can talk but he rather sign. My wife had Axel and Theo 10 years after Cleo was kidnapped. We'll get into that another time.
Everybody looks at me. There faces turn into confusion when they see a big genuine smile on my face.
"Why is he smiling like that?" ask Antonio
"I don't know but it's fucking creepy." Says Lorenzo.
"LANGUAGE" me, my oldest sons, and my wife say at the same time. Lorenzo just rolls his eyes.
"Anyway. I have gathered you all here to tell you some life changing news." I say trying to build suspense, but everybody looks at me impatiently.
"We found Cleodora. She's in California and is coming home!" I say with spirit fingers.
The room goes silent as I look around waiting for reactions.
Hestia and Angelo have tears streaming down their faces.
Leonardo and Alessandro both have emotionless faces but I can still see the relief and love in their eyes.
Lorenzo has a blank stare, but I see many emotions running through them. Sadness, happiness, anger, relief, and longing.
Antonio has the biggest grin on his face and he looks like he's about to explode...in a good way.
And lastly, Luca looks lost in thought but I see tears brimming his eyes.
I talk before Antonio has a chance to squeal like a school girl. "Alright so Alessandro and I will be leaving now. The rest of you stay here, and we'll be back for dinner." I hear groans around the room when I say that, but nether less everybody leaves my office.
Hestia comes up to hug me with a big grin with tears streaming down her face. "One of our babies is finally coming home." She says sobbing into my chest.
"I know Mia Regina I know" I say kissing the top of her head.
(My queen)
******
It takes about 6 hours before we get off of the jet, and it is now 11 a.m. in California.
We get into the car and head off in the direction of the school to get my la mia bambina back.
(My baby girl)
My sweet baby girl is going to bring the light back into our lives.
*****
Once we enter the school, we notice it's a small school, but it's also nice.
We pass a music room going to the front office and we hear a beautiful melody with a matching beautiful voice.
It makes us stop and listen for a moment before heading towards the front office again.
Once we get to the office we spot a nice looking old lady with a woman who looks to be in her thirties.
Once they spot us the younger woman comes up to us. "Hello. You must be Mr. Esposito."
We nod and she continues, "GREAT I'm Mrs. Chiffon and I'm Cleodora's social worker. All you have to do is answer some questions and sign a few papers and you're all set!"
Once we answer a few questions and I sign the papers, I hand them back over to her. She looks them over, gives us a thumbs up with a 'good luck' and leaves the building after saying a quick 'goodbye' to the receptionist.
We look at the receptionist simultaneously. She gives us a nervous smile while pointing to the door to her left. "The principal's is right through that door gentlemen."
Poor thing. I would be nervous too if I seen two giants staring blankly at me. No I wouldn't but anyway.
We head into the principal's office to see a man, which looks to be in his forties ending a phone call.
Once he sees us he speaks. "Ah u must be the Espositos. Give me one sec and I'll call Cleo down."
We decide to stay near the corner in the exit. He calls Cleo twice, and I start to grow impatient.
After the third time the door opens. A beautiful girl with green eyes and brown, almost black hair comes in. She looks just like her mother with my hair color. She has a blank look on her face though. Weird.
She doesn't seem to notice us as she starts to speak, "Johnny Johnny. Why am I here?" She says propping her feet on the desk like she owns the place.
I like it. It's in her blood after all. A queen in the making.
"Well surprisingly, you didn't do anything today." He says looking at her with astonishment. What the hell is that supposed to mean.
Her lips turn up into a smirk but her face stays blank. Not letting any emotion slip through. "Yet."
He eyes her suspiciously, looking uneasy, before his face converts back to pity. "Right." There's a pause before he continues, "Cleo I'm sorry to inform you, but your mother and stepfather died in a car crash earlier this morning. They died on sight."
Pfft. Damn. Why did he say it like that? Almost makes me want to burst out laughing, but I can't. I have to take my daughter's feelings into consideration. After all her mother and father figure died. I can only imagine how she feels.
I look at her and see her expression still hasn't changed from her emotionless stare. After one long minute she sighs and points over at us.
"Ok and what do they have to do with it?" She says, surprising me and Alessandro. How did she even notice we were here? And why isn't she crying right now?
We step out of the corner and watch as she studies us with calculating, yet blank face. Why is she like that? So trained with her emotions, not letting a single thing slip. I've only met one person who is able to master that.
I'm snapped out of my thoughts when her principal speaks, "Well we did a DNA test to see if you had any relatives before you went into the system." Damn this dude is blunt.
Cleo seems to be thinking of something before he speaks again, "We found your parents and brothers, and they have agreed to take you in."
Cleo's eye widen a bit, before going back to blank. It happened so fast that any normal person wouldn't have noticed it.
Third Person POV:
Cleo looks back over to the two men, that stepped out of the corner. She just now notices the similarities that the two share with her. The man standing on the left with the blank stare has the same greenish blue eyes and dark brown hair that she has. And the smiling man on the right also has the same color hair with brown eyes.
"And you are?" She ask the emotionless voice and stare that she was trained to keep.
The men both flashed with hurt, before their faces converted to blank stares also.
The no longer smiling man steps forward and introduces himself, "I'm your father la bambina" he says with tears brimming his eyes.
Cleo stares back with confusion.
He's a giant but a softy. A BIG TEDDYBEAR. Awwwwww I still don't trust him. Karma says to Cleo.
"Mm. And you are?" She asks turning towards the taller man.
"Alessandro" he says in a bored tone.
Cleo hums in response, before looking at her nails
There's an awkward silence in the room before Dante speaks again, "Alright we should be going then. Do you need to stop by your house before we leave?"
"Where are we going?" Cleo ask, getting up from her seat, with a hint of curiosity in her voice.
"New York" Alessandro says making his way towards the door.
"Oh. Well just give me a second and I'll be out in a sec." Cleo says and they nod. "And I'll just have some friends of mine send my things to your address. I'm too lazy to go and pack. I'll shop when I get there." She say and they exit the office.
Cleo's POV:
I turns back to Johnny and sits back down. He gives me a questioning look.
"We need to talk." I says with a slight glare, meaning business.
He gulps and motions for me to continue.
"Mrs. Bitch."
"Vitch" he interrupts. I shoot him another glare, as I speak again.
"She needs to go. She is a very disrespectful woman, who sluts shames and body shames her students. She is also very racist. I know the only reason she is still here and not fired is because her family funds this school. I also know that parents have been sending complaints about her, and that you cannot do anything about it, because of how much her family does for this school. Now I'm going to help you fire this bitch without consequences. Normally you would call my parents at this point and we would have a discussion about the teacher's behavior, but what parents do I have now?" I say with a chuckle.
"I'll make you a deal. You fire her and lose her family funds and I'll fund the school with some of my...family's money."
Not really. It'll be my money but he doesn't need to know that.
"Cleo. You and I both know you can't-" I cut him off.
"Oh but I can and I will. You will receive checks every other month. If you do not fire her by the end of the week I'm afraid I'll have to take matters into my own hands." I say getting up.
"And trust me Johnny boy. I will know." I say walking out and down the empty halls. It's lunch time so everyone who's not in class should be in in the cafeteria. Teachers are really strict about being in the halls.
I walk to my locker and grab my bag and bike helmet, before going towards Mrs. Bitch classroom. She has a free period so I'm going to give her a quick little goodbye.
I GOT IT. Let's shave her head before we go.
Hmm. Ok.
I look around the halls to see if anybody can see me. I'll just hack into the school cameras later.
I peek through her classroom door seeing her on the phone with her back turned towards me.
This is almost too easy. *sigh*
I take out the sedative that was in my bag, while slowly walking up to her. Do not ask why I have a sedative just laying around in my bag, there's lots of dangerous shit in here.
Before she turns around I stick the sedative in her neck and push the liquid out. She should wake up in 10 minutes max.
I grab the scissors on my desk and get to work. After I'm done with those, I grab the razor of of my bag.
What? It was for a mission ok?
I quickly carve a 'C' on her head with a small heart next to it, before grabbing my things and leaving the room.
I make my way outside and towards the two giants who are staring at me.
"What took you so long" Giant with the green eyes ask.
Maybe we should call him Green Giant. It suits him.
"I was saying goodbye to my favorite teacher." I say making my way over to my bike.
"Where are you going now" 'Daddy Dearest' says to me.
I roll my eyes and point to my bike. Does he seriously not see my helmet in my hand?
When I say their eyes almost popped out of their sockets. It's kind of creepy but whatever.
"YOU DRIVE THAT" they say simultaneously. As if they couldn't get even more creepier.
"Yes now can we get going?" I say impatiently, looking at my phone to check the time. The bitch should be waking up now that lunch is over. And as much as I would love to see her face when she wakes up, I'm trying to get out dodge before the two men in front of me see what I did.
"Yah just follow us to the airport ok? And be careful" 'Daddy Dearest' say to me as they get in there car driving out of the parking lot.
I get on my bike and at the moment, I hear screaming from inside of the building. Nobody normal would've been able to hear her screaming from where I'm standing.
The school doors bust open and I see a very angry lady with a shaved head. Students snickering and recording her on their phones. I take my phone out to take a picture of her, before turning on my bike and exiting the parking lot. I see her running after my bike and screaming a stream curses, while I laugh.