I stepped out of the car with a subtle deep breath and everybody followed suit. My legs instantly shook under my weight and I swayed a bit, catching myself by clutching the car's sides to support myself. Elijah was there to grab ahold of me. Salvo went to the truck to get my wheelchair out.
I looked over to find Luca and the others coming toward me.
"Are you okay?" Luca's panicked tone rushed as soon he halted in front of me, hands reaching out for me but paused midway and withdrew.
I nodded. "I'm fine. I just can't really walk right now. I think I exhausted it too much yesterday."
Luca's mouth tightened into a straight line and his fists clenched. Anger flashed in his eyes and I imagined he was thinking of my torture. After all, the brothers were also still sensitive about it even now - almost a half year later. "Does it hurt?"
"Nothing that I can't handle." I gave him a small smile but his signs of anger seemed to increase tenfold although he returned me a forced smile and nod. The tense atmosphere lessened a bit as Salvo returned to my side with the wheelchair. I sank into it and tried to relax my muscles.
"I'll do it," Luca announced, taking the handles of my wheelchair - nudging away Salvo who grumbled under his breath only to get a smack to his head. I allowed him to push me, despite the fact I could just simply push the console to move. I glanced over my shoulder to look up at him and he smiled down at me, which I returned with a quick, fleeting smile before I turned back to my sitting position. I had my hands clasped on my lap. The feeling of anxiety that came with meeting or merely being around strangers flooded my being.
Especially when I was meeting the sons of the father who was a blight in my life.
'It's okay,' the voices comforted me in a small whisper. 'You've gone through a much worst. This is nothing.'
'Pick a damn side.' I thought to myself - to the voice inside my head. The voice could be a great help to me, especially while I was a captive. It distracted me from the pain and when I didn't know what to do, it told me. While I was a mindless creature with no memories - with no mind of great use - the voice was my reason and the answer to everything.
I knew the voices in my head were part of me. Just a hallucination. Its thoughts and its emotions stemmed from me. In the time I spent in the basement or cell, I had to change. Into an obedient pet and submissive, whereas I was the opposite. The voices were a way for me to hold on to the old version of myself. In this way, I wouldn't lose myself entirely.
And someone to talk to and help me.
I was harsh on myself sometimes, I was aware of it. My emotions kept changing each second. One moment I was happy. The next, I wasn't. One time, I was numb which I was pretty most of the time. Another time, I was emotional and sensitive - ready to have a panic attack anytime. And my thoughts followed it, making it scattered over and a mess. My mind was in chaos. Never the same - always changing. Like an ocean - you dip a finger in it, withdraw it, then dip it again, it isn't the same water you touched. It changed in a flash though you can't see it.
On a day, I might wake up kind and calm. On the other days, I wake up just wanting to lash out at everyone.
Therefore, the voice in the head was the same.
Elijah came to my side to grab ahold of my hand and squeezed again. He lowered to whisper in my ear. "If you're not ready, you don't have to meet them today. Or even if you don't want to."
I shook my head and gave him a small smile. "I just want to get over with it."
He nodded. "You'll love them. But I'll have to warn you, they're a bit...loud. Sometimes too much." He grimaced.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you'll see." He said before going back to his full height. Luca gave him a questioning look to which he shook his head in return.
Alex came up to us and glared at Elijah with a cold expression. The latter just smiled knowingly and reached out to pat his shoulder. Alex pulled back before he could do it and glared at him again.
I felt a hand on my shoulder blade and I glanced up to find Luca looking down at me again.
"Ready?" He asked and I nodded even though I wasn't. Far from it. He pushed me towards the Romano's mansion as most of the brothers had already gone into the residence.
I entered the mansion to reveal the luxury foyer - mixed with modern and ancient Italy design. It looked more like a castle, rather than a mansion. I haven't gone into this entrance before and the best thing about this was the large beautiful foundation in the middle of the foyer. I hadn't really gotten the chance to explore this roof but since I was living here, I made it my next goal to explore it.
Some things were new. A large banner was set up above the staircase on the ceiling. It wrote 'Welcome Home, Ariana!'. Balloons were everywhere and countless confetti was on the floor.
I smiled.
"Where's my sign?" Nico grumbled as he came up behind us.
"None for you, you fucking bastard." Luca, of course, didn't skip the chance to put a jab on his brother and snapped to the others. "Where're the other boys? They're supposed to be here with the cake! And what's the damn confetti doing on the floor? It's supposed to be released when we entered, not earlier!"
"I just texted the others, Father." Ace replied. "They're not answering..."
As if it was on cue, there was a bloodcurdling scream coming from the left.
I whipped my head around in the direction to find just a dim corridor, leading to somewhere. At first, I had thought it to be a torture chamber and someone had forgotten to shut the door to keep the sound out but with a glance over the rest of the brothers told me otherwise. Concern and a flash of dread etched in their faces.
"Alex and Salvo, stay with Ariana!" Luca ordered the two best fighters with me before barreling towards the sound. The rest ran behind him, even Nico who was obviously injured and it slowed him greatly.
"What the fuck is going on?" Salvo asked Alex but the latter didn't bother to reply.
Alex crouched down, bending his knees so we were head level together. "Ace know that you're aware of Luca and your blood relations." He said quietly so Salvo couldn't hear him, taking the advantage of the fact we were finally alone to talk - Salvo doesn't count - in days.
"I had a feeling when they didn't correct themselves in the car." I nodded. "He figured out when I got him high, correct?"
He dipped his chin in confirmation. So Ace doesn't know I'm also aware of the mafia...I think. But I wouldn't put it past me that I could have simply missed it. I considered myself to be very perceptive and a good body language reader. I could read Ace very well, sure, but when he really wants to he could also hide it, even from me, for a time being. After all, Ace's training as the Don wasn't for nothing.
In the end, I was nothing but a fourteen years old teenager and he had the true power. I had to remind myself of that fairly often because it was easy to overlook as his first impression as a Don to me wasn't good. But he was feared in the mafia world for a reason.
I also had an inkling that he was just an ordinary Don, although still a strong one, just not as great as people portrayed him to be. What Ace was good at was stimulating or installing fear in people which worked very well in his favor. It was just family whom he trusted that betrayed him and he overlooked them - as also I had in Mia and Mother so I would be a hypocrite if I belittled him for it.
I didn't want to cross his border completely. At least, not until I had all of the tabs on him. While it was easy for me to be mean to Ares, Ace was different. He was born expecting respect and people bowing down to him. He wouldn't allow me to speak to him in that way. If it was anyone else, I would have done everything in my power to cause the downfall of his mafia. And I knew I would succeed. But he was also my brother who I cared about's brother whom they cared for... and he was my brother, too, although I didn't like to admit it.
If I spoke to him like how I treated Ares, he would have never taken me seriously. He would look at me as immature or childish and he wouldn't have listened to me afterward. I was proved right when Ace called me petty, although I knew I was, and he looked at me like I was nothing but a harmless kid. He was a prideful man, that was obvious. I had to be more smarter and logical when it came to him. I knew I would have put a jab at his pride in a mature and dignified way for him to look at me as an equal and treat me in a such way - not as a child.
Maybe I was weak physically and I couldn't fight but I knew a sharp mind was the best weapon. Especially when it came to the mafia which all was a big chess game.
Since the short time he's been a Don I could tell one thing about him that revealed his weakness, Ace replied on sheer strength to influence fear. Torturing or killing people does install fear, yes, but with a great mind, the mafia would be under completely our power. Manipulation, word plays, and deeply thought-out plans would do anyone a wonder, especially those on the top chain of a mafia.
With these tools weaponized into power underneath my fingers, I could make them either fear me, love me, or my puppets.
I shook those wandering pointless thoughts off. There was no point in thinking of these things when I wasn't going to be a Don.
It was Ace's problem, not mine. Even if I had more information than I knew what to do with. I certainly wouldn't help him with his mafia in any way at all unless it directly involved me or threatened those I cared about.
When I was ready - emotionally stable - and strong enough, I would take care of the Russians and Kodiak Mozokov myself.
In the end, they would be nothing but ashes. Though there will be still an echo of them left and I probably would choose a new Don, one that would be willing to ally with us, to build it up again. I guess I could simply have taken the power for myself but I didn't want to be involved in an organization that ruined me.
Plus to be a Don, I was required to also be violent but I wasn't. As I mentioned, mind games were more like my thing when it comes to taking someone else down. I had no energy to invest in such things when I knew I could simply have someone else do the dirty jobs.
Plus I didn't want a hand-me-down. I wanted to create something for myself.
I wondered if Alex would want to be the Don of the Russian Mafia. He was more than just capable and I trusted him more than anyone else. I had an inkling he would take the chance to not bow under anyone, especially to Ace even though I knew he still cared about Ace.
And the Romano family would have more power with another mafia under their fingers. The world wouldn't dare to cross us.
Hmm.
Although I knew my ways and ethics would do me good when I get my career goal successful. Someday, I wanted to build a tech company of my own, along with other branches. It had always been my dream to be a businesswoman. And I knew I would become one - a rich one, hopefully. I wanted to make my own money and power when I was older. Perhaps after I've completed universities and have a few degrees.
If I lived long enough.
"Do they know?" I asked.
"What?" Alex questioned.
"The cousins. About Giovanni?"
He tensed visibly at the mention of the name. He shook his head. "They don't, yet. They just think he drugged you, nothing else. Some of us don't, either. Only Dad, Nico, Ace, Elijah, and I know everything."
"Oh," I said. "What happened to him?" I asked, referring to Giovanni. I knew he took it to the zoo but I didn't know whether Alex handed him over it the others or not.
"He's still down there in my chamber."
"Zoo." I corrected him.
The corner of his mouth uplifted. "He's in the zoo." He confirmed.
"Does it means you will have to drive there and back?"
He shook his head. "There's another zoo here. I'm going back to revive all of them either tomorrow or the day after that."
I nodded in understanding.
I looked past him to see Salvo not so subtly tiptoeing by his side, straining his ears to us. He was staring at us, probably trying to make out words from my moving lips. I raised my brows and he noticed me looking back at him. His eyes extended and he snapped his head to the opposite way. He twirled two times so he was further away from us. As if it wasn't already obvious, he hummed nonstop - finding the ceiling very interesting to him out of all sudden.
Then he looked at me and widened his eyes as if in realization. "Oh, there you are!" He grinned at me. "I didn't see you."
I snorted in amusement at his failed attempt to eavesdrop on us and decided to spare him, not calling him out on it.
Wait, shouldn't we be worrying about the scream?
"Um, what's going on?" I asked Alex.
Salvo raised his brows. "Now you're asking that?"
I and Alex ignored him. "I don't know. The bodyguards are on high guard. I made sure of that so it couldn't be an ambush. It is more likely an accident."
"Probably our cousins making mess yet again." Salvo chuckled. "They're my favorite. Better than most of our boring brothers." He shot Alex a pointed look, obviously telling him silently that he was boring, which the latter only scoffed quietly at.
Another scream echoed and this time, it prolonged and stayed.
Salvo tensed and reached down to curl his fingers around their handguns beneath his shirt. Seeing that action, I stiffened and grew a bit uneasy. I didn't think something was truly wrong and I had a good instinct. But I knew how wrong I could be, knowing that they had failed me many times although it was because they used my love for them as their shield.
But when I glanced at Alex, he was texting something on his phone - unbothered, I relaxed.
"Don't run around!" I heard Noah yell, overlaying the scream. "Fucking idiot!"
Two roaring laughs echoed and they didn't sound like my brothers.
"I'm on fire!" Another unfamiliar voice wailed. At this, from the corner of my eyes, I saw Alex roll his eyes and slipped his phone into his pocket. Salvo let go of his hand on his gun. I rose an eyebrow.
"The cake is on fire!" Another voice shouted.
"Get down and roll!" An unfamiliar male voice ordered.
"Who allowed Luke to bake the cake anyway?!" Luca growled. "He could've burned the damn mansion down to ashes!
"Just jump into the foundation!" I couldn't detect if this voice was Ares or Apollo, though I had inked it was the latter because he was far more caring. Ares would have made remarks or an insult even when someone was on fire.
The hallway shrouded in dark flicked with the color of dim orange and the scream got closer. My eyebrows furrowed and I tightened my grip on the wheelchair in anticipation.
My eyes widened when an insane man came out screaming with his behind clothes literally on fire.
Another one followed, holding a plate with a cake on roaring fire.
The oldest-looking unfamiliar man in a suit followed the boy on fire, along with Ace, Luca, and Nico who were struggling to catch up. The boy on fire barreled right towards the fountain and jumped, throwing himself into it. The fire instantly dimmed.
The rest of the brothers and a stranger hunched around the man with a burning cake. The latter looked lost, jerking the plate around, and frantically tried to find a way to stop the burning but didn't find a way.
"I'm okay, thanks for asking!" The boy on fire called out sarcastically as he climbed out of the fountain, with the four eldest men in the room helping him.
"Shut up, Rocco. The cake is on fire!" Salvo cried out as he ran to join the group.
"Does it mean we can't have cake?" Salvo whined to them and earned deadpanned looks directed to him.
"And I'm alive," Rococo growled. "Isn't that more important?"
"We'll all exchange you for a slice of cake," Ares informed him.
"Well, in that case, fuck you, Ares." He muttered as he shook his wet hair off like a dog. "You're the worst, do you know that?" He turned to me suddenly bright and grinned. "Right, Ari?"
He doesn't like Ares.
I like him.
"You're right." I grinned, suddenly feeling at ease. There was something about Rocco that was laidback but yet I could tell he was easy to explode in anger if provoked. But he also looked like the one who would just get over it a second later.
"Sorry for the... inconvenience." Rocco smiled sheepishly. "As you can see, I and Luke are shitty bakers."
"Ari is a good baker." Apollo chimed in. "Maybe she should teach you all."
"No!" The eldest stranger snapped. "They will avoid the kitchen at all costs from now and on..."
"Definitely." Luca and Nico muttered at the same time.
"Hey!" One of the twins came up to me and extended his arms. He didn't give me time to consider accepting his embrace before he wrapped his arms around me and squeezed gently before letting go. "I'm Luke, soon to be your favorite cousin!"
Few rolls of eyes followed this statement.
"He's the Walmart version of me," Salvo announced proudly as he walked to Like and wrapped his arm around his shoulder. "And he's my servant and in training."
"That's a lie." Luke shot back playful. "Nobody wants to be the village's idiot like you,"
Salvo didn't look insulted in many ways at all as if he was used to this retort. "Don't listen to him, Ari. He's lying and ashamed of himself."
Cutting in the confer before it could get worst, the eldest stranger stepped closer to me and softened visibly. He smiled at me warmly, showing his white pearly straight teeth. "I'm Dante, the eldest of this crazy bunch." He joked, making me smile back.
"I can see it..." I said to refer to the crazy part, still smiling so they knew I was joking.
All of the people in the room laughed.
"Ahem." The boy who was holding the cake cleared his throat. "Sorry to interrupt the reunion and all but the cake is still on fire..."
He raised the still burning cake inches in the air to prove his point, though unnecessary.
"Oh, shit. Sorry, Luka." Dante muttered. "Just throw it into the sink in the kitchen and turn on the tap water."
Why did they bring the burning cake in here in the first place...?
"No!" Salvo cried out. "But it'll be soggy!"
"It's a long time ago dead." Noah deadpanned as everyone in this room rose their brows at the village's idiot.
"Burned cake tastes better than the soggy ones."
"Just throw the damn cake away!" Luca snapped to Luka, having done with Salvo's arguments. "You're going to burn the mansion if you don't soon!"
"But-"
The burning cake was ripped away from Luka's hands and Alex stomped towards the foundation with the plate to throw it into the water - done with all of the arguments and decided to take matters into his own hands as usual.
Everybody stared at the crumbling cake spreading out in the water.
"It's going to take time to drain the water..." Elijah murmured.
"Problem solved," I announced, to defend Alex's action before the others agreed with Elijah's statement.
"Okay," Luca clapped his hands together. "We'll all have a bunch together later soon but right now we have a surprise for Ariana." He looked at me softly.
"After the surprise, we're going to have a family meeting," Ace added, seriously and stone-faced as always.
"Ohh!" Luke marveled. "Sounds fun."
"Without all of you." Ace deadpanned and Luke's face dropped instantly, grumbling to himself.
"Asshole," Rocco muttered under his breath next to me, still dripping wet. I glanced at him.
He doesn't like Ace, too?
I love him.
"You ready for the surprise?" Luca asked softly, ignoring the mini jabs his son and nephew were in. I nodded.
I love surprises.
My little sister is giving me the silent treatment rn...because of my books.
In 'Stella', the evil stepmother's name is Savannah, and in this book there's a shitty maid named the same. (Chapter 14) And my sister's name is Savannah. When she questioned me about it, I told her that their personalities were inspired by her and that I'm glad that I killed off the maid because I imagined her face exactly like that brat. I also may or may not have told her I wished that I had given that Savannah maid an even more gruesome death. Now she's been ignoring me for hours since then lmao
To be clear, that brat deserved it. She was flashing my lights in my bedroom on and off nonstop for absolutely no reason yesterday morning (it was early, so it was still dark outside) when I was trying to read my damn book 😑
She's lucky she's the fav child and has our mother's protection (and my little sister) otherwise I would have smacked her to the fucking moon if I could.
Thank for listening to my rant.
Bye <3