• notifications •
I woke up to the sound of the notifications on my phone. I started searching for it on my nightstand with my eyes closed still wanting to sleep longer but then I remembered that I threw it across the room becau- The videos!
I get up as fast as I can and reach my phone that has the whole screen shattered. I unlock it struggling because the screen is very much damaged. The messages were from the unknown number, Gabriel; you have a few minutes before I send the videos to your brothers...
I don't know why I don't want to respond to his messages. Or maybe because I know there's no negotiation with Gabriel. I leave my room without washing my face or doing anything. I left with my sports bra and shorts revealing all of my tattoos and scars. Not caring about them at the moment.
"Guys!?" I yelled in the main hall to make sure the brothers that are in the house can hear me. "Guys?!" I yelled again. Desperate. I'm not ready to tell them yet. I don't want them to see me like that. Helpless. Weak. Pathetic.
"Hey hey what's wrong?" I didn't even notice Kieran and Elio's presence. "Morana. Breathe."
No, not the time to have a panic attack. I need to act fast. I hugged Elio pressing my ear to his heart. I was trying to even my breathing while listening to his calm heartbeats but no the guy was freaking out and his heartbeats were going crazy.
"I'm okay." I said trying to calm him down. The roles reversed fast. "I'm okay... I just need your phones." I said looking at Kieran as well. "Everyone's phones please I need you to trust me."
"I don't understand. Why?" Elio asked me.
"Please I don't have time. I need your phones." I begged and I will beg more. I don't fucking care. Even if one of them saw the videos, it's better than all of them. "Please. Please please."
"What's this none sense?-"
"I will explain everything once you all give me your phones Kieran. It's not that hard to understand!" I snapped. Patience is escaping me. "Please just trust me on this one. Please." They kept looking at me confused-"If you're ever going to trust me, trust me this one time." I looked into Elio's eyes because I know he always falls first for my pleading eyes.
"Give her your phone." Elio told Kieran while reaching his pants back pocket getting his phone out. He gave it to me before Kieran did with that attitude that pisses me off.
"What the fuck is going on?" I looked behind me to find Dom. Oh he can stand up and walk? Yesterday he looked like he was dying.
"What the fuck are you doing out of bed?-"
"I'm fine shut the fuck up." He cut Elio off looking at my tattoos. Fucking hell, don't they understand that I hate it?
"Give her your phone." Elio told Dom. He was about to ask 'why' before Elio beat him to it and told him not to question it. Dom still confused as fuck but gave me his phone anyways. Three brothers are in the clear.
"What is he doing out of bed?! Do you want to open your fucking stitches?" Adriano joined us. Good.
Dom rolled his eyes before heading towards the elevator muttering something that sounded like 'for fuck's sake'. His walk is exposing the fact that he's in pain.
"Where are you going?" Adriano asked Dom who just flipped him off in response. I looked at Elio asking him silently to tell Adriano to give me his phone.
"Give her your phone Adriano." Kieran told him. Again he was gonna ask why but I gave him a sheepish smile and told him that I want to try something, he told me I have my phone to try whatever I want so I started begging him while Elio helped me too and after maybe five minutes that felt more like an hour, he finally gave me his phone insisting that it's always a bad idea to give your little sister your phone. But he will thank me later.
"Where are Gio and Milo?" I asked.
"They are not here." Adriano responded. Well no shit Sherlock, I can pretty much tell.
"They are at the warehouse." Elio said.
"Which one?" I asked.
"The one you set on fire three years ago." Kieran said glaring at me. That warehouse is five minutes away, maybe I can get to them before-
Notifications.
The four phones that are in my hand started getting notifications at the same exact time. Which leads to only one answer.
I'm fucked.
Milo and Gio have the videos now. I hope they are too busy to look into their messages but they are gonna see them sooner or later and that's why I'm fucked.
"What's going on?" Adriano asked when the notifications didn't stop and I took three steps back from them, scared they might take the phones away from me.
And you know when I knew that I was officially fucked? It's when I saw Adriano's phone screen and I saw who was calling, the one and only Giovanni Cortello.
"What the fuck is going on?" Kieran asked when the phones didn't stop ringing. I don't know what to respond. I don't know what to
do.
M O R A N A
"Valentina is your daughter?!" Ezra exclaimed looking at Dante in shock. We're all in shock.
Dante De Luca is the don of the De Luca Italian branch. He's very powerful. And Valentina is very famous in the underground.
Morana is mostly known for her skills, for her strength. Valentina is known for her beauty, for her braveness. She's not an assassin or anything, she just participates in underground events, however she's very known. As a fighter she's not that bad, and she knows how to protect herself. She's a smart girl that is self built, she created a name for herself out of nothing.
And she's Dante's daughter.
Honestly now that I think about it it's not that shocking, they do look alike.
I look at Gio still trying to process the news and Gio just shrugged, he clearly doesn't give a fuck, neither do I but still.
Especially that she has a history with Elio. I don't know if they dated or not but last year they had something going on. Well now, Elio will back off because she's Dante's daughter and we don't want anything that could potentially damage our friendship with him.
"So Morana is a Cortello, and now Valentina is a De Luca." Ezra said trying to keep up. "You fucking Italians are the shit I swear to god."
"How is Morana?" Dante asked us after rolling his eyes at Ezra. Ezra is an assassin who doesn't work for a specific mafia, he works for everyone depending on how much money he will get out of the missions. He's a very big fan of Morana, he worked once with her and he never shuts up about it even before we found out that Morana is our sister, it's exhausting.
"She's fine." I responded.
"Nothing breaks that girl I swear to fuck-"
"Don't you have a mission or something?" Dante asked Ezra trying to get rid of him.
"Oh fuck I forgot." And he finally left Dante's penthouse.
"What was he even doing here?" Gio asked Dante annoyed.
"To ask me about Valentina." Dante sighed. "I hate how people are obsessed with her."
"Oh tell me about it." Gio rolled his eyes.
"Dante?" Valentina stepped into the living room causing Dante to walk towards her angrily and shield her with his body from our view. I understand his overprotectiveness even if he trusts us and he knows that we will never look at a sixteen year old in any dirty way but we're still mafia men so I understand his protectiveness.
"Didn't I fucking tell you not to leave your bedroom until I tell you to?" He asked her.
"I know but there's a big ass bug in my bathroom and I want you to kill it." She responded to him. I really want to see Dante's face expression right now.
"Fine but this is the last-"
"- time I don't listen to your orders. Got it. Now go and kill it before it goes somewhere else! I swear if you don't find it, I'm sleeping in your room."
"God forbid." He let out an exhausted sigh before disappearing down the corridor.
"Hi." Valentina said to us and I tried to smile at her, I don't think I succeeded. "How is Elio?" She asked, her cheeks are getting red.
"He's good." I responded because Gio is now on his phone, he really doesn't give a single flying fuck about anything that isn't Morana related.
"Hmm, that's good." She nodded. "But let's keep my 'friendship' with Elio a secret from Dante, okay?"
"If he doesn't ask, we won't tell." I said.
"Trust me, it's for your brother's well-being." She said leaning on the wall. "And how is Morana? Did she try to kill Domenico yet?"
She did.
She chuckled when I didn't say anything. "Send her a lot of kisses from me and tell her that I miss her so much."
"Will do." I nodded.
"Go to your room and don't get out of it until I tell you to." Dante said to his daughter coming back to the living room.
"It's dead?"
"Yes, now go."
"Oh my god you deserve to be the father of the year." She said sending a wink his way before leaving the room.
"She's tiring." Dante said grabbing a bottle of wine and pouring some for himself and Gio but I refused.
"But you like it." I said and he smiled a little. Dante never smiles so that creeped me out. "Gio certainly does love the presence of Morana even if he tries to hide it."
"I don't hide it. She's my sister, of course I can tolerate her presence." Tolerate. He means 'love'.
M O R A N A
"Dante cares for Valentina." I said out of nowhere as we're driving to our next meeting. "And he didn't even know that she was his daughter until like weeks ago, and he already cares."
Gio hummed totally uninterested in what I'm saying. Honestly even I, I'm not interested in what I'm saying. What the fuck am I even saying?
"How can someone care about someone so fast?" I asked and Gio hummed again and that pissed me off.
"What?" Gio looked at me confused. "That was a real question? I thought you were just saying."
"Yes. That was a real question."
"You really asked the wrong person about feelings, Milo."
"Never mind, Gio." I looked out of the window, my mind is wild, it scares me sometimes.
"Who are we talking about here? Dante or... someone else?" He asked and I didn't answer because I don't know. "Look, everyone is different and it takes longer for some people to let other people in -"
"Where the fuck is this conversation going?" I asked harshly.
"Control your tone, Milo." He glared at me. Then he took a deep breath trying to control himself. The poor woman that is gonna marry him someday even though it's nearly impossible to believe that one day Gio will fall in love. "Morana is new-"
"I care about her!-"
"Never fucking mind Milo!" I succeeded in pissing him off but just like he pissed me off too and I was already pissed off because I hate not understanding my feelings, not understanding what's going on in my mind.
"Oh my fucking god, Gio! Just keep fucking talking!"
"You fucking pissed me off!" He exclaimed and I know better than saying something back right now. He took a deep breath and then I felt him looking at me, he muttered something I couldn't hear before saying. "Let's try this again. Who are we talking about?"
"We're not talking about me. We're talking about someone else." I said.
This is how I talk about my feelings.
"Alright." He sighed. "His name is Mason. Tell me about Mason."
Mason is me.
"There's no good in Mason," I started describing Mason. "There's no kindness, there's barely any humanity left in him."
"I don't think that Mason is how you just described hi-"
"You don't know Mason like I do."
"Okay, but interrupt me again and I will bury my fist in your face. This is your last warning." He said glaring slightly at the side of my head before looking back on the road. "So what's wrong with Mason?"
"Mason can't care about people. And there's a new person in his life that he can't care about when he should."
"Does Mason care about his family?"
"Yes."
"Then he can care about people."
"No. It's not the same." Mason grew up loving his family so that love won't ever go because it was born within him. "His sister came home. And he only seems to feel love for her when she's in danger. He nearly went crazy when Sean had her but is it enough to only care when she's in danger?"
"Sometimes, we care without knowing and then something happens and we suddenly let that love consume us, we let it in our hearts and suddenly our heart isn't ours anymore because it doesn't only beat for us, but it beats for the person we love."
"What if nothing happens and we never let that person in?"
"There are two reasons why that might happen, reason one is we're afraid of that love and reason two is that the love isn't strong enough to make it to our hearts." He stopped at a red light and looked at me. "I believe Mason suffers from reason number one."
"Mason thinks that if he lets this love consume him, it's gonna destroy him because it's nothing he has ever felt before and it's scary, don't you agree?"
"I'm not afraid of anything including my emotions. I learned to control my feelings and thoughts."
"No one can control their feelings Gio."
"Nothing can't be controlled."
"If I could control my feelings I wouldn't have cared for Morana." I spat out. "Or whatever protectiveness I feel over her."
"Are you feeling guilty?"
"We're not talking about me." I exhaled trying to keep my emotions under control which seems to be impossible. "Why would Mason feel guilty?"
"Because he doesn't want to love his sister?"
"That's the problem he can't feel love, at all."
"I don't know what you think love is but it's not the feeling of loving or being loved. It's the feeling of being worried, being scared... being annoyed even. Love is not supposed to feel warm and nice, it's cold and ugly."
"Well one more reason to stay away from her."
"By her, you're talking about your sister, and you can never stay away from your sister." Oh trust me, I know. "Besides, how can you not love her?" He chuckled and I just cringed, what the fuck happened to my brother? "You can't not care about her."
"She has that effect, you know? She makes people obsessed with her." I said. She's known for that effect and the list of the people that are literally obsessed with her is long. "Look at Gabriel-" I said before I cut myself off, Gio gets angry whenever we speak of him. I hate when he makes this face. "So since when did you become an expert in Love?" I asked smirking trying to change the subject.
He let out a chuckle. "To help you Milo, I would even become an expert in... astrology bullshit."
"That was so gemini of you."
"Say that again and I will throw you out of a fucking balcony."
"No but seriously you sound like someone who had his first love at five years old."
"Tell anyone about this conversation and I will show you how quickly I can unlove."
"Unlove isn't a word."
"Well it is now."
All of a sudden our phones started going crazy with notifications. I just silenced my phone not really in the mood to deal with anything. On the other hand, Gio checked his phone.
"An unknown number?" He wondered before also silencing his phone.
"What is it?"
"I don't know, I will check it later." He said calling Adriano who didn't pick up and that's not a good sign at all. "Something is wrong." He muttered.
M O R A N A