Arabella smiles as she watches the kids, she really likes taking care of kids.
It's the twins first birthday but she invited literally everyone she knew around. I, personally, did a sweep of the house to make sure no one was here, and Romeo came with me. Kids eyesight is almost as impressive as his brain.
She invited her brothers daughters, Ashley, she invited Afra and Gia but didn't expect for Juliana to show up, she told her to stay the fuck away from all of her kids. It was the first time i've ever seen Juliana scared. Then, she invited some of the kids that the triplets have made friends with at school, and finally, when she was taking Ilaria into the doctors she bumped into Amanda and Tommy again, the little boy with a bad heart, so she invited them too.
So there's basically just a bunch of kids playing, followed by a bunch of adults watching. Luca is on barbecue duty, Asher is being a fucking kid and i'm watching them all from a distance, i need to be here if anyone makes a threat.
The twins are with Arabella, they're playing in the small sandpit Arabella bought for them, she's watching over them but also keeping her eye on everyone else.
Arabella's twin, Nico, walks over. "Five kids?" He smiles.
"She wants another one." I shake my head. I said no. Five is enough for now.
"She's crazy." He pats his daughter on the back. She's just been born, her names Bella for Arabella. "Why aren't you with everyone?"
"Keeping an eye on things, don't want a hit while there's a handful of kids around." My eyes fall on Romeo, voluntarily walking up to Juliana.
I look at Nico, "Did your mom ever hit you?"
He shakes his head no, "Papa was the abusive one, mom was more... emotionally abusive."
"She hit Romeo, hard enough to leave a scar." I look back at them. Romeo was just staring at her. I should probably interfere. "Excuse me-"
"Oh before you go, can i use the crib? One of the twins. It's time for her nap."
"Yeah." I call one of my men over, "Show him to the nursery." They both walk away and i call Alek over.
He stands with a smile, "Keep guard and tell if you see anything suspicious." I turn to look at my child but he had disappeared.
Oh for fucks sake.
I walk to where they were last and look in both directions, i could see little dents from Juliana's heels in the grass so i follow them to behind the stables.
Arabella won't kill Juliana and i know it's some sort of trauma response to why she won't, but my child is holding a gun to her right now and i know Arabella wouldn't ever hate Romeo for doing this type of stuff if he says his brain told him too.
I mean, he's 6 now, he's growing older and his feelings are just getting stronger.
"Put the gun down, Romeo." She raises her voice.
"You hurt me. Your hurt mommy too."
"You and your mother are a little bitch, put it down." She says.
Romeo makes a sound, his nostrils flaring. "Mommy should have did this."
"Put it down. If she finds out you killed me she's going to go crazy. She'll hate you. Forever. She'll think you're a bad boy like your fucking father, mommy hates your papa."
Romeo's hand shakes a little bit but he takes a deep breath. "I don't care. You made mommy cry."
He's doing this for Arabella.
I feel like i should interfere but my sociopathic side is agreeing with Romeo at this moment.
"Your mom doesn't give a shit about you, Romeo. After you turned out everything she didn't want." She scoffs. "She likes Ilaria and Matteo and the twins but she doesn't fucking like you. Your cause her too much stress. You make her cry too. She came to me crying about you hundreds of times."
"Stop it." Romeo raises his voice.
"She hates you, Romeo."
Romeo pulls the trigger and the fucker put a silencer on it so i could barely hear it. He drops the gun, staring at what he did.
Juliana groans in pain, i couldn't see where he shot her from this angle but she was still alive.
"Your mom wished you were fucking dead, kid. Her life would be easier without you. She hates you-"
I pull my gun out of my pocket, shooting her straight in the face to shut her up.
"Your mom has never said such a thing, Romeo." I look at him.
He looks at me, looks at Juliana's body, a bullet wound in her face, a bullet wound in her stomach.
One of my men run over but i send them away.
"We can't tell mommy."
"No shit." I take the gun off him. "This is the last time i'm telling you this, Romeo. If you steal my guns again, i am going to tell Arabella and she won't be happy. I told you not to do this stuff."
He moves away from me, "Papa you should know." He raises his voice. "You tell me not to do it but i can't help it. You should know." His little lips pout slightly, like Arabella's do before she cries. "Nonna hurt me, hurt mommy." He chokes on his words. "She deserved it."
"Then you could have asked me to do it, Romeo. Your mom doesn't want you to be a killer-"
"It doesn't matter. I'm going to be one, papa. I'm too much like you." He walks away.
When he was three and four i thought he was clever but now, it's amazing. He remembers literally everything, he can read books so quickly and then recite them back to me simply by opening a page. He's six at the moment but he's twelve in his mind.
I grab him, "Okay, fine. You killed someone-"
"You killed Juliana. She was still alive after me."
This kid.
"Fine. You wanna be like me, Romeo. What do you do with the body?"
"Asher sometimes gives it to the pigs." He blinks, "Or at your warehouse."
I'm not going to ask how he knows that.
"And then what? Let it rot so it smells out the place. If you do that the police will get called, you'll go to prison, i'll go to prison and then your mom will be fucking mad."
"Romeo what's going on?" I hear Arabella behind me.
I pick Romeo up, shoving both of the guns in my pocket. "Nothing." I walk to her, "Everything okay?"
"Yeah, Alek said you left to come over here." She fiddles with her necklace. "Is he okay?"
"He's fine, just a little tired-"
"Mommy i just killed nonna." Romeo spits out.
Oh for fucks sake.
Arabella walks behind me, she gasps and then quickly turns away.
Romeo seemed relieved after he told her.
"What happened?" She looks at me. "And why are you lying to me, Roman?"
"I asked him too." Romeo gets off me, "Sorry mommy, but she made you cry. And she called me more bad words." He takes a breath. "I am going to go now-"
"You're going to go to your room and not come out Romeo Reign." She looks at me, tears in her eyes. "And you are going to get rid of this body without anyone seeing." She walks up to me, patting around my clothes until she pulls out my two guns. "God for fucks sake, both of you get out of my sight."
"Mommy it was me." Romeo covers for me.
"Go, now." She raises her voice.
I pull Romeo back with me, "Sorry papa-"
"You fucking better be." I take him in through the back door. "Go to your room."
He kicks his shoes off and runs away quickly.
I watch Arabella from the window as she hands the guns to one of my men and then points him in the direction of the body before walking away.
I wash my hands, then walks upstairs to Romeo sitting at his desk. I hate being mad at him.
"What are you doing?" I close the door.
"Nothing." He closes whatever he was doing over and walks to his beanbag, sitting on it.
So i walk to his desk, he watches me, doesn't stop me. He keeps a diary of every time he's hurt someone. Not just physically, he wrote about the other day when he annoyed Ilaria and she cried.
"What is this?" I hold it up.
"Me being bad." He looks down at a book.
I rip down the middle of the book, then rip it again. "I killed my brother." I look at him, "All three of them, and my dad. That's bad. Making Ilaira cry isn't. You're siblings, it's what you're gonna do." I throw it in his trash can. "Wash your hands." I open the door to his bathroom.
He gets up and uses the stool to reach the sink and wash his hands properly, then he walks back into his room and sits down.
I leave him up here, going downstairs and seeing one of my men look over the twins so i take their place. I sit on the ground, "Papa." Alessio squeals.
"Hey buddy." I lift him up, tickling his tummy. Alsssio giggles and Emilio throws a block at me, then laughs.
They look so much like Luca now, it's crazy.
"Leave them alone." I hear Arabella.
"They're my kids too." I keep Alsssio on me.
"I don't want you anywhere near them-"
I look at her to ask if she's being serious and she just looks away.
"Too bad."
"Roman this isn't a fucking funny matter-"
"I never fucking said it was. Romeo shot Juliana but i killed her because she said you hated him, you wished he was never born. The kid remembers everything and that's the type of shit to send him off the rails. You wanna punish me for being protective over my son in a way that i have always been, fucking do that, Arabella, but don't you dare limit my time with the other kids because of it."
"He's six-"
"Hes not like you, Arabella. His mind isn't like Matteo's or Ilaria's. He doesn't have the same interests because he isn't like them. He's like me. He had the feelings and emotions i had. You need understand that, love. No matter how hard you try and get him to be good, it won't work."
She looks away, then walks away.
Matteo runs up, sitting with Emilio in the sandpit, "Papa mommy is crying."
"Where she going?"
"To papa Asher. Where's Romeo? He said he would play soccer."
"He did something bad so he's in his room."
"What was it?"
"Not telling you." I pinch his nose, "Where's your sister?"
"Playing with cousins."
I nod my head, "Hey, you should bake a cake for your mom."
He smiles, he's really into cooking. "What's her favourite?"
"Vanilla with pink sprinkles." The one we had on our wedding day.
"I'll make one." He looks at Alek and blushes, "Can Alek help me?"
All my children have a crush on Alek.
I nod my head, calling Alek over, "Yeah?"
"Can you supervise and help Matteo in the kitchen, he's going to make a cake."
"Yes." He holds Matteo's hand as he leads him inside the house.
I help both Alessio and Emilio stand up and walk around. After everyone leaves, the kids get all tired and Arabella does everything else but look at me, i get sick of it.
I walk into the kitchen, "Lets talk."
"Go away."
"No love, let's not do this." I take the trashcan off her.
"He's six, Roman. Six fucking years old."
"And he told me his feelings are too strong, love. You... you don't understand but if you don't let him do this shit he wants to do, it's going to affect him mentally-"
"He's six." She raises her voice, "He's a child. His therapy has been working fine."
"He's saying that because he doesn't want you to think he's a bad kid, he shot Juliana because she made you cry." I raise my voice back at her, "Everythig he's doing is for you and you won't let him be himself?"
She shakes her head, eyes widening. "So now it's my fault?"
"I didn't fucking say that, Arabella. He's trying, okay. He's trying to be what you want him to be but he's tired. He can't live up to the perfect fucking standard that you've created for him in your damn head. He isn't fucking like you."
She stares at me.
I shouldn't have said that.
I take a breath, "I'm sorry-"
"Fuck off, Roman." She walks past me. I follow her into the living room where she starts cleaning up the kids toys.
"I didn't mean that-"
"I have standards for him because i don't want him to fucking die. Which is what is going to happen if he takes after you." She says calmly, "Sorry for trying keep my son safe."
"I'm not saying you can't keep him safe-"
"No, you're saying i should let my son start training to be a fucking killer."
"God, you're impossible sometimes, love."
She shakes her head, wiping her cheeks, "Leave me alone, we're both angry and it's never ends well when we are."
"No. Romeo's upstairs writing a fucking diary over the bad stuff he's done, keeping track of it."
"Because Gwendoline is trying to get an idea of how to help him." She shouts. "You didn't get that help, it wasn't offered for you. Its offered to him and he's going to use it."
"Even if it doesn't make him happy."
"It's because of shit like this why he's saying it isn't helping." She points at me, "Stop fighting for my son to become a made man. It won't happen, Roman. I'm not going to let him take after you."
"Have you even stopped to consider about what he wants?"
"He's six!"
"Hes old enough to make his own decisions."
"Stop it, Roman." She cries, "Stop it. Just admit it. Admit you need a fucking heir and you think he's the best thing."
I frown.
"I'm not fucking stupid, Roman. You wanna talk to Asher about it, you can fucking talk to me about it. You want my six year old to start training to become a killer."
"Our six year old."
"Why the fuck would you want that, Roman?" Her nostrils flare, "The fuck would you want your child to grow up and rely on fucking murder to get what he wants."
"It's in his blood."
"You're so fucked up." She shakes her head, throwing the toy on the ground, it breaks in half.
"Ilaria's favourite toy."
"Fuck off." She pushes past me.
I grab her wrist, "At least talk to him."
"When he's sixteen."
"Now."
"No." She pulls her wrist away, "I'm not letting him do the shit you do all because you need an heir. I'd die before i let him become a killer, Roman. I'd die before i let any of them do it."
"You're being unreasonable."
"I'm being a mother." She clenched her jaw, eyes turning red. "I'm caring for our kids the way our parents never cared about us. If you influence him to do that shit, i'm never talking to you ever again. I've spent six fucking years trying to help him, help all of them, help us." She pushes my chest, "So they would never end up like us. If you wanna ruin that, you're going to lose me and i fucking promise that, Roman. I'm not losing all of his progress."
"Can you two fucking stop?" Asher walks down the stairs, "All three of them are fucking crying."
She turns away, crying as she walks down into the basement.
Asher looks at me, "Seriously man?"
I walk past him up the stairs into Romeos bedroom where all the kids were. "Where's mommy?" Matteo pouts.
"She's okay." I sit with them.
"Stop shouting at each other." Ilaria hugs Romeo, "Don't like it."
"I know, darling. We're sorry." I twirl her hair in my hands.
Romeo rubs his sisters shoulders but he stares blankly at the floor, "Hey, you good?" I poke his cheek
He wipes his cheek, "Where's mommy?"
"She's in the basement."
He moves Ilaria off him and walks out of the room, Luca walks in with a tight expression in his jaw. "Twins are settled, what happened to never arguing in front of them?"
"Don't start, Armani." I stand up, walking past him and down the stairs, down in the basement too where Arabella was crying in the corner of the room, literally sobbing. Romeo was just staring at her and i was looking at them both.
"Love." I call out.
She slaps her hand over her mouth to silence her cries.
"Mommy." Romeo walks to her.
"I'm fine, baby." She struggles to say.
"Sorry." He pouts, "Mom."
She looks at him, "It's okay." She gives him a small smile.
God i'm so fucked up. All she wants is the best for them and i'm ruining that.
I look away from her, my eyes starting to water too.
"Romeo, let your mom and i talk." I walk down.
"Don't shout. I don't like it when you shout." He looks at me primarily, "And don't make mommy cry."
"I won't." I clear my throat.
He narrows his eyes, "Papa you're crying."
"Give us some room, kid." I mess up his hair.
He kisses Arabella on the cheek before walking up the stairs and closing the door.
I sit with Arabella, putting her face in my hands. "I'm sorry."
"I'm trying my hardest." She looks down, "My hardest, Roman. I know he's not like us but that doesn't mean he has to be like you."
I feel a tear roll down my cheek, "I'm sorry."
"I know you want an heir but i'm not comfortable at all with any of my kids following in your footsteps." She shakes her head. "Find somebody else."
I nod my head, "I'll talk to Romeo."
"We can... I mean... you guys, Asher and Luca too... y'all can teach them some skills to protect themselves but i... nothing more." She looks into my eyes. "Argue with me all you want, i'm never changing my mind. Once they're older, than they can make their decision but my Romeo is six. I'm not letting him choose his fate because of a couple bad days."
There's the girl i married.
I smile, laugh a little, trying to blink away my tears. "You're getting me all emotional and shit."
She hugs me, letting me rest my head on her boobs. "Juliana deserved it." She mumbles, "But next time don't lie to me Roman, if he does something bad i need to know."
I take in her scent, "I know, I'm sorry."
She runs her fingers through my hair, "Are the kids okay?"
"Twins are asleep, triplets will be okay." I close my eyes, "I won't argue with you again, I'm sorry."
"We should definitely train them, though."
"Romeo will have a field day." I smile
"Don't encourage him, please Roman." She moves away, "Please."
"I won't." I look into her eyes, "I promise."
She nods her head, smiling a little.
I kiss the top of her head, then let her lean into me as she starts crying again. all I do is comfort her.
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got me crying & shit, also for those who missed it. the last chapter of the book is 112, then they'll be 3 bonus chapters and instead of it being the time skip like i said it would, i'm going to do it for the future, focusing on the triplets.
hope that's okay
word count: 3276