I swear on my life that I've been a good girl
Tonight, I don't wanna be her
-Camila
Ginevra
Mr. Stavros, the leader of the Greek Mafia.
In walked him with his wife and daughter on his side, Rhea Stavros. My brother gets up from his seat, shaking the old man's hand before taking Rheas hand in his.
He led her to the seat next to him.
My dad also gets up, giving his old time friend a hug as they both talked about something. Laughing and hand movements told me that they were talking about something funny.
Daniel and Serafina get up to greet Mrs. Stavros.
My eyes stay on the door, knowing that this wasn't the end of them. "Niccolò!" A little boy shouted once he turned the corner into the room.
"Dion!" Nicco beamed, waving the little Brunette Greek boy over to sit by him. I smile, those two were cute.
"Dion, don't run." A deep voice spoke from behind him, the tall and broad figure turning the corner and entering the room, not far behind Dion— his little brother. "Sorry." Dion corrected his speed, excitement evident in his face as he high fives Nicco before taking his seat next to him.
I turn back to the door, his buff yet lean build irritating me. Unlike his brother and sister, he had dark black hair, a neat and sleeked back undercut as his hairstyle; a loose strand dangling over his forehead.
"Ares my boy, how have you been?" My dad gave one of those hand shake hugs, patting each other on their backs.
Ugh.
"I've been well. And you?"
"Good, good. And uh, we're still good on our last conversation?" Conversation? When did those two have a conversation?
For a split second, Ares turns his head to look at me, nodding his head as he assesses my entirety. I scrunch my eyebrows, looking away. Why would they need to talk to each other?
Keeping my view on the wall across from me, I catch him taking long strides through the side of my eye towards the seat parallel to me. Great.
Bella was on his left while Dion was on his right, having a blast talking to Nicco about some sort of new self defence move that each of their trainers had taught them. Clearing his throat, he pulls out the seat before sitting down. Both our eyes lock and I mentally hit myself for even looking at him in the first place.
I sigh through my nose, deciding to look towards my dad; waiting for them to finish their catch up.
"Ciao, Bella." He tilts his head to the side, greeting my sister and she shyly waves at him; tucking her beautiful long hair behind her ear. She was blushing. No, my sister was falling for his fucking charm!
"How's school been?" He questions and she slightly turns in her seat to face him, probably to not look rude and closed off. Plus, it looked kind of awkward with him craning his neck so he could see her face. "Good. I'll be in Junior year next year." She smiles.
"Really? Gosh, I could of sworn you were in freshman not so long ago."
She nods, tucking another piece of hair behind her ear.
I pour me a drink of Moscato, filling it to the brim and my dad gives me a look. "What?" I mouth, taking a quick and large gulp of it to make my glass seem empty and at the proper drinking amount. "Better?" I mouth. He shakes his head with a smile, returning to his conversation.
I turn my view back to the two in front of me and their eyes were both on me, I stop in mid air; my glass paused on my lips as I stare between the two.
"See?" Bella snorts a laugh, giggling away. My eyes turn into thin slits as I glare at her, gulping down the rest of my drink and wiping my bottom lip with my thumb afterwards.
"Yes, I see." He replies but my attention was now elsewhere.
"Let's get this dinner going, shall we?" My father claps his hands, taking his seat after everyone else found their spots around the table.
••
This is torture. Literal torture! It hasn't even been longer than half an hour and I already want to kill myself right here, right now. He's playing a dangerous game and he knows it.
Every time I've tried to speak or share my response to something, he seems to always have something to say; therefore interrupting me.
I was glaring at him at this exact moment, looking him up and down while thinking of the many fun ways I could kill him. He was staring back at me, a smirk playing on the edge of his lips. He's enjoying this.
"So as we all know, Rhea and Matteo are soon to be married, so it's great that we start to come together more as one big family."
Family. Fuck off.
I scoff, a little too loudly. "Ginevra, is something wrong?" Yes. Something is very much wrong! But did I actually say that?—
"No." Biting back my tongue, I turn back to face the asshole that had a full on evident smirk across his face. Breath, Ginevra. Breath.
"I really hope that we can all get along, since we'll all be seeing each other more frequently."
Yes, yes. Because of that lovely marriage that's connecting us together.
"Not only through the link of our two families, but also through shared assignments which I would like to thank Ares for agreeing to help and be apart of."
Sorry, what?
"What?" I speak up and I was surprised the asshole didn't cut me off this time.
My dad gave me an apologetic expression, and just by that look, I knew everything. "You're giving him my assignment, aren't you?" I deadpan.
My father doesn't reply. "Aren't you?" I repeat. "Say someth—"
"Joint sharing." The voice I've been despising this entire dinner spoke up. "We'll both be running it together. Except, you'll be directed under me."
Scoffing, I laugh. "This is a joke, right? You want me, to work with him." I point, disregarding everyone else that was witnessing this.
My dad was about to finally speak, but Ares spoke again instead. "Losing 3 cargo containers filled of your materials isn't a joke."
"Excuse me?"
"I mean, what did you expect?" He sits up, leaning forward with clasped hands. "A poorly weathered day to send the order out, unprofessional handling and did you even bother having everything properly secured to the ship?" He scorns, shaking his head with nothing but torment in mind.
I scrunch the fabric of my dress in the palm of my hand, my right leg bouncing up and down. "How was I suppose to know those containers weren't secured in properly?"
"By checking, Ginevra. Checking." He had a point. This was the only assignment where I hadn't double checked the shipment order, and of course the only time I didn't; it turns into a complete shit show.
"Go to hell."
"Already there, short stuff."
That's it, I'm sorry. But I'm done.
"Fuck this." I stand up from my chair, climbing over the table as I whip out the mini knife from my bra. Everything seemed to go slow, time stopping as I leached forward.
I knew everyone around the table were either yelling or saying something to stop me, but it was all too late now. "Fight, fight, fight!" Dion and Nicco cheered from their seats.
I jumped off from the table with murder on my mind, him on the other hand looked rather unfazed. Why did that piss me off even more?
He scooted his chair back, preparing for the landing. Ares grabs my wrist that held the hidden weapon while his other hand tightly gripped the side of my waist. We fumbled to the ground but somehow, he was the one on top of me. "Get. Off. Me!"
"That was poorly planned out." He tsks, ripping the knife out of my hand and throwing it away to the side.
"That's not even the end of it." I kick him in the groin with my knee and he muffles a remark, his expression turning serious and annoyed.
"Stop being a little brat." He seethed, pinning both my arms as he glared down at me.
"Come se ti ascoltassi." I spat, my breathing coming out ridged.
[As if I would listen to you.]
He leaned his head further down, his mouth beside my ear as he whispered. "Non provare quella merda italiana su di me."
[Don't try that Italian shit on me.]
Damn it.
"Ginevra Vitale!" My father yells from where he stood up from his chair. Ares gives me one last look, scoffing through his nose before letting me go and getting up.
He lends me a hand but I slap it away, standing up on my own.
"The nerve you have! What is wrong with you?!" My dad continued on with his lecture and I look across the table to see my brother shaking his head. I ignore him. Serafina just looked at me with wide eyes, probably shocked that I actually used her given weapon.
"Wait, was that your training kni--" "No." Sera cuts Daniel off short.
Everyone was now staring at me, a mixture of anger from some, confusion from others and plain surprise from the rest. Ares cleared his throat, straightening out his attire before he spoke. "My apologies, I shouldn't of irritated her."
"No, no Ares. It's not your fault."
"Oh, don't do that." I fold my arms, knowing that him apologising for my behaviour was only going to help him look better.
"Do what?" He copies my stance, raising an eyebrow. He's good. "I'm not the one trying to spill blood here."
I didn't say anything, instead I turned away from him. I wasn't going to take anymore of this shit, especially when everyone was judging the hell out of me. "Where are you going?" My father called out.
"Anywhere but here." I pulled open the two huge doors of the dining room, my back facing everyone at the table.
••
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