•Matteo Rossi•
I woke up that same day with Aria in my arms, in her bed. We had only slept for a few hours after Laura's presentation. We had spent only a few minutes talking after that before going back to her room and laid in bed together, quickly falling asleep.
But now my phone was ringing constantly. I had let it ring the first time, and just turned my attention back to Aria. She was still asleep after the first ring but after the second, she was woken up by my phone. "Matteo." she called my name.
"Sì, melodia?" I groan, not wanting to pay attention to anything else.
"Your brother is calling you. And you have a lot of messages from mamma." she explained. That was not necessarily out of the ordinary, but usually if I did not answer they would not call me again until I called them back.
I slowly sat up on the bed and Aria did the same. She handed me my phone just as it stopped ringing but started again not even a second later. This time, it was Lia calling me.
I answered it right away. "Hey Lia Emma." was all I said before I heard the commotion going on from the phone. Lia's voice was frantic, and I heard sobbing in the background, as well as Alessandro telling someone that everything would be fine.
"Matteo! Please you have to come to the hospital in mamma and papà's estate! Papà is hurt, it's bad. They don't know if he is going to be okay." she was sobbing. I was still half asleep but those words were like a shock to my system and I shot up out of bed. What the fuck was going on?
I hung up the phone and quickly got up. "Matteo? What's wrong?" Aria asked me as I was quickly putting my shoes on. My mind was everywhere, I couldn't remember where my keys were and I was trying to form words but they were not coming out of my mouth.
I stopped for a second, took a breath, and at least tried to process everything. Tears stung my eyes but I forced them back. I would never cry. I don't cry, and even if I did I know papà would tell me not to. That I had to be strong, no matter what. "Just some family things, melodia. Papà is in the hospital and I have to go." I said frantically and continued as I was before. I still could not find my car keys.
Aria stood up as well, putting some boots on, and miraculously finding my car keys quickly. She grabbed my hand in hers. "Let's go." she said.
"No, melodia, you do not have to go. Just go back to sleep I will-" she stopped me with a tug on my arm, she was pulling me towards the door.
"Let's go." she repeated. I could hear the determination in her voice as well as see it in her eyes. She was not letting me leave this apartment unless she was going with me. I nodded and we left, heading down to my car.
As soon as we got in, I turned it on and sped towards mamma and papà's estate. I did not know if I was breaking the speed limit, but I was going fast and Aria did not seem to say anything the entire ride. She kept my hand in hers, rubbing her thumb on the back of it softly and slowly in a very calming motion.
When we got there, I basically jumped out of the car, Aria following behind me as we ran into the hospital. I quickly found my family and they ran towards me as well, meeting me in the middle. Lia hugged me quickly as well as mamma. Surprisingly, Alessandro hugged Aria, Sofia did as well. Vittoria was in Sofia's arms asleep but she seemed to have been crying before.
All of them know where I stand with telling Aria about the mafia, so Sofia gives me a look as she takes Aria to sit down with her and mamma. Alessandro pulls me into a different hallway. He does not waste a second before telling me what has happened.
His voice wavers as he tells me. "He was apparently out shopping for mamma's birthday presents and we just found him in an alley near the shopping center. He was beaten up and he had a bullet wound. It was bad, Matteo. I don't know what happened exactly. I do not know how he is still alive, but we found a note near him." he pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket and hands it to me.
I take the paper from his hand and examine it. Regular notebook paper, nothing special about the writing except that it is familiar and incredibly sloppy. It looks like a child wrote it.
It had three simple words on it: La Prossima Generazione.
The words obviously were familiar to me, but put together in a phrase, they seemed like a clue. It seemed like something I had hear before, something that jogged a memory somewhere in my brain. I turned the paper around and there was more writing on it the same handwriting.
You are normally better than this, Rossi. Only two dead bodies? Step it up. It's practice for the war.
My eyebrows furrowed as I tried to dig up every memory I had and find these phrases within them. It was so close and yet so far away. Then, I heard her footsteps approaching, about to turn corners.
"Matteo?" Aria called, both of our heads turned to look over to her. She was standing there, Vittoria was in her arms and sniffling against her shoulder. "Your papà is asking for you." she said and I nodded. She walked up to Aless to see if Vittoria would want to go with him but she shook her head and hugged Aria tighter. Aless looked offended as she walked away before we could follow after her.
I gave Aless a look to tell him that we would talk about it later and he nodded as I went towards papà's hospital room. I passed my family and went right into the room they had all pointed at as if they knew why I was walking towards them the way that I was.
The nurse sees me and begins to walk out. He bows his head to me and walks out, closing the door behind him. I saw my father laying on the bed, there were injuries all over his visible body. Bruises, cuts, dried blood, a black eye. I sit in the chair next to my fathers bed and he begins talking right away, his voice sounding hoarse and weak. "Matteo, listen to me. This situation that has been going on recently, it is bigger than we imagine it to be. They have so many people, and it is not just someone spying on you. It is an inside job. Someone who knows all of these things about you already. Now is the time where you have to use all the training I gave you. They may be strong but we are stronger. I'm not talking about just physically, but mentally. Don't let them crack you, ever." he instructs me and I nod. Never letting myself even blink at him. He groans a bit, I assume at the pain. "I don't know if I have much time left." I hear him mumble.
"Oh come on, papà do not say things like that." I groan out, looking away from him as I had a look of discomfort on my face.
He chuckled which made him cough. "I just wish I could have done more for you that just train you for business. I wish I could have taught you to be a nice person. Figlio in your 27 years of life I only ever saw you cry when you were a baby. You don't like showing emotion, even though it is healthier than whatever it is you do. I wish I could have taught you to be an amazing husband for that kind girl out there. And do not tell me that she is not even your girlfriend yet, because she is the first girl you have ever even shown us so I doubt that you are not serious about her."
"But you did, papà. You worship mamma so much. That is what Alessandro and I want to be for Sofia and Aria. You did not necessarily tell us but you showed us what to be like. And yes, I want to be serious about her." I tell him, and surprisingly, his natural stone face turned into a smile. He chuckled and turns away from me, his face still not reverting back to its natural state.
He sighs before continuing "Ah, figlio. You have no clue how much strength they can give you. It is so much easier to wake up in the morning and know that you are going to have a great day when you wake up and she's right there and she's smiling at you. It's a good feeling."
If there was one thing I knew about my papà is that he was definitely in love with my mamma. It did not matter that it had started off as them fake dating, in the course of them knowing each other, they had fallen in love and he was not going to do anything to let her go. He was completely enamored with her. He was obsessed with her, not in a creepy way, but in a way that she never had to question whether he loved her because she automatically knew. And even though she knew, he still said it over and over again. I have had this amazing example of love in my life that I knew could never be forced.
Maybe we were moving fast. But maybe we just view commitment as fast. I don't know how slow people would consider slow now. We are grown adults and we can make those decisions for ourselves, sleeping over and spending a lot of time together, that is what people do. We are not other people and we should not base our relationship off of the societal expectations that people have for other people our age. If Aria wants to go slower then we will go slower. No matter what she wants to do, I know that she is the one that cleared my mind, and made it known to me what change it was that I needed. I needed someone there, when I fell asleep, when I woke up, someone to call or text whenever I wanted.
She could break my heart over and over and I would still beg for her to come back because she is the one who helped me see the light in the world that I had only ever fought to see the dark in. She showed me something that I never thought I would even want to see, but now I think I cannot live without, and my father was the one that taught me to care for her like that.
It was not until now that I saw just how much he did for me. Unknowingly did. Up until now I thought he had just prepared me to take over the world, and although he did just that, he also prepared me to find someone that would be there taking it with me.
What an amazing father he is.
"You still have a lot of fight left in you, papà. Do not let some cowards who do not know what they are getting themselves into change that." I tell him and he chuckles once more. We spend some time talking before everyone walked in, mamma first. She immediately goes to my fathers side and holds his hand.
He responds quickly and happily by kissing the back of her hand. Aria comes next to me, leaning on me. I wrap an arm around her and Vittoria looks at me. She holds her arms out for me to carry her, so I take her from Aria, also pulling my arm away from around her. Vittoria very quickly leans against my shoulder and whispers in my ear "I love my new Zia. She's so nice."
I chuckled and whispered back "Yes she is great." I switched arms so that I could put my arm back around Aria.
We all spent a good amount of time talking before my father made a very odd and random request. "May you all leave so I can speak privately with Aria?" We all looked confused, as did she, but we complied, too curious to see what would happen.
•••••
•POV switch
Aria Marino•
Everyone walked out after Riccardo's request to speak to me privately. I was very confused as to why he would want to speak to me. I had only ever spoken to him once, when I met him, and I had only said my name.
As soon as the door had closed behind the last person who walked out, which was Matteo, Riccardo gestured me to the chair which was next to his hospital bed. His injuries seemed very severe as if he had been brutally beaten. Although, Sofia told me it had been a car accident. If it was, it had to have been a very bad one. His voice sounded rough and weak as he spoke.
"I just want you to know a few things before everything moves on from where it is now." he says, confusing me even more. What did he mean moving on from where we are now? And what exactly did he want me to know?
My eyebrows furrowed before I replied, "Know what?" I asked.
"My son has never believed he is capable of loving or caring for anyone at all, until recently. He never liked showing his feelings at all, which I certainly take blame for. Although recently, he seems to have turned that around, not towards us, but towards you. After he met you, all Alessandro has been talking about is how he suddenly has feelings. Now he obviously always had them, but I think you helped him discover them. I believe you can help him. Aria, I believe that having a kind and caring woman by one's side brings more power to a man than him being alone. It brings more positivity and happiness in life and I genuinely believe both you and my son will benefit from being in each others lives." he said, making me speechless.
I knew I liked Matteo, and I knew he liked me. I also knew he said he had not dated much, but I thought all that meant was that he just never had an official relationship. I mean obviously he had taken women on dates before and had feelings for them. I did not think that meant he had not opened up to absolutely anyone before. If there is anything I did not think of him as, it was unemotional. He was sweet, caring, and kind. That was the only side of him he had ever shown me.
It made me realize that there was still so much I did not know about him. I knew his family. I know his job, the way he acts, how he presents himself. And maybe I did notice it, how his disposition changed when we were in public from when it was just us. In public, he would be in charge, almost demanding attention, everyone knew who he was, and everyone did his bidding, automatically taking his requests and making them happen. When I was there with him, all of his attention seemed to be on me. He took care of the plans for me, made sure I was comfortable, and everything that happened made me happy.
I had seen enough to know that if he had no experience dating, then he had a good example. I had seen the way his father looked at his mother, and I knew why he treated me the way he did. He treated me the way he saw that his father treated his mother.
Matteo and I had never spoken about our parents, but I can only hope he is grateful for having his. I could only wish I had parents like his growing up, that cared for him and each other. I was glad his parents had raised him to be who he was now.
And I could only wish that I was a parent like them in the future.
"Now, I am sure there are a lot of things he has not told you, just as I am sure there are things you have not told him. Just please be patient with each other. Patience can be just as important as communication at times." he continues, and I nod.
"Thank you. For making him who he is." I tell him, making his face slowly morph into a smile.
"It is just my job as a parent." he says. Those words triggered something in me. Because that is how parents should be. But not all of us were so lucky.
I sighed and tried to keep my expression as it was, although I most likely failed. I felt the tears pricking my eyes, but held them back and swallowed the lump in my throat that told me I was about to cry. "One can only hope to have parents like you two. And yet not all of us end up with that kind of luck." I mumbled and he looked at me sadly, seeming to understand what I said in his own manner.
"I raised myself to be who I am now for my children and my wife. And from what I have noticed about you, you did the same for yourself and for your sister. But do not consider yourself a burden when other people try to take care of you because they care for you. I made that mistake many years ago and it almost cost me the love of my life. Take my words of experience and grow, sì?" he asked and I nodded.
"Thank you, signore." I said and he chuckled.
"You can call me papà, tesoro. Just as you call my wife mamma." he said and I smiled widely, still holding back tears. We spent a few minutes discussing random things before he asked me to go get Matteo. I began to walk out but before I did, he called me back. "Oh and tesoro?" I turned to look at him. "They have faith in me, but I truly do not know if I have much fight left in me. Please be there for them? He will try to hide his emotions, but I want him to know that it is okay to feel."
His words struck me like a smack to the face, making me sad once more, but I simply nodded at his request. "Sì, papà." I said, and he smiled.
When I walked out, he was sitting in a chair right by the door. His head was rested on his hand, his elbow on the chair, as a nurse was talking to him. She was young, maybe a year or two younger than me. She was taller than me though, a blue eyed blonde woman. The rest of his family was watching her with pure disgust as she rambled on to him about a random topic he seemed to have no interest in. "Matteo." I called his name, making his head quickly turn to look at me.
His face quickly lit up and he stood out of the chair, making him practically push the nurse out of the way as he bumped into her due to how close she had been standing to him. "Sì, melodia? What did papà want?" he asked, placing a hand on my waist and a kiss to my forehead.
I smiled softly at him, placing a hand on his arm. "Just to talk for a bit, but now he wants to talk to you again." I said and he nodded, placing one last kiss on my lips before entering his fathers hospital room.
I sat on the chair he has just been in which was also right next to his sister. She smiled at me and leaned her head on my shoulder, so I leaned my head on hers. I noticed Laura had shown up with Allegra, which I honestly had been waiting for, seeing how close Allegra is to the family.
The nurse looked at me curiously. "Who are you?" she asked, disgust laced in her voice as she began stepping away since Matteo was no longer there.
Allegra chimed in. "She's his girlfriend. And who are you?" she asked sarcastically. "Oh yes! Just an employee whose name he will not even remember two minutes from now. Leave." she said angrily and the nurse scurried away.
I held back a laugh, but quickly let it go when Alessandro was laughing as well. We all laughed a bit, before calming down. "Technically I am not his girlfriend yet." I said, making most of them roll their eyes.
"He's still too much of a pussy to make it official?" Aless asks jokingly, making me laugh once more. Sofia gives him a look and he stops, thinning his lips and avoiding her eyes.
I sigh before explaining. "I mean, we have only known each other for a little less than a month. And we have gone on a date, but he has not asked yet."
Mamma chuckles before responding. "Well I doubt he can hold out much longer." she says with a suspicious look on her face, making my eyebrows furrow.
"Mamma do you know something?" Aless asks her, making her smile sheepishly.
She shrugs her shoulders innocently. "Maybe, maybe not." we all laugh at her antics before going into other topics of conversation.
For the first time in years, even though there are bad things going on around us, I was not in a bad mood. I found people that could make me feel happy. Friends, family. People who knew how to love each other and did. They cared. They took me in as a loved one simply because I was dating Matteo. I was content in the moment.
•••••
only one school week before thanksgiving break 🙏🙏 im almost there
more coming hopefully soon.
~elle 🌸