Thank you all for 180k reads and lots of patience!
"And you promise to call me if you need anything? And call every day for check-ins. And I want texts every two hours. And I-"
"Okay, River I get it!" I laughed.
"I'm serious Taliah. I just worry," he whined and pecked my lips.
"I know baby, but I'll be fine okay?" I said as he ran his fingers through his hair
"I like that." He smiled.
"What?" I smiled back curiously.
"I like it when you call me baby." He responded.
"Well, you are my baby." I kissed his forehead.
"You're perfect." He whispered.
"So are you.... Baby." I giggled.
All of a sudden River starts coughing and wheezing.
"Quit that faking! You know I have to be with my brothers this week." I scolded him and smacked his chest.
"Fine. Have a good week. And don't forget to call and text me yeah?" He said.
"Hmm bye, my love." I kissed him one last time and walked to the front door of the house.
Vincent was the one to open the door.
He went in for a hug but I stepped back quickly before he could touch me.
"Can I come in?" I said snappily.
He cleared his throat and opened the door wider for me to come inside.
It looked the same. I had only been gone for a week or two.
The atmosphere was the only thing that was off though.
"Umm, you can go to the living room everyone is waiting for you," Vincent said.
I didn't reply and just walked to the living room ready to be done with this as soon as possible.
Everyone's eyes were on me in seconds.
Roman cleared his throat and stood up.
"Can- can I hug you?" He asked gently.
As much as I wanted to say no I didn't.
I nodded my head slightly and Roman came to me quickly and picked me up in a hug.
I wrapped my arms around his neck gently.
I missed this. I did. I hated how much I loved this feeling.
My big brother's arms wrapped around me.
The last few weeks I've had love shown to me in a way I never would have imagined.
But this.
This is the love that you either hate or adore.
The love from your family.
We broke apart and Roman patted my flyaways down to my head.
"I love you so much. We're sorry for not telling you about the mafia we didn't think you could handle it. But now we see how strong you are. We see you as an independent woman and we're asking, I'm asking that you give me and your brothers another chance Taliah." He explained.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes thinking of what to say next.
"You all hurt me. I felt like I wasn't a part of this family. This big secret that you all kept from me- it was crazy! A mafia?! I'm still wrapping my head around it. But I forgive you. I do guys. The pain is still there but my love for you all consumes that pain." I said.
I looked around and saw almost all my brothers crying.
Vincent, crying.
Matt, crying.
Asher, with tears in his eyes.
Ace and Roman? Almost completely emotionless.
But whatever their mouths didn't say their eyes sure did
"But! Just because I forgive you does not mean I'll trust you all easily. And no more lovey doves stuff." I said.
"Alright! Well, you're going with me first! We're going somewhere with water so don't forget your swimsuit. Let's goooooo!" Matt yelled and ran to the door.
I heard the car start up from outside so I went upstairs to my room and grabbed my black one piece.
I ran back down the stairs and went to the car that Matt was in.
It was a black Audi TT I had never seen this car on the property before.
"Do you like it?! Vince bought it for me last week." He beamed.
"Isn't she gorgeous?" He whispered and slowly rubbed his hand across the dashboard.
"Okay I'm mildly uncomfortable and I'm ready to see where we're going." I cringed.
I'm not mad at Matt. Roman Vincent and Ace on the other hand? I'm very mad at them.
Matt and Asher, I'm not super close with so I don't think I have the power to be mad at them as much as the others.
"We're going on a road trip!" He said as he started up the car.
"Nice, where are we going?" I asked him.
"I don't know. I guess wherever we land we'll have fun there." He said.
"Okay, but we do need one last thing," I said and smiled
He smiled back and nodded.
"Snacks!"
•••
After we spent a bunch of Matt's money on snacks we were in the road.
We sang songs.
Danced as best as we could in a seat.
Matt got car sick so we had to pull over so he could throw up.
Then we sang more and ate more snacks.
So very eventful.
We had been driving for a few hours and suddenly a huge jump house came into view.
You know the ones where they have dozens of jump-houses all put together.
It's so huge!
"Omg, are we going there?!?!" I yelled.
"Yes! This was the plan the entire time. I just didn't want you to know." He wiggled his eyebrows.
We hopped out of the car and immediately ran towards the houses ready to jump our little hearts out.
•••
"It was really fun Matteo," I said as I licked my ice cream off the cone.
"Matteo? What happened to Matt or Matty?" He asked.
"Matteo... you know what happens. You kept this huge mafia thing away from me. And for what? To protect me from my brothers? It doesn't make sense. I just want to enjoy this week with my siblings okay?" I explained.
"Okay." Matteo took a bite of his ice cream and nodded his head.
After the ice cream shop, we went back to the house.
It was 7 pm and already very dark outside.
"Will you spend the night?" Matteo asked as I walked through the front door.
"Yep. You guys said a week so a week you all shall get." I smiled.
"Okay let's watch a movie. The rest of them are probably sleeping." He said.
We sat together and watched the first Twilight movie. He told me to pick so I had to pick a classic.
"She needs to be with Jacob," Matteo said while stuffing his face with popcorn/
"Ha! No, she needed to be with Edward. Edwards hot and rich." I explained.
"We know he's ugly. And he is like 117 years old. I hear police sirens instead of wedding bells." Matteo said he rolled his eyes.
"Whatever. Edwards is the best jacobs cool too but he's meant to be the best friend." I smiled.
We watched all the Twilight movies until it was 3 am.
Maybe this week won't be so bad
Heyyy! It's been a minute. Thank you all for your patience. I haven't been writing much so this chapter may not be as good as it could be. QOTD: if your in school what grade or year are you in? Me? I'm in 11th grade. Don't forget to VCF!
Mya❤️