Antonio Pov
"Good morning," I greet all my kids as I take my seat at the end of the table. Everyone greets me back. "Listen up everyone," I raise my voice to get everyone's attention, the twins put down their phones and the others stop their conversations and turn their head to me. "I am currently making a business deal with Mr. Walder and he wants to meet for dinner at the Mastro's Steakhouse with our families tonight," I announce.
"Alright," Alexander says and the rest of them nod.
"What is your job?" Robin asks, I feel everyone tense at his questions, I knew this question will come.
"We own a few hotels, restaurants and casinos," I tell them, it's not a lie but it's not the whole truth either. I don't want them to know about our business in the mafia. Alessia already thinks we will hurt them and I'm afraid that it won't help if they know that we are a part of the mafia.
"Alright, you have to be ready at 5:20 pm, you will all be wearing suits." I turn my gaze to Alessia and Robin "I have sent people out to buy a suit and a dress for you." They nod their head, and we begin to eat our breakfast.
"Come in!" I shout from the corner of my bed while putting on my shoes, I look up and see Robin standing in the door.
"Need some help with the butterfly?" I ask him and nod towards the big knot around his neck, he nods. "Come here," I say and wave him over.
"It's stuck," he tells me, he places himself in front of me.
I try to get the butterfly off him, but the knot is too tight. "How many butterflies have they got you?" I ask him after a time of frustration.
"About two more."
"Alright," I say and stand up, I take my scissor from the drawer in my desk, that I never use since I have an office, and walk back to my son. I push his head to the side so I won't hurt him with the end of the scissor, and cut off the butterfly and throw it out. "Go get the butterfly and I will help you put it on," I order, and he runs out of my room.
After tying my shoes, I go to my bathroom and put on some cologne. The door to my room opens and I know it's Robin. "I'm in here," I shout and Robin comes in with an untied butterfly in his hand. "Get up," I order, and he set himself on the counter, and I begin to tie his butterfly.
"Do you want some hair wax?" I ask when I'm done, he nods, and I hand him the hair wax.
"Can you help me?" His voice is softer than it used to be, like a nervous 7-year-old.
"Of course," I say and put some hair wax on my hands and put it in his hair, thinking about how to approach his soft voice, is he okay?
While doing his hair, I feel like I have done this before. Five years ago when Salvatore was going on his first date with a girl. I smile at the thought. He was so nervous that day, and the fact that he came to me for help was a dream that came true.
"Why are you smiling?" Robin pulls me out of the memory.
"It feels like I'm helping you get ready for your first date with a girl." He laughs, but I quickly realize my mistake and add: "or boy, whatever makes you happy," I say. I wash my hands for the hair wax, and I look in the big mirror, four blue eyes stare back at me and my son in matching suits.
"Thank you," Robin' soft voice says again. We look at each other in the mirror.
I look away from the mirror, towards him. "Robin, how are you, in general?"
"Good." His answer is short, and I really doubt it. He just lost his mother, he must miss her.
"Really?" He nods, I let out a deep sigh, "Robin it's okay if you're not, you just lost your mother, it's okay you're sad." He doesn't answer, he just looks down at his feet that he swings back and forth. "Talk to me."
He gulps, and looks up at me, "I don't really notice that she's gone."
"What?" How can he not notice, the woman who cared- or should care for him, maybe Gabriella hasn't been as good a mother as she had been when she was here.
"She was never really home, always working, as long as I remember."
"Who took care of Alessia, and you when you were younger, did she just leave you at home?" The Gabriella I knew would never let kids stay at home alone.
"Our stepfathers."
"More than one?" I raise my eyebrow.
"Alessia told me we have had four in total."
Stepfathers, always alone with my children, it must have gone wrong. "How did they treat you?" I ask straight forward, there is no reason to wrap it in, sometimes it's best just to ask straight forward.
"I didn't really have any relationship with them, they kept them to themselves, so did Alessia and I... " He takes a deep shaky breath. "I always think it's so unfair for Alessia, she is always there for me, while she had no one," he finishes, I see the tears pricking in his eyes.
"If you want to do something for your sister, why don't you help me arrange her surprise party," I smirk, and his face turns into a huge grin.
"That will be awesome!" he says, and his soft voice is gone, replaced by his natural happy one.
I caress his cheek the same moment a knock sounds at my door, I shout a quick 'come in' and Robin jumps down from the counter and we walk inside my bedroom where Matteo is standing in the door.
"What's up?" I ask him.
"Something is wrong with Alessia's dress, you should go to her room," he says annoyed, I don't know why he keep acting like that towards her, I know he loves her but something about her is bothering him, and he won't tell me, but I guess him telling me that she needs my help is a step in the right direction to the time where he will confess his love for his little sister. "In the meantime, I will help Robin get ready."
"I am ready."
"You miss something, come with me," he says and waves his little brother over, while I walk past them towards Alessia's room.
I knock and a woman's voice sounds from the other side, "come in." Inside are the two women I asked to buy the clothes for Alessia and Robin today, but Alessia is nowhere to be seen.
"Is everything okay in here?" I ask.
"Alessia is trying on the second dress we bought her. Alessia, do you have the dress on?" the dirty blond-haired woman asks towards the closed bathroom door.
"Yes," a faint voice sounds from the bathroom.
"Why don't you come out, sweetheart?" I ask her.
"No." I frown.
"Why not?"
"I don't like it, I'm sorry."
"We only have those two dresses, you need to pick one of them," the same lady as before says, I take a better look at her, she's wearing a white button-down shirt with a pink cotton vest over along with black jeans, how dare she tell my daughter what to do.
"But it's too short, I'm sorry," I hear the sobs coming miles away, I can't have that. I can handle the screams, begs, and cries before I shoot someone, but I think that a knife in my heart will hurt less than hearing my daughter's cries.
"Don't say sorry sweetheart it's not your fault," I say, and turn to the ladies but before I get to open my mouth the same lady speaks while the brunette lady stays quiet.
"But sir the dress go down to her- "
"I don't care if it reaches her ankles, she thinks it's too short, find something else, it doesn't have to be a dress," I hiss, their job is to find something my daughter wants to wear, it's not Alessia's job to wear whatever they desire.
Alessia
We walk inside a fancy restaurant, there is a lot of handsome and beautiful people in here, the men is wearing cool suits like my dad and brothers, and the women wear gorgeous dresses, I was supposed to wear a dress too, but when I sat down on the toilet the dress crawled up right under my discolored lap, one wrong movement and they were revealed to my whole family, so now I'm wearing white skinny jeans, a basic tank top with thin straps, with a white blazer over and black ankle boots, so looking at these women all wearing dresses make me think that I'm underdressed and that I should just have sucked it up and worn the dress but then I remember dad' words before we left the house.
"You look beautiful, sweetheart."
His words were simple but yet make me so happy that I feel the corner of my lip tilt up as the server shows us our table. We walk behind a corner, making it a little private away from the other tables.
We walk over to a long table where four people are already seated, four people that exude dominance. As we reach the table, the four people stand up, the first and the oldest is wearing a suit, the dark half-short hair lay down on his face, no gray hairs in between not even in his trimmed beard.
"Riccardo," he says enthusiastically to dad as he stretches out his hand for a handshake that dad takes and he greets him with the man's surname in the same enthusiastic tone, like good old friends that haven't seen each other since high school. "Meet my wife," he says and turns to the black-haired woman beside him, she's wearing a gorgeous red dress, with a matching red lipstick, and dad shakes her hand.
"Pleasure to meet you," he tells her.
"And my two sons, Federico, that you have already met," he gestures towards the oldest guy beside their mother, a tall, black-haired guy, about Alexander's age, dad shakes his hand. "And Rocco," he gestures to the next guy; dad shakes his hand too.
"I think we will skip the handshake for my kids, or else we will be here all night," he joke, "but let me introduce them, Alexander who you have already met, Salvatore, Diego, Matteo, Lorenz, my daughter, Alessia, and my youngest, Robin," dad says and gesture to us down the table as he says our name, we stand from oldest to youngest behind our chair, waiting for permission to sit down.
"I didn't know you have two such young kids, let alone a daughter," Mr. Walder says, looking straight at me.
"I'm lucky, aren't I? Should we start the dinner," dad says, changing the topic.
Mr. Walder looks at him and smiles. "Great idea," he says, and we all sit down.
We begin to look at the menus. Before when we walked past all the tables, I saw and smelled delicious steaks, and now I really want one. I slide my finger down the menu and stop at the 'New York 8 oz' that sounds good, but then my eyes get caught by the prize. 150$! Okay maybe something else can do it, I begin to scan the menu, finding something less expensive.
The waiter begins to take orders from everyone, and I feel the panic build up inside me as I haven't found anything yet. Okay a warm spinach salad for 27$ should do it, right?
"And what do you want, young lady?" the young waiter asks me, I open my mouth to order but Lorenz cuts me off.
"She will have a New York 8 oz," he lay his arm on top of the back of my chair, that he doesn't remove.
After taking everyone's order she walks away again and Lorenz leans closer to my ear, "if there were a prize limit we would tell you, okay? don't feel bad," I nod, he leans back in his chair and removes the arm from mine.
"So, we have a deal?" dad asks Mr. Walder.
"We sure do," he answers and then shakes hands over the table.
"I think it's time for dessert then, and it's on me," dad says and waves over the waiter.
I order some ice cream, and the waiter walks away again. After a big glass of cola, I really need to go to the restroom.
"Where is the restroom?" I whisper to Lorenz.
"There is a door at the entry, right at the reception," he whispers back. I take the napkin from my lap and lay it on the table before I stand up and walk past all the tables and into the bathroom.
As I wash my hands, I hear some yelling from the reception.
"Why not? Because I'm black?" a loud guy's voice sounds from the other side of the door. A young man's voice sounds but I can't hear what he says because of the thick walls, it must be the receptionist.
I walk out of the restroom, and pause for a second, looking at three calk-white guys, in denim pants, and light blue button down shirts, they're standing in the hall.
They stare at me the second I opened the door, the receptionist is gone and so do I want to be, I walk out of the restroom but the one leaning against the counter step in front of me, I look up into his eyes and my heart stop, bloodshot eyes is staring down at me, I look at the other two, four red eyes stare right back at me. They're high.
One second the guy in front of me looks around, the next second a hand is covering my mouth, and two pairs of arms are dragging me back inside the restroom.
Antonio
As the dessert arrive a horrible sound reach my ears, a horrified girl's scream sounds through the whole restaurant, I turn in my seat and the same second one of our guards turn the corner, my look quickly turn to Alessia along with my sons, but she isn't there, we jump out of our seat, we rush past the tables, everyone's gaze is towards the restroom where one of my guard is trying to open the door with his shoulder. I can't believe I keep on hiring such amateurs.
I run to the door, "get away!" I order and he quickly obeys, I lift my knee and give the door a solid kick with my foot. Another scream comes from the restroom, along with broken cries.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" My daughter's horrified voice fills my veins and I use all my energy as I lift my knee for the second time and give the door another solid kick. The door flies open, and I don't waste my time. Two of the guys quickly step away from her but one is still sitting on top of her, without a second thought I take a firm grip on his neck and toss him away from my daughter and into the counter. The guards rush past me and hold the two other guys.
I turn my look to Alessia, she's still wearing her underwear giving me a tiny feeling of relief, she's pulling up her pants, hiding her discolored lap, I ignore it for now and turn my look further up, her blazer and top is torn apart, her cries fills the room as I pull off my jacket and swing it around her, I wrap it around her so nothing is revealed and I pick her up in my arms. Her cries break my heart, it hurts in a million ways to see my own child like this, my own flesh and blood.
I walk out of the restroom with Alessia in my arms, she takes a firm grip on the fabric of my shirt and holds it tight in her fist, like she doesn't want to let me go.
"Sir, there are tons of paparazzis waiting for you outside," one of my guards tells me. No one should see Alessia in this state.
Alexander, Salvatore, and the twins are on their way to the restroom with murderous looks. "Boys. Focus." I turn my attention back to my guards, "get them to the basement" I order in Italian, they nod and go inside the restroom to help their colleagues.
"Robin, walk close to dad, the rest, surround him, don't give them one peek of Alessia," Alexander orders and Robin immediately stands right beside me surrounded by the rest of my sons. We walk outside, they stand close not moving an inch when the paparazzis push and shove to get closer, we walk with fast steps towards the car, making Robin grab the fabric of my shirt to keep on track.
A camera gets lifted over my sons and is pointing directly at my crying daughter in my arms, Matteo grabs the camera and shoves it to the ground and breaks it with a single stamp of his foot.
I protectively press Alessia's face further into my body, hiding her face from the cruel world.
We reach the car and my sons spread still shielding from the people while I can go in first. I sit down, and wrap my arms around Alessia as she cries, the rest quickly jump in, one by one, and the moment Alexander smacks the door close, the car drives away, and the car fills with silence, no one says anything, only silence and the sound of broken cries.
If a broken heart had a sound, I think everybody would have lost their hearing by now.
Her cries doesn't stop and she begin to have trouble breathing, I don't care if she doesn't crying, I want to let her cry to get it all out, let her know it's okay to cry, that I will always be there for her, crying or not, I want to let her be sad, and let the cries go away by itself while I hold her not saying anything, but if she can't breathe, I need her to become more relaxed.
I pull her more up in my arms and begin to rock her back and forth like a baby, I shush and kiss her forehead.
"One more!" Salvatore says the moment Toy story 3 ends, "come on, it's the last one" I'm about to say no as it's really late and we have already seen three movies but he speaks before I do "it's not every day we get alone time." That hurts my heart, my kids mean everything to me, but it's hard to get alone time with each of them when you have so many plus so much work.
"Alright," I say, and he squeals in happiness. He start movie number four, but we only get one minute into the movie when I hear Alessia through the baby monitor, I sigh and get up, "I will be right back," I say and he pause the movie, I walk to Alessia's room while mentally singing the song from Toy story, 'you got a friend in me' the song have been running through my head since I heard it.
I walk into a crying Alessia and put her in my arms as I rock her back and forth, I begin to hum the melody of 'you got a friend in me' and her eyes slowly give up and close.
I press my cheek against the side of Alessia's head and begin to hum the same melody as I did about 14 years ago, her cries slowly turn into sobs and heavy breathing with a couple of cries escaping her heart.
She tightens her grip on my shirt, and I pull her closer to me, to show her that I'm not letting her go, I'm gonna hold her until she has had enough.
We reach the house and by the time she has cried herself to sleep, I don't want to let go of her. I grudgingly lay her down in her soft bed and pull the covers over her. She hasn't changed her clothes so I lie a jogging set from her closet on her bed, that she can change to when she wakes up. I walk out of her room and go to the living room where all my boys are waiting.
I sit down in one of the couches, there is silence only broken by the rain pouring down outside, and from time to time the night sky lights up for a second followed by thunder, for every minute that passes the seconds between the light and the thunder become shorter.
"What's the point in having bodyguards if they aren't useful," Robin says frustrated, I look at him, he's pissed, everyone is pissed but I get why Robin is, maybe even more than us. He grew up with Alessia, she protected him, and he wants to protect her too, but he can't, he comes here, and relies on us to protect her, as we say we will, but keep on failing her.
"Robin is right. One time is too many, I thought she was lucky the first time for only to be Austin but this, this is unacceptable," Alexander says. I know Alexander isn't blaming me, he's just stating the fact.
"I agree, I will fix the problem but from now on you will always be at least two together, until I have seen improvement in the security," I say. I know my eldest sons can protect themselves, but I won't take any chances.
"Dad," Matteo's voice sound, it's more serious than before, "we have never been attacked before, not something we couldn't handle alone-"
"What are you saying, that it's Alessia's own fault?" Salvatore says pissed.
"No, I'm saying that we won't need to be with anyone apart from the stupid security, only Robin and Alessia does," he lean back in his seat, mad of being accused of thinking like that, he may not have been the nicest, but he loves Alessia, maybe he don't know himself but he does, and I know that he can't wait to torture those bastards, neither can I.
"Matteo, don't argue, and seriously when was the last time you walked alone anyway?" Alexander says. After a moment of silence Robin and Lorenz stand up.
"Robin and I are going to bed, goodnight, everyone," Lorenz says.
"Robin," I say, he stops and looks back at me. "Are you okay?"
"No." His voice breaks.
"Is there anything I can do for you?"
"just... help Alessia," he says, I nod and they walk out after we all greet them a good night. Matteo and Diego stand up after they leave. "I'm going to the gym," Matteo states.
"Me too," Diego says and follows his brother out of the living room. After Salvatore has left for bed, Alexander and I find our computers and begin working.
A loud thunder makes me mentally jump in surprise and pulls me out of my work.
"What time is it?" I ask not even bothering to just check myself.
"2 am." Alexander says short.
"We should go to bed," I say and close my computer and stand up. He closes his computer too, he knows better than to argue with me about sleep.
We walk upstairs.
"I will check on the others, you can just go to bed," Alexander tells me. I want to check on Alessia myself, but I trust Alexander to tell me if anything is wrong.
After I have got myself ready for bed and changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt, normally I only sleep in trunks, but since Robin and Alessia arrived, I have been sleeping a little more dressed if they ever needed to come in through the night. I slide under the covers in my bed when someone knocks on my door.
"Come in!" I shout and Alexander walks in with a sobbing Alessia clinging fast onto him like a koala.
"Can Alessia sleep in here?" he asks me, over the shoulder of Alessia, I know it's Alessia's wish to be with me, because Alexander would have happily let her sleep with him.
I nod my head and open my covers, Alexander peacefully lets her down by my side, she lies her head on my outstretched arm, and I pull the covers over her and I. Alexander leaves the room.
I close my eyes, feeling a bit relieved now I have my daughter so close to me. A loud thunder sounds and I feel Alessia startle in my embrace, and the beginning of sobs, before I even get to ask her, she whispers something.
"I was looking out of the window. There was a lightning right outside."
My poor girl, after everything today, she now also has been frightened by the thunderstorm. I wrap both my arms around her and protectively pull her closer into my embrace, I begin to hum the same melody and her body relaxes in my arms.
I'm not religious, but please God, have some mercy on her.
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