Never in a million years did Amara ever think that she would be in a private plane, going to Miami, Florida in the US to meet her new guardian.
Given only a name, her social worker named Beatrice Winston had given her Amara's deceased father's phone for her flight to Miami. Beatrice didn't even explain what was happening before Amara was told to pack up her things and that she would be going to Miami.
The incident had happened after midnight, and she was at the police station for the entire morning before they were able to get a hold of a number. Apparently, Amara's new guardian was a very important and busy person, and wasn't to be disturbed.
The persistent calls though, apparently had annoyed him enough to answer his cell at noon.
Unable to listen in to Beatrice's conversation with her new guardian as she had to continue packing all of her art supplies, she caught words like: 'Hurt', 'Don't', 'Talk', 'Responsive', and 'Brother.' from her end of the phone.
Brother.
That word was so foreign to her. She's never had a brother before, and if what she was guessing was true, her new guardian was also her new brother. A brother she hasn't even met yet, nevertheless heard of him until now.
Why in the world were they separated then? Why was he so much older than her? Why does he own a private plane? Couldn't he have given a monthly income to help out with her situation before her father's death?
The questions kept on coming as she sat on the plane. Trying to answer her own questions, only to come up blank and with more questions. Nothing was adding up. She may be stupid, but she wasn't that stupid when it comes to common knowledge.
Why in the world was her brother so much older than her? Why did father never mention him? Why did she not know him until her father was murdered? Why, why, why! There were so many.
The 2 hour and 55 minute flight passed by quickly, and Amara didn't even know that she had arrived before she was ushered out of the plane. She was apparently so lost in thought that she didn't even feel the landing of the plane, which just shows how out of it she was.
As Amara looked outside of the airport, she checked her phone for any messages as a black SUV pulled up in front of her.
"Amara?" the man asked kindly, and snapping her head to the front, she was met with the face of a handsome, muscular young man.
"Y-yes?" Amara stuttered, eyes looking at her worn out shoes as if they were the most interesting thing in the world.
"You're Amara right?" the man asked, and Amara nodded her head, albeit a little hesitantly.
"Okay. My name is Salvestro." he introduced as he got out of the car, his Italian accent showing when he said his name as he rolled his 'r' perfectly.
"O-okay?" Amara answered, unsure what he was doing.
"I'm here to pick you up." he continued as he raised a hand. Expecting the worst, Amara flinched away at the hand, causing the man to frown.
"I-I'm sorry. B-but I-I was t-told that Salvatore would be p-picking me up-p. Not Sal-Salvestro." she stammered, but she was firm on this. She wasn't going to let a stranger take her away. She wasn't a naive little girl, at least, she didn't think she was.
"Yes, your guardian was supposed to be picking you up, but he couldn't make it. He doesn't end work until later tonight." Salvestro said smoothly, and Amara made a face.
It was 5 pm, and this time was when most people got home and were back home with their families.
Seeing her unspoken question, Salvestro chuckled. "Yes. He's the CEO of one of the more busier companies, which means that sometimes, he can be extremely busy. He'll be taking the day off tomorrow to get to know you though, so don't worry." he reassured, and Amara didn't have the heart to tell him that she wasn't worried one bit, more scared than worried.
If she was correct in her assumptions, Salvatore would be a very intimidating man. There was no question about it as Amara was fairly certain that he would be a strict and responsible guardian. He was after all, the CEO of a company, which must mean something.
"Oh," was what Amara decided to go with.
"B-but c-can I-I please mak-ke sure?" she asked tentatively, still a bit scared of the man.
Who wouldn't though? This man had muscle, and that was saying something. Even while wearing casual clothes, he managed to make them look good with his brown hair, steel blue eyes, and charming smile.
His shirt rippled with every movement, showing his clearly defined abs and hard as rock arms. It didn't even look like he was flexing!
"Of course, Bambina. Go for it." He chuckled as Amara pulled out the old tattered phone, dialling the social worker's number.
"Hello? Beatrice Winston speaking." The woman greeted professionally.
"Uh, hi, Miss Winston." Amara murmured quietly.
"Oh! Amara dear, I was just about to call you!" the woman said.
Liar. Amara thought, but kept her thoughts to herself.
"Um, I was just wondering... Is Salvestro allowed to pick me up? He claims to be Salvatore's replacement." she whispered, and she could hear Salvestro snickering at her words. It wasn't that funny.
"Replacement." Salvestro snickered, and Amara glared at him through her peripheral vision.
As if he sensed her glare, he stopped laughing and turned his gaze to her. Amara obviously, averted her eyes right away. No eye contact today, baby!
"Yes, yes. Salvestro is actually your guardian's younger brother." the woman said as Amara heard the clicking of computers.
"I have another b-brother?" Amara spluttered, staring at Salvestro as he started loading her two pieces of luggage. Without Amara's permission, she added.
"Yes, you have another brother, but he is not your legal guardian." the woman admitted. "Your real legal guardian actually isn't even supposed to be-"
"Amara! Have you got your confirmation?" Salvestro shouted, cutting Beatrice off as Amara flinched at his loud tone.
"Yes," Amara said aloud. "Are you sure that he is allowed to pick me up?" she asked urgently.
"Affirmative." Beatrice replied, no doubt in her voice.
"Okay. Thank you, again." Amara said.
"No problem, dear. Call me if you have any trouble all right?" Beatrice said kindly.
"Okay, Miss Winston." Amara said.
"Have a nice evening then, dear." Beatrice said before hanging up on her.
Getting into the passenger seat of the car, the seat practically engulfed her in its massive size.
Salvestro frowned at this, and looked at her.
"Do you maybe want to sit in the back seat?" he suggested, and Amara blushed a furious red.
Just because she was short, small, and skinny doesn't mean that she isn't at legal age to sit in the front! She's 13.
"No, it's fine." Amara declined, curls fanning over her face like curtains as she held her head down, trying to hide her embarrassment.
"Okay." Salvestro sighed hesitantly, before driving away.
Five minutes into the drive, Amara can feel her eyes start to close. She hasn't slept in hours, at least 24. Forcing herself to stay awake, Amara could feel her body start to shut down, but she refused to let go.
If she went to sleep and she experienced a nightmare... The effects would be disastrous, and Amara didn't feel like talking to her brother about her old problems.
"Bambina, go to sleep. We still have another half hour before we arrive." Slavestro said, and his soothing tone lulled Amara to her sleep, her only hoping that she didn't receive a nightmare in front of a stranger.
~
Shaking. That was what she felt as she reluctantly opened her eyes.
"Bambina, go back to sleep. You must be tired." a voice said, closing her eyes with his hands.
Humming, Amara couldn't be happier to go back to sleep. No one had ever talked like this to her before, with such softness and kindness. Who is this kind person? Who in the world is carrying her? Wait a second... Who is talking to her?
These thoughts jerked Amara up right when she was about to fall asleep. Jumping out of his arms, Amara fell to the floor, causing a pained groan to erupt out of her as she sat up, rubbing her eye with one hand and the other rubbing her sore shoulder.
"Bambina!" the voice shouted again.
Amara flinched involuntarily, scared for her life until she opened her brown eyes to see the worried expression of her brother.
Relaxing at this, Amara let out a breath of air she didn't know what she was holding.
"Hello." Amara groaned as she stood up on legs that were having trouble supporting her.
"Bambina. Why did you do that?" Salvestro scolded, putting a set of hands on his hips like one would do to a child.
"Sorry. Didn't know who was carrying me." Amara grunted, eyes closing again.
Seeing her tired expression, Salvestro's eyes softened and he let out a sigh.
"Well, as it looks like you are still tired, we can skip dinner. You'll be meeting your brothers tomorrow then." he said, and Amara was too far off in dream land to understand what he was saying.
"You're not even listening are you." Salvestro chuckled as he picked up his sister and walked up flights of stairs.
"Mmm." Amara said in response, as Salvestro opened the door for her.
"Okay. Have a good night's sleep, Bambina." Salvestro said, continuing to use the nickname he gave her. "We'll talk in the morning." he chuckled, before leaving the room closing the door behind her.
~~~
Amara woke up in unfamiliar territory. Looking around the queen-sized bed she was on, she didn't know where she was as she surveyed the room.
How in the hell did they know that pink was her favourite colour again? Why was she in such a big room?
Jumping off, Amara nearly collapsed onto the floor as she tried to run. Opening her bedroom door, she ran, her weak legs barely supporting her.
Running down corridor after corridor, Amara ran until she found the stairs case towards the downstairs area. Running down as well, Amara tried to see what floor she was on, only to see that she was still not on the ground floor.
Panting and out of breath, Amara can see an anxiety attack coming on. This was so stressful, trying to find the stairs to go out.
The walls felt like they were suffocating Amara as she continued searching for an exit, the tightness in her throat stopping her from breathing as she tried taking deep breaths of air.
Her legs felt numb as they finally stopped working. Amara pulled herself into a ball as she rocked herself back and forth again and again. The walls were closing in on her. There were no windows, making it worse for Amara as well. Her vision clouded with black spots as Amara tried but failed to calm her breathing.
With each passing moment, Amara felt her body shutting down thanks to the lack of oxygen in her lungs. Amara tried to stop it, but soon, she succumbed to the awaiting darkness.
~
Walking down the corridors, Salvatore checked the time on his watch to see that it was 8 am. Walking down to the second floor, Salvatore made his way to the first floor when a sight caught his attention.
There was his younger sister, laying on the floor as she took deep breaths in. Walking over, his eyes examined her body to see that she wasn't conscious, and was only having deep sleep... in the middle of the corridor.
Shaking her awake, Amara jerked up, spitting out the mouthful of hair that was in her mouth.
At the sight of him, Amara's eyes widened in fear.
"Good morning, Amara. What are you doing, at 8 in the morning, in the middle of the corridor?" Salvatore asked, looking at her pointedly.
Amara didn't answer him, only looking at him fearfully as she cowered away. When she got to the wall, she started sliding away from him as she pressed herself against it, wanting to stay as far away as possible away from him.
Sighing at this, Salvatore softened his glare, trying to get his sister to open up to him.
"Look. I'm not going to hurt you alright?" Salvatore said comfortingly, displaying his two hands in front of him to show him that he wasn't there to hurt her.
Shakily, Amara stopped shuddering and moving away from him, deciding to just stare at the man in front of her.
"W-who are y-you?" Amara croaked out of her throat.
Amara's throat was in desperate need of water, as each word she spoke felt like sandpaper rubbing against her throat.
"I'm your oldest brother. Your guardian." Salvatore answered as softly as he could.
"N-name?" Amara asked, still not trusting him at all. Good for her.
"Salvatore." he replied, and at his name, Amara relaxed, the tension in her shoulders relaxing.
"Oh." Amara said as she slumped against the wall.
"So, what were you doing in the corridor?" Salvatore asked, back to the cold hearted man he once was.
Seeing this, Amara was immediately nervous as she started fidgeting with her fingers.
"I-I..." Amara crumbled under the hard stare Salvatore gave her.
"Go on." Salvatore prompted, not relenting on his glare.
"I-I was l-looking f-for an exit-t." Amara admitted, whimpering under his hard gaze.
"And why were you doing that?"
"B-because I didn't know whe-re I was." she whispered, looking down at her hands as she played with her fingers.
"Understandable." Salvatore hummed, "Now get up. Since you're up so early, I'll lead you and introduce you to the family." he said, and without waiting for a reply, he turned on his heel and started walking, Amara scrambling after him with her sprained ankle and bruised ribs.
- A m a r a W i l l i a m s -
Salvatore was extremely scary.
Showing no emotion in his eyes, he held no warmth like Salvestro had with her. With a huge tattoo running up his left arm up to his neck, it showed under his white dress shirt and added to his intimidating look.
With black hair, steel blue eyes, high cheekbones, a sharp jaw, and thin lips, he could've passed as a gang boy if it weren't for the suit he was wearing. Salvatore probably worked out five hours a day if the muscles under his shirt were real. Each movement he made caused the shirt to stretch and overlap his bulging muscles, muscles that were even bigger than the ones Salvestro packed on, which was saying something.
As I tried to follow Salvatore's long paced strides, I pretty much ran after him as he led me down turns and down a flight of stairs before I was in the kitchen.
There were no signs of anyone cooking breakfast either, so I assumed that Salvatore was silently telling me to start on the cooking.
Rushing in, I took a long look at the kitchen, only to be shell shocked.
The kitchen was beautiful, with marble counters, and an electrical stove, all things were neatly organized and nothing was out of place. Not even a speck of dust was here as I stared in awe. The awe quickly turned into horror though.
What if I made a mess? I was never the cleanest person around, but I still tried my best to clean everything up, even if I was an extremely clumsy person. Oh no. What if I accidentally break the equipment? What type of punishment will I get for doing that?
Running a finger over the marble counter, I tried to conceal my thoughts from Salvatore as I continued pretending to be awing at the structure when inside, I was a quivering mess.
Hide your feelings, Amara. I scolded myself as I desperately tried to push my shaking away from my fingers. Pull yourself together. If they are the same as Jake, or something even close to him, you know what to do and what you're dealing with.
Those 'comforting' words had me pulling myself together as I looked at Salvatore, waiting for his order to do something as he sat at the head of the table.
"S-sir?" I murmured, trying to gain his attention without pissing him off.
His head jerked up at my words, and his narrowed eyes had me shuddering as a chill ran up my spine. What did I do wrong? I called him with respect! Did he not like the word? Should I be saying, 'Master'?
"What did you just say?" he growled, and I looked down at my sock clad feet, staring at my toes as if they were very interesting.
"What did you just say!" he snarled, slamming a fist on the table. Flinching at the loud bang, I heard multiple feet pounding from upstairs.
What the heck is that? My eyes widened as I heard elephants moving from upstairs. Why were there elephants in the house? How heavy were these people?
Ears following the sound, I can hear multiple people running down the stairs until four other half naked boys were standing in the kitchen, two of them with guns out and the other two with bats.
"Wh-what's happening?" one of the twins groaned as he rubbed his tired eyes.
My eyes widened to saucers at this. They had guns! Guns! Oh no, they were going to kill me weren't they for not addressing Salvatore in the right manner. What was I supposed to say? Master?
"Why the fuck do you have guns out?" my guardian shouted, voice raising. "Nostra sorella è qui!" he shouted in Italian, fury growing in his eyes.
Then as if they were robots, four pairs of steel blue eyes trained on me, and I almost fainted. Too much, this was too much. And for the second time today, I fainted, again.
- S a l v a t o r e R u s s o -
"What in the world were you two thinking! Bringing in guns when you both know who's in the house!" I yelled as Salvestro barely managed to catch our fallen sister, dropping the bat and creating a crack on the floor.
That didn't matter though as that was fixable. What she just saw though, wasn't fixable as it's impossible to have her memory wiped.
"Sorry bro. Not our fault you decided to yell and act so angry at 8 in the morning?" one of the twins shrugged, and the other nodded his agreement.
"Yea. Why were you yelling anyways? You know that we had a long night." the second twin said, putting a hand over his mouth as he covered a yawn.
"Because she called me Sir. Not brother, not Salvatore, but Sir." I emphasized, face growing red in rage.
Why the hell would my sister fucking call me Sir?
"Why do you care anyways? She's not even our real sister. She's only a half." one of the twins shrugged as if it was no big deal when it actually was.
"Mhm. Even you know the importance of not allowing anyone into the family, especially our family if they aren't full blood related." another twin said, and I honestly hated this.
No one in our family was able to tell them apart except for her. She took care of us when we were young and when our father died. She took control of the Mafia until I was old enough to claim my birthright. She did everything for us, and in return we owe her our lives. She's saved our lives so many times, I can't even count any more.
"Well she's still blood, and we always accept blood." Salvestro protested as Sandeo stayed quiet, always the one to stay neutral in an argument even when he is the funniest and stupidest out of all of us.
Well, at least Sandeo had more common sense than the rest of us, even if his brain is the size of a pea and his stomach should be as fat as a pig.
"And all blood members have to be approved by the Head of the family, which is not Salvatore!" one of the twins retorted.
"Yea! Salvatore is only the Don of the Mafia, but the title of the Head of the family will always belong to her!" the other twin added, slinging an arm around his brother.
Honestly, I had no idea how in the world she could identify them. Maybe it was her skill, or her familiarity with them I don't know. It was frustrating, talking to the twins as they fought on everything I told them.
The only time they would bite their tongue is if I'm extremely serious, and everyone knows that they don't want to piss me off when I'm truly angry. Or when we are working and in front of other people. They know the importance of respect and obedience when we are around our subordinates, so when in front of strangers or Mafia members, they are like angels, devils at home and when no one is looking.
The twins didn't know how to express their emotions properly after the incident, and it causes them to push the people that love them the most away. Sure, they would take a bullet for all of us, but they won't express their love for us in any way or form. Just like me.
When Salvestro was about to open his mouth to defend himself, I jumped in.
"The twins are right. We cannot do anything until she either recognizes Amara as blood, or disowns her from the family." I admitted, face hard and with no emotion.
When the twins had smug looks on their faces though, I smirked. "But, that doesn't excuse you two from your behaviour either. Until she knows of the new addition and makes her decision, we are to always treat blood like blood, and what you just did was not."
At my words, they both paled considerably as what I said was true.
Until she knows of the new addition to the family and makes her decision, we were to accept Amara as blood and protect her like we would protect each other until ordered otherwise. Anyways, the chances of her saying no for Amara to join and change her last name to ours is so slim, it was nearly zero.
Furthermore, we weren't going to tell her of this new family addition anytime soon. It will definitely piss her off, but Amara also needs to get comfortable with us before being bombarded by her and her presence. Her presence was scary, and if she was already shaking at the sight of me... Amara wouldn't be able to handle hers.
"We didn't do anything wrong though!" one of the twins protested.
"We never said that we hated her too. We're just not comfortable with her." his twin jumped in.
"You both did and we all know what you two did wrong. I specifically told you to not have your guns with you for the next few days, and you still brought them down here." I said, raising a brow.
"Well, in our defence, with the way you shouted, it sounded like someone broke in." the other twin said, putting his hand up in a surrender position.
Sighing in defeat, I knew that he was right.
"Fine. You're let off for your mistake. When she wakes up, tell her that it was all a misunderstanding. Make up a lie, I don't care what it is, but make it believable." I said, and shooed them out of the kitchen.
"Do you want me to bring her back to her room?" Sandeo asked.
"No. Bring her to the couch. She'll be waking soon." I said, waving my hand dismissively as Sandeo picked up the girl and brought her to the living room.
"So, what happened?" Salvestro asked, sitting down on the chair. "You never explode like that. Never. Something must have triggered you, so tell me what happened."
***
OMG! Thank you guys so much for more than 100 reads and 2 votes when it's only the second chapter! The amount of reads inspired me to write faster, so please do tell me if I made any mistakes. Love you guys and stay safe!
Anyways, how was the Chapter? Not my best work, but it gives you a hint of what's to come right?
~ CRAZY40429 💋
QotC: What would be your dream vacation?
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