-"Blood doesn't make a family."-
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Starr bagged the bloodied shards of the crystal vase with one of the black dead roses. Along with the note they found in the casket. She put it all in a box that would be labeled as evidence with all they had to go on to find the King.
The triplets and Katrina told everything they remembered from their childhood that involved Aria as everyone around them listened intently.
Before they knew their parents as 'birth-giver' and 'sperm-donor', but Katrina said their actual names were Vera Karlsson and Hugo Karlsson. But the triplets said that the alternative names were better.
"When Elias, Felix, and Milo were born, Vera and Hugo didn't care enough to actually take care of them when they had a six-year-old daughter that could do it for them. Sick bastards put all chores on her. From taking care of the babies and being the person they sent to get their drugs. No six-year-old should go through what she did
I helped all I could but I was only six too. And I also had my own difficulties with my foster homes. We were brought up in the same part of town and it wasn't a very good one. All the people who lived there were living in poverty.
I snuck in whenever I could to help when Vera and Hugo were out doing god knows what. The time came when both of us needed to go to school and we had no one to take care of the triplets. We entrusted a nice old lady that lived a few blocks away in the better part of town. She loved kids since she could never have ones of her own. We never told her about our situation and she never asked.
When we got into high school, the old lady died and we were all our own. But good thing they were old enough to go to school and it was better. As Aria got older, Vera and Hogo became more dependent on her. She had to do all the shopping for food and clothes with what little money she could muster up from her jobs. Eventually, it got to where Vera and Hugo got into debt from gambling and she had to pick up extra shifts and jobs.
She worked hard in school though. It was like her sanctuary where she could take a breather but school stress took a lot from her too. The Columbia scholarship took major stress off of her.
But then her grandmother died and you know how that went," Katrina explained.
Luca looked away, holding the diamond ring that was attached to his chain. As her words sunk in, he found it harder and harder to breathe. Katrina nodded to the triplets, silently telling them to tell what they remembered.
Everyone listened with sympathetic looks on their faces, some with tears welling up. They were in pure astonishment at how anyone could go through what she did.
"From what we could remember, Aria raised us. She taught us all we needed to know. Manners and all that, it was all her.
When we needed help with school, she was the one to help us. When we were hungry she was the one to scrape food off of her plate and give it to us with a smile. When we were cold, she was the one to pay the heating bills. When we got scared of Vera and Hugo's tempers and habits, she was the one to reassure us and tell us everything was going to be okay. She was the one who comforted us after a storm or a nightmare or when a shooting was going on in our neighborhood. She was the one who showed up to the parent-teacher conferences.
She and Kat were the only parental figure we had growing up," Milo spoke.
"And It wasn't just her chores and her responsibilities that took her energy. It was the abuse too. But she never let Vera and Hugo touch us no matter how much we told her that we could take it. She would lock the door to our bedroom when she knew that they would hurt her and attempt to hurt us.
She never let us see what she went through when they hurt her.
All we could do was huddle in the corner and listen to her scream and cry from behind that door. And when it was over, we could hear her crawl or limp to the door and tell us to close our eyes so we wouldn't have to look at the blood.
Then she would come in and hug us, no matter how much she tried to conceal her cries and sobs and pain, we always knew. The more we grew up the more hesitant we were to hid behind the door and close our eyes. All we wanted to make the pain stop for her no matter how much we got hurt. But she would never let us," Felix sighed.
By now, most had tears rolling down their faces but they didn't need their pity.
No one could doubt that Aria was better of a sister and sibling that anyone could ever think of and wish for. She was even braver and stronger than anyone they knew of.
How did she act like everything was okay when Luca would ask? How was she so strong? His chest hurt for her. If he was there, if he even knew she existed back then, then he would have done everything to make it better. He would've kept her safe.
"What did she look like?" Antonio asked.
Katrina smiled a small smile, almost as if she was reminiscing.
"She had this unique platinum blonde hair. Her grandmother had albinism with white hair and purple eyes. That's where she must've gotten it from but she had eyes just like the triplets...but brighter. She had flawless fair skin that was slightly tanned and she was about 5'6 the last time I saw her. She was just...gorgeous..." Katrina praised as if she was talking about some saint or angel she had seen in a dream.
5'6? Platinum blonde? Honey eyes?
Luca's face contorted to one of hard concentration.
Wait, was Aria even Midnight? Yes, all hints pointed to that conclusion but the description didn't match.
His woman was 5'8. Brunette. Black eyes.
The woman they were describing seemed like an angel but his woman was more like a devil.
It was hard to imagine Midnight with platinum blonde hair and honey eyes. Had she dyed her hair and worn contacts all this time? He sat unmovingly and in deep thought, imagining what his Diavola would look like with that description.
She looked beautiful either way.
~
2 days later
A few days after they had went into Midnight's office, they got another threat in the arena.
All over the walls of the arena, were words written in red.
Red blood.
The words read: The King's reign is over.
And it wasn't just written once.
No, it was written thousands of times, all over the walls and floors so that every inch was covered in the bloody words.
Luca, Oscar, Antonio, Katrina, Matteo, Thea, Starr, Ida, and Blade almost blew a fuse when no one had security footage and no one had seen who had done it and had gotten away so easily. They quadrupled security and camera, surely leaving no stone unturned as they personally investigated everything for some sort of clue to tell them who it was. Along with those precautions, they didn't allow any new members into the Mafia.
They knew that the traffickers had to have inflitrated the Mafia from the beginning.
It was just to risky and time-consuming to interrogate all of them. They didn't have time.
The King didn't have time.
They realized that the King owned the whole black market, and the whole organization betrayed him, leaving most of his resources and assets to be washed down the drain.
The King was weaker -not by much- from the betrayl and loss of power.
They were dead in the water and had no idea if this was the end or not.
Luca had gotten progressively more frustrated as time went on as the others lost motivation and were close to giving up. He hadn't figured out a way to tell them what he knew -of what he was sure of.
No, he needed more time. He needed more evidence and he needed everyone to believe him. He needed her location.
He had a gut feeling that this was the calm before a storm.
A storm that would evolve into a hurricane.
Adrian had fallen off the map the moment they got back into the states, putting him off the list of interrogation.
They didn't have anyone left.
Except Dr. Salib...