I woke up feeling a strong arm wrapped around me, slowly blinking trying to adjust to the light that entered the room. Memories of last night come flooding back, Vincenzo is the polar opposite when he is drunk and honestly, I’m not sure which side of him I prefer.
I try lifting his arm off me so I can slip out of the bed, he starts to groan and flips over to the other side closing my eyes I bit my lip waiting for him to move again. Letting out a quick sigh of relief I slowly get out of the bed and grab my clothes from yesterday.
I feel like I’m doing the walk of shame, slowly opening the door I quickly rush to my room. Smiling to myself as I recall all the memories from last night come flooding back into my head.
‘so, I never lose anyone again’ his voice echoed in my head like a catchy ringtone. I couldn’t help but wonder who he lost and how. My head was throbbing trying to decipher Vincenzo and understand him. Maybe whoever he lost is the reason he is the way he is. The pain you experience losing anyone from your life especially if they hold major significance is a pain that no human should have to endure.
Turning the shower, I start taking off my clothes and enter standing right underneath the water. The hot water trickled at my skin; goosebumps rise as I felt the hot water slowly melt away all my problems. Closing my eyes, I look up letting the water fall all over my face as my mind wandered to that night.
*FLASHBACK*
Smiling at the view of the beach, I felt at peace. Although many fifteen-year-olds do not have as many worries as I do. The beach was a minute walk from home, whenever anything became too much our family would take a walk along the beach as sit without any interruptions.
‘Isabella Vamos’ I looked up and saw Papa’s hand stretched out, smiling I quickly stood up and grabbed his hand as we walked back towards the mansion. A sudden gunshot was heard from afar than suddenly, all that could be heard were gunshots.
My heart dropped as we realised the sound was coming from the home. Papa gave my hand to Mama and warned us not to come. He took the gun he had tucked in his back pants and ran towards the violence.
‘Mama we can’t stay here’ I quickly rushed out she looked at me with a helpless expression as she shook her head. ‘Stay here both of you, I’ll be back’ she quickly ran off after my father as me and Maria anxiously waited for her and papa to return.
After a few minutes, the sound of gunshots began to die down until there was no sound at all. Maria and I exchanged looks of worry before we both took off running towards home. Upon entering the gates Maria let out a horrific scream seeing the dead bodies lying on the floor. Each was covered in their own blood.
Diego our father’s right hand came rushing towards us begging the both of us to calm down and leave with him. The only thing I had on my mind was my parents I couldn’t find their bodies on the floor in front of us. That means they’re still alive. ‘I need to get mama and papa’ I asked tears threatening to fall he looks at me quickly shaking his head. ‘No, Isabella your father wants both of use to be safe let’s go.’
The sound of My father’s screams echoed in the now quiet mansion, getting my arm out of Diego’s grip and run towards the noise. ‘ISABELLA’ both Maria and Diego screamed, but all that was on my mind was my parents.
‘PAPA! MAMA!’ I yelled trying to find them.
‘aquí adentro’ an evil man purred, as I slowly entered the room, I saw my parents on their knees in front of an old-looking man. ‘Isabella get out!’ I shook my head, tears now falling from my eyes as I stood frozen in place.
The man snickered never looking at me as he extended his arm and aimed a gun at my parents’ head. ‘This empire will be mine’ he mumbled. ‘I’ll be nice … any last words?’
My parents both looked at me with a pained expression on their faces ‘Isabella, our sweet girl. Our absence will be strong and warm, and it will hold you. It will teach you how to miss, how to be without and how to survive anyway.’ Papa spoke out as my tears now began flowing out like a waterfall, ‘Cry if you must, then let your grief be taken over by love. Remember the love we had for you and Maria, let it guide you. Let it comfort you and never let it die. We might be leaving you now, but we will always … always be right there. Watching over you, protecting you and watching you become who you were destined to be.’
‘No, because you’re not leaving me’ I cried out.
‘Isabella baby, never forget how much we love you. No matter what well always be by your side, watching over you and your sister. Throughout the rest of your life we will be right behind you. You may not see us but be sure were there, watching you grow, hugging you when you’re sad, kissing the pain away and protecting you for all eternity. Nothing’s changed! The only thing that will be different is we will have wings while we watch over you and Maria … and no matter what we are proud of the both of you.’
‘We love you’
‘NO’ I screamed as he shot both of my parents one by one, the fell to the floor hands intertwined. My breath got caught in my throat as I fell to my knees unable to breath. I look at the floor with a hand on my chest before I focus my eyes back on the sight of my parents ‘NOOOOO’ a high-pitched cry left my lips as I saw the blood slowly surrounding my parents bodies.
The man looked at me before swiftly leaving, I shook my head refusing to believe the sight in front of me as I stood up and ran towards my parents, falling to my knees as I rested my head on their intertwined hands and sobbed.
‘No, please … please’ I softly begged them ‘Wake up … look at me. You promised to never leave … don’t you dare break that promise’ I slowly closed my eyes as I felt my heart completely break and all my cells in my body shut down. ‘please’
*END OF FLASHBACK*
x
I got out of the feeling suffocated as I couldn’t catch my breath. Wrapping a towel around myself, I leaned on the sink as I tried to catch my breath and slow down my heart rate.
Some days, I feel everything at once. Other days, I feel nothing at all. I don’t know what was worse drowning from the waves or dying from thirst. I slowly closed my eyes as I slowly controlled my breathing. I looked back up at myself in the mirror and looked behind me picturing my parents hugging me from behind calming me down.
I walked towards my closet pulling out an outfit. I grabbed my mini leather skirt and my black long-sleeved crop top and threw it on. Deciding to do something different to distract myself I style my hair. Half up and half down, curling the ends and blow-drying the side bangs, before leaving my room.
‘Good morning’ I scream in Lorenzo and Vincenzo’s ears. They both groan as they cover their ears and lean their heads on the kitchen table. ‘I hate both of you for ruining yesterday’ both shot me a warning stare, but I didn’t care, innocently biting an apple I smile as I shrug my shoulders. ‘It was the first civil evening since I’ve been in this jail cell of a home and you both ruined it.’
Lorenzo lifted his head as he looked at me ‘remined me to kill you. Please’ I shook my head “murder is marked for Thursday” I smile as he smashed his head back on his arms then groaning from the pain. ‘Boy you both really need to learn how to handle your liquor’ I stated as I sat next to Vincenzo.
‘On a serious note, how are you guys feeling?’ Maria asked the boys ‘we don’t have enough middle fingers to express how we are feeling’ Vincenzo mutters as he turns to rest his head on my shoulders. Smiling at the sight I message his head a little.
His body slowly starting to relax at my touch, he mumbles something under his breath before getting up and answering his phone. ‘Where’s Ariana?’ I questioned seeing she’s missing from the table, ‘with the dogs’ My eyes went wide with excitement as I grabbed Lorenzo by his shirt and pulled him to me, ‘Dogs?’ he looked at me with both terror and amusement ‘Yes Isabella … dogs’ shaking him by his top I scream ‘WHERE WHY DIDNT I FUCKING KNOW ABOUT THIS’ he points to the door while he covers his mouth with his other hand ‘Oh shit’ I forgot he’s hungover.
I let go of him immediately and dart to the door, ‘Remind me to kill her please’ he mumbles again to Maria as she tries to help him. Vincenzo following behind grabs me by my arm as I’m inches from the dog, ‘They don’t like strangers’ he warns me giving me a cold stare, I eye his expression before deciding to not listen. I inch closer to Ariana as she sits with three Dobermans.
They quickly stand-up alert of my presence as they stare at me, I inch closer extending my hand out ‘Isabella’ I can hear Vincenzo warning me in the background, but I muted him out and kept my hand extended as I patted the dogs, surprisingly they immediately reacted in a friendly matter.
My smile grew so big it was hurting my cheeks as I giggled as I began playing with the dogs, ‘What’s the point of guard dogs if they are not going to guard against strangers’ I shot Vincenzo an ugly stare before turning back to the dogs kissing them ‘they are better judge of character than humans it seems’ I say in a baby voice as I keep playing with the dogs.
I turn around to see Vincenzo staring at me, I turn my head back to the dogs again saying goodbye before getting back up. I wasn’t sure if it was just me, but Vincenzo’s mood did a complete 360 since before, he was so calm yesterday he may have been drunk but even a few seconds ago he was laying down on me. ‘What’s wrong with you?’ he rolls his eyes before going back to the kitchen mumbling that he is fine.
‘Vincenzo?’ My head snaps towards the door as I see a tall, tanned woman at the door, who is this? Her long black hair complementing her tanned complexion while her eyes sparkled in the sunlight. Why is she calling Vincenzo? My head automatically snaps back to Vincenzo my eyes going wide as I bit my lip in annoyance, brushing me off he invites the lady in.
‘Aria, come in what’s wrong?’ she brushes past me completely oblivious to my presence, my eye starts twitching as I shoot my head towards Lorenzo who jumps back slightly and points to maria ‘Coming’. balling my hands into fists I brush past both Vincenzo and Aria and run after Lorenzo.
He turns his head and sees me running towards him and takes off, ‘LORENZO’ picking up speed I rush towards him while he runs towards the door, ‘STOP CHASING ME’
‘GET BACK HERE’ I stop midway as look at the dogs ‘get him’ without any hesitation, they immediately stand up and start chasing Lorenzo ‘Oh that’s cold, the one biting him is his dog’ Ariana says as she sucks in air and wincing at the site.
I calmly walk towards Lorenzo and kneel down, ‘Tell them to get off me… there scary’ I grab his jaw and turn his head to me slowly ‘trust me it’s not the dogs you should be scared of’ I made the dogs leave him as he stood upright ‘who is that’ he looked down at his feet as he played with his fingers ‘I don’t wanna say’ he stated as he looked down like a child being asked who took the last cookie, ‘Lorenzo I’m asking nicely’ he sucked his lips in before shaking his head no. ‘Lorenzo I swear to god my bite hurts more than the dogs’
‘Vincenzo’s ex’ I pushed my head back as my eyebrows raised, ‘I thought he never had an ex’ now Lorenzo was back to looking everywhere but me, as he started talking to the air in hopes id feel pity and let him go. ‘Why is she here, what does she want and so help me god if you tell me she’s part of this mafia ill lose it’
Within two seconds this man runs for his life screaming for help, ‘WERENT YOU HUNGOVER’ I shouted wondering where this energy came from, ‘YOU SCARED IT AWAY BITCH’ he shouted as he quickly ran inside the house.
I walk back into the house and see Vincenzo still talking to Lexi and they looked deep in conversation as she started to brush her fingers along his arm. Smiling to myself thinking this girl has some death wish, I walk up to both of them ‘Hi we haven’t met’ I get in between the both of them, she smiles showing off her perfect white teeth before introducing herself. ‘I’m Aria, um sorry I didn’t catch your name’ snapping back into reality I smile ‘Isabella’ she nods her head slowly as she examines me from head to toe.
‘Isabella, I need to talk to Aria alone I’ll see you in a bit’ He grabs her hand and leads her upstairs. I shake my head looking at their hands. ‘Isabella’ I look over my shoulder and see Vincenzo’s dad, ‘sir’ he ushers me to come forward ‘Tonight we need you to take the code of silence, Omerta’ I tilted my head as I looked at him ‘isn’t that for those apart of or joining the mafia I’m still like a hostage’
‘yes, but you’ve been here longer than I thought so you need to take the code or you can leave the mafia in a body bag.’ this is the first time I’ve ever been threatened by Giovani and it made me feel slightly uneasy.
‘Fine’ he informed me that Maria as well needed to take it seeing that her relationship with Lorenzo grew each day while mine apparently was confusing to him, I let out an airy laugh as I mumbled yea for me too.
Not being able to take it anymore I walked up the stairs and straight for Vincenzo’s office, I open the door and both of their heads shoot straight towards me both looked rather pissed off. I shot Vincenzo an I don’t give a fuck look before walking straight towards them leaning on the desk. ‘Your dad requests your presence boss’ He cocks an eyebrow and forces a smile ‘Aria we can finish this conversation another time’ She rolls her eyes at me before smiling at Vincenzo and walking away.
‘Come on’ is the confusion and anger on my face not registering in his head? Letting out a frustrated groan I grab him by his arm and stop him for leaving. ‘Vincenzo’ I whisper softly looking him the eyes trying to get any sort of emotion from them. He looked down at my hand then back up to me ‘Isabella’ I shook my head begging him with my eyes to tell me what’s wrong. Giovani walks through the doors ‘Son lets go’ without another word Vincenzo looks at me and ushers me with his head to leave. I follow him out of the office as he leads us all to the basement, Maria Me Lorenzo their parents and Ariana all stand.
The family all stand behind Vincenzo as he asks me and Maria to step forward. Being that Vincenzo is now the mob boss he was in complete control of everything. He stood tall and confident as he eyed me and Maria. No expression was being registered on his face as he became completely serious.
‘Isabella and Maria. The both of you have become members of the King family, within any mafia Omertà, the code of silence is a form of loyalty to your boss and the mafia. Omertà is a Southern Italian code of silence and code of honour that places importance on silence in the face of questioning by authorities or outsiders’
‘Today Isabella Knight and Maria Knight will take Omerta the code of silence. This code is extremely serious and if broken is punishable by death, do you accept?’ Maria and I both hesitantly nod our heads as he asks for our hands to be extended. He whips out his knife as he slices both our fingers and places a picture of a saint A catholic alter card and placed them on both mine and Marias hand over and lit it aflame.
‘Tonight, Isabella Knight and Maria Knight you are born again, into a new life and to La Cosa Nostra if you betray your oath, or you violate your oath you are going to burn in hell like the saint is burning in your hand. Do you accept?’
‘Yes,’ we said in unison, as the burning card became ashes in our hands, ‘You are now binded by blood to the Kings. If you go against us and betray the code of silence, you will be killed’
Without another word, Vincenzo walks out of the basement as His father gives us a reassuring nod and follows Vincenzo out. ‘That was different’ Maria mutters nodding my head agreeing with her, I’ve never seen him so serious about something, I’ve always known this code exists, but I never knew this was how it was done.
We all leave the basement as I follow Vincenzo once again but this time to his bedroom, ‘Isabella what do you want?’ he sighs out frustrated, taken back I eye him ‘what’s with you?’ he shakes his head and mutters something under his breath before walking to the terrace. This conversation is not over.
Following him out I stare him dead in the eye ‘what’s with you’ I asked him again he hangs his head low as he leans on the edge of the balcony. ‘You Isabella you’re what’s wrong with me’
once again taken back ‘Me?’ he shakes his head before turning his entire body towards me and yelling ‘IM BECOMING WEAK BECAUSE OF YOU’ before storming out and slamming the door shut.
*FLASHBACK*
‘He wants to overrun it’ the man quickly rushes out in one breath; I bring the gun back to my lap as I press ‘why?’He stays quiet not daring to say another word, something tells me that whatever it is will either anger me or Xavier. Wickedly smiling I stand up ‘ok … since you don’t want to talk how about we play another game’ I place the gun to the side and gesture for Mateo to strap the man down.
He started squirming, letting out an alarmed cry. ‘I love to experiment with different drugs … let’s say I got that side of me from my past.’ I inch closer to him ‘Since you don’t want to talk it wouldn’t hurt to make you lose a few sensations, would it?’ I innocently asked as a sly smile began to overtake my features.
‘Rumours spread Xavier is losing power, he is no longer taken seriously nor feared.’ I looked at him with a confused expression, ‘if these rumours were true Xavier would have been ambushed by now by many rival gangs. How come no one has done anything yet?’
He stays silent ‘oh I love it when you boys try hard to obey your masters’ I insert a needle into his neck slowly, ‘Don’t worry,’ I muttered as I stroked his face ‘it won’t hurt for long. You can feel it, right? Breaking down all your defences?’ I simpered, watching as his eyes widened and tensed within seconds. With his eyes still wide and tense he barely mutters. ‘Because they fear you’ he speaks.
I slapped his face and upon getting no reaction from his glazed gaze, I smiled wickedly. ‘And they should’ I purred.
Xavier bursts inside the room and harshly drags me out by my arm, Mateo went to grab me, but I shook my head warning him to not come. ‘THEY FEAR YOU?!’ He yelled in my face before slapping me, he roughly grabs me by my shoulders and slams me against the wall, eyeing me up and down. ‘IM BECOMING WEAK BECAUSE OF YOU’
‘Oh, believe me that’s one area you don’t need my help with’ I spit back at him, he tightens his grip as he stares me down, I tilt my head watching his expressions change. ‘You were born weak, and you’ll always be weak. The only time you show dominance is when your prey has been strapped to a chair and starved … that’s the only time you can be dominating. You’re pathetic’
I smirked as my eyes lit up with power. I let out a mocking laugh as I push Xavier off me. ‘don’t be sad … kitten’
‘Your life is ending before your very eyes, by a person you tried so desperately to break. Now she’s breaking you’ I spoke in the third person as I flip my hair subtly to the side as I tilt my head and smile watching him cower like a true kitten.
‘What makes you think your life is worth more than mine?’ he asks as he stares at me with a cold glare wanting to kill me but fearing to do so, if I’m gone, he is exposed. Smiling, I let out a short airy laugh before I resume my posture and stare at him with a stone-cold expression ‘what makes you think your life is worth anything at all?’ I retorted.
‘Who the fuck are you?’ he spits, I inch my face close to his, so we are only inches apart and harshly whisper, ‘Who you were meant to be’
*END OF FLASHBACK*
Snapping out of it I let out a frustrated yell and run after Vincenzo and follow him to his office, The guards at the front door went to stand in my way but upon seeing my face they decided to just move aside.
‘BECAUSE OF ME?’ I shout getting up in his face, ‘Isabella get out’ he annoyingly shouts as he rubs his head from stress. ‘No not until you start talking. What happened to you? You did a complete 360 just yester-‘ he cuts me off as he screams ‘Yesterday was the biggest eye-opener for me, you made me soft. I can’t protect everyone if I’m soft. I can’t run a mafia if I’m soft.”
‘I made you soft? I made you a decent human being I reminded you there is more to the world than gun and killing-‘ throwing his hands in the air he matches my tone and volume ‘maybe I don’t want to be a decent human being. Maybe I liked how I was. How stupid are you? I’m fucking holding you hostage and yet here you are.’
I stepped back as I registered what he said, ‘then let me go’ I state as we are both now staring at each other, ‘what?’ I shook my head and yelled ‘LET. ME. GO.’
‘If I’m making you weak, the do it. Let me go, get rid of your weakness. Do it’ I egged him on as I watched his entire body tense with every word that left my mouth. ‘Go on prove it to me, prove to me that you’re as heartless as you say you are.’
‘I may be heartless, but you’re naive.’
I looked at him shaking my head as I felt a tear fall and glide on my cheek. ‘Those heartless people who claim to not need love? You all lie. You want so badly to be loved by someone who cares. But you fell you don’t deserve it or can’t ever be loved. So, you break your own heat before someone else can. I may be naive but at least I’m not in denial.”
‘I have a Mafia and a city to run Isabella. I’m feared by all, and it will stay that way. You distracted me from my role, and I’ll be dammed if allow it. If I’m distracted, they can attack which mean you can get hurt. It’s better this way”
I laughed as I inched closer to him ‘because this doesn’t hurt me?”
