Adelina POV:
By the time we make it back, it is almost 4:30am. The laughter never died down much during the ride but silence now enveloppes us as we contemplate what to do.
Our hair is matted with paint and our clothes are stained. We all look like a mess. The issue is getting back into the house. Valentino and Valerio seem just as clueless as I.
"We could sneek in." Valentino suggests.
Valerio discards the idea "We didn't set it up properly."
"What's the worst that will happen," I butt in "ground us? That's easy shit."
They both exchange glances. It was obviously not the worst they could do, but I wasn't supposed to know that. My heart didn't hold any fear, it hadn't in such a long time. Dating back to when I was getting beaten by Michael, even.
Nobody could take anything else from me and it is a reality I have already faced.
It just means nobody could hurt me more than I was expecting them too and my supposed brothers couldn't hurt me more than I'd already been hurt. So what reason did I have to be afraid?
I hold out my hand "I'm assuming one of you brought keys?" They both exit the car, leaving me to roll my eyes, but follow. I catch up pace with them quickly.
Once at the door they both turn to me.
"That's creepy as hell." I say.
Valentino pouts, "These are our serious faces." I snort at the thought of him trying to be serious.
"Valerio is always serious." I point out, motioning towards Valerio's cold expression. They both dismiss my comment.
"Ok! Listen up buttercup," I cringe in the middle of Valentino's sentence "this is the part where we get in trouble. It's inevitable, it's going to happen. I bet he's sitting in there with a black cat on his lap just waiting for dramatic effect. So what you need to do is make it easier for everyone. By shutting up. No talking from you."
I go to protest but Valerio is faster "Starting now. Shut the fuck up."
"Oh fuck off, I know how to get out of these situations." I go for the door.
Valentino softly grabs my arms, but the sudden motion had me flinching. Something I hadn't done in weeks perhaps. Then again, I haven't been spending the most time with any of them.
It is obviously not something I could control, but I thought I was over it.
Valentino, much to my relief, doesn't acknowledge it as he says "I have no doubt you do. You just don't know them as well as we do yet."
Regaining my confidence, that they failed to notice faltered, I say "You better stop sounding like Angelo before I punch you."
He hastily rips his hand off me with comedic fright. Valerio's smirk gives away that he is amused as he says "I'm going to lie our way out of it. Lay off." and with that unlocks the door.
The house is dark as we walk in and I make it a point to walk in front of the other two. The house is quiet as can be. Darkness lingers at the corners of the rooms we walk past and I could only hope our secret would stay hidden in the walls.
Soft footsteps follow me as I weave me way from room to room. I don't see the threat the twins had warned we will face and I wonder if they've noticed we'd gone at all.
The stairs creak with our weight, almost as if their trying to inform the house of our arrival. My eyes scan the dark area and a flip switches in my head. I begin to tune in to my surroundings.
I hear a faint creak at the top of the stairs accompanied by breathing and I now realize that someone is waiting for us at the top of the steps.
I weigh my options. Either turn around and find a different way or face the consequences. Hushed whispers come from behind me and I know the two are talking out details of the lie. I can't communicate to them what lies ahead fast enough and certainly cannot leave them to get into a mess alone.
My foot reaches the last step and my mask, wiped any emotion, takes over my face. I wait only a few more seconds for the twins to reach me and when they do, a light flickers on.
There, just as I expected, stands Francesco with his arms crossed around his body and a surprised look coating his features once his eyes land on me. He quickly wipes it off his face and turns to the boys behind me.
His expression is knowing and he simply motions to the both of them to get on with what they both know comes next.
Valentino, however, doesn't budge as an easy smile makes way on his lips "Cesco! Just the brother I was looking for. Have I ever told you how well your... uh- eye colour suits you?"
Francesco runs a hand across his lips to stop a smile from forming, "No chance. We have the same eye colour. Downstairs, now."
Valentino, knowing he will not convince him, turns on his heel and starts down the stairs as he mumbles "I knew I liked that eye colour."
I follow the boys as we descend the stairs once again. Somehow, the twists and turns in the house I had become familiar with over the past month and a half are unknown. The house's aura is darker even with the peeking sun in the horizon.
I have a couple more days, that includes a date and a party, before school and the first Saturday after school has started I have to meet my cousins. It being Tuesday morning reminds me to savor my time before the chaos begins.
We arrive at a large dark wooden door seemingly in a moment's instance. A single knock from Francesco had Domenico calling us in within an instant.
A massive desk and tall cabinet were the only wooden pieces of the room. The rest was mostly painted a sleek matte black colour.
Books and liquor was neatly sorted throughout the room and a small safe could be found directly under the desk. Most likely containing a firearm.
I take a few moments before seating myself on one of the large leather chairs directly in front of the most unfeeling brother.
For the first time, I have time to see the details I skimmed over in past interactions. The whole of us shared our light brown coloured hair and he is no exception. His hair is nearly constantly in a gelled back state, expressing his constant need for organisation and tidiness in a subtly way.
His sits poised, exuding an aura of intimidation consistently. My eyes trail down to his hand, finishing the last of the paperwork before him prior to addressing us. Simply another task amongst many. A front-facing portrait of a lion, traced with deep black ink, sits on the top of his right hand as it grips a surely overly expensive pen.
Not a single thing about him is out of place, I realize. A picture perfect lie because I know, know that there must be trunk loads of neatly packed away mayhem within the gates of his mind.
He sets the pen down, perfectly parallelled with the paper, with little noise. Before doing so much as look up he brings his hands together to crack his knuckles, then straightens his spine which provokes another set of pops and finally rolls his neck.
Contrary to the twins, Francesco and myself who have honey brown eyes, his are moss coloured similarly to Angelo and Raffaele. I could decipher next to nothing in those eyes and but a blind man could sense the low level of irritation rolling off him.
He firstly looks at the twins, who are sat on either side of me. Valerio leans into his chair comfortably with his arms resting lazily on the arm rests, looking completely and utterly unbothered and surprisingly Valentino sits practically the same.
When his gaze lands on me, there is no emotion but he spends more time scrutinizing me than the others. Splotches of colour are all over us though it was blantatly obvious that that was not what he was observing.
I feel a poke on my left should and whip my head towards Valentino.
He looks to me with childlike mischief as he says, "He's trying to intimidate you to feed his ego," I nod with complete comprehension, immitating the innocent look he displays "Is it working?"
I tilt my head to look towards the big bad boss, "no," a smile "not at all."
Valerio cuts me a short glare while Francesco moves to the side of the desk telling us something I don't quite catch. I roll my eyes at Valerio's need to remind of what he told me to do but decide to let him make his attempts before I intervene.
Domenico gives a small nod to Francesco and he hesitantly leaves the room, leaving us to the wolf. Doesn't look like anything but a dog to me.
"You three are back awfully late," his deep voice drawls "and more colourful."
I scoff, "Thanks for that captain obvi-"
I don't finish my sentecne as Valentino hisses to me, "Adelina Marie Bianco."
"I don't even have a middle name-" he slaps a hand over my mouth. Valerio lets out an exasperated sigh.
"We went on a drive." Val says.
"Certainly," Domenico drawls "what is it that you were doing on your... escapades."
"The fuck do you think we did, Dom?"
Domenico's eyes turn icy and hard. His glare could cut through glaciers, but not Valerio's temper. His glare turns to me next.
"She wasn't even supposed to be there, she could leave." the hot-head grits. I whip my head towards him, then Valen who merely nodded in agreement.
"The story. Now." Domenico demands. I drag a hand down my face. I'm hesitant to believe what I heard.
They're not trying to get out of trouble. They're trying to get me out of trouble.
"We were bored, woke her up and went for a drive." The interaction is solely between the oldest brother and my most rebellious brother.
Domenico is no stupid man, he is not deceivable and so I'm certain he knows that what Val is describing is not the truth. He knows I had to have had a much larger part in the scheme than they are letting on. Yet, he doesn't acknowledge it.
He turns to Valentino and says, "Her involvement?"
Valentino shrugs at the question "We dragged her into it. She didn't want to go."
Lies Lies Lies.
He finally looks to me, "You're excused. Go back upstairs immediately."
I look to the left, then right and find satisfaction on both their features.
I begin to shake my head hesitantly, my character slowly falling into place as I mumble a small "No."
Domenico's eys snap to mine, but he already knew.
"I-It was my idea," I fake a stutter "It's just that..." I tuck my legs under my chin and trail off.
"I had a moment," I continue "I was up late thinking about Michael a-and I... well I don't know. I guess I needed a change of mind. Blame me, not them."
I lift my head back up to look at Domenico to find his eyes already on me. And I realize that he could see right through me, us, their act and mine. But I don't find disappointement, anger or irritation in his eyes, no. The only thing I find was pride.
The person who knew immediately of my lie looks at me with pride.
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Hi lovelies <3<3
Good to hear from you all again!
This chapter was so extremely hard to finish for no reason,, i truly do not understand what the issue was.
But either way,, here it is!
Did you guys like it?
Favorite part?
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyeddddd.
guys... we're almost at 200k reads... this is insanity.
I love you all, I could never even have pictured this happening.
See you next update (cuz i realized im not very good with consistency)
Bye loveliesssssssss.