6. Arianna
CHAPTER SIX
ARIANNA
“ M om, I promise I’m okay.”
My voice was muffled against her chest as she squeezed me for the millionth time. Dad wasn’t much better, hugging both of us and muttering some stuff in Italian I didn’t even attempt to catch. Francesca wasn’t faring well either. Mrs. Vitale was smothering her between exasperated looks exchanged with my mother.
It was my last year working on my master’s in astrophysics, and I’d decided it was time to branch out. D’Arc was great, but it was built around influential mafia families from all over the world who knew our parents in some way. The subtle feeling of suffocation, of always being watched and monitored as a mafia princess, was hard to escape there.
But at Yale, I was a nobody.
It turned out it wasn’t the smartest move on my part. In hindsight, I should have stuck to online Yale classes at the D’Arc campus.
“Mom—” I tried again, but she wasn’t letting go.
My twin brothers were snickering and rolling their eyes, all their attention on their phones. Probably planning world domination with the rest of their heathen friends. It was an unspoken but known thing with all of them. They believed the menace of their ancestors lived rent-free in their DNA.
After what had happened today, I was starting to see there might be something to it after all.
We were all clustered in the Vitales’ sprawling family room. Francesca and her mother sat on the lounge chair by the grand piano that looked out onto the luxurious terrace. I sat on the couch opposite them, smooshed between my parents, feeling like a ten-year-old.
“I’m unharmed,” Francesca protested when her mom began examining her face and hands as if she would find a scratch if only she checked her over one more time. “Thanks to Arianna, who threw herself in front of me like a martyr.” She gave me a pointed look that I took to mean Save me again, I beg of you .
Mom let out a whimper, her face paling. Dad’s expression darkened, his hand balling into a fist. I was certain we were all thinking the same thing—how I failed my sister Gianna once upon a time. How I hadn’t been so brave then and she endured days of terror alone.
My gaze flitted to where she was seated. My beautiful sister, a mirror image of our mom, never complained, keeping her unfailingly positive attitude. But how could she not hold it against me? I was the reason for that scar on her neck…
“I’m sorry. I fucked up again,” I murmured, wishing I could turn back time. If only it’d been me who’d gotten hurt, not Gianna. “If I had?—”
“It’s time you stop apologizing for things you had no control over,” Dad scolded, his voice achingly gentle. Sometimes I wished he’d yell at me. Hit me. Put the blame where it belonged. But he never did.
“It’s all over,” Mom murmured, kissing his cheek, but I couldn’t help but wonder whether she was talking about today’s shooting or the one from five years ago.
It started so innocently, a few weeks after our twentieth birthday.
Hannah’s dare had been simple: get into a club in West Virginia, outside the realm of Dad’s criminal empire.
I gripped Gianna’s hand in mine, a part of me wishing we’d left her at home. Not because I didn’t want her with us, but because at fourteen, she was way too young to be here. She had an innocence to her that I wanted to preserve for as long as possible. Anyway, I’d bet my life that we wouldn’t be let in.
It was a twenty-one-and-up club. My twin and I hadn’t even achieved that milestone, never mind Gianna.
Yet, whatever Hannah confidently handed the bouncer while shamelessly flirting got all three of us in without a hiccup.
Noise and chatter loomed as we were shoved around. The club brimmed with energy, music, and crowds that didn’t care about personal space.
Hannah walked in front of us, pushing through the throngs of people.
“I don’t know about this,” Gianna said in a high-pitched tone, her long dark hair spilling down her back.
“Yeah, we should leave,” I yelled.
But my sister’s attention was fixated across the room. I followed her unwavering gaze but couldn’t see anything beyond a sea of messy-looking people.
“Hannah,” I repeated, yanking on her ponytail and finally getting her attention. “We should leave. I don’t think there’s a sober person in this club.”
“We look like prostitutes,” Gianna added, which immediately earned her a round of glares. “What? Hannah says whores . I went for a cleaner term.”
I shook my head, glaring at my twin. “Stop teaching her that kind of stuff.”
“She might as well learn it now. No sense in babying her when she hasn’t been a baby for a long time.”
I rolled my eyes. “Nobody is saying she’s a baby, you idiot.”
“Yeah, I’m not a baby.”
“See, Gianna wants to stay. She’s old enough to decide.”
“Those words never left her mouth,” I scoffed, leveling Hannah with a disappointed look. “She shouldn’t be in this club, and neither should we.”
My twin pulled me into a hug, and despite being mad, I returned it.
“We’re leaving, Hannah. Now,” I said in my most stern voice.
“Okay, okay. This place stinks anyhow.”
I smiled and pulled away, sliding my attention away from her to our sister, only… she wasn’t there.
For a moment, I froze, but then I started whipping my head back and forth, looking around.
“Gianna,” I cried, but my voice was drowned out by the drumming music. “Gianna!”
Hannah and I shoved through the masses, calling out our sister’s name. The panic grew with each unanswered call, clawing at my throat.
I ushered Hannah out, the terror on her face mirroring what I felt inside.
“Call Dad,” I breathed, on the verge of hyperventilating. The longer we waited, the harder it would be to find our sister, and we’d already wasted enough time.
“But—”
“Just fucking call Dad,” I screamed, cursing myself for leaving my cell phone behind.
“We’ll be grounded forever.”
“I don’t give a shit,” I yelled, panic swallowing me. “Call. Him. Now.”
She fished out her phone from her back pocket, and the next forty-eight hours were nothing short of a nightmare. Dad and his men came and got us. Dad kept it together, calling in my uncles, his friends, and every single favor under the sun, but Mom… she was falling apart with each passing hour.
The questions on everyone’s minds: Where’s the ransom? Are they asking for a ransom? There has to be a ransom, right?
By day two, Mom was so hysterical she had to be medicated. My brothers tried to keep brave faces, but they were terrified. Hannah tried to hide her fear and uncertainty, but her red-rimmed eyes betrayed her.
And me… I was out of my mind. Why did I let go of her hand? Why did we sneak out? So many why s and I had no answers.
Dad rented a house in West Virginia near the club we attended and ordered us not to move a muscle. But every single hour that ticked by, the urge to go back and retrace our steps gnawed at me.
So finally, no longer willing to sit tight and wait, I snuck out of the house and drove to the parking lot of the club, hoping I’d be able to see more in the light of day.
I parked and practically jumped out of the car when I spotted a man leaning against the doorway, his ruthless yet refined gaze meeting mine. He wore a well-fitting suit, which looked out of place in this West Virginia club, and I couldn’t help but feel like it disguised a savage facade.
Taking in a shuddering breath, I closed the distance between us.
“Excuse me, I’m looking for someone.” His quiet laugh mocked the stupidity of my statement. “My little sister...” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Are you the owner? I need to see video surveillance from two nights ago. It’s… My sister disappeared here, and she’s only fourteen.”
Tears burned in my eyes, thinking about how terrified she must be.
“And you think your daddy didn’t already think to hack into it?”
Something cold shot through me, and my knee-jerk response was to turn around and run. But instead, I remained glued to my spot. He knew something. He knew Dad.
“He would…” I said, watching him as he slipped his hands into his pockets.
“Let me guess, your parents don’t know you’re here.” My silence was answer enough, and he shook his head disapprovingly. “That wasn’t smart. Is it Arianna or Hannah?”
“A-Arianna,” I stuttered, then shoved my fear into a corner to deal with later. “And you are?”
He blew out a breath like I was amusing him. Or maybe I was annoying him?
“Maybe one day you’ll learn, little Arianna,” he said. Angry shouts and screams came from the inside and I swallowed, an unpleasant taste filling my mouth.
My stomach tightened and I stared at the man, realizing I might have made a fatal mistake as I watched a flicker of darkness cross his eyes.
“Get in your car and start it. Keep the doors unlocked until she’s with you. Do not leave the car under any circumstance. Just wait for her.”
Who? I wanted to ask, but as soon as the last word left his lips, he disappeared in the direction of the shouting.
I couldn’t explain why, but I ran back to the car and did exactly what the stranger said. It was only a few minutes before Gianna’s wild hair and pale face burst through the same door, and she ran toward me like the devil was on her heels.
I wanted to jump out and join her, but the man’s warning played on a loop in my mind.
“Come on, come on, come on,” I whispered, my chest twisting as I counted my sister’s steps.
Behind her, men barged out the door, waving their guns and shouting at her.
The car was already in drive when Gianna yanked the door open and threw herself in. I didn’t even wait for it to shut as I pressed on the gas.
“Oh my God, Gianna. Oh my God, are you okay? Are you okay?” I wanted to hug her and inspect her beautiful face, but I was scared to stop or let go of the wheel. She threw herself into my side and hugged me, crying and laughing. She must be delirious , I thought. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, yes… Just get us out of here.”
We were driving down a deserted road, my heart hammering in my chest. The wheel was unstable under my hands, my foot heavy on the accelerator.
“They’re following us,” Gianna cried, spinning back around to face the front windshield. “We won’t make it.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and pushed even harder on the gas. In my periphery, I watched her grip her seat belt like it was the last thing she’d ever do.
I scolded myself for letting my driving practice fall to the backburner.
“I’m scared,” Gianna whispered.
“Me too,” I said, my clammy hands trembling.
A car rammed into the back of my dad’s G-Benz and I heard my little sister’s screams first. Then, all I registered was my body flying as the car flipped.
A long, dark silence followed.
When I finally opened my eyes, the stench of blood was strong and screams rang out as bright red pooled on the ground, forming a canvas painted with sins.
My breaths came in ragged gasps as I crawled across shattered glass. Sticky blood stained every inch of my skin, coating my hands with it.
“Arianna!” Gianna’s panicked voice reached me.
My heart was pounding loudly in my chest, I looked up, searching for my sister, but all I could see was red. Fucking blood everywhere.
What have I done? What have I??—
“Noooo!”
I blinked and shook my head, desperate to clear it. Slowly, Gianna’s distorted form came into view, and I continued crawling through the debris of the wreckage, ignoring the pain.
“Blood… blood…” Every heartbeat felt like a ticking time bomb in the snowy night’s calm. “So much blood… Gianna…”
But the moment my fingers registered the warmth of her skin, everything turned black.
That familiar lump grew in my throat while a buzz ricocheted in my ears. I blinked, my eyes burning with desperation to erase the old and new images that morphed together while they played on repeat in my mind.
Peeling myself away from my parents, I stood up and turned my back to the room, discreetly wiping my eyes.
I paced over the plush oriental rug. I was tempted to leave the room and hide, but I knew that wouldn’t go unnoticed, so I made my way to the corner and slumped onto a loveseat. It didn’t take long for my twin to join me, although she had yet to say a single word to me.
We’d been at the Vitale residence for the past hour and the whole time had pretty much been spent like this—being suffocated by our family and Francesca convincing them I was a hero.
Not even close.
The fact of the matter was that I choked when faced with the barrel of the gun. The fear had paralyzed me, and no amount of my dad’s training could have prepared me for it.
“Why in the fuck would you play the hero, Arianna?” asked my sister, and I briefly wondered if this was the most she’d spoken since we found her waiting in Matteo’s Range Rover. Looking at her now, properly, she was furious. “Did you think of me at all? That I wouldn’t be able to live without you?”
My little sister glared at her and scolded, “Not everything is about you, Hannah.”
Every fiber of Hannah’s being vibrated with rage. Her fists clenched and unclenched, and some twin voodoo must’ve taken over because my chest throbbed with frustration. I found myself mirroring the pain in her eyes.
“I just… I don’t know. Reacted .” I looked away, not able to stand the vulnerability I saw on her features that were so like my own. “I’m sorry.”
My attention darted to Gianna, whose attention was on a nonexistent dot on the wall across from her, that old haunted look in her eyes I’d seen too often after her kidnapping. Today’s events took her back to that day, just as they did me.
“You’re everything to me.” Hannah’s voice shook, but she tried to keep her composure. “We always promised it’s us before the world. Us before anyone else . You and me.”
“And our siblings,” I reminded her sharply, annoyed at her self-centeredness at this moment.
“But not the Vitales.”
I shot her a reprimanding look. “Nobody should stand by and let someone get hurt. No matter who they are.”
“Exactly. Hence my point. I don’t want to see you hurt. Would you want to see me get hurt?”
“No, of course not,” I rasped, remembering all the trouble we’d gotten into together. We were thick as thieves, wreaking havoc on our unsuspecting family. Especially with our expertise to break into any safe and borrow money that we never paid back. It was a little activity we’d started as children when Mom married our dad. “And I know today was scary for you?—”
“Do you?” Hannah’s tone was simmering in accusation as she cut me off. “Because you’re not acting like it. You. Are. My. Other. Half. Putting your life in danger is… You just can’t do that to me, okay?”
“I know it was scary for you, Hannah, but today was even more terrifying for Francesca and me,” I stated firmly, even though my throat burned with emotions. I couldn’t bear not to help Francesca in order to save myself. She was younger than us, and while she was strong, she was too na?ve, too confident everything would work out in the end. I knew better.
“I love you, sis,” she murmured, her own demons staring at me through the identical eyes we shared.
“I love you too,” I added, softening my voice. “Please try to understand and don’t be mad at me for protecting Francesca. Not when I failed so miserably with Gianna.”
Our sister still had the scars to prove it.
“There was nothing that you could have done.” Her voice cracked. “You have to stop blaming yourself.”
“Okay.”
“Besides, it was my fault. It was my idea to go to that nightclub.” I shot her a look, and she rolled her eyes, but her trembling lips didn’t go unnoticed. My twin was an expert at bottling things up. To the outside world, she was an unfeeling bitch, but the truth was that she was the most sensitive one of our siblings. She just hid it behind thick walls and sarcasm.
“And don’t go around playing the freaking hero,” she muttered.
“You would have done the same.”
She shook her head. “I wouldn’t have. Not even for Matteo.”
She believed herself to be selfish, but she wasn’t. She was impulsive, dramatic, a touch wild, but she would never see someone she cared about getting hurt and stand by doing nothing.
“Better not tell him that,” I murmured, flashing her a tired smile and taking her hand in mine.
She smiled back. “Yes, let’s keep that one between us. I don’t want him to be jealous, not that he has anything on you.” She pecked my cheek. “You and I complete each other. Nobody and nothing can take that away from us.”
“Nobody,” I echoed.
Hannah and I might have our problems, but she was my twin. She was the person I knew the best, and the opposite was true too.
“My babies…” Mom came over to us and lowered to her knees, her face drawn and her eyes shining with tears. Gianna joined us too. “I love you all so much, but you sure know how to give us a scare.” Her voice was strained. “How are you feeling, sweetheart?”
Hannah shoved her shoulder into mine. “I’m pretty sure she’s talking to you, sis.”
“I’m fine, really,” I repeated automatically, then closed my eyes for a second, chasing away images and the searing emotions that came along with them. I just wanted—needed—alone time to come to terms with everything that had happened today. All the memories it brought back to the surface.
I also couldn’t help but worry about Matteo and Nikola. They were practically family. We all grew up together, close in age, doing stupid stuff. What if the police arrested them because they killed the gunman? Yes, our families were powerful, and that power reached far and deep, but certain things were impossible to sweep under the rug.
A hand landed on my shoulder and I lifted my eyes to find my dad—the man who had always been there for me—staring at me with his dark eyes that saw and knew too much.
“Luciano and Matteo are on their way back,” he said, and relief slammed through me. “Nikola’s going back to Jean D’Arc.”
“That’s good.” I wetted my lips nervously. “Are he and Nikola in trouble?”
“We’d never allow that to happen,” Dad teased, smiling. “The only time they’ll be in trouble is if they mess with any of my girls.”
I scrunched my nose. “Say that to Nikola and he’ll purposely do it. Probably go after Gianna.”
Gianna made a grimace at my words, but danger clouded Dad’s expression. “He can try, but he won’t live to tell the tale.”
“I’m good with that,” Gianna whispered, ghosts lurking in her eyes. I reached for her hand, squeezing it gently, and her expression instantly lightened. But she couldn’t fool me. She’d perfected her facade, just as Hannah had perfected her own image. That night five years ago had changed us all. Hannah and I took a year off from college, dealing with the consequences of our actions from that night. Gianna delayed entering her undergrad program by a year because Mom and Dad were terrified to let her go.
“You okay?” I mouthed to my baby sister.
She nodded. “Yes, of course. Just a bit shaken up that Daddy will chase away all our prospects.”
Then she tried to turn her feigned glare at him, but her smile ruined it.
“So, Dad, are you ever going to let us get married?” I teased, even as fatigue pulled on me. I was trying to stay upbeat, not wanting to worry my parents.
He smiled. “Only if you want to. Nobody’s forcing my girls to get married.”
Mom shot him a look full of love and mischief. “I don’t seem to recall ever having a choice.”
Dad’s expression softened and he bent his head, pressing a kiss to her nose. “That’s because I was crazy about you, cara mia, and living without you would be like living without oxygen.”
Hannah rolled her eyes. “Geez, get a room, you two.”
I rested my head on her shoulder and sighed. “Be nice.”
“Yeah, be nice, Hannah,” Gianna joined in. “Mom and Dad have true love. Learn from them.”
“Pfft.” Hannah wasn’t having it. “There’s sex and?—”
“Hannah,” Mom scolded her. “Language.”
“Yes, language,” Gianna mimicked, her smile smug.
The moment Mom looked away, Hannah feigned a glare at our baby sister, who promptly scratched her nose with both middle fingers.
Those two would never change, butting heads at every turn. Yet, they were more alike than they realized.
“Dad, can you take me back to my dorm?” I asked, ignoring my sisters. “I’d drive myself, but my Jeep is back at the campus.”
Tense silence stretched, and I braced myself for the words to come. There’d be no more Yale for me, I knew. Still though, I waited for my parents to break the news. It was coming, I was sure of it.
“The Vitales were nice enough to offer to let us stay the night,” Mom said softly, locking eyes with my father. “We can all get some rest before we go anywhere.”
“Yes, that’s for the best,” Dad agreed. “You can’t blame us for wanting to spend extra time with you. Today was…”
“Traumatic,” Mom finished for him. “For all of us.”
“I can have one of my men bring your Jeep?—”
“No,” I cut him off. “It can wait.”
My army-green Jeep was my most prized possession, and I never let anyone drive it.
“But, Mom, the guy is dead. I’ll be fine .” Francesca’s agitated voice pulled all our attention. “This shit happens, and now that lightning struck, we’re good to go back.” Her violet eyes met mine and she let out a frustrated breath, begging me to come to her defense. “Tell her, Arianna.”
I opened my mouth, but my mom’s soft voice cut through.
“Let’s leave it for tonight.” My eyes lowered to my white Chucks, where specks of blood stained the canvas material. My dress too, which I had yet to change out of. “Are you tired, baby?”
My mind had conjured up memories, playing tricks on me and switching images of the two dead girls with Gianna’s and Francesca’s faces. I squeezed my eyes tight, chasing them from my mind.
“Arianna, are you okay?” Dad’s concerned voice yanked me from spiraling. I wiped my expression and plastered a smile on before lifting my head to find everyone’s eyes on me.
“Yep, all good here. But a bed sounds good right about now.”