Chapter 43 #3
"HEY!" AJ shouted, pulling the pillow away. "INJURED PERSON!" Dantae giggled and immediately ducked behind the couch.
Then Michel accidentally swung too hard and smacked Leo directly in the head, causing the entire room to go silent. Leo slowly blinked, turned his head toward Michel, and without saying a word, reached down and picked up a pillow.
Michel's smile disappeared. Leo stared at him. "...You have chosen violence." Michel's eyes widened. "Oh, shit."
The room exploded. Even Rafaele got dragged into it, laughing breathlessly as Marcio softly tackled him sideways with a pillow. "Get him!"
"Why me?!" Raf shouted between laughs.
"Because you're closest!" Marcio yelled in his face. Damien tried to swing from the couch, only to nearly tip himself over because of his casted leg. "DISABLED PLAYER! FOUL!"
Kalani smacked him with a pillow anyway. "I don't see a ref!"
"KAIA!" Damien yelled loudly, while trying not to move his leg too much.
AJ finally fell back against the cushions, laughing despite the way he winced and held his side. "Okay, okay! Ceasefire before someone reopens a wound and Mom murders us."
Everyone froze. Pillows hung in midair. Michel slowly lowered his, followed by Kaia lowering hers, while Marcio looked around the room and finally muttered, "...Fair."
One by one, everyone dropped wherever they were, onto the couches, the floor, against the furniture, or leaning against each other.
For a few moments, nobody said anything. They were all breathless, smiling, laughing quietly.
Rafaele looked around at all of them, taking in the scattered pillows, exhausted faces, and the ridiculous mess they'd made of the living room.
"We're really okay, huh?"
Leo exhaled through his nose, glancing around the room before giving a small nod. "Yeah."
AJ nodded from his spot on the couch, carefully shifting his aching side. "For once..." He looked around at everyone, a small smile tugging at his lips. "Yeah."
Dantae suddenly popped his head up from behind the couch. "So, like... are we allowed outside now, or are snipers still a thing?"
Michel shook his head seriously. "Outside is open for business."
"YES!" Dantae launched himself off the couch and sprinted toward the back doors.
"Slow down!" Alessandra yelled after him, laughing. Cata and Callie immediately scrambled after him, already arguing about who got the pink scooter first.
"The princesses have fled the castle," Marcio announced dramatically, watching them disappear through the doors.
"Long may they reign," Damien added solemnly.
Alessandra smiled as she watched everyone slowly start getting up. AJ leaned back against the couch, his eyes drifting toward the kitchen where the adults were still talking.
"They'll figure their stuff out," he said quietly. Alessandra nodded. "They always do." Leo glanced toward the hallway, toward the back door where his father had disappeared earlier. "...Yeah." He looked around at his family before adding quietly, "And so will we."
A.J. Pov~
The next few days were weirdly... normal. No gunfire, no screaming, no secret emergency meetings in locked rooms. Just us. Sleeping in, stealing each other's food, arguing over dumb stuff like who left wet towels on the bathroom floor.
I didn't realize how loud our family actually was until the danger stopped. Turns out chaos was kind of our default setting.
Dad had been buried in work again, locking himself in the office with Uncle Matteo and Uncle Gio for hours at a time. But he came out more. Ate dinner with us. Sat with Mom on the patio at night.
And Clara...she'd been around, but not around. Like a ghost that had decided to stay visible. She kept to the edges, talking mostly to Dad and sometimes Uncle Gio. The adults were careful with her. Respectful. Still cautious.
Uncle Gabriel, on the other hand, acted like she'd just come back from a long vacation and not years of everyone wondering if she was dead or alive.
"Anybody want dessert?" he'd ask with such lightheartedness too him something we all needed around us.
Honestly, I liked him. He was lighter than the rest of us. But nothing lasts forever. We were leaving today. New York. Home.
Everyone was outside in the driveway, bags loaded into SUVs, hugs happening in waves. The sun was bright, birds chirping like we weren't a family of organized crime leaders and emotional disasters.
Ano V had Cata and Callie wrapped around her legs like little koalas. "You visit soon, sì?" she kept saying. "We will!" Cata promised. Callie just nodded seriously, like she was signing a business contract.
Gabriel hugged Mom first, then Dad, then somehow ended up in a group hug with half of us kids because Dantae decided that was happening. "You better not get in trouble without me," he told us.
"No promises," Marcio said.
Then there was Clara. She stood a little off to the side at first, hands tucked into her jacket pockets, like she still wasn't sure where she fit.
Alessandra walked up to her first. Of course she did.
She hugged Clara like she'd known her forever.
"Thank you," she said softly. Clara blinked, like she wasn't used to hearing those words.
"For what?" "For everything." Clara didn't answer.
She just gave this small nod, like if she tried to speak, something might break.
Leo stepped up next, giving her a firm handshake that slowly turned into a one-armed hug, followed by Antonio, who came in shy but determined, and even Damien gave her a chin nod that practically screamed respect earned.
When it was my turn, I hesitated, and she looked at me like she expected attitude. “Don’t go disappearing again,” I said, and one corner of her mouth lifted as she replied, “No promises, kid.” “Yeah, well... try.” She reached out and squeezed my shoulder.
Dad and Uncle Gio were the last ones with her. Their conversation was quieter. Longer. Whatever was said stayed between them.
Finally, Dad clapped his hands once and said, “Alright. Let’s move.” We all piled into the cars, too many legs, too many voices, and someone already complaining about snacks...then as the gate opened and we started rolling down the long driveway, I looked back.
Gabriel had his arm around Clara’s shoulders, Ano V was waving like we were heading off to summer camp instead of back into Mafia life, and the estate slowly got smaller behind us.
Alessandra leaned her head against the window beside me and said "Feels weird leaving.
" and I agreed, saying it was, but in a good way. I watched the road ahead as the familiar chaos of my family slowly settled into the cars around us, and for once there wasn’t an enemy waiting around the corner, no mystery, no emergency, no one we needed to save, just home.
Adriano Pov~
Home.
New York air felt different, not necessarily lighter or safer, just…
familiar. As the gates to the estate rolled open slowly, iron bars sliding back like the city itself was welcoming us home, while the tires crunched over the gravel driveway and the engines cut off one by one as the convoy settled into place.
I didn't get out right away. I sat there for a moment, hands still resting on the wheel, eyes scanning the grounds out of instinct, guards posted, cameras in place, perimeter clear, only then did I open the door. Before I could even straighten up, the back SUV doors flew open and chaos spilled out.
"LAST ONE INSIDE HAS TO DO ALL MY HOMEWORK I NEVER DID!" Michel shouted, sprinting toward the house.
"There are like thirty of us! That doesn't even make sense!" Kalani yelled, chasing after him.
Dantae tried to keep up, tripped over the driveway stones, and somehow popped right back up like nothing had happened.
Marcio caught up to him, helping him steady himself while shaking his head. "You run like a baby giraffe."
"I DO NOT!" He yelled back in offense. "You absolutely do." Marcio said with a smirk. Dantae stuck his tongue out at him before taking off again.
I watched them disappear toward the house, a corner of my mouth lifting despite myself.
Still loud, still wild, still mine. Gianna stepped up beside me, sliding her hand into mine, her thumb brushing gently over my knuckles, grounding me in a way no one else ever could.
I looked toward the estate, the familiar walls, the familiar chaos.
The people who had spent the last few days fighting, worrying, laughing, crying, and somehow making it through another storm together.
"Home," Gianna said softly. I squeezed her hand once.
"Yes." I looked down at her, allowing myself a small smile. "Home."
Inside the Estate~
The front doors opened, and it was like releasing a pack of wolves into a mansion. Shoes kicked off. Bags dropped. Voices echoed through the halls. "I CALL THE BIG SHOWER!" Michel yelled from the staircase. "You don't even need the big shower!" Kaia shot back.
I exhaled slowly, rubbing the back of my neck as we walked in at a normal pace, Gianna at my side, Matteo and Gio following behind us.
The kids thundered up the staircase two steps at a time, completely ignoring the fact that half of them were still bruised, stitched, or nursing some kind of injury.
I watched them disappear around the corner before shaking my head.
They were home. That was what mattered. Raf passed me on the way upstairs, slower than the rest, and I caught his shoulder briefly.
“Easy.” He glanced back at me. “Yeah, yeah.” He tried to wave me off, but I knew my nephew well enough to see through it, he was trying to act tougher than he felt.
I didn't call him out on it, because sometimes pride heals faster than medicine.
Giovanni came up beside me and clapped a hand against my shoulder, saying, "They bounce back fast." I glanced toward the staircase where the kids had disappeared and replied, "They're trained to.
" The words came out sharper than I intended.