Mia's life has been the same since her mother passed away three years ago. She avoided her stepfather, skipped school, hung out with friends, and went to cheer practice.
Her life, however, is flipped upside down following her stepfather's death whe...
I had to pivot. I couldn't deal with the sappiness of the situation and how his words didn't align with the character I had already built for him and the rest of his family in my mind. "I appreciate and understand everything you just said," Something flashed in his eyes, it was only for half a second, but it was there. "But I need to redress the friend situation. I know that you think that I need to be punished and that this is the way to do it, but I promise you destroying all the stable-ish relationships I had before this mess will only make me resent you," I left out the 'more than I already do' to spare his feelings, but it was implied. "Take away my phone or whatever, but I need to call at least my best friend everyday for the duration of this punishment, otherwise I'll just leave." I didn't want to argue and I honestly didn't want to leave, but what I said was true. As respectful as I was trying to be, I would not let my life be ruined in the name of discipline, not even by the 'brothers' I have just been reconnected with.
He shook his head and tugged lightly on his hair.
"Do not bring up leaving here, not as a joke or threat or whatever else. We lost you once and that was more than enough. Also, regardless of what the threat was, you do not give me an ultimatum. It's unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Obviously nothing I am saying will sink in so maybe you think I'm bluffing. You will not contact any of your friends from Wisconsin other than your best friend and those conversations will be every other day, in this office, on speaker, with me standing right here." His tone was firm and left no room for argument, but me being me tried to negotiate.
"Once a day, in some living room, with one of you outside the room, not on speaker." My adjustments seemed fair and would still definitely qualify as a punishment.
"I find it amusing that you think you get to choose your punishment. You disrespected me and your brothers multiple times and even in public. There are consequences for those things here and you are experiencing the least of them. You will come here, once every other day, and call your friend on this phone, and I will listen. This will last for one week and after that, so long as I deem that this friend will not be a bad influence, you may contact them on your own on your own phone in private. But not to anyone else and I reserve the right to invade any privacy you think you have if I think something has changed."
"I-" It was all overwhelming but I was trying to be civil. One week isn't too long and you need to pick your battles. "My privacy will be respected unless there are serious concerns about my well being, which there won't be. Other than that, okay. Also, know that I will not give in so easily in the future, but I am trying to follow your advice so don't take this as your final and ultimate victory."
"Very well, but do not take this as your only defeat." I smirked at his challenge. "Onto other matters, you are starting school on monday and since you already have your supplies, you know the rules, and have your uniform on the way here, the only other thing we need to talk about in regards to it is this." He pulled out a velvet box containing an obnoxious necklace. "You will wear this necklace at all times. You will not play with it or in any way try to cover it and if I see you doing so you will immediately be harshly disciplined. The only reason you were able to go to the mall without this was because you were with Giovanni and Stefano, both of whom were wearing their rings the entire time, which we all have." When I looked down I saw that he was in-fact wearing a ring with the same ridiculous crest that was on my necklace, I guess I never noticed them nice they blended in with all the other gaudy rings they wore.
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It was ugly, like objectively disgusting, and there was no way in hell that I would be caught dead trying to make friends with that thing around my neck. No one would know, I'd take it off as I walked into school and put it on as I left, no one would notice. I wasn't going to wear it, but that didn't make me any less curious to know why they wanted me to.
"Sure whatever, but you have to tell me why I should have to wear that ugly ass thing becuase otherwise there's no fucking way." I was starting to get used to the fact that his eyes would twitch whenever I said literally anything.
"You will not call your friend tonight or tomorrow and unless you want that to be the situation all week I suggest you sit down and learn that you will never use profanities in this household. And you will wear this necklace because it is important that people know who you are and know how to act around you."
"What does that even mean? Why would people know your little family crest or even if they did, why would they care about it?"
"Our crest will let people know who you belong to-" Am I a dog or a fucking t-shirt this guy really needs to decide. "And once they know that, they will understand that you are protected by us so they will not mess with you. Our family is well known and everyone- including your peers and teachers- will know better than to go against us. I am telling you this so that you know why, when you go to school, people will treat you differently. Our family's status affects how we are treated and although there will be a period for adjustment and you may want to just blend in, you will always stick out when people know you are a Caputo, and I will make sure everyone knows you're a Caputo."
"My last name is Williams an-"
"No. No it is not. It has never has and will never be Williams and if I hear you disrespecting yourself and this family by calling yourself anything else you will not like the consequences." I was quickly learning Leonardo had a couple of favorite phrases, this being one of them. "Your life was not what it should have been and that is unfortunate, but you need to accept the things changing in your life. The staff will return monday and you will then have a better understanding of the fact that we are not a normal family. I have been doing everything to make this transition as easy as possible, but I cannot continue to pretend that your life will not be different from your old one and most other's."
"Sure, the speech was a bit much, but I've been lied to my whole life and should just get over that and accept that I am not Mia Williams, I am Amalia Caputo. Whatever. But I don't have to like it. I don't want everything to change or to be treated like some princess!" I may have been containing my cursing but a bit of a tone was starting to slip through.
"Enough, there will be no further discussion on the necklace or name topics. You are Amalia Caputo, a princess in more ways than you think, and everyone will know that and everyone will treat you differently. These are facts I expect you to accept. I am sorry that being born who you were is inconvenient, but sometimes life isn't fair." He ran his hand through his hair before continuing, "Tomorrow we will go to mass and then to see a nutritionist, get a DNA test, and a cheer coach for my evaluation. Understood?" Neither his tone nor his facial expression had changed since the beginning of the conversation, but I was quickly getting used to it.
I sighed, exhausted by our lengthy conversation."Yeah, I mean I don't love the second thing but I'll do it all without issue if that's what you're asking."
"Thank you for cooperating. Also, before you go, I need your phone so that I can hold onto it and get you a new one." He paused long enough for me to sigh and fish it out of my waistband because the pockets were too small. "Unlock this please." He held it up and I did as I was told like the obedient little dog-shirt hybrid I was. He scrolled for a bit before his face got hard. "You will not have any social media. Someone your age shouldn't have them anyway, but if it brings you any comfort the boys did not have it until they were 18 either."
"What if I didn't post and just looked at what other people did."
"I already addressed that you are not to negotiate, I make the decisions here. You will have accounts made on netflix and other streaming services, but besides that everything will be blocked on this phone and I will need to approve whatever you want to do. If you want to see something on youtube or whatnot I or any of your brothers will be willing to monitor you as you use our phones to do whatever you need to do." I'll get my own stupid phone to do everything that's blocked so I didn't really care. Considering all the money they leave around, my 'brothers' wouldn't notice if one or two hundred went missing to buy me a used phone.
"Okay. Can I go now?"
"Yes, and your room should be done."
I nodded, grabbed the necklace still on his desk, and began my journey to follow my non-existent internal compass around their estate until I hopefully end up in my room.
