Twisted Fairytale

Chapter 1: Twisted Fairytale

-V I N C E N Z O-
Before

I had been a fool. Hearing what people had said about Aurora was once something I despised. Beauty bored me after a while. For a wife I wanted someone with something more for the taking that what the naked eye could see.

Meaning they didn't have the personality of a goldfish. I knew I wanted more out of this life than what people like me got—at least in the emotional sense. Women didn't like men like us—they loved what they could take from us and what being with us meant for their social status. In exchange, to us, they were just supposed to be arm candy and a human sized flesh light.

I thought that looks alone was not enough for me in a Wife. I was sorely mistaken. I could have taken a handful of daughters of soldati, closed my eyes and picked one at random and still come out with a better looking girl than the one stood in front of me. She could have had the most colourful personalityI would ever encounter but I doubt I could spend the rest of my life looking at her. Not because she was excruciatingly ugly, she wasn't ugly at all. I had been exaggerating from the initial shock. She was Plain Jane at most. But compared to what Aurora should have been, she was a bitter disappointment.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Roman scoffed, "I've seen the girl with my own two eyes and that is not Aurora Cremonesi."

Emiliano laughed callously. "When I spoke to Roberto last year to arrange this marriage I promised him my first born daughter," he stated, "Elizabeth here is my firstborn. She is my daughter, but not Ariana's."

To offer us a bastard was an insult. I had never been the type to care about illegitimate children—everyone had their indiscretions—but in a world that thrives off rules and old traditions it was commonly accepted that a child born out of wedlock deserved nothing. Especially if they were born female, if they were a man they might have had a shot at becoming a low soladata. So if word got out that the future Capo has accepted to take a bastard as a wife, my men would revolt at the lack of respect the Società had for me. Especially because everyone knows that the only girl I should accept from them was unpromised.

Emiliano waved his illegitimate child out of the room. "We'll talk," he told her as she obeyed immediately, quickly shutting the door behind her.

"You lied to us," Roman snapped as soon as the girl was out of earshot.

"Settle down, boy," Emiliano patronised, "if we're speaking technically then I didn't lie. The Borgata was jus too stupid to realise the play on words." He shook his head. "Roberto needs to pay his dues and step down, he's not as sharp as the man I used to know with Cassia by his side." Both Roman and I tensed at the mentioning of our mother. "Still...if rumours are believed to be true than the man has become more sadistic since the passing of his first wife." He had a smug smile on his face as if he thought my feelings were as fragile as a flower. "Evelina talks after a few drinks," he shrugged, answering a question nobody asked.

"Omitting the truth is a lie," I pointed out, completely ignoring everything else he had said. Roman gave me a look but settled back in his seat as comfortably as formality would allow him, and let me take the reigns. "The insult you've greeted us with as a result of your omission is something neither I or the Borgata will stand for. So you either agree to give us what both of us know we came here for, or this means war."

"So what exactly do you want, Salvatore?"

I looked at Roman and knew what I had to say and let the answer leave my mouth before I could have the chance to think about it and second guess myself. The Borgata was my way of life, and I would be the ruler of it one day. I would be the one to set an example to all of my men and that meant sacrifice, even if it would inconvenience me for the rest of my life.