Adelina

Chapter 21

I stay sitting after she leaves, still staring at my office door in shock. Adelina. My Adelina. My anger gets the best of me after thinking over our conversation, which then makes me throw my empty drinking glass at the wall, quickly followed by two others. The sound of the glass shattering must have alerted my sons because they are all now standing in the doorway, staring at me in shock whilst taking in the mess.

All of their confused eyes look around for her but deflate when realising she must have left. Marco cautiously steps further in and starts to clean up the broken glass after sending me a reassuring smile, "Father, what happened?"

The others sit on the vacant chairs around the room as I send Marco a thankful smile for cleaning up my mess before he also takes a seat, "Apologies for the mess ragazzi, (boys) I just had an eye opening conversation with your sister and my anger got the best of me. Thank you for cleaning it up son." I send an appreciative nod to my second oldest, which he returns before someone else speaks up.

"What did she say?" Giovanni asks solemnly as he has missed another opportunity to get to talk to his sister again, I smile reassuringly towards him as the time will come soon "She informed me that there are many more auctioning rings and we are all invited along when she goes to demolish them." Marco's dark eyebrows raise in shock at my words, "Is it a regular thing she does?"

The others shrug from not really knowing what she does but I speak some of my thoughts, "I do think that it is a regular thing she does and has gained many more allies that are also against the trafficking rings, she is rising to the top quickly."

"Do you think she is with the Germans?" the room silences at Giovanni's question as we all consider the possibility because they were the ones who took her away all those years ago, "There's a chance she is because we do not know if she ever got away from them on her own." he continues with his train of thoughts out loud and we all listen attentively because there is a chance they recruited her when she came of age. "We could just ask her and if she isn't, then maybe she will tell us if she knows anything about their recent movements, they have just come back after so many years underground so there must be a reason."

Adriano's comment brings all of our attention to his slouched figure and he carries on when he notices our confused stares.

"Why choose now to re-enter the mafia world? After so many years of hiding away and staying off everyone's radar, there is a reason and if we ask Adelina, maybe she can give us some information on their plans." I nod and we all agree on arranging a meeting with her soon.

The sound of my personal phone ringing interrupts our conversation and I slightly panic when reading that the caller is my father, who is on his way here with some of the extended family after Marco accidentally told him that we have recently found his granddaughter and now he will not stop relentlessly calling.

I look towards my sons in panic and whisper shout "It's grandpa!" all of their eyes widen as the phone continues to ring loudly in the now quiet office, "You need to answer it then, he will keep calling otherwise." Adriano not so generously offers, making my eyes narrow on his unbothered behaviour and humoured smirk, but we all sigh in relief when the ringing stops and my shoulders finally relax.

Marco opens his mouth to speak but the phone ringing again interrupts him, making his eyes widen in alarm when I tell them it's the same caller, "Merda!"

I reluctantly answer the phone and hear my fathers impatient voice immediately "Idiota. Finalmente rispondi al tuo telefono ora figliolo?" (finally answering your phone now son?) I shake my head at his volume and continue to listen to him curse angrily in his home language whilst nodding my head along with his comments and also watching my sons find amusement in this regular occurrence.

"Father, what is it that you need?" he sighs before releasing a loud exhale, "Figlio, I have heard that you found my granddaughter so why was I not informed?" My eyes narrow on my second oldest before responding, "It didn't go as we planned so there was no need to tell you yet, she is not the same girl as she used to be and it is very difficult to get her on her own."

He sighs in irritation as he asks "How has she changed?" I rub my temples softly before answering "She is just different, there is a cold exterior about her now and she does not like to talk much, she also has the known Russo anger in her though." I watch as Giovanni nods in agreement at my comment as he has kind of already witnessed it first hand at the restaurant.

"I want to see her soon, we are all coming to your residence in Italy so be there soon and try to get a meeting with her. I miss her." he suddenly cuts the call in anger and it is understandable because he was one of the closest to her when she was younger. She used to be his little shadow.

Adriano addresses me after knowing the call has ended, "Lorenzo is on his way and should be here by tonight." We all nod at his comment as he goes back to silently messaging on his phone before Giovanni knowingly asks about the phone call, "He wants to see her soon and he is not very pleased that we kept her from him." he nods slowly, "They are creepily similar, she did remind me of him at the restaurant. I would like to see how their reuniting goes."

Adriano slowly nods in agreement, "I think so too, sometimes she is exactly like him and they think really similar. I have watched her handle some situations how he does and she could literally be the carbon copy of him and father."

His comment makes me smile happily at the thought of her being like me as I have always wanted a mini me as my sons mostly took after their mother in looks, so my only daughter taking after me and my father in most things makes me immensely happy.

Marco interrupts my thoughts as he speaks whilst looking at the screen of his phone, "Santiago is here and has Adelina's address." We all stand and exit my office, already knowing our next move regarding our piccolo guerriero.

I approach Santiago and retrieve the small piece of paper from him with a nod of gratitude and then read the address before pocketing the information. I address everyone present "We will all be going as soon as Lorenzo arrives, so get ready."