Sofia's Secret Mafia Brothers

40. Enemies

Everyone stiffened as she was going on with her speech.

"How did you find out about this?" Francesco was, to put it mildly, not very happy at the moment.

Alessandro's expression was no better.

"She met with Rosa this weekend" Alessandro responded for her. He was sharp and immediately connected the dots.

This is when Sofia realized that the only reason why she managed to hide it was because of the lengthy and serious conversation she had with Alessandro on Saturday night.

"I thought you said she met with the homeless guy" Francesco wanted it clarified.

It's going to be hard to get away with anything with them. Sofia said watching her older brother who decided to thoroughly investigate the case.

"That too" Alessandro confirmed flatly.

"Great" Francesco responded sarcastically, "We should just ban her from leaving the house at this point," he said with resignation, shaking his head.

"Hey!" Sofia said, almost offended.

"Don't hey me, brat" Francesco warned strictly. Sofia was sometimes forgetting that he had two sides. The strict one and gentle one. He reminded her a bit of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It was just never clear which side of Francesco will show up when.

"Sorry" Sofia apologized quickly, wanting the gentle side of Francesco's back.

"Yes, you are related to Denaros," Alessandro said calmly and pinned Valentino with his cold glare. Sofia shuddered when this gaze now rested on her. "What have you planned to do with this information?"

"I don't know, maybe talk with Alessio and find out what he's like?" She started shyly." Why are you looking at me like that?" Sofia asked, seeing her brothers' sour expressions.

"We're at a ceasefire with Denaros right now, that will not last forever. You need to choose to which family you want to belong to, and you can only pick one" Alessandro explained calmly, but there was unnamed emotion in his eyes.

"What? Why? I don't want to choose" Sofia didn't understand why Alessandro was saying things like that.

"If Denaros find out about you, they will try to take you away from us. They're not willing to share, neither are we. It's just how things work around here" Francesco explained.

"But they will eventually find out about me, right? The moment when the news about my relation to Valentino comes out" Sofia pointed out.

"That's true, however it's not the same as you approaching Alessio. That would invite future interactions" Francesco said.

Seeing that Sofia doesn't understand what he's trying to say Alessandro sighed and started anew. "You know, let's take for example a city like Palermo. It has only one crime family that controls all families in that area. But here in Catania, it's different. Because of the strategic position of the region, two major families control the area: our family, and Denaro family. Denaro's want to annihilate our family. Not that we are saints because we want exactly the same thing - we want them gone"

Okay, that sounded really, really dark, and she didn't like it.

"I know it may sound stupid, but why can't you just get along?" Sofia asked, risking she will completely embarrass herself.

"You need to understand that Denaro's presence restricts our movement, just like we restrict theirs. And of course, it doesn't mean we have to fight and can't accept these restrictions, but people always want more power. The brawl between our families became even more serious because of the generation before us. Mother's affair with Denaro's senior ruined any chance for peace talks. We just took over the mess and all the hurt that comes with it. Good people died because of this fight and no family is willing to forgive another for that" Alessandro said.

"Our father was a difficult man, so his loss was different to us, but no one ever said anything bad about Marco Denaro, he was a good man. His loss has shaken his sons to the core" Francesco added.

Just like that, Sofia learned that her father is dead. It was quite anti-climactic, to be honest. At the moment she was so absorbed by the amount of new information that she couldn't even focus on that.

"But you didn't do anything, right? It was your father's who were fighting" Sofia said. If Marco Denaro and Giorgio Ianniello were fighting over a woman, why their sons can't just get past this?

"Things don't work like that here. Father was a leader of our family, so it's our family that's responsible. That's why your actions can influence our family heavily. For your wrongdoings' family takes the blame" Alessandro explained.

Sofia suddenly felt the burden of responsibility. It sounded like here things were seen from a more collectivistic perspective. Her choices would affect her family's reputation. It's unfortunate that she was a lame person who would let other people bully her.

"But how can you be sure they care enough to fight with you over me?" Sofia asked with her brows furrowed.

"We're not sure. We just don't want to tempt fate" Alessandro said.

She didn't want to tempt fate, either. She had enough drama in her life, no need for more.

"I will stay away from Alessio," she promised with full determination, "Please just let me stay here"

"There's nothing to let, this is your house," Alessandro said calmly.

"But what would you do if I said that I want to live with Denaros instead?" Sofia asked curiously.

"Isn't it obvious? We would have to lock you up in the house and throw away the key" Valentino said in a mocking voice, but his eyes were serious.

Somehow, she wasn't mad at him. Warmth spread over her chest when she realized that her brothers want her in their house. She's not just a chore, a responsibility. They really seem to care about her.

"You should go to sleep Fia, I scheduled you a meeting with a psychiatrist for tomorrow "

Even her happiness couldn't last long. Shit. She really didn't want to go.