𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐟𝐢𝐚 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 ✍︎

23| 𝙿𝚕𝚊𝚗

Ayla/Dove's POV
Age: 10
Location: Ricci's Mansion, New York

"The winner is..."

"Daniel!"

"YES!" Daniel yells excitedly. He sticks his tongue out at Tristan and Lorenzo before running over to my father to collect his winnings.

"You can never go wrong with space buns," he gloats as he shoves the $50 bill into his pocket.

"Space buns are always a win," my mother agrees with a smile. "And they make her look so cute!"

I resist the urge to roll my eyes when everyone nods in agreement.

The amount of affection they're showing me is overwhelming. Never in my life have I received this much positive attention. And never in my life have I trusted people so quickly.

I've only been with my family for two and a half days and I'm already getting clingy.

To be fair though, it's hard not to get clingy to the people you have been longing for your whole life.

My father's phone rings suddenly, taking the attention off me.

His happy face immediately hardens into one of anger. Out of instinct, I slowly take a step back. This goes unnoticed by the others in the room as they watch my father carefully.

"Sei sicuro?" He asks.
(Translation Italian: are you sure?)

No one says anything as the other person on the phone speaks. I can't hear what that person is saying, but judging by my father's face, he doesn't like it.

Finally, the other person hangs up.

My father ignores everyone's curious stares, and looks straight at Alex.

"They found Alessandro."

-----

That one sentence caused chaos to errupt in the dining room. But a few stern words from my parents settled everyone down...for two seconds.

Everyone is now running around the house like headless chickens while I hide in my room, away from all the commotion.

Through the bits and pieces I've been hearing through my bedroom door, Ella and Donna are being called back.

It's kind of funny to see everyone nervous around Donna. Everyone thinks that she's some scary lady with lots of power, and they're not wrong. But she's also super soft and cuddly. And she's a major sucker for my puppy eyes.

I fiddle with the page of the book in my lap as the early afternoon sun streams through the bay window and onto my face

I had found a copy of Anne of Green Gables in my bookshelf earlier and immediately snatched it up to read.

When I was four or five, and just started my training, one of the tutors started to bring books for us to read. She wasn't allowed to do that, but I think she pitied us.

My best memories consists of sitting on a desk while Ella or another older child reads a book aloud to the rest of us.

Eventually, one of the guards saw us and tattled. Our tutor "mysteriously" disappeared after that and was replaced by some old, mean lady who wasn't afraid to beat up children. That's probably the only reason she was chosen for the job since it was obvious she wasn't hired for her teaching skills.