Thorns & Roses

-one-

AURORA VALENTINA MARINO

"Hey, have any of you guys seen my knives?" I asked my brothers, who were dotted around the kitchen.

"You've lost them again?" Giovanni, my oldest brother, questioned.

"Yep." I sat down in between Luciano and Marco, sighing heavily and leaning my head on Marco's shoulder before looking down at his phone. "Who are you texting?" He quickly turned off his phone and flipped it over before putting it down on the table.

"No one." Marco said, pushing me away from him. I gasped loudly, catching the attention of the others.

"Has Little Coco gotten himself a girlfriend?" I asked, poking his cheek and he swatted my hand away.

"Come on, I thought we agreed you'd stop calling me that." Marco groaned.

"What, Little Coco?"

"Yes, it doesn't even make sense. I'm not little. You're the little one; you're half a foot shorter than me and besides I'm two years older than you. Not only that but Coco is a ridiculous name."

"Funny, I said the same thing about you calling me Rory. But did that stop you?" He laughed and said no. I picked up his phone and threw it to Luciano.

Marco yelled and tackled Ciano to the ground but the phone was passed to Giovanni who started to run to the other side of the kitchen with it.

"Look, he's talking to a girl." Gio said, waving the phone around childishly. "Her name's Maria. Aw, he has found himself a girlfriend." Marco cried out and ran towards Gio.

I sat back with a smile on my face as I watched them fall over each other in an attempt to read Marco's messages.

I got off lucky, getting taken in by these guys. I couldn't wish for a better family.

When I was a couple months old, I was found on the streets by Riccardo Marino, head of the Italian mafia, and he took me in. Many people questioned what business a ruthless mafia man had taking in a child but it didn't stop him. He and his family raised me as if I were their own.

They already had three kids, all boys, and they became my brothers.

The oldest being Giovanni, the heir. He was an exact copy of his father; they shared the same hair colour, eye colour and even facial feature minus his nose, which he got from his mother. He's 28 and was preparing to take over for Riccardo.

The son following Gio was Luciano, who was 2 years younger than him, making him 26. Ciano, unlike his brother, possessed more of his mother's features. Unfortunately, he also inherited his mother's short fuse along with her impulsive and explosive behaviour. But with Luciano, he always managed to keep it under control when it came to his family. With everyone else on the other hand, he had no remorse when it came to his actions.

The last born son of the Marino family was Marco. Little Coco as I love to call him. He was a perfect mix of his parents, it was hard to even decide who he looked like more. Marco was the level-headed, calculated peacemaker of the family. He was also usually the one we called when we ran into any law related issues. However, his soft nature usually led to him being our target when it came to picking on people.