Pretty lies

twenty seven- Rose blood

Alessandro Marino:

Women are fucking unbelievable.

Isadora turns up to my home and I offer my help, which she accepts. Then she fucking runs away. I don't get this shit.

I was awoken abruptly this morning by a guard. He had informed me that there was a hole in our fence and then Tristan told me that Isadora was gone. It didn't take long to put two and two together.

I have spent the past few days searching for her siblings for her to bail. This is utter bullshit.

"I don't understand." Solo mutters under his breath. I continue my pacing around the office, searching for an answer.

"I understand. I understand that she freaked out and ran."

"She would never leave those children."

"Wouldn't she?" His eyes dart up to mine as his face turns into one of disgust.

"Don't say that shit."

"You said she's been through a lot, right? Maybe it all got the better of her and she ran away." That's when Solo leaps up and grabs me by the collar, shoving me into a wall.

"Isadora Rose is the kindest and strongest person I know. She is my best friend, alright. I know her better than anyone else and I know that she wouldn't leave unless she had a plan to do so." This side of him rendered me speechless. I knew him as a strong guy who would inject fear into anyone he wanted, but never to me. I am not scared but I am most certainly shocked.

"I don't give a shit about whatever drama you two have going on. She was my friend before she was your whatever. She didn't just bail." His hands leave my collar as he walks away from us.

"I get you're mad but, don't you ever dare to lay a hand on me." I warn him, my eyes piercing through his.

"I say we just leave her be. She'll be back eventually." Is he serious?

"We are not going to leave her."

"We? You just went on a whole fucking tangent about how you think she left you and now your saying you want a goddamn search party or something." I scoff at him as I turn my head away, reaching for the drinks cabinet.

"And I'm the one who's mad." Tristan mutters before leaving the office.

Scotch bottle in hand, I glare at the guards outside of the window. How could they let her go? Dumb asses.

I pour out a drink and it's gone in a short moment. The bottle is released from my hand, now shattered all over the floor. I didn't care about it. Not one bit.

These past few days have felt strained, longer. I knew she was so close yet so far. I could almost feel her yet I wasn't near enough to touch. It was torture.

Now she's away and I can't feel nor touch her. I don't want anyone else to touch me. I want her to do that thing where she caresses my face when she thinks I'm asleep. I want her hand to graze against mine when we stand near.

I turn away from the glass, now sitting at my desk. You can hardly see the wood because of all the files. Some are to assist in business whereas other are to do with the Rose children.

My hand reaches out for one of the files labelled 'Rose blood'. It must have been new since I hadn't read it yet.

I opened up the file and was met with seemed to be a family tree. Immediately, I spot Isadora and her siblings. There are many cousins and children. One aspect stood out the most. One name had been scratched out.

There was no image nor hint of a name. It was a very weird thing to see on a family tree. Most often if someone was disowned or dead, it would be re-done. This had been done very recently and very sloppily.

On my family tree, my Uncle Tony isn't there. He hit my aunt so he got disowned my my grandmother. His name was removed from the family tree and has never been spoken of again. So this unknown Rose is quite the anomaly.

The next page is filled with images of an apartment covered in bullet holes. Bloody bodies cover the halls as well as broken glass and wood chips.

Another image displays a red velvet box, next to it lays a small Polaroid. I have to turn the page to see a closet image of it buy the sight is shocking.

A woman lays bloody on a street, dress torn and face mangled. I don't know this woman but she must have some connection to Isadora.

I hear someone knock on my door and I beckon for them to come on in.

"Oh hey- you saw the file I left." Dante says as he enters the office. He fucking loves to get involved.

"Dante we spoke about this case. I don't want you on this because-"

"Because of my family shit. I'm not gonna get sad or anything. I just want to help." He always means well and I know that. I do like the kid.

"Okay, what you got for me?" As soon as I accept his presence, he's takes a seat opposite me at the desk.

"Well the picture you're looking at is of Isadora's mother. There was a letter left in the same box as the picture and it says it's from Sofia."

"That's impossible. Sofia Rose is dead. I watched as her casket was lowered into the ground."

"It must of been written a few days before or something." She always did love a good plot twist.

"From the letter, we know that Isadora is meant to lead the Rose's mafia and that Sofia killed her daughter, Isadora's mother."

"Shit."

"Shit indeed. This is crazy man. They have a lot of family drama to unpack here." No shit there is.

"From what Tristan told me, I think Isadora and her siblings may have been abused by their parents and-" I stopped listening after I heard the word abused. I never knew.

That's probably why she looks after the kids. I don't know if she's got custody or what ,but she's basically a mother to them.

"I don't know how they would've known." Dante continues despite the fact that I wasn't aware of like half of the conversation.

"What?"

"I don't know how the kidnapper could've known Isadora wasn't home when they took the kids and that girl Tanya or whatever her name is."

"They clearly didn't want her. I don't get why they didn't take Rico either or how he didn't know his siblings were gone."

"Maybe he did know." Dante turns to me in confusion.

"You think a child orchestrated this shit." No.

"I think he wasn't afraid of what was happening."

"Any kid would be afraid is a stranger broke in and took his siblings."

"Maybe it wasn't a stranger."

"A family member?" I nod in response. Roses are difficult people to understand. Sofia once told me that. The only person that would get close to an understanding would be another Rose.

"There was a name scratched out of the family tree." I say, passing over the file.

"That's our guy."

"It's the child of Luis and Kia. We just need to find out whoever that is." Look at Sherlock fucking Holmes over here.

"You go get started on that and ask Mario if we have any idea of where the hell the other Rose is." Dante nods at me before leaving.

Dante is a good kid. He's only twenty one (I think he's too young for this business). He started here a few months ago after working with Solo for years.

I trust Solo's judgment better than anyone else's and he said that Dante was ready. Now he's here.

I have a good life. I've got money and cars. I'll never have to worry about being alone. But sometimes I really fucking hate being Alessandro Marino.