Vicious Love

Chapter 3

Amara Valentina pov

Questions spiraled through my head: Who is he? Why does he look like me? His eyes were forest green, just like my right eye, while his brothers were blue, like the ocean, like my left.

The resemblance was uncanny. Whatever resemblance I didn't have with the angry one I had with the other two, my hurt burned, and my brain hazed, hoping to find a reasonable solution except being related to them.

I couldn't do this again. I went through the pain of believing I found them and then realizing it wasn't them. I could feel my eyes burning, but I refused to let my tears fall. My head felt dizzy as I continued to stare at them, hoping for some kind of sign to tell me the truth.

My hands shook as a tall man came over to the three of them, laughed while ruffling their heads to be snarled at by the angry one, and laughed with the other two. Please let it be him. A mantra I created chanted in my head as my heart palpitated in anticipation of looking at his face.

Everything I remembered about my family was a haze, but I did remember parts of it, like the nicknames my older brothers had for me—little star, tiny, and sunshine—those were their nicknames I remembered, along with some other details.

My eyes widened and my hands shook while my ears rang as I noticed the tattoo on his arm written in bold, "Sunshine, 19.08.2004. My heart broke as I saw my name and nickname and my birthday all littered throughout his arm.

As he turned around, my mind went blank as memories rushed the fire, my bubbas screamed, and someone  dragged me out of the house. The tears finally fell from my eyes.

I dreamt of this moment for my entire life, hugging my brother and telling him that I loved him, but I couldn't. Instead, like a coward, I ran into the toilet, trying to calm my shaky hands and breathe normally.

"Hey, are you okay?" Yu Ling's concerned face was plastered in front of me. I started with her, not knowing whether to cry or laugh in joy. Everything I wanted was there, and I ran. I nodded, finally noticing I hadn't answered her question.

"Tell me about the de Lucas," I coughed out urgently

"What? Please just tell me about them." I rushed her.

She looked extremely confused, but she continued nonetheless.

"Ok, well, the oldest is Alessandro de Luca; he's a very well respected businessman; he owns DL Enterprises; next is Xander; he works for Alessandro; he's absolutely terrifying; he's really cold to anyone who's not his family; and he often gets into fights with people.

Next is Leonardo; he's the mother; he worries about everyone; he's extremely smart; he's studying to be a doctor; next are Lorenzo and Angelo de Luca; they are twins widely popular; Lorenzo is extremely athletic and already known as a star player; Angelo is smart and pretty much known as a bad boy. Antonio is next; he's pretty quiet, kind of similar to Lorenzo, and lastly, Isabella and Bruno are the baby twins who are five. Bruno is innocent and sweet, while Isa is a sassy princess ." She finished in one breath.

I could feel my breathing even out as she told me about my family. I had five younger siblings who I didn't even know existed.

My throat burned, wanting nothing more than to hug them .My heart churned, wanting to face my brothers. There wasn't a single doubt in my mind that they would recognize me.

"Amara, are you okay?" She asked for the second time today, and I gave her a smile and nodded.

"Yu Ling, what about their mom? Where is she?" I questioned. Her facial expression dropped.

"Their mom died five years ago." My world stopped. Mamma was gone. Why does my family have an omen of bad luck?

"Ok, ok, Yu Ling, you can't tell anyone we talked about this. Ok, I know it sounds crazy, but I need you to trust me." I said, hardening my voice, I needed her to understand she couldn't utter a word, and the whole emotional rant isn't me.

I can't believe I allowed myself to be that weak in front of someone I barely knew.

Her eyes widened, but she tried to act tough, and honestly, I was slightly impressed that she didn't strike me as someone who would stand up for herself.

"How am I meant to trust you when I barely know you? We met hours ago and you asked me to tell you about the de Lucas, and let me just say my family and I are close with their cousin, whose sister helped me through a rough patch, so no, Amara, I will not protect you until you tell me why you asked me all those questions." She said her little hands were balled up by her side; she was significantly shorter than me, and honestly, she had a baby face, so her angry rant only reminded me of a toddler having a tantrum.

However, her anger was completely valid, and she was protective of my family. Moreover, it didn't take that much to figure out that her parents were allies with mine.

My papa tried to shield me from all of it, but considering that he was the one who took me, it was easy to put two together.

It wasn't exactly hard to interpret that my family was involved in the Underworld but I didn't expect them to be the Italian mafia. Despite my involvement in the underworld I hated dealing with mafias and gangs to me it was more so about killing assholes that deserved it.

I was never naive enough to mess with any major mafias or gang and I had no reason to either my involvement in killing people only happened when they went against my moral stand point.

I didn't care about gun or drug trafficking or the mafia and gang war I simply work for someone they give me the money and that's it.

But still, I had no idea what to say; she probably didn't know I existed, and even if she did, I had no idea what to say or how to explain this.

"I just thought I recognized them, and I was curious to know if it was them, but it wasn't. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." I replied, keeping my tone as even as I could, and obviously it worked because she smiled, nodding her head.

She was incredibly naive to believe something like that; honestly, I was sure she wouldn't, and I would have to drug her.

"It's ok, come on, we should probably head over to the next period before we are late. We both have Mrs. Carson, and she is not a patient person." She said she was grabbing my hand and basically pulling me along with her.

I'll figure out what to do about my family later. I guess I need a break and a drink.

At the moment all I want is advice from him. I never knew how much you could hate yet respect someone at the same time until I met him.

Elio

My relationship with him was complicated, but he never abused me. His training methods scared me, and he emotionally broke me, but he kept his promise.

The first time I met him was when I was nine. I was covered in bruises with blood all over my body and dried tears, and the only thing I asked of him was to make me strong. He stared at me and replied.

"I will make you strong, and I will make you untouchable, but I will break you, and I will make sure no one can ever put you back together. Do you want that?" and that's what he didn't help me escape, but he provided me with the training to do so.

Elio was someone I hated from the bottom of my heart. I despised him. The eight-year-old was so furious that I ran from one monster into the arms of another, but I was naive and stupid. At the end of the day, I wouldn't have survived without him.

Elio was never warm and cuddly; he never has been and probably never will be, but he cared about me. I knew that much.

He helped me more than anyone ever could. As I grew older, he became softer and softer with me, to the point that I consider him a grandfather.

Not to mention the fact that Elio saved countless innocent lives. Elio ran an underground group which aimed to rescue people that have been trafficked.

Elio was never perfect but he was the closest thing I had to a parental figure after Elio rescued me I got kidnapped by HIM and when he saved part of me died and it took a long time for me to function but the same man who told a nine year old child covered in burn marks and bruises feed me every single meal and checked on me constantly.

Elio is the reason I'm alive; he taught me a lot in terms of how to survive. To this day, he is the person I hate and love most in this world, and when I don't know what to do, my first thought is about disappointing him.

You know the drill. I know my writing isn't the best, but I swear I'm trying, so be nice.