Blood in the Water | 18+

𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘛𝘦𝘯

𝘈𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘳𝘢

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

My feet were tucked under me, watching the rainwater slash across the window.

Sam woke me up hours ago, telling me that my father had plans to bomb the house I was in, and Steve requested that I be taken upstate. I think they were waiting for me to argue, but instead, I stood up, albeit a little sleepy still, grabbed a pair of shoes by the door that Steve had bought me earlier that day, and let Sam wrap one of Steve's hoodies around my shoulders. I was silent as I climbed into the bulletproof SUV, even quieter as Natasha climbed in beside me after a few minutes, and as soon as I was shown my room, sorry, Steve's room, I shut the door and set up camp in the window seat.

The house was situated in a forest, mountains covered the western skyline, and the rain clouds were broken as they moved through the peaks. I looked down at my phone when Dante's photo appeared, the vibration making me sick as I stared at one of the people I believed would protect me til the ends of the earth. Yet, he's helping my father try and wipe me off the face of the earth. The photo was when I was a toddler, Dante was in his early teen years, maybe fourteen, and I was on his shoulders, his grin wide as he looked up at me. That photo used to bring me so much joy because I believed he still loved me the same as he loved the little girl I used to be. But as I watched the screen go dark and my reflection appeared again, I felt my heart shatter. Or what was left of it, I was pretty sure I was wilting from the inside out.

The phone buzzed again, and this time it was Enzo's face staring at me.

I sighed, reaching forward and dragging my finger across the screen, pushing the speaker icon, and sitting back. "I don't have anything else to give," I winced at the broken sound of my voice, but I had cried until my throat was raw, and I was beyond tired, "I'm not going home Enzo, please don't try and make me."

"Are you safe?"

"Do you actually care?"

The silence was loud and I felt the remaining hope in my heart die, the flame had been snuffed out, I was disposable, the daughter no one wanted, the child that was a disgrace. The mafia princess that was tarnished. I glanced at the door when it was pushed open, Sam entering with a cup of hot tea and some honey before he quickly retreated, not wanting to disrupt me. Yet, I would've taken the interruption, I would've taken anything if it meant taking the pain away. Or at least distract me from the way my brothers seem to be driving a knife into a bullet wound. "Of course I care Sorellina," I rolled my eyes when Enzo finally decided to speak, curling against the window as if he could touch me through the phone, "Who do you think told Steve about the threat?"

"Yet you still work with Papá."

"That's not fair Aurora," Dante called from some distance away and I shook my head, trying to stop the tears that had begun to fall again. It was nightfall once again, and the moon was fighting through the clouds, but the rumbling of the thunder seemed to match my sobs, nature suddenly felt like the only thing that seemed to care about me. "Papá is our blood, we have no choice."

"Yeah Dante, and I'm your blood too," I sniffled, sitting up to reach for the phone, "But that doesn't matter does it? I'm just a woman who's forced to live in a man's shadow, Papá is trying to kill his own blood, yet because I'm his daughter it doesn't matter," I wiped my cheek before finishing my statement, "Blood doesn't matter unless it's spilled. One day you'll be at my funeral and I hope you remember how horrible you treated me, how you blindly followed Papá on his conquest to end my life, and I hope it eats you alive, I hope guilt destroys you both, I worshipped you both, now I would rather spit on you than hug you."