Their Little Princess

Chapter Forty-Eight

Elijah's POV:

Once Maddie dozes off, I gently lay her down on the sofa and shut Alessandro's office door, walking into the footage room where Alessandro is watching the security camera overlooking Daniel. He's laid up against the wall, bloody and bruised. We found him hiding out at a small cabin in Bosa about a month ago. And it did nothing but prove our point that whatever Daniel was involved with was a lot worse than we thought when we first found Maddie.

He wasn't just evil, he was trained. He didn't speak, he never caved, only begged for death.

Alessandro looks over when he hears me enter the room, "He couldn't have done it, he's been here since November," I say.

Sandro shakes his head, looking back at the screen.

None of this was supposed to happen. I think we'd all secretly hoped everything would be figured out before Maddie knew this much was going on. None of us grew up with a normal childhood, that was the one thing Maddie was supposed to be able to have. The one thing dad wanted her to be able to have. 

Dad.

"You knew he was dead, didn't you?" I ask quietly.

Sandro doesn't remove his eyes from the footage, his hand tightens on the edge of the counter as his star on the camera intensifies and his jaw tenses. "If you're asking if I've seen the photo before, I'd appreciate if you'd come right out and ask, I'm not in the mood for mind games."

I can't help but scoff as I sit down in the chair behind the counter, absently staring at the computer of a separate room, the man Xander ran into at the supermarket, we found out later his name is Dmitri. "He hasn't given us a single name since he got here."

"He has family," Sandro says, "A wife and 2 daughters."

I look over at him, my brows furrowing slightly, "You can't be serious." But it isn't lost on  me the battle I see in his hard expression. 

He's serious.

Alessandro's POV:

I can't remember a single moment in my life when I was unsure of anything. 

But the moment I enter my office and see Madison asleep on my sofa, I start to question every decision I've made that got us here. Since the moment she heard our conversation, there was nothing I could do to stop her from being afraid.

Her eyes are red, her nose is red, her hair is laying haphazardly over her shoulders, falling onto the couch. 

"I'm trying not to wake her up, she only fell asleep recently." Elijah follows behind me.

Her brows are slightly pinched even in sleep. And the moment I see her face, I'm prepared to do whatever is necessary to find the bastard who did this.

"Find Dante, tell him I need him in my second office immediately. Tell Francesco to go down to the cellar, get anything he can out of Dmitri, by any means necessary, I don't care what he has to do.  Send Emilio down with him to make sure the bastard stays alive."

"But, what—"

I cut in, "My patience is thin, Elijah. Don't push it any further."

He leaves and I don't look at Maddie again as I leave my office.

Maddie's POV:

My eyes flutter open, they feel heavy and I can feel the remnants of tears from before I fell asleep. Xander walks in holding a bag in his hand just as I sit up, rubbing my eyes with my wrist.

He sits on the edge of the table in front of the couch. "I couldn't find any of your sweatshirts," He says, giving me one of his dark red Varsity Sweatshirts from school, I grab it shakily and lay it on the couch beside me. He sets the bag down and it's then I notice that he has Millie. He attempts to hand her to me and I almost take it until I realize how childish I don't want to seem. "I don't need a teddy bear."

"Oh, so I'll just throw it in the trash then," He reaches over to the trash can beside the couch and I jump for it, snatching it from his hand, "No!" I say quickly. He sports a teasing half grin as he moves from the table to the couch beside me. He hesitates, "I'm sorry about how I acted at school, alright? And I—" He hesitates, "I'm sorry you had to find out about um...Everything...This way."

I'm quiet. I never expected Xander to be the first one to apologize for anything. I can feel the tears threatening to pour again, but I force myself not to let them fall. I don't want to seem weak, I'm only proving the reason they didn't tell me in the first place.

"It made me feel really stupid," I say finally. My voice sounds so weird to my own ears. Hoarse and shaky, "I thought we were finally past like, hiding things, but then you guys were hiding something this big from me." I hold Millie just a little bit tighter, maybe I can trick myself into thinking I'm holding my mom. That she's holding me back. That's a lot to ask of a teddy bear.

I look over at him finally, he's staring straight ahead, his jaw is hard. "It's a dangerous job," He says carefully, "Have you um...Shit, I'm not great with words," He pauses, "Have you heard the term 'ignorance is bliss'?"

I look back down at my hands, "Yeah. I get it now. I feel horrible."

"Sandro said that to me once," He says, "You were never supposed to have to feel this way. We hid this from you because we didn't want you to have to grow up the way we did. We were going to tell you eventually, when you were older, but we hid it because we...Well, I mean, like...Look, Maddie, I don't say shit like this often, but I do want you to know that you are my sister, and I lo—"

The door clicks open, and someone walks in. I'm still staring at Xander as he looks over at the door, he doesn't finish his sentence and just like that, the moment is gone. He stands up as if nothing was ever said. Emilio walks over to where I am, "Hey, Maddie. Can I hug you?" He asks.

I reach over and hug him, my arms around his torso tightly as he hugs me like he hasn't seen me in years. Finally he sighs and moves back, standing up. He's wearing different clothes than earlier and I assume a few of them went back home. He stands up, holding his hand out to help me up, "You can sit back down as soon as we're done, but Sandro wants to talk to you."

I exhale. Sandro. "Okay."

.    .    .

random update, quick question

i like to get you guys' opinions because you're the ones reading it lol

as of now, there are four chapters left until what could be a finale but it wouldn't offer any closure. would you prefer a short book 2, or just 15-20 more chapters of this book? i'm loving writing this one and i'm leaning toward just making it all one book, but if you want a separate book, then I could always do that as well.

thanks for reading and responding <3