Bambina

40

"Why are we here father?" Gabriele paced back and forth, his expression was in deep thought as he bites his thumb in contemplation. Enzo and Sydney were sitting in a leather couch in the back of the room while their father watched Gabriele grumble and curse about bad decisions.

"What were we thinking! This is one of the most stupidest things we've ever done! Why the hell would we choose to come here!"

"I don't like repeating myself, Gabriele." Achilles sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Like I've told you before, you are here because of your sister's first birthday." Gabriele halts and looks at Achilles with wide, accusing eyes that made the old man narrow his.

"I don't consider her as family!" He snapped bitterly. Every word was dripping with venom as he spat it out. Why must he participate in this nonsense? Besides, they don't attend in unimportant events such as a mere child's birthday party. Why now? Why her? He would've enjoyed killing than trying to do this. Are they insane? Have they completely gone bonkers? They barely know the kid. He has already forgotten his stupid sister and frankly, he doesn't care about her or her well-being. "Why do you act like she is? We can just ship the kid off or put her in a fucking system for all I care!"

"She is a Cattaneo." Achilles growled, his patience wearing thinner and thinner by a second and he doesn't appreciate it.

"She's no-one!" Gabriele laughed like he was talking to somebody dumb. "She's a burden!"

"She's a baby, Gabriele!" Enzo stood up and glared at his brother. He was surprised at himself. Why was he defending Luca? Before, he doesn't care about what anyone say about the little girl. It has nothing to do with him after all.

But seeing her toddling around with an innocent smile plastered on her rosy little lips sparked something unfamiliar deep inside him.

Gabriele noticed them glaring heatedly at him and he scoffed and crossed his arms. "Oh, here we go again! I'm the bad guy again, aren't I? Yes, it's easy to blame it on the bad guy, right?"

"Because you're making yourself easy to blame." Sydeny grumbled.

"I'm being realistic for fuck's sake!" Gabriele roared angrily. "You people are pathetic little assholes. I'm also doing this for her!"

"How is that even possible?" Sydney rolled his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. Why is Gabriele being such a huge dick right now? They're only here to attend a birthday party. A silly little party! And he's overreacting and making it a big deal by pointing all of the facts that they made a huge mistake by doing it!

"You're all doing this because you're guilty. You're guilty because of that promise. I am too but if you see the facts, we can't keep that promise. We can't take care of Luca. Fuck, we are fucking unstable to take care of her! We can't be normal for her. We can't act like we're normal. We kill, don't you people understand that? Our hands are stained with murder and you want to hold her with these soiled hands? Do you really want her to be a part of our insane world? We can't handle the responsibility of taking care of her. We can't be a normal family for her. I'm doing her favor by keeping her away from us as far as possible."

They know that he's right. Luca isn't safe with them. As soon as the world knows about her, a lot of people will reach out their hands to dirty her innocence. The world is too cruel for her own good. Well, at least, the world that they live in. Their world where guns and blood goes together. A world where they are the monsters. The little girl is nothing but an innocent bunny thrown in a den of dangerous wolves. Luca isn't safe with them and Gabriele is right.

They aren't stable.

They can't do this.

"But we're her family." Sydney meekly defended and Achilles sighed, burrowing his head on his hands.