Aria

I made haste back to my room. Well, my old room. A room I hadn't stayed in since I was not even 15 years young. The bastard.

I kept my back against the door with eyes closed. The fȕcking bastard.

Moments after I peeled myself away from the door Dante entered with no knock.

"What were you doing?" He asked in a sharp tone.

"Oh you know. We both had a bit of time to kill we decided to hop onto our matching unicorns and take a ride over a rainbow." I replied casually pulling my earrings off and putting them onto a dresser.

"Why the hell was he following you? What were you doing together? Especially at this hour!"

I turned back around to face him and put my hands on his shoulders. "Relax. We weren't doing anything. I was in the tree, he found me and wanted to talk. I pushed him out and stormed off. Thus, his following me. Anymore more questions Padre?"

"Don't get involved with that man Aria." I was expecting some look of approval at the fact that I had shoved him out of a tree but he didn't seem to care.

"Did it look like I wanted to get involved? Besides, he's engaged. You know me better than this."

"You're right. I know you and I know him."

I dropped my hands from his shoulders and instead dipped my hand into my pocket to fish out my vibrating phone. I ignored his call as well as the following three before finally receiving I text which I opened with an eye roll.

"What does he want?" He demanded.

I'll be in the tree waiting.

"Nothing." I lied instantly and texted back politely telling him to fall out and make sure he caught a stick in his ass on the way down.

"Doesn't sound like nothing."

"Calm down. Seriously. I'm going to bed, he's just...I don't know." I sighed. "He's Alessio. I think he's confused or having cold feet or something. You know how Alessio is when faced with real life human emotions, he's looking for a place to run or a job to bury himself into. He won't find either with me."

"Yeah." He scoffed and turned around, as he walked to the door he muttered irritably "I know exactly how Alessio is."

I looked back to my phone for the next text.

I'm holding my breath.

It went back, way back. The phrase "I'm holding my breath" had been something we had said to one another since childhood. Much like a toddler threatening to hold their breath until they got their way we would teasingly threaten one another. Usually when Alessio was being particularly closed off or I would especially bitchy, he would ask me to calm down and I would tell him to piss off and he would remind me, I'm holding my breath and with a sigh we would come back to our senses.

I hesitated for just a second before texting back.

Don't.

*****

I didn't sleep any last night.

Breakfast with the Moretti family. Unlike Mrs. Genovese who preferred to have as many people at the table as humanly possible, Dante was opposite.

Most mornings he would have no one, occasionally he would have guests if business matters needed handled. My personal favorite morning, just after I came back from the states and was staying a few weeks with him I came down one morning to him seated at the head of the table with damn near a whole feast on the table and his only other guest was a man beaten and strapped to his chair at the other end of the table. The man nodded off once and received a quick shock, you know those shockers? Actually usually used as a sex toy for those more into kink. Not like a Taser, just a quick jolt to wake him. Dante being, well, Dante, had bragged about how many days it had been since they'd fed the guy.

Today there were six suited men at the table, two attractive women in evening gowns seated on two of their laps, they appeared to be deep in conversation, business probably and here I strolled in in my pajamas.

Dante gave me a frustrated look. "Gentlemen." He motioned towards me. "You all remember my sister, Aria."

"Sorry." I smiled reaching past a pair to snatch a bagel off the center of the table. It was obvious that none had been touched. Casually I applied some cream cheese to my bagel, pausing for a moment to look up. "Want one?" I asked the first man I made eye contact with.

He smirked, clearly amused.

"Ari please." Dante sighed. "We have business to tend to."

I popped my finger in my mouth to pull off a dab of cream cheese.

"Please, join us." The one I'd made eye contact with suggested which earned him a dirty look from Dante. "This is as much your business as his, no?"

"No." Dante snarled and I chuckled.

"No my brother is right." I agreed but sank into the empty seat at the opposite head than Dante. "This is his empire. And he rules is with an iron fist."

At this Dante smirked. "As I was saying." He left his gaze on me for several moments almost as if trying to read my intentions here.

Truth be told, I didn't really have any. I didn't want to leave the house and risk running into Alessio who was very well known for his refusal to accept an answer that didn't satisfy him, Sergio had neglected to respond to my phone call last night and the texts I sent him, I had no work to do. I was simply bored, and hungry. I put the flat of one foot on the chair bringing my knee to my chest as I ate my bagel.

"Should we allow this intrusion to continue it would be a sure sign of weakness. We are not in the business of rolling onto our backs and showing our stomachs and these attacks against our business will simply not be tolerated."

"But hasn't there peace for decades?"

Rather than answer Dante gave a curt nod to one his men on the right side of the table. He reached to the ground to retrieve a briefcase, he slid it across the table to the other men.

"This is of course only the first installment, the next two would come as you uphold your end of the bargain."

The man in the center on the left, the one who had suggested I sit nodded to the man on his right who pulled the box over to him and opened it. Predictably, it was filled with cash. He raised his eyes to meet Dante's. "And your desire with us?"

"Weapons." Dante said simply. "Military grade. The bigger the boom, the bigger the buck."

He nodded to his partner who shut the briefcase. "I believe we should be able to come to some sort of agreement Mister Moretti"

I ate my bagel in silence while the men discussed business, when they all rose and began shaking hands I did the same. "What was that about?" I asked Dante when the room had cleared.

"Don't worry about it." He muttered as he collected his papers and supplies.

"Don't worry about it?" I repeated.

"Don't make me repeat myself." He sighed.

"You're going to disrupt the peace, the peace our father died for?" I scolded taking a step forward, he raised his hand signaling me to stop and I did on a dime, something that served to only infuriate me further.

"I am not doing anything! It's your damned boyfriend! Coming back here? Pressing our boundaries? Pressing you? He is disrupting this alliance, not me. He has no right, no pull here, he has earned nothing in my country."

"Crazy buffoon."

"Watch yourself Ari." He muttered and turned his back to start out the room.

"Like hell I will Dante! You know how long it took these families to come to peace, you know what it has done for us you-"

He turned around swiftly, I nearly bumped into him as I had been on his tail. "No you know. You of all fȕcking people know! Your whole life was about this alliance, you had no life of your own, you almost lost everything because of it! Now all of the sudden little Genovese thinks he can just come back? Just like that? Just come back and act as though he's earned this position? No! I've earned it! For years he's been gone Ari years and all of the sudden he's just back! How long until they suddenly think because there are two of them and only one of me that they are entitled to more? That it's fair to press the boundaries, to press into my territory? That two Genovese's gives them a position of power over me of all people? No! This "alliance" has done nothing for me except to hinder how far I can go, how much power I can have, I've had enough Ari. God damn it I've had enough!"

"Let's not play pretend. This has nothing to do with Alessio or his father edging into our space, our alliance hasn't been under attack. For heaven's sake, you speak as though we are struggling, like the business is dying. You've more money than you could possibly know what to do with!"

"Don't be ridiculous Ari it's only a matter of time, you know it, and I know it, before they're riding our territory."

"No, I don't know it. I know you're obsessed with power and money and you get some sort of sick hard on at the idea of destroying something beautiful, just like the rest of them."

His hands came to my cheeks, not in a slap but something someone else might mistake for tenderness. I flinched but didn't move backwards as he cupped my cheeks rather roughly. "Aria you are the only person on this whole forsaken planet that I give a shit about, do not press me."

I kept his gaze and he held mine for some long seconds before his hands roughly on my cheeks seemed to soften. My silence was his victory.

"You are the very last thing keeping me sane. Your being here has been a blessing."

I pushed him off. "Your only bit of sanity? I'm here for Alessio, for this wedding, that is the whole reason Ugo called me! The people you want to ruin are the only reason for me "blessing" you with me presence."

"Enough Ari."

"I'm not one of your men you can just boss around, you know I left that role a long time ago when I learned to say no. You can't just tell me when enough is enough, God I'm so sick of all of you men!" I groaned. Just like Alessio and Sergio at dinner yesterday, and Alessio last night. Just like Ricco when he would make demands of me. "You can't just boss me around and you can't just step all over the people who helped to build you."

"I will step on everyone who gets in my way! In our way. This involves you as much as it does me. I'm doing this for us, for our family. Why should we let the Genovese have one up on us? Huh? This alliance has always favored them over us."

"You know Padre was a man of honor and morals and it's a damn shame he died before teaching you the shame!" I yelled.

The back of his hand came across my cheek hard. "He didn't die, he was murdered by this fȕcking family!"

I put my hand to my cheek. I was stunned. Dante had slapped me before, I wouldn't stand before him and pretend that he hadn't. But we were practically kids then, it was one of the only times I had ever seen him truly lose himself in remorse. He had been more hurt by his own action than I had, and I had cried In the tree for at least an hour afterwards if that tells you anything. The difference with when we were kids verses now, aside from the fact that I had been in an abusive relationship for years and the act was a dirty reminder of my own worth, aside from the fact that he was a heck of a lot stronger now than he was then, was the fact that he didn't look the least bit remorseful. He looked like he could do it again.

I rubbed my palm slowly up and down my cheek, it was warm beneath my touch.

"I said enough damn it." He said in a lower voice, a slower one. Like he was trying to slow himself down, like he knew the stakes now were more than just a little mafia turf. "Aria you know I love you, you know I'd never hurt you but damn it when I tell you to stand down just...Christ. Listen to someone for once in your life."

"Of course." I said in a dull tone and took another step backwards.

"Ari."

"I have to get ready for the day. I have plans." I lied and kept taking steps backwards until we were no longer in the same room. At this point I turned around and hurried up there stairs where I attempted to call Sergio again.

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I can only imagine your faces after several weeks with no update you finally see one, get on and read it's in HER point of view...being you all hate Aria so much already lol.

Yeah...unfortunately I don't have the time to write every day like I used to or be on Wattpad. I don't want you guys to think I am blatantly ignoring you or stopping the story when I don't reply. It's just when I started on wattpad I was a part time receptionist and I got to do A LOT of writing and Wattpading at work, I mean probably 80-90% of my writing was done at work I shit you not. Now since being promoted I actually have work to do at work and my free time is damn near nonexistent. )): I'm lucky to have a few hours a week of free time let alone a day as I used to. So during that time I usually spend it writing rather than making sure to reply to everyone who has reached out to me. I still read all my comments on KTMGB because I get emails straight to my phone when I receive them but profile comments and private messages I don't usually get to respond to lately. I swear I'm not ignoring people I'm just trying to WRITE so you can get updates, trying to revise HWTC so I can get the publishing ball rolling, and trying to keep up online activities has been TOUGH.

Anyway. Do vote and comment, and if you're looking for an AWESOME and COMPLETED read to keep you busy while you wait for updates check out my profile as I've just finished Heavy Wears The Crown and it's awesomeee. (: