1 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑

Katherine's POV

A week later I had some what forgotten about the incident at the lake. The fact that Ace didn't show up to school for a whole week also helped. Now Monday had arrived again and so was the tiresome routine of school, but today turned out to be quite interesting.

All six of us, my brothers, me, Elijah and Eren entered school talking about random things until all of them abruptly stopped, Dante standing with a grim look on his face "Ah shit." I followed his line of sight, and guess who it was.

Ace fucking Alvarez, standing by his locker talking to his cousin like he hadn't been completely MIA for the past week. I wanted to throw up.

"Kate-." Someone in our group started but I didn't listen, I had already spent way too much time thinking about some guy who obviously didn't care about me enough to at least give me an explanation. "Fuck them."

I walked towards my first class, ignoring him as I passed by.

Eren's POV

Me and Elijah were waiting in an empty classroom after school, there was no way I was leaving without an explanation from Ace. That mother fucker had some nerve doing what he did. We had to wait a while but once I saw him walk past our room I pulled him in.

Pinning him against the wall, my hands fisted around his collar "Why?" Frazzled, he stumbled over his answer. "W-what?" "Don't give me this shit Alvarez, why the fuck didn't you show up? You were the one who told her to meet you. So why weren't you there. You go missing for a week and you show up out of the blue like nothing happened."

He didn't reply just stared at me. I was angry, livid actually, and this just happened to push my buttons without a second thought I punched him square in the face. Ace stumbled to the side, holding his jaw and I pushed back from attacking him again by Elijah, "Eren just stop. We said no hitting."

"Dude what the fuck is wrong with you?" The fucker spoke up as he got back up. "Me? What about you. I mean you can't even come with an explanation for what you just did, god, all these years. I thought we were friends man. I mean my dad helped you out countless times so did the Marinos and this is what you do? I really judged you badly cause you are nothing like the guy I thought I knew.

"Just know that you really hurt her you know. She didn't deserve this. Kate may seem like a person who doesn't give a shit about stuff like this but I know her and I know how it hurt her when you just didn't care about her after she opened up to you."

"Don't you think I know that!" Ace all but shouted. He wasn't looking at me, his gaze set on the ground. He spoke again but a lot calmer now. "I know, and trust me I hate myself for doing this but I don't have another choice."

"Bullshit!" It was Elijah who screamed at Ace. "You are crazy you know that. I just- you like her, you care for her but you can't do the grown up thing of actually telling her that. And don't give me the 'I'm not good for her' crap okay. Frankly literally everyone has issues of their own but they still work through them because if you don't you're gonna end up being depressed for the rest of your lives."

The last part caught Ace's attention making him look up to Elijah with fear? in his eyes. "Think about this and make your next step." Elijah finished and walked out of the room.

"You got something to say as well?" Ace asked me. "She's hopeful when she's around you. I can see it on her face." With that I too walked out of the room.

Katherine's POV

I was sat in the living room with Dante, both of us doing our homework in silence. Until the doorbell rang. Telling Dante I'll get it I walked out in the hall, I didn't know who would come at this time, it was pretty late at night.

The one person I wasn't expecting to show up was at my front door. "Hey." Ace breathed, seeming to be stunned for a second. "Hi." I replied quietly I didn't know how I was supposed to respond.

"Can we talk?" He asked, his hands fiddling with the sleeves of his jacket. Nervous. "You're a week late."

"Yeah, yeah and I'm sorry but please I need to explain. I owe that to you." I don't know why but I let him in. Honestly I wanted to listen to his explanation. Behind us my entire family seems to have been gathered. "Um, maybe in private."

Sighing, I agreed, "Library." Despite my brothers' protests I led him to the library, closing the doors behind us. "So what have you got to say?" He turned around for a while before finally speaking up.

"I'm the leader of the Spanish mafia." I-I was not expecting that. I had heard that the leader of the Spanish mafia was extremely young but I guess this isn't too far fetched given my own situation.

But that doesn't explain why he didn't show up that day. "Okay, that doesn't explain why you weren't there." He looked at me confused. "My brothers leas the Italian mafia so sorry if I'm not too shocked. And if that is your whole reason for not showing up then it's a shit reason. Unless you can actually explain why you weren't there that night then just leave."

He sighed. "Fine then, you might as well take a seat because this is a long story." Once we were both sitting side by side on the couch, he spoke up.

"In his thirties my father was a very powerful man, who always got what he wanted. And that man never took no for an answer. Around the same time my mother was a college student in her final year, ready to take on the world with her dance skills. One day out of pure bad luck my mom happened to be at the same bar as my father."

Ace stopped for a second to prevent himself from choking up "That bastard took one look at my mother and decided he wanted her. And after she rejected his offer for a night together. He did the most cruel thing he could have. He had her kidnapped and left at some finger motel where he-he um did things to her that night, horrible things that ended up with her getting pregnant."

I shivered at the things he was telling me, my hand automatically going out to grab onto his. "My mom was going crazy but she didn't want to get an abortion. She had always wanted a baby and she didn't have any other family but she was strong so she decided to raise me all by herself. For the first nine years every thing was fine. We were both happy living in a small apartment. We weren't rich but we had enough."

"But when I turned 10 somehow he found out there was son out there that belonged to him. Once he did, he started showing up at our door everyday talking my mother that she should hand me over to him and let me be the next leader of the mafia but every time my mom disagreed. I, for the life of me can't figure out why he didn't just take me."

"But over time he started to get to my mother, maybe it was the memories or the fear of loosing me that started to get sick, depressed. It was bad enough that she needed to go on medication, medication that we could barely afford."

"Over time mom just became unresponsive. Hen I turned twelve my father wasn't the one who came, it was his brother and just like always I was about to say no again but he made me an offer I couldn't refuse."

It wasn't hard to piece the puzzle together "Your mother." Ace agreed. "Yeah, he said he could help mom, give her the best treatment there was and I agreed. But while I was training to lead the mafia, she kept getting worse, no therapy helped until one day I came home from school to find her on her bed, an empty bottle of pills beside her."

I gasped, oh god no. "That isn't the end, in less than a year my uncle, the one who was training me dies as well. Shoot to head, during an ambush at our house. And it isn't even like he took the bullet for me. It was always meant for him. It was way to get to me. Victor handled it way better than me. He was trained into this life from the beginning unlike me."

This was nothing like I was expecting but I didn't interrupt him. "Kate, the people I have cared for have died. Almost all of them are gonna just because they knew me. And I can't bear seeing that happen to you as well. So that is why I can't do this."

What? No I'm not letting him go like this. "Hey, listen to me." I grabbed his face turning it towards me. "I know you're scared okay but I know how to handle myself. I know how to protect myself. I promise you I'm now leaving." He leaned his head against mine a tear rolling down his cheek.

"She promised me the same thing." I knew what he was talking about. "I swear I know how to handle myself. And besides you are not the one who gets to decide what I can and can't take on."

He sighed again. "How do you know you'll be able to handle it all." I bit my lip in contemplation. But if I want something with Ace I'm going have to tell him the truth. So I told him, everything. When I finished he had a shocked look but I stopped him from saying anything.

"We both have a lifetime worth of demons but if you stay by me, I'll stay by you and we can fight them together."

"Promise?" He held out his pinky, laughing I linked mine with his, "Promise." He pulled me by the back of my head and kissed me. Both of us smiling into the kiss.

"So um what are we now?" I asked once we separated Ace smirked.

"Well, what would say about being my girlfriend?"

I smiled wide "I'd like that."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

——————————————————— Part 2!!

And two chapters in one day! What?!?

I'm very happy with how I wrapped it all up. Tell me what you guys thought of the chapter.

And do tell me how you all liked Ace's backstory.

See you all soon!

Love you all!💕💕✨✨