Take a good look at the photo here above so you don't have to scroll all your way up in the middle of the chapter <3

Third person

"Welcome, friends, family, loved ones. We're gathered here today to say goodbye to our loved Santiago. We were blessed to have eighteen years with this angel on earth, yet he was needed more in heaven." The priest said as the ceremony started. Everyone dressed in black, the whole Castillo family gather together, the whole place filled with security.

All the Castillo males wore their cold expression, not showing any kind of sadness while the females were trying to stop more tears from falling.

Katie stood next to Calix, Noah, Levi and Hunter. All of them standing behind Isabella. Calix looking constantly at Isabea, checking if she was alright.

The fact that she didn't show any emotions, was terrifying for the five teenagers. Katie knew how his death had affected her, yet it seems like she was following a boring math class.

Isabella, she didn't know what to feel anymore.

Sad? Of course, she lost her brother, her cousin, her family. She felt like a part of her died with him that night, like she was losing herself. Just like she lost him.

Angry? Yes, he could still be alive if it wasn't for Kyra. Santiago would have survived it and they all would laugh about the accident in a few months.

Guilty? Sadly yes, she couldn't help but feel that a part of his death was still her fault. No matter how many times you'll explain to her how Kyra is the one to blame, she will never fully forgive herself.

Why? She has no clue.

Gabriel couldn't understand it, after all these years being locked up and almost giving up hope, he got back to his family only to hear his little buddy died.

He died at eighteen years old

Eight fucking teen.

He knew his daughter blamed herself, everyone did. It killed him to his daughter in so much pain and self destruction.

She needed to get away from here, because the second reality would hit her that he was really gone, she would break down.

And that's when she needed her family. And they would be right behind her.

Angelina was crying non stop, yet Romolo stood there as a statue.

These last days, from getting his brother back to organizing the funeral of his own son was overwhelming. And in the last days he and Angelina did nothing but fight.

It isn't looking good and even his eldest son, Julio sensed it. They weren't fighting over Isabella or Santiago anymore. They were basically fighting about everything and it was slowly driving themselves crazy.

Grandma and grandpa were doing their best the hold their family together. They helped everywhere they could, made sure everyone are enough and had enough sleep.

But for their youngest, it was a different case. She didn't come out of her room the entire time. Everyone was getting worried.

Not only did she had to deal with the realization that Santiago was actually dead, but she had to realize that the woman living right under her nose wasn't the same woman she knew.

It was one of the most difficult things for Isabella to ignore.

The fact that her mother is the exact copy as her abuser. Just imagine what she needs to go through.

She only left her room to train with her friends, too afraid is she'll train with the family she'll see her mother.

She found herself a coward, weak and pathetic. She couldn't even look at her own mother without Santing to throw up or cry.

Speaking of Kiara, Kyra and Logan their trial has been finished after lang weeks.

But unfortunately, they have been killed by someone unknown.

Wonder who that was.

I'm sure the Castillo's had their fun. Especially Lorenzo, Romolo, Grandma and Gabriel.

Another thing Isabella couldn't wrap her head around, her father was alive.

She tried, she really tried to open up to her family but the guilt was rating her away and she needed time to think.

Think what the hell she was going to do next. No matter where she likes there were painful memories and it haunted her like a shadow.

She focused on drawing, training, Apollo, sleep and eating. The only things that kept her sane and stopping her from thinking too much.

She didn't hear a thing they said in the ceremony. She was lost in thoughts, not paying any attention. She didn't hear other people's last words nor did she hear Katie whisper at her.

It was only until Emilio put his hand in her shoulder she knew it was time.

Time for her speech she had prepared.

She slowly walks to the front and placed her papers on the little tablet in front of her to read.

She stared at her speech for a few minutes before taking a deep breath.

"I think I've known Santiago the shortest of us all. But the thing was, time didn't really matter. Even if we had known each other for seven years, he would still treat me the same. That's what he does, he doesn't treat you different." She said, taking a breath as she sensed tears coming up. Gabriel smiled with a tear rolling down his cheek as he watched his daughter fight her tears to say her last words to her brother.

"I remember jumping off a cliff for him." She said and multiple people gasped as the whole family giggled. Calix, Noah, Levi and Hunter looked at each other confused while Katie just giggled.

"It's an OG thing." She whispered a d they all roller her eyes as she smiled at their faces.

"I didn't know I would jump into a little lake and everything would be fine but he never stopped rubbing the fact that I jumped after him not knowing if it would be safe or not in my brother's faces." She said with a small smile as a single tear escapes her eyes. All the brothers remembering the memories and smiling at them.

Bruno and Luca -the youngest brothers- couldn't hold back their tears as they hugged their older brothers and broke down.

Sergio was comforting Bruno, holding back his own tears. He never saw Bruno cry and it only made things worse.

Matteo hugged Luca, rubbing his back as his own tears rolled down on his cheeks, not holding them back anymore. Luca hugged him right, almost as he was afraid he would also disappear and leave him.

"So when he jumped after me, not knowing it was safe or not-" she said taking a break from speaking as her voice broke. "-it felt like that moment all over again. Only he wasn't as lucky as I was. I think I'm never going to be able to wrap my head around the fact that my crazy brother Santiago is gone forever." She said as her voice broke more and more. More people started crying and sobbing as she went on.

Isabella herself was struggling not to break down, no words were coming from her mouth as she tried to find her voice back.

A hand touched her shoulder and she looked back right into those trusted eyes.

Romolo.

He held her shoulder, a sign that he was right behind her and it was enough for Isabella to keep going.

"I'm also never going to be able to say goodbye to you, Santiago. Thank you for saving my life, and I'm not only talking about the car accident. Because honestly I don't know what I would have done if I never met the people I call family. If I never got saved myself." Isabella whispered. Her whole family not saying a thing, not knowing what to say.

Isabella can't even think if her family never found her, if she never was saved from that shit hole she used to call home.

"I'm sorry I couldn't safe you too." She whispered, only Romolo heard it as he squeezed her shoulder softly. They had eye contact and smiled softly at each other.

"I'll see you again, brother." She said as she kissed his coffin with tears rolling down her cheeks. "Rest in piece brother, you deserve it. And don't worry, I'll keep your lucky game console safe." She said and sad chuckles were heard all over the place. Right after she said the words she broke down and Romolo hugged her.

"That was beautiful, Isabella. Thank you." He whispered as he strikes her hair. He lifted her up and walked to his chair, putting her on his lap, her face in his neck and her tears rolling down his back.

She simply couldn't hold back any longer.

It pained everyone to see Isabella like this. She never fully broke down in front of them, always hid a part of her pain, most of the time she hit all of it.

Everyone knew it were hard times for the family but even harder for Isabella.

The ceremony ended fast after that and everyone dropped a lila rose on his grave after he got buried.

Lila

The first word Santiago ever said, the last thing he saw before fully leaving his family.

It was a somber day, The sky dark and filled with clouds. It could start raining any minute, almost as the weather could feel the sadness of the family and reflecting it.

Everyone got into the cars and no one said a thing the whole ride home.

Even when everyone was sitting in the kitchen, no said or did a thing.

"It's almost summer." Luigi said.

"Don't remind us we have one more month school to go." Cameron whined.

"I'll sort everyone's schools out. We're flying to Italy tomorrow." He said and everyone gasped.

"What? How do you mean?" Grandma asked.

"Let's be real here, there are no good memories left here. They're all consumed by bad ones. Nothing is keeping us here anymore so why not go back to Italy. Gabriel and his family can come live there again." He shrugged.

"Its sounds good to me if everyone else is fine with it." Gabriel said and Kiara nodded.

"Sure, we can easily shift to another country." Lorenzo said and Emilio and Matteo joined him.

"All our friends are here, out football team..." Riccardo and Rodrigo said.

"Although its only a month we're missing, a month more vacation and we make new friends pretty fast." Riccardo thought out loud.

"And we really do need a fresh start and it's way closer to the fam." Rodrigo said and sighed.

"We're in." The twins said together with a small smile.

"Isabella?" Gabriel asked his daughter.

Isabella looked at the ground, weighting her options. Is she ready to leave everything behind? Even her friends? Even Katie? "I'm not leaving Katie. Not Noah, or Levi or Hunter or Calix. They were there when you weren't, I'm not backstabbing them." She said, still her eyes on the ground. Even the thought of leaving them behind made her want to puke.

"What do you mean when we weren't here?" Kiara asked curious, trying her best not to push her daughter. It broke her heart knowing her own daughter couldn't even look at her without being reminded of what her sister had done to her. She understood her though, she didn't even want to think of the things she has been through. She's still going through.

"Are we missing something?" Gabriel asked, now paying even more attention to his daughter. He couldn't let those words slip. Family was there for you whenever, wherever.

"We made some huge mistakes while you were, dead." Matteo said as he nervously scratched his arm.

"I did." Lorenzo said. He was done playing hide and seek. He had to face his action, one of them being the worst thing he has ever done. Doubting his sister.

"Not everything went smoothly when she returned. One of the biggest things was me asking to do a DNA-test because we didn't believe mom would- Kyra would abuse her." He said looking his father and mother right in the eyes.

Gabriel was furious.

"Okay, little recap. She told you about her painful past, and you asked her to do a DNA-test?" He asked with raised eyebrows.

"Pretty much." Emilio said as he shrugged and got some pickle chips. "I didn't though."

"Neither did we." Grandpa and Romolo said as they stood back to back, arms crossed. They both put on their sunglasses on the same time and Gabriel was closing his eyes, trying not to laugh at his older triplet and his father being idiots.

"Good to know, Emilio boy, could you take your sister away for a few minutes?" Gabriel said, his gaze fixed on his family, mostly Lorenzo. Lorenzo was pissing his pants.

"His sister can do that herself." Isabella said as she walked away, not ready to deal with this.

"Princess, wait!" Grandpa said. Isabella turned around and looked at grandpa with a small smile.

Princess.

"What about Italy?" He asked, not to pry, just a actual question.

"I'm not giving up my friends. Point." She said as she turned around and walked away from the situation.

Emilio jogged after her, a bowl of snacks in his hand and his laptop with netflix in the other hand. He was ready to cheer his little loca up.

"Explain. Right. Now." Gabriel spit as he saw his daughter was away.

"That was it father, no excuse it going to be good enough for that." Lorenzo said.

"You disappointed me, son. You did that to your sister- have you any idea what she's been through?!" Gabriel yelled.

"Believe me I know!" He yelled back.

"Well apparently you don't. So, you're going on a break, thinking about your mistakes." Gabriel said.

"He already did that, trust me, he knows how big of an idiot he is." Romolo said as he punched Lorenzo's shoulder playfully. Lorenzo thought about the thing Romolo did to him for doing that.

"Someone needs to get your head out of your ass." Romolo shrugged as Lorenzo sighed. Romolo grabbed his gun and without thinking shot his left foot. Lorenzo screamed of the pain that went through it.

"Stop being a little kid, it's just a pain simulator." Romolo rolled his eyes.

"I've had plenty of bullets inside me, but this hurts way more." Lorenzo said as he fell to the ground, not being able to stand on his foot anymore.

"Oh yeah, I put it on five bullets at a time. Silly me!" Romolo fake gasped and Lorenzo groaned. "She's your sister, you idiot." Romolo spat with narrowed eyes. "What the hell were you thinking?!"

"I don't know okay! I- I hate myself for it." Lorenzo said as he tried to ease the pain.

Mental pain, not the bullet pain.

"Stop hating yourself and do something about it. It's never too late until you give up." He said as he pulled Lorenzo back on his feet. Then he slapped him.

"Where's the American mafia Don everyone fears? Where is the man I saw in you when you stepped up and took care of your brothers?"

"He died when I saw Isabella's face after the DNA-test." Lorenzo whispered.

"Well tell the guy to get his ass up and come back to life or I'll do it myself." Romolo said as he smacked the back of his head.

"Stop being a whiny girl and act like a damn Castillo. Face your mistakes and solve them. And do it fast." Romolo said as he took a step back.

"That's it? You're going to let me get off with that?" Lorenzo asked. Confused why Romolo hasn't done anything bad bad. The pain was bad, but not Romolo bad bad.

"Oh no, you also get this." As he opened the door and grandma stepped in with her rolling pin.

"Lesson one. Family never lies." She said as she stepped closer and Lorenzo gulped.

Grandma was a scary woman.

"Why?" She asked.

"Because family is everything." Lorenzo said and grandma smacked him with her rolling pin.

"No, because I said so." She said and Romolo had to fought back a smile.

"We might grow all in other directions, but our roots are the same. It connects us and we protect that connection at all times. Nothing comes between it." She said.

"Now why is that?" She asked again.

"Because you said so;" Lorenzo said and grandma smacked him again.

"No because family is everything" She smiled evilly.

Lorenzo had to 'follow' twelve lessons of family.

Lies, trust, happiness, siblings, strength, love, forgiveness, accepting, emotions, unspoken rules, respect and the final exam.

Surprisingly Lorenzo passed it, much to grandma's dismiss. Lorenzo looked at his left foot thinking about the memories. He was surprised he didn't had a concussion from all the smacking.

"When everything is settled and we're in Italy, or we don't go to Italy at all and stay here, I'll handle you. Right now, I need to talk to my daughter." He said. Before he left the room he turned around.

"This is not over yet, for all of you." he said, glaring at every person in the room except Romolo, grandpa, grandma, Kiara and Luigi.

He left the room and everyone could breath again. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gabriel came to a stop right in front of his daughter's room.

His daughter's room.

He stood in front of her room and she was actually in it... he was smiling from ear to ear thinking about it. He softly knocked on the door but he heard no response. He pressed his ear closer to the door as he heard some muffled sounds.

As Gabriel opened the door and looked through it, he saw Emilio and Isabella cuddling together as they watched a movie. He smiled as he watched their bond. He noticed she was wearing the hoodie he gave to Matteo and smiled.

This was what he always dreamed about.

Emilio pulled Isabella closer to him as he felt a lonely tear escape her eye again. He's been holding her every night like this and every night she only lets one tear escape. He knew how bad she was struggling and it hurt him he couldn't do anything about it.

As much as he loved Katie and her friends, he knew everything here remembered her of bad memories. Including the one time he drugged her to get answer, god he would have done it so much different if he only knew then what he knew now.

He's never been so proud on himself for standing up to Lorenzo when they did the DNA-test. That one decision changed so much, if he hadn't done it, their bond would be nonexistent. They were watching her new favorite french movie 'Un monstre à Paris' (A monster in Paris) She smiled when her favorite scene came and forgot about all the problems and drama around her.

Emilio saw that her attention was on the movie now and looked around, stopping as he locked eyes with his father. Isabella noticed, yet didn't dare to move. She couldn't.

How in god's name could she face her father?

Gabriel smiled softly at Emilio and he smiled back. A moment where no words were needed.

Love.

Gabriel slowly walked to his daughter and put a hand on her shoulder, she looked up and he smiled softly at her.

"Let's talk, Gabriella." Isabella's eyes lighted up when he called her by her second name. The name, named after her father, the person who stood right in front of her.

Isabella looked at Emilio and he nodded. She kissed his forehead and hugged him one last time.

"Grazie Fratello. (Thank you brother)" She whispered and he smiled. Her pronunciation was hilarious, yet adorable. We'll work on that, Emilio and Gabriel thought as they smiled at Isabella trying to stand without the blanket falling of her.

Gabriel walked his daughter to his office. The nerves were growing inside Isabella but she didn't show it.

"Take a seat, kiddo." He said as he leaned against the wall. "Katie has convinced her mother to also work for us, she's being trained as we speak." He dropped the bomb and Isabella's mouth went slightly open before she closed it again.

"They both work for us now?" She whispered and Gabriel nodded.

"We gave Nikolas and Calix two new places in Italy. One for their home and one for their business. Noah is ready to move to Italy with his little brother, Levi agreed the second we said Italy and Hunter's big brother lives in Italy. We got Hunter, Levi and Noah a house to live in. They wanted to live together so we arranged that." He explained and Isabella could only listen with wide eyes.

"It's your call, if you want to stay, we'll stay. If you want to leave, we're leaving tomorrow." Gabriel said with a soft smile.

Isabella thought of it. Every person she loved was ready to move for her and she needed to leave this place. She couldn't lie to herself.

The headquarters of Sofia's business that was now on her name was also in Italy, so she didn't need some more time to think of her decision. She knew it from the moment he said her friends were moving with her without problems.

"Nothing is keeping me instead of these people." Isabella said, looking through the window. "I'm in."

"Are you sure, we're only doing it if you're 100% sure." Gabriel said, not wanting to pressure her into anything.

"I'm sure, let's move to Italy." She smiled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



"Santiago's body just arrived in Italy. Our men are taking care of it." Julio said.

"Couldn't we thought of moving his body to Italy before the funeral?" Vito asked no one in particular. Isabella checked her phone and saw she had no new messages.

"Nope." Emilio shrugged as he played a game on his phone.

"The pilot called, everyone's ready for our arrival. Let's wrap it up and leave this place." Grandma said as she entered and everyone nodded.

Isabella looked around her. The whole place was filled with brown moving boxes, all getting carried out by men who wore the same jacket.

A dark brown jacket, looked warm on the inside. It had their position on the back written in black and the icon of the Italian and American mafia on the front pocket.

She liked the idea, having matching jackets in the mafia, it made her laugh. Most of the men who were carrying the boxes had 'Soldier' on the back. Some had Sotto Regime on it, the person above 200 soldiers.

There were four people walking around, coordinating the whole situation with Capo Regime on their back. They were boss of ten Sotto Regimes, two thousand soldiers.

Grandpa told me there was also an upper Capo Regime, the best Capo Regime you could say that had a little more power than an usual Capo Regime.

Then you had the underboss and his right hand and then the Don and his right hand.

Lorenzo explained the American mafia had four upper Capo Regimes and thirty normal Capo Regimes. About 68 thousand and three hundred men.

Romolo told me the Italian mafia had three upper Capo Regimes and sixty-two normal Capo Regimes. Around 130 thousand and six hundred people.

They explained it was a rough guess as they were usually more than 2000 soldiers under a Sotto Regime and you didn't count the spies, undercovers, dealers, hackers, lawyers, police men and so on.

Anyways, there were three Capo Regimes walking around.

"Hey, Bella, say to that guy over there were almost leaving." Romolo smiled and Isabella raised her eyebrow.

"Okay...?"

She slowly walked to the person who was shouting orders. You could sense his powerful aura from a mile away. This was definitely a Capo Regime.

"Excuse me, I just came to say- you?!" Isabella said. Shocked midway her sentence as the person turned around.

"'sup Isabella." Hunter laughed. His demanding personality changing as he saw one of his best friends. They haven't known each other long but they got along pretty fast. They understood each other without saying a word and Isabella knew Hunter was definitely one of those friends that would stick around for the rest of their lives.

"You're a Capo Regime?" She asked shocked.

"Jup." He said with a small smile. He looked to his left.

"Oi! You two, get to work!" He shouted and Isabella flinched. She was used to Hunter being the silent one.

"I swear to god." He mumbled underneath his breath and Isabella chuckled.

"I came to tell you we're almost leaving." She said and he nodded.

"Tell Capo I'll stay until everything is done, you guys go ahead." Isabella nodded and waved her goodbye.

"I'll see you in Italy." She said as she walked backwards.

"See you there." He said and turned around.

Isabella gave the thumps up to Gab- to her father and he smiled back. He pointing his head towards the door, saying they're leaving and she walked until she was next to him.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Ready." She breathed out.

"ITALY HERE WE COME BITCHES!" Luca yelled as he lifted his fist in the air as he jumped.

Isabella couldn't wait for the long plane ride to be over and to be in Italy. Standing on the grounds her family grew up on.

She knew leaving this place was the right decision, the only decision. She checked her phone and saw she had one new message.

Katie- Arrived in Italy, I've already checked out the men here, they have literally the perfect face the punch :))

Isabella laughed at the text Katie sent her and entered the car with a smile on her face. She held the door opened and counted to five.

Right on the number five Apollo came running and sat on her lap with his on her shoulder. She stroked his back and he closed his eyes.

She was ready to move on from all the drama. Now that was all done, she could focus more on her friends and family. Mostly she could focus on herself. Romolo had explained she could easily become an upper Capo Regime with some training.

She was ready to become upper Capo Regime of the Italian mafia and CEO of Sofia's Empire, soon becoming Isabella's Empire.

She was ready to become Isabella fucking Castillo.







Okay, wrote this one on my phone, sorry for the dutch grammar correction, I'm blaming my phone.

The names, Sotto Regime... are all from google, some of them are made up and the numbers are made up as well.

Hope you liked this chapter, I'll see you in next one.

Decided there will be like two more chapters and maybe a bonus chapter.

Also, I started writing the sequel :)

Now me is gone because I have exams tomorrow and only wrote this chapter so i'm in deep shit.



BYE LOVE XX