"There is no force more powerful than a woman determined to rise." -Unknown

~Recap~

Damn I've never made a mafia don beg so quickly before. "I guess it didn't go through you're thick skull before but I hope it does now. I was no where of you're concern. You left. And if you can do it for three years with no contact, you have no right to ask me where I went for the past week. And I told you before. It's Delilah." I stated in a cold, harsh voice. He looks visibly taken back by my cold voice and unchanged demeanour but quickly replaces his face with one of anger and disapproval.

"I already told you. I don't appreciate the sarcasm, Delilah." He answers coldly. "And if you won't tell me where you were, then you would have no problem being grounded for the next two weeks, would you? Now, hand over your keys and"

"The hell are you on about." I cut him off, ignoring his fuming glare. "You can't ground me for shit. You're not my guardian, not anymore. And I did nothing wrong!" I argue.

Alessandro and Giovanni glance at each other, speaking unspoken words.

"That's where you're wrong, Delilah. He is your guardian. As of three days ago." Lorenzo speaks up from the door. Shit. I didn't even hear him come in.

Wait. Shit. HE'S my guardian? Wait. How long does that mean he's here for? What the fuck is going on?

Sensing my clear confusion, Alessandro speaks up. "He's right. As of my return, you're guardianship has been transferred back to me. I am your new guardian and therefore you have to listen to me now. I will tolerate no more of this running away. No more of this backchat. And no more of this not answering my questions. You will listen to me and you will now face your punishments. Two. Weeks. Of grounding. Starting now. You WILL not be allowed out of the house, you WILL not be allowed to watch TV, and you will not be allowed to sneak off anymore. Do. I. Make. Myself. Clear?" He asks furiously.

With that, I stormed up off the chair, leaving it to screech behind me. "Listen here and listen closely. I will not answer to you, guardianship or not. I do not care for your rules or punishments and I do not care for whatever you say. I will go wherever I like, do whatever I like, whenever I like. And I don't care what you say, no matter how many times you say it, I will not tell you where I was or where I go." With that, I stormed out of his office, or attempted to storm out, however when I reached the door, Lorenzo moved in front of it. "Move. Now." I snarled angrily, death staring him. He seemed visibly startled by my cold expression, before replacing his blank gaze. He continued to stare at me, before Giovanni cleared his throat and he moved aside. With that, I ripped open the door and slammed it on the way out, shaking the whole house in my wake.

~Now~

Two little girls, aged 5, play in a beautiful park.

Identical. They are identical. WE were identical.

Me. Me and Lena. Elena. Elena Russo. My twin.

We were the ones the Russian Mafia were looking for. The princesses of the Italian Mafia.

And we were about to be abducted.

Our mother, Amelie Russo, was hobbling onto a bench, looking suddenly faint. Me and Lena had no clue about any of this, how could we? We were only 5. We continued playing, unaware of the black dots filling her vision. Eventually, she reached the bench and collapsed into it, barely keeping consciousness. However, in the next few minutes she was catching her breath, men in black masks and outfits came out of the bushes and from behind trees and grabbed us, covering our mouths with cloths of chloroform, knocking us out. And of course they had waited until the park was isolated, having already knocked the guards out earlier. With that, they tossed us into vans and took us away, not to be seen again by the outside world for 2 years.

Those two years were the longest of my life. The longest of our lives.

That moment, it ruined us. It ruined me. And I will never be the same.

Gasping, I shot up out of bed, breaths heavy. I check the time, 2:38am. I had gotten about 20 minutes of sleep. Better than nothing, I guess.

I replay the conversation from Alessandro's office in my head again.

New guardian. New rules. Running away.

It's all too much. I can't deal with it. I can't.

Exhaustion overtakes my body once again, my dark under eyes darkening further.

I decide against getting some water to calm my beating heart, not wanting to run into any of my brothers mere hours from going to Alessandro's office.

I had decided to crash at my room at my childhood home instead of leaving, just to avoid any more of these conversations of my whereabouts and to wait until my head was clearer. I am starting to think it will never be clearer.

So now, that leaves me with limited options on what to do with my free time. Of course I could sneak out from the window like I have done many times before, however that takes a lot of effort, a lot of effort I do not have considering I haven't slept for more than a couple hours total in the past 2 weeks. And I can't risk running into another brother by leaving through my door, so that leaves me with keeping myself entertained in my room.

I decide to just do some work to get a head start on the day. I can already tell that today will be eventful.

I check my emails, scan and send over the new designs, fix venues for my next event, and by that time it's already 7:49am. Just as I'm finishing my last email, I hear a knock on my door.

Hand flinching for my gun stowed away under my pillow, I shout a "Come in" from my bed where I had chosen to sit to do my work.

As I say that, Lorenzo enters my room, stopping at the doorway. Surprise graces my face but is covered by my blank facade as I loosen my hold of my gun, slipping it firmly back under my pillow.

"What do you want?" I ask coldly.

"Due to our older brothers' arrival, they have insisted on having a family breakfast. They expect us all down at 8. You WILL NOT be late, and you WILL NOT embarrass us. Just sit quietly and let this breakfast finish as quickly as possible, do I make myself clear?" He says quietly but coldly, probably trying to not get overheard by our eldest brothers.

"I'll be there, but I can't promise I'll stay silent." I say in return.

With that, he turns to leave. As he is about to shut the door, he says "And Delilah, don't even think about saying anything about us and the past four years. You say ANYTHING bad about us and you WILL be sorry." And with that, he turns and shuts the door.

Such a prick. I will not listen to their threats. I could probably take them down in a few seconds.

Sighing once again, I decide I should get ready for breakfast. I think about not going, but decide that if I don't go, I risk the fact that they may come get me, forcing me to converse more with them.

I chuck on some clean beige trousers from my closet, as well as a white polo neck T-shirt and my usual jewellery.



Then, I grab my phone and my gun before tucking the gun away in my holster, hidden from view, and heading out of my room.

I check that all my tattoos had been covered, before walking down the stairs towards the kitchen.

Hearing a few voices downstairs, I assume I am not the first to the kitchen.

I traipse down the long staircase, before strutting my normal, powerful walk into the kitchen.

"Good morning, sweetheart." Giovanni says as I enter.

I raise my eyebrow at the weird affectionate name. "Morning." I say back coldly.

I go straight for the coffee maker and turn it on before jumping to grab a mug from the way too high shelf. Then, I place it under the coffee machine and wait for my much needed coffee. Whilst it's brewing, I look around the kitchen, seeing only my eldest three brothers and my youngest brother at the table.

"Where's the others?" I question with a raise of an eyebrow.

"Late. They're all coming though." Giovanni replies.

From the other side of the table, Lorenzo death stares me, sending me a message to stay quiet. Am I going to listen? Abso-fucking-lutely not. If I have anything to say, I'm going to fucking say it. I glare back in return and he looks visibly startled by my sudden cold glare.

"Everything okay, Enzo?" Alessandro asks.

"Everything's fine. Why wouldn't it be?" He replies.

"No reason." Alessandro looks at me whilst he's saying this, probably having seen the reaction between me and Lorenzo. I wonder what he and Giovanni know about us now. What the relationship is like between us all in the house. What lies has he been told?

After a few minutes, my coffee is ready and I head over to the main table to sit down with them. One by one, my other brothers trickle into the kitchen, not surprised by my sudden appearance, meaning they were probably told I had arrived last night.

I gaze around the kitchen as I wait for someone to speak. The kitchen consists of an island with some chairs near the door, and then as you get more into the room, there is a large table that can seat 10 people, four on each side and two on the ends.



A/N This is how the kitchen looks roughly. Alessandro's seat stays in the same place all the time but the rest of the sibling's places change often.

Eventually, we were all seated round the kitchen table. Alessandro sat at the head, where he seemed to have claimed his permanent seat. On his right sat Giovanni and on his left sat Lorenzo. Next to Lorenzo sat Angelo and next to Giovanni sat me. On the other side of me sat Rocco and opposite us sat Matteo and Elijah.

As soon as we were all sitting, we begin to fill up our plates with food from the table in front of us. There was a platter of fruits, some toast, some eggs, sausages, bacon, mushrooms, roasted tomatoes and a jar of Nutella.

I grabbed a piece of toast and spread some Nutella onto it before grabbing some strawberries, blueberries and cut up banana pieces.

"Is that all you're eating?" Alessandro asks me, breaking the silence.

All of a sudden, all seven pairs of eyes were on me. I death stare him. "Yes. I'm not that hungry." I reply coldly.

"You need to eat more. You're tiny and it's not good for your health." He answers.

"I. Don't. Care. I already told you. I'm. Not. Hungry." I reply in the coldest voice I can muster. I see a couple of chills around the room.

Alessandro's eyes flash in surprise before he sighs in annoyance at my disobedience and sarcasm.

He opens his mouth, about to say something, before Giovanni glares at him, probably trying to keep this breakfast civil and calm by getting Sandy to drop the subject.

No. Not Sandy. Alessandro. No attachments. No nicknames. No nothing.

Giovanni clears his throat. "Erm... how was everyone's sleep?" He questions.

No one replies.

Everyone looks like they have better places to be. I have better places to be.

God why did I even come down here for fucks sake.

"Good. How was yours." I hadn't even realised Angelo had replied until I heard Giovanni respond from next to me.

"Good thanks." He clears his throat at the awkward silence that followed.

The only sounds that could be heard in the kitchen were the munching of toasts and the scraping of knives and forks.

After I had eaten half a piece of toast, Alessandro and Giovanni stood up. "Okay, well, we've got to go to work, but we'll see you all later." Alessandro says. He stops and looks at me, as though he wants to do something.

Eventually, he's staring for too long, causing me to raise my right eyebrow and break his trance.

He clears his throat again before abruptly leaving.

After we hear the front door close, all hell breaks loose...

"Why. The. Fuck. Are. They. Here." I seethe, looking directly at Lorenzo.

"Do NOT use that language in this house Delilah Hale Russo. And do NOT use that attitude with me. They are here to return home." He replies in a cold tone.

Rocco and Matteo are glaring at me, whilst Elijah and Angelo are looking elsewhere, trying to avoid the conflict.

"Where the hell where you anyways. You left the house for DAYS and told no one, leaving us to find out from Alessandro and Giovanni that you've been here for only a few minutes in a month. What the fuck!" Rocco shouts.

"I was out." I reply.

"Well maybe you should've just stayed out then." He shouts.

With that, I rise from my seat and storm out the room, about to walk out the front door.

"If you even think about opening that door young lady you are in big trouble. There are guards stationed at every exit and they will drag you back in kicking and screaming. Not to mention you were grounded last night!" Lorenzo shouts from the kitchen.

I sigh in anger and storm up the stairs to my room, annoyance flooding through my veins.

I don't care that he doesn't want me in the house. I don't. Right?

Hello, dear reader!

Back again with another chapter! Hope you enjoy!😝

Will hopefully be updating again soon!😆

Have a good week! And let me know what you thought of this chapter!