~Recap~

Shit. I've been spotted. Shit. Shit. Shit.

I slowly turn around, completely oblivious to what I would be met with. Or rather... who I would be met with...

All my brothers. All of them.

Including Alessandro and Giovanni.

Shit.

~Time reversal to three days before the last chapter where Lila enters the house~

Lorenzo's POV:

Today is the day.

Today is the day when my two oldest brothers come back for good.

I will no longer be the one in charge, but at least I would get a break. All the pressure won't be on me anymore.

Alessandro and Giovanni arrive at 3pm and it's 12 now so I have 3 hours to get the house ready for our oldest brothers' arrival.

They both left a week after our fathers death to help out in the mafia. We are part of the Italian Mafia and our dad was the Capo (boss) however now the title belongs to Alessandro. He had to leave to ensure the transition was smooth and oversea some other changes. Giovanni went with him as his new second in command, leaving me to continue raising the younger siblings. It's been 4 years since we've all seen them and I know my younger brothers are excited but scared. They know the reputation of the oldest Russo siblings and know they are not to be messed with, sibling or not. Well, all know except Lila. Who knows what she thinks of them. She knows nothing of the mafia and why they left, she's oblivious as always.

My youngest brothers have been preparing for their arrival by making themselves as neat as possible. I'm hoping Delilah will have had the sense to have done the same without me warning her to. She can be a nuisance sometimes but at least she stays out the way and quiet. Even now and for the past few weeks, I've barely heard or seen her. Only the occasional horrible passing by where I remember she exists and how she made our lives a living hell. Then, it's back to thinking she was never born. We don't see her, we don't hear her, nothing.

You might be thinking that it's quite harsh. But no. It's not. She ruined our lives. She ruined the lives of me and my brothers. She was responsible for the death of our younger sister Elena, she was responsible for the death of our mother, and she was responsible for the death of our father and therefore responsible for me being forced to become head of the family for the last 4 years. It was all her fault and I will never forgive her.

~Time skip to 3pm when Alessandro and Giovanni are arriving~

Everyone is standing by the door, awaiting the car with our eldest Russo siblings. Everyone is dressed in suits, with slicked back, neat hair, and polished shoes. Everyone is here, except for Delilah.

As always, she is causing a fuss. A mess. She is once again making our lives a living hell. She can't seem to do anything right. I can't believe she's not here right now.

No one can find her or seems to know where she is. Everything was meant to be perfect to show our oldest brothers that I was capable of handling everything here. But no. Lila had to go and ruin everything again.

I hear the car pulling up the drive.

"Delilah Hale Russo. For the last time. Get down here right now!" I shout. Silence is all that follows.

"Has anyone seen her? Where is she?" I ask my younger brothers.

"I've been looking for her around the whole house but I couldn't find her." Rocco replied.

"Well what do we do now? What do we say when Alessandro and Giovanni ask about her?" Elijah asks.

"Let's just hope they won't. It'll be nice without her here anyways. Peaceful and quiet. She's irritating and annoying and angers me to no end. It's not like they won't mind her being missing considered she did kill mom, dad and Elena." Matteo added.

He's right. Let's just hope they won't care. We sure as hell wouldn't.

As soon as I said that, I heard the door knock.

Elijah being the closest to the door opened it, revealing the huge figures of our eldest brothers filling the doorframe.

"Hello there, fratelli. It's good to see you again." Said Alessandro in his usual icy voice. (brothers)

"Likewise, Alessandro." I replied.

As they greeted everyone with a firm handshake, they turned back to face us all.

"So, would someone like to tell me where my sorellina is? Hmmm?" Alessandro asked in the coldest voice I had ever heard. (little sister)

My eyes went wide.

Shit.

Matteo's POV:

Shit.

The look on all my brothers faces is the same.

The entrance is silent, no one wanting to say the wrong thing.

Eventually, my twin speaks. "She's gone to a friends house. Enzo told her to be back before 2:30 but I guess she's tardy as always."

"This is a regular occurrence? I would assume you would have better control over our siblings, Lorenzo? Maybe I shouldn't have trusted you with them." Alessandro's eyed Enzo whilst speaking.

Enzo's eyes went wide. "Of course this is not a regular occurrence. She's... it's her best friends birthday so I told her she could go out and she probably got carried away with her friends." He lied smoothly.

"Hmmmm... I see. I'm guessing you've kept our arrival a secret like we asked? We were hoping on surprising her." Gio replied.

"Of course. She has no idea of your arrival." Replied Enzo.

She's going to freak out.

I haven't talked to her in about a year so I have no clue what her reaction will be. Let's just hope she's well behaved, for all our sakes.

"Good. Now, shall we catch up whilst we wait for our dearest sorellina?" Inquires Alessandro. (little sister)

"Of course." Answers Enzo.

We all follow Alessandro to the kitchen, me and Elijah last.

"Where do you think she is?" I whisper to my twin.

"I've no fucking clue. Enzo's gonna be pissed she isn't here. She's in deep shit, as always. Why can't she just do anything right? It's bad enough that they're here watching our every move, and now we have a missing sister out who knows where doing fuck knows to piss off Enzo." He replies.

I go silent.

I mean, yes she should be here. Yes, she should've listened to whoever told her to be here. But, is she always in trouble? I don't know when the last time I even saw her around was. She's just silent. Like a ghost. It's almost like she's not living here anymore. Maybe she isn't that troublesome.

Before I can voice my opinions, I hear the sharp voice of Enzo go "Matteo, Elijah. Come here."

We enter the kitchen and take our respective seats.

It's strange to see Alessandro at the head of the table again. Whenever I would walk into kitchen, I would only see Enzo sitting on that chair. Not like we had that many family dinners together though. We used to have them all time. That was before Sandro and Gio left though. Now, we don't eat together at all.

"So, how have you all been? What've you been up to?" Inquires Gio.

We all look at each other, not knowing who's going to speak first. After some silent communication, Angelo starts talking. I guess we're going youngest to eldest then.

"We've all been good. I finished school and I'm currently in uni studying History and Linguistics." Angelo answers.

"Hey, that's amazing, Angelo. Well done!" Replies Gio. "What about you, Elijah and Matteo?"

Elijah stares nothing, silently communicating with me to talk.

"We've been good." I start. "I've recently finished my photography course and Elijah's in his third year of med school."

"Congratulations, twins." Replies Alessandro.

We both thank him, knowing his dislike of non-verbal communication. Gosh, some people are so needy hmmm? Why can't he just be like everyone else and nod?

"What about you, Rocco? What have you done since I last saw you? Four years ago you had just dropped out of law school." Alessandro said with a disapproving glance.

"Best decision of my fucking life. Now I've opened my own tattoo place and it's great." Rocco replies in his normal, scary voice.

"That's great, Rocco. However, you know I don't tolerate swearing." Alessandro continues, his intimidating stare darkening.

An awkward, tense silence fills the room, the only thing happening being the intense stare between Alessandro and Rocco.

Eventually, Gio intervened, thank god. "Okaaaaay. Moving on. What about you, Enzo. How was raising these animals."

"Fine. I continued working on the companies here in New York and they are booming once again. All is fine." Enzo replies.

"Good. And since our sorellina isn't here to answer, I will ask you instead. How is she? How has she grown up to be? I hope you have continued raising her well." Alessandro replies in a threatening voice.

He was the closest to Lila before he left. He practically raised her considering our parents did little. She was a mini-Alessandro. She was practically his daughter.

No one knew what to say. I don't think anyone had spoken to her since Alessandro and Giovanni left. That was four years ago as well. Of course, we would occasionally see her around the house when she would venture out of her room to the kitchen of something, but of course we never actually spoke or had a conversation. We just glared at her, ignored her or some of my other brothers argued with her about how she killed our parents and Elena. Of course it was never actually fighting considered she mostly ignored our words with a blank gaze. But to the rest of our brothers, her simply being here was annoying. And I was not prepared to start another fight with them, so I learnt to just go with it. I do miss her though, her infectious laughs, her cuddles, her jumbled thoughts, just her in general. Of course I would never admit this though. My brothers would eat me alive.

Lost in my own thoughts, I'm pulled back to reality by the voice of my twin, who has finally spoken up.

"She's been good. Growing slowly. Talks little. She's good." Elijah replies.

"Hmmm. That's good. Sounds like she's changed. She used to always be talking. She could have a conversation with anybody and make anybody feel instantly happier." Alessandro replies, breaking his cold look with a flash of sadness.

"I guess some things just change." Replied my twin.

I guess some things do just change...

"Okay, well, we've been here an hour. Where is Lila?" Gio asks.

We all look at each other as subtly as possible.

There's no getting out of this one.

"What is it? What are you not telling us?" Alessandro replies, his voice darker than I had heard it before.

"Well, you see..." Enzo starts.

"Hurry up. Spit it out." Alessandro interrupts.

"We don't know. We don't know where she is or when she will be back." Angelo blurts out quickly.

Alessandro's eyes darken, as to Gio's.

"You find her and you bring her home. NOW! IF SHE HAS EVEN ONE SCRATCH ON HER HEAD I SWEAR TO GOD YOU WILL ALL BE IN BIG TROUBLE!" Alessandro shouts. "YOU HAD ONE JOB. TO KEEP HER SAFE. AND YOU FAILED! HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW WHERE SHE IS!"

Fuck.

We are fucked.

Hello! This week has been a bit hectic so sorry for not posting earlier! This chapter is longer because I felt they were too short before :D I am planning to continue this book so don't worry! Here's the next chapter😝 In the next one, Lila will be meeting her brothers properly!!!