SALVATORE'S POV

"Hey Alina. Is it ok if we have a chat?" I ask her.

She hesitantly nods in reply.

I make my way over and sit next to her on her bed and prepare myself for this conversation.

I wipe my hands in my trousers and clear my throat before starting.

She's silent as I tell her everything from our secret business that's covered up by our legal one that she's aware of.

I stop before continuing as I reach the worst part.

I tell her how I've hurt and killed bad people.

I make sure I emphasise that it's only bad people that I hurt and kill. Bad people like Emma and Jason.

I make sure to tell her that I've never killed anyone innocent and that I never will.

She's silent for a while after I finish.

"How do you know if they are innocent or not?" she whispered.

I was silent at that.

"Well it's not like we take random people off of the streets and hurt them just because we can. We wouldn't hurt or kill peoples family members in order to try and lure our enemies out. We usually have evidence around them being guilty" I reply.

"And what if you don't have that?" She asks me.

"Have what?"

"Proof. What if you confuse someone guilty up with someone innocent. And....and what if someone was drug dealing or working for some bad people because they've got a child at home that they're trying to support. And then..you kill them thinking you're doing good when actually you're not" she said all in one breath.

"Um well I've never thought of it that way" I told her truthfully.

Sure we do take some things into consideration, like people being forced into the work and such.

"Will you hurt me?" Alina asked out of nowhere.

I turn to to make eye contact with my daughter.

"Never! Please don't ever think that. I understand that you might see me as a monster but don't ever think that, please!" I urged her.

My heart can barely manage her hating me, but her thinking I'd ever hurt her; that destroyed me inside.

"I don't hate you Dad, I understand that a mafia life is dangerous and that many of the things you've done would have been to protect the business, yourself and our family" she said.

"I will accept all of this on one condition" she continued.

My heart swelled up with pride. Tears were running down my cheeks at the fact that my daughter didn't hate me.

"Yes anything, anything at all" I said happy to agree to anything for her.

"You let me see everyone you catch or bring in. I get to talk to them, with you in the room of course. I want to get to know who they are and what they've deal is to see what they actually deserve. Deal?" She asked as she stuck her hand out.

I took her hand in mine, as soon as I did I began sobbing as I held onto her.

She was truly an angel.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————

ALINA' S POV

I'm back at this hellhole way too soon.

I feel eyes on me as I walk in, as I'm the new girl to almost everyone here.

I try and hobble as quick as I can across the courtyard to class but it still takes a while.

I had to peel my brothers away from me this morning as none of them would leave me.

Apparently I needed another couple of weeks off in their opinions just so I would heal properly.

I knew that they were all walking on thin ice around me, especially after they found out I knew of their business and that I was ok with it.

I don't think they actually believed I did, especially from the scared looks I was getting from them. I think they thought I hated them and was going to snap at them at any given moment.

I don't think Dad told them of our deal, because I doubt they'd be this happy with it.

I'm pretty sure my mom knew thought.

I looked at my schedule before I had left to know that I have maths first.

I pray that those girls aren't in the class.

It's wishful thinking, I know.

The bag on my back was not helping me stay upright on my crutches.

I had taken the brace off of my shoulder this morning because it hurt a lot more trying to manoeuvre it even whilst using these special crutches.

My ribs were still wrapped and my cast was painfully obvious.

I signed in defeat as I stopped to adjust my bag for the second time in the span of 3 minutes.

I should have taken Adrian's deal, instead I sped off from all of my brothers when we left the car this morning.

I wanted an attention free morning. I got enough of it as the new kid anyway. I didn't want everyone in school to see my brothers fussing over every little thing.

I start my way to class again, but get knocked into by someone.

I wobble but manage to stay upright.

"Dude, use your eyes!" I said whilst sighing trying to adjust myself as I eyed the blue eyed boy in front of me.

I took my meds this morning but a hunk of muscle knocking into you doesn't help.

"Excuse me?"

"Are you blind or something?" I asked him. "I was walking and you bumped right into me!"

I was annoyed to say the least. I didn't want to be back in school and someone running into me doesn't help.

"Excuse me?. I'm not the crippled one. Maybe you should get your eyes checked." He replied hiding a smirk.

"No thank you, my eyes are fine. You on the other hand should get your feet looked at, it's obvious you have two left feet, explaining why you bumped into me." I replied smiling when I saw his smirk leave his face.

I hobble away, but not before adding another comment.

I couldn't help myself.

"I hope you're able to find your way out of the courtyard before the end of the day so we don't have this encounter again later"

I couldn't help but laugh to myself as I saw his bright ocean blue eyes tighten as his face morphed into one of an annoyed expression. Not a smirk in sight.

Although it wasn't long before my smile faded as well as I finally reached my class.

I'm not as worried today as I shared my schedule with my brothers.

Adrian said he'd definitely meet me after my classes and the others might if they can.

I hobble in to the classroom and make my way over to my teacher, hoping that I can move seats.

Luckily there were only a couple of people in class, and none of them were Lucia and her friends.

The teacher notices me first and comes over to me which I'm thankful for.

"Alina, are you ok? What happened?" She asked looking shocked at the state I was in.

"I took a tumble whilst I was skateboarding last week, and I managed to break my foot." I replied.

"Oh, well I hope you're feeling ok." She said looking at me sympathetically.

"We'll that's what I wanted to speak to you about. Is there anyway I could-"

"Do not worry! I will make sure that you have some help with your bags and such. I have just the right person in mind." She said straight away.

She was being too helpful.

I don't want help, I want to move seats.

I'm about to tell her that but she'd already started talking again.

"There she is! Lucia could you please come over here please!?" She asks her "I can think of no one better to help you" she tells me.

My body freezes up.

That is the last person I want to see. The whole reason I wanted to move seats was to get away from her.

Lucia stands next to me and I can feel the sweat dripping down my back.

"Do you think you could take care of Alina today, with her bag and such seeing as she's injured?" The teacher asks.

I know I should say something but I physically can't.

"Of course I can. I'd be honoured!" Lucia replied with such a fake voice, it scared me.

"That's amazing, thank you Lucia." The teacher said before making her way back to her desk to wait for the rest of the kids to come in.

I stayed rooted in my spot before Lucia stepped on my good foot indicating for me to follow.

I realised that it was because our teacher was watching us.

We finally made it into our seats, where I had to pass by her friends who gave me stinkers.

They luckily didn't do anything else, so I sat down as quick as I could.

Our teacher started the lesson, and I got out everything I needed.

As I faced forward I realised that everyone including Lucia was using smooth, inky pens.

My pens.

I was stuck with the ones i had before I moved to Italy.

They worked but they weren't the same.

I refused to ask my mom for more because that would lead to questions. Ones I didn't know how or want to answer.

One of Lucia's friends caught me staring at the pen as she smirked at me whilst mouthing about how good it wrote.

I faced away from them and focused on the lesson.

My mood kind of lifted as I got back into the swing of maths.

I didn't dare put my hand up to answer questions as I was not taking any chances.

I know what you're thinking, you're family is literally apart of the mafia, I'm sure they could sort this out.

They could, but I refuse to let them know how weak I am.

I don't want them to know that I can't stand up for myself because I'm a scaredy cat.

Plus, I can't have my family fight all of my battles for me.

I refuse.

Would people even like me if they found out that my family was in the mafia?

I didn't want to make my life more complicated by bringing my family into this.

I'm 14, I can fight my own battles with school problems.

I think.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Math wrapped up pretty quickly, and I rolled my eyes at Lucia answering every question.

It is what it is.

I started packing up when I got cornered.

"If you dare open your mouth about last week, we'll do so much worse!" Lucia threatened.

I gulped and nodded.

"It seems you're learning. Keep this up for the rest of the year, and we want hassle you too much"

She took my bag before leading me out of class and saying goodbye to our teacher.

Suck up.

As soon as we were outside of the classroom she threw my bag across the corridor before leaving.

I signed in relief to be rid of her presence.

I looked around the corridor before hobbling quickly to retrieve my bag before Adrian came.

I was just in time as I saw him speed walking around the corner.

He smiled at me before taking my bag from me.

My personal knight .

"What do you have next?" He asks.

"I think History. What do you have?"

"I've got English. It's annoying not having any lessons together. I'll make sure to ask if my timetable can be changed." He said.

I nodded happily in reply. I'd love for him to share some classes with me.

We reached my class quicker than I wanted to.

We said our goodbyes and I was reluctant to let him leave.

I know I can't just skip school for the rest of my life.

There was no teacher in the class so I made my way to the back trying not to make eye contact with everyone staring at me.

——————————————————————————————- "Hey!" A voice said to the left of me after I had sat down.

I saw a girl with striking blonde hair and blue eyes next to me.

She had a smile on her face that actually seemed genuine.

"Um hi" I replied nervously.

"Can I sit here?"

"Of course!" I replied happily

I thought she was going to ask me to move.

"I'm Elle. What's your name?"

"My names Alina"

"I knew a girl called Alina once. What's your schedule like? I hope we have some classes together!" She said with a thoughtful look on her face.

I furrowed my eyes at that comment.

Knew a girl called Alina?

I'm sure there's plenty of Alina's across the world.

Nonetheless I pull out my schedule as she pulls out hers so that we can compare.

She squeals as she realises that we have History, PE, Geography and Science together.

I smile in return happy to have acquainted myself with someone nice.

I smiled and sighed in relief as Elle invited me to go sit with her friends at lunch.

My nerves settled a little.

I think I had made a friend.

Just as everything in the classroom started to settle as we waited for the teacher, the door burst open and my eyes settled on a pair of familiar ocean blue eyes.

A/N- PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS CHAPTER PLEASE!