SALVATORE'S POV

The Russians.

The fucking Russians.

Of course it was then who stole my shipments.

I received an unknown link earlier today. I got my tech team on it in order to make sure it was safe to open.

It was, luckily.

It gave us all of the information we were pestering Elias for.

The cottage was from a CCTV from quite far away, but Vladimir Petrovs eyes and tattoos stood out among the rest easily identifying him.

The nerve of those shits. To be on my territory and to steal my shipments from under my nose.

It all seemed a little too easy.

We are rivals.

There is no way he could just walk onto my territory and take what he wanted.

How did they get manage to get access to my yard and escape unscathed without my men seeing them?

RAPHAEL POV

I clenched my jaw as well as my fist as I watched the scene in front of me unfold.

This was my plan. It was my idea.

I went shopping yesterday to get the right clothes.

I got my mom to perfect my hair for me.

I got a bouquet of a mixture of flowers as I didn't know her favourite.

I had it all planned out.

I started it out as I held the door open for her.

Just as I turned around with a smile on my face to see her reach for my note it was snatched out of her way.

My smile dropped as I saw red.

I couldn't loose my cool at that dick, Reese in front of Alina though or she'd think I'm a dick.

Reese had read the note that was clearly signed by me!

It took all of the willpower I had to watch Reese completely change my words into the cringe fest of the century and not do anything about it.

It took even more for me to watch Alina say yes to wanting to get to know that douchebag better.

I mentally sighed.

He's the schools biggest player.

He's been on and off with Lucia for the whole of last year.

And he's been with some other girls already this year.

Even saying her name sounds wrong.

I hate that psycho bitch.

Hearing the whole class cheer for the pair set something off in me.

That was meant to be me.

I was angry.

I didn't make eye contact with anyone.

I couldn't ruin this moment though as I saw a true smile on Alina's face.

I kept my head down for the whole lesson not wanting to see Alina smiling and laughing with him.

I waited until the bell had rung, and Alina had left with her friends before I burst.

I stormed over to the boy with the smile on his face and pushed him up against the wall by his collar

"You dick! That was my stuff! Those were my ideas! They were my flowers!" I almost shouted at him.

"You think she was actually going to agree to date you?" He replied with a smirk.

I lost my composure which made me loosen my grip on him as I saw something flash through his eyes.

I quickly gained it back though.

After a minute he stared truly laughing.

I lost my composure again with his weird actions.

"Oh wow, you truly think she'd want you? You? Do you think she wants to be with someone who's in the mafia? Someone who is putting her life in danger 24/7?" He told me whilst chuckling .

I didn't think of that.

"You think you're all big and hard because you have a mafia but you can't do shit to me. Not unless you want Alina to hate you. It's not even a competition Raphael. Also don't try too hard next time. It's useless in the end" he told me with a smirk as he ruffled my perfectly styled hair as he walked out of the room.

I took some deep breaths so I wouldn't rip his head off.

What was I thinking.

Why would Alina ever want to be anything with me?

I'm apart of a mafia.

No one wants to be apart of that.

Never being safe.

Enemies all around.

No friends as people are too scared to hang out with you.

I'm not that selfish, to risk Alina's life just so we could possibly become something more.

I couldn't paint a target on her back like that.

With that I made my way home after picking up the singular daisy that had been left on the table having fallen from the bouquet.

ALINA'S POV

I smiled in content as I watched the movie in front of me next to my twin.

He wanted to spend some 'quality time' with me as soon as we arrived home.

Sadly he forgot that he had work to do, so we pushed it back until after dinner.

So far, I was loving every second of it. Today had been great!

I'm pretty sure it's because he's scared I'm going to be whisked away by Reese, so he wants to spend more time with me whilst he can.

He doesn't have to worry.

I'd never choose a boy over my family.

He seemed to get along with all of my friends today as well.

Him, Jake and Reese had a little bit of a stare off during lunch but other than that it was smooth sailing.

I tried to include Adrian as much as I could and he seemed content.

Now that I think about it I don't think I introduced him as my twin.

I'll make sure to do that tomorrow.

I'm brought back to reality by a buzz next to me on the sofa.

I saw Adrian playfully roll his eyes as he heard my phone buzz once again for the 100th or so time in 30 minutes interrupting our movie.

Ever since I got home, my phone has been constantly buzzing with notifications from Reese.

We exchanged number earlier today, now that we are something.

What exactly? I'm not sure.

But definitely not boyfriend and girlfriend.

Ever since then, there's been a constant stream of messages from him.

It seems as if he truly does want to get to know me better as we've been talking about each other.

We've discussed our interests, favourite colour, favourite food and such.

It was actually kind of nice talking to him.

I smiled as I picked up my phone expecting a message from him.

He was fun to talk to, which I didn't expect for some reason.

He was funny as well.

Adrian has clearly told me that he doesn't like Reese one bit, but if I truly do like him and he treats me like the princess I am then he'll accept us.

He's talking about us as if we're getting married!

Plus there is no "us" currently.

I'm met with a message from Elle for a change.

We exchanged numbers when I met her friend group as she added me to their group chat.

My phone is slowly filling up with friends.

It's great!

I open up our chat to be met with a link and a message attached.

'I don't want to scare you or anything but have you seen this?'

Way to make me scared, I thought as I clicked on the link.

It takes me to Instagram where I have to login.

I login to my old account with my old name in order to view what Elle sent me.

My heart races as I see the loading screen.

What could possibly be worrying her?

A video pops up which is kind of blurry but not enough that you can't see anything.

You can't see anyones faces clearly, though I recognise those eyes anywhere.

My own.

I recognise the school bathroom clearly as well.

I remember the day vividly, but this video makes it all seem even worse.

One of Lucia's little minions managed to film my bag getting flushed whilst filming Lucia roughing me up a little.

A shiver creeps down my spine as I relive the memory.

The caption on the video states almost exactly what Lucia told me that day.

'There's no place in this school for poor freaks. Get a real LV bag next time you loser'

There was also a couple of comments underneath the video.

'I recognise the bag, it's that new girl. She obviously doesn't fit in.'

'Weak'

'Pathetic'

'Well done for putting them in their place'

'Weirdo'

'Who can't afford an LV bag!?'

'Weird creep'

'Why are they even in our school? Send them back to the dump they belong. I don't want them tarnishing our names'

Each comment had been liked by the owner of the account.

I take a deep breath, trying to get the feeling of fresh air in my lungs.

Why can't I seem to escape nasty people.

I thought Lucia had layed off of me.

Clearly not.

Holding in my tears, I stood up and grabbed my crutches not even trying to use them, just trying to get out of the room, into the private space of my bathroom.

The pain of my injuries were nothing compared to the pain I felt in my chest.

Can I not have one moment of peace from life?

"Hey what's wrong?" Adrian asks me, garnering my attention and taking me out of the digital world and into the real world.

I gulped and sighed as I looked back at him.

I walked out of the room on a mission ignoring Adrian's worried calls following behind me.

I looked at the time and realised it was quite late.

As I finally made my way to my bathroom I faced myself in my mirror.

I stared at the person in front of me.

I let a couple of tears slide down my face as I saw more hurtful comments appear under the video.

I doubt these people even knew it was me they were talking about, but it didn't make it any less hurtful.

I wiped the trail of water from off of my face, staring at my puffy eyes and face trying to stop more from coming .

I thought about all the hardships I'd been through.

I am not weak.

I will not be pushed around again.

That is not what my life is meant to be.

With that, I changed into my pjs with ease as my injuries were healing.

My relatively high pain tolerance helped as well.

I took a deep breath before venturing out into the corridor towards my parents room.

I took a deep breath before I knocked on the door.

I wringed my hands behind my back nervously hoping they wouldn't be able to notice my puffy face.

Within seconds the door opened and I came face to face with my mom.

"Alina, darling! Are you ok?" She asked me with a panicked expression on her face as her eyes searched mine.

"Can I come in?" I asked her with a hint of nervousness in my voice.

She shook her head in amusement.

"Of course you can. You don't need to ask!" She told me with a smile.

I smiled back as I walked into their room.

I realised then that it was the first time I had been in their room.

I saw the bathroom light on and gathered that was where dad was.

Their room was elegant and classy.

It has the same smell of roses that surrounded my mom.

I basked in the scent.

I saw my mom from the corner of my eye watch my every move as she closed the door and sat on the bed.

I turned back around to come face to face with little me.

I held in a gasp as I realised I look exactly the same.

I was a cute baby.

A really cute baby.

My eyes teared up once again.

This was the first baby photo I've ever seen of myself.

"It helped me to keep holding onto hope. I couldn't accept that you were gone. Having photos of you here was the next best thing"

"There were days where I thought I was going to forget how you looked, the shape of your face, the colour of your freckles" my mom told me as she teared up.

I realised that I didn't have many baby photos alone. Most of them were with Adrian.

"You two were stuck to the hip when you were younger, much as you are now" she said as she smiled at me.

I continued walking around the room when I came across some race car beds in a room a little off into the corner.

Baby me and Adrian were cool.

We were way too grown for those beds now, so I settled for the next best option.

I chucked my crutches on the floor as I climbed onto my parents bed and settled myself into my mothers arms where I belonged.

Where I would fight to stay.

My dad smiled at me as he saw me in my moms arms.

He had shorts and a t-shirt on as his pj's before he jumped into the so he was next to us.

He truly is a big kid.

"And to what do I owe for your fine presence this evening?" He asked.

He cut himself off

"How did you get here?" He asked me whilst raising his eyebrow.

I tried to hide a smile as I looked towards my crutches on the floor.

"I will not let you touch those nasty things again tonight!" He said with disgust in his eyes.

"How will I get back to my room?" I ask him.

"I guess you'll have to stay here then!" He said as he pulled em towards him and started tickling me.

I couldn't breath as I was laughing so hard.

He managed to tickle in just the right places that he didn't hit my ribs.

"I surrender! I'll stay here!" I said in a gasp of breath.

I let me laughing die down as I put my serious face on.

The reason I was here.

I moved over to the middle so that I faced both of my parents.

"I want to learn how to fight"

A/N - SORRY FOR THE DELAY ON THIS CHAPTER. I went away on holiday for 2 weeks and didn't have any wifi.

Let me know your thoughts on this chapter!!