ALINA' S POV

My dad has a gentle hold on my shoulder as he turns me to face him at the entrance to the basement.

"Are you sure about this? You don't have to do this if you don't want to" He asks me with a kind tone.

When he came to me asking if I wanted to come to the basement with him, I automatically said yes.

He promised I could come the next time he had someone down there and he kept it.

I was intrigued on the people who come down here just like I was with Elias.

He nodded at me in reply as we carried on our journey through the musty corridor.

I told him that I didn't want to be carried, as I wanted to use my crutches.

I made sure that my face didn't give anything away.

I acted as if I had never been down here before looking anywhere and everywhere.

I let my dad guide me to where we were going because I haven't been down here before.

I tried not to be phased as I saw a big guy chained to a chair that looked too small for him.

The room looked smaller this time with the members of staff all around.

They all looked my way, confused and shocked at my presence until my dad cleared his throat coming up behind me.

My dad squeezed me shoulder in reassurance.

They all turned back to the man in the centre of the room in unison, who I now realised was unconscious, presumable from the nasty bump on the head.

I saw my dad look to me before hesitating to nod at one of his guys.

Out of nowhere a big bucket of water is thrown at the guy.

He jolts awake with a petrified look on his face as he looks around.

As soon as he makes eye contact with my dad his face goes stone cold.

My eyebrows raise in surprise at the change of emotions so quickly.

My dad walks closer to him but indicates for me to hold back.

"What were you doing in my territory?" My dad questions him crouching so he's face to face with him.

Silence follows as the man tries to head-but my dad.

I suck in a breath as I take a step forwards.

I retreat and relax as I realised he had failed as my dad moved smoothly to the side to avoid it.

Cool!

That's definitely something I want to learn.

"You think it's smart to keep your mouth shut? Your little friends aren't coming to help you. You're alone in my territory. It's hopeless. Just answer my questions and I'll have mercy on you" My dad tells him trying to make a deal with him.

"Her" he replies with whilst nodding his head in my direction.

"What about her?" My dad asks him with a stern voice.

"I'll talk to her. No one else" he replied with a smirk on his face.

My dad looks towards me worriedly.

Shit.

I don't know if I want to do this anymore.

No, no, no more weakness.

I can do this.

Plus I'm surrounded by many people.

I'll be fine.

I'm met with my dad's face in front of mine, silently asking if I still want to do this.

I nod at him as I step forward.

He reluctant to let me go but does eventually as he realises that everyone's eyes are trained on mine.

I'll be fine.

I take another step when I realise I'm not close enough.

My shoes make the loudest squeak I've ever heard in my life as I take my step.

Of course they had to do that in the most silent and awkward room ever.

The guy keeps staring at me with his hands tied behind his back silently.

I decide to start the conversation.

"Um hi"

I definitely need to work on my conversations starters.

He stared at me with a smirk which made me swallow in nervousness.

"Alina Giovanni"

"Yep, that's me" I tell him whilst picking my fingers behind my back out of nerves.

"I remember you" he tells me with a smile.

"We haven't met before" I tell him, seriously.

He must have been hit very hard on the head.

"You were too young to remember. It was really fun to take you away and hide you where I thought you would have the best upbringing" he told me with the biggest smile on his face.

My eyes went wide.

"I think I did a good job, don't you?" He asks me, still looking gleefully.

"Well, no not really. I was placed in a group home, so you didn't choose my foster parents or where I was truly brought up" I reply trying to sound and act confident, whilst inside I'm about to break down.

"Did I not mention that I put down some recommended families on the list. I might have even slipped some brochures into some lovely couples houses, highlighting the pay" he tells me, as his smirk grows even more.

"I'm guessing you got paid a lot of money for that, seeing the grin on your face?" I also him with anger pouring into my voice.

I can imagine a mafia can pay a lot of money for truly ruining the life of a child from an enemy's mafia.

"Not a penny! I should have asked for at least a raise or something, it was one of my greatest achievements" he tells me looking really proud of himself.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, noticing the heavy silence in the room has been replaced with my dads fist colliding with the face of the man's.

I stared at them both.

Just as I thought the man was done, he started talking again.

"You will be the downfall of your family Alina Giovanni"

What!?

"How do you know that?" I ask him, my voice getting quieter.

"You're weak. That's all your ever going to be." He said as he chuckled.

I'm not weak!

Before I can think of the consequences of my action, I lunge forward and kick him where the sun doesn't shine with my good leg.

I regret it a little as my bad leg kind of hurts.

The feeling of power and confidence overpowers my regret at seeing his pain stricken face.

"I'm not weak, not anymore!" I tell him.

I see my dad smile proudly at me before I'm escorted out by one of the guards while introduced himself as William.

I see my dad rolling up his sleeves before I'm out of sight of the room.

The stare that I get from the Russian man when I leave will haunt me for the rest of my days though.

Not everyone is good in this world, like my naive self thought.

My feeling of confidence washes away as soon as I'm out of the room, and I start breaking down as soon as I'm in the comfort of my room.

A grown man ruined my life just because he could.

And the icing on the cake, anytime I get a mention of my past, I'm guaranteed to have nightmares that night.

I know where I'll be heading tonight.

Matheo's room. I'm pretty sure he's used to it by now.

I don't want my past to define me.

I vow then and there to never be helpless again, if I can help it.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— After our 4th lesson of the day, we sat down for our lunch, finally!

I can tell everyone's excited as we all let out a sigh of relief as we sit down.

Mondays always drag on. It's a universal experience.

I sit down next to Adrian with Reese on my other side.

It feels nice being surrounded by my friend, especially after last night.

Matheo had to comfort me a lot last night. From my constant crying and shaking, I could tell neither of us had a goods night sleep, but he hasn't complained once.

My mom and dad checked on me this morning, and told me how proud he was of me for standing up for myself.

I don't need to worry about the man anymore, as my dad has sorted him out and he reassured me that no one like that will ever come near me again.

I just really hope whatever he's done to the man doesn't spark some kind of bigger feud between us and the Russians.

I don't want anyone I love to get hurt.

Just as I was about to dig into my food, after coming out of my daydream, I felt an arm slither around my shoulder.

I froze as I stared ahead of me to see Elle about to burst out laughing at my face.

I could feel myself turning red in the face from having everyone's eyes on me.

Elle trying to hold in her laugh had gathered all go my friends attention.

I slowly followed the arm to the body it was attached to to see it belonged to Reese.

I don't know what else I expected. Who else would have their arm on my shoulder!?

On that note, Raphael hasn't been in school today.

As Reese saw me looking at him, he smiled at me.

This is awkward.

I see Adrian in the corner of my eye staring Reese down.

I'm about to mouth to Elle to help me when her and the rest of my friends expressions morphs into ones of fear.

The stare right at my head.

Do I have something in my face?

This is a big reaction for something like this, so I doubt it.

"Fuck, have any of you guys pissed them off? Because they're heading over here, and fast!" Bianca said facing me.

Them?

Who's them?

"Adrian, did you do or say anything??" Jake asks him panicking

Adrian looks a little hurt but shakes his head.

I'm just about to turn around when I feel a presence behind me.

A comfortable one.

I smile.

Elle looks at me like I'm psycho.

"Alina! I didn't know you had a boyfriend!" I hear Luca say behind me.

I swivel around to see Romeo, Luca and Rocco as well as the whole of the schools population staring at us.

Rocco looks absolutely bored, but amused.

Luca and Romeo are glaring daggers at Reese so much so that he takes his arm off of me looking terrified.

"Oh no, please do carry on. I didn't realise you and Alina were so close!?" Luca tells him.

"What do you want with us?" Reese asks defensively.

"To make sure you know your place, obviously!" Luca replies.

"What does this have to do with her?" Reese continues.

"Everything" Luca says as he turns to me. "Are you ok Alina?"

I'm about to nod in reply when Reese cuts me off.

"How do you know my girlfriend? What do you want with her?" He asks Luca and Romeo.

"I just want to make sure that my sister and my brother are being treated how they should be." Romeo tells him.

I saw Reese pale as he glanced at me before stuttering out.

"Sis...sister!?"

Luca smirked at him.

"Yes, my sister Alina Giovanni"

Reese stared at me as he uttered my last name.

"Her twin Adrian is here as well. And if any of mistreat either of them there'll be hell to pay!" Romeo buts in just to get the point across.

Rocco is having the time of his life with this personal show.

I knew Romeo was joking, a tactic to scare them from the smile on his face.

I don't think the others saw the smile though as they were still pale in the faces.

My brothers finally left after telling the table they'd led be keeping an eye out, and everyone at the table let out a sigh of relief before their eyes all went to me and my twin.

"You're the Alina Giovanni?" Bella asks me.

I nod in response.

"You didn't tell me you were from that family" Elle told me.

"Or that you're the famous missing child of Italy!" Jake tells me.

"What difference does it make whether I'm from that family?" I asked Elle, hoping there wasn't much.

Surely they don't know about the fmaily business.

"They're very scary and there rumours going around that they're dangerous." Bianca said whilst staring at me and Adrian.

"Well, you guys were fine with us before. This doesn't make a difference to our friendship does it?" I ask them nervously as me and Adrian stare at each other.

"Absolutely not. You guys are cool, it's just those that scare us" Bella said pointing to Romeo and Luca who looked away acting as if the walls were really interesting as soon as our eyes went in their direction.

Everyone at the table agreed with "yeah, I'd course we're still friends" And "You guys are still cool!"

Me and Adrian blew out a sigh of relief. I don't want to loose my friends like that.

At least I know they're real friends now.

Jake breaks the silence on the table.

"Is it true you guys have the biggest mansion in Italy!?" He asked.

I didn't answer as I was unsure.

"Yep! And I bet we could have you guys over some time! If you want!" Adrian asks them

They all nod happily at that and so we start discussing plans.

Our lunch flies by as we had a lot of fun coming up with ideas to hang out.

Me and Adrian depart to go to our class that we have together.

Adrian is gleefully smiling beside me for the rest of the day.

As we get picked up from school and make it through our front door he goes absolutely crazy.

"They accepted us Alina!" He said as he punched the air in happiness.

"This is going to be so fun! We can have sleepovers with them and so lots of fun stuff! I'm so excited!" He tells me.

"I can't wait Adrian. It's nice that we've both made friends with the same people! I love it!" I tell him.

We're cut off by mom and she comes rushing downstairs to greet us.

As soon as she's done kissing us and asking about our day, she goes into a frenzy.

"Your father forgot to tell us all that we're having some company tonight. They're going to be here in an hour! You two need to go get ready!" She tells us.

"Alina come with me to get ready. I'll do your hair for you. I know exactly the style" my mom tells me in excitement, her eyes shining.

I wondered who our company was going to be as I'm basically dragged upstairs to get ready with Adrian laughing at me from the bottom.

A/N- Sorry it's late! Exams keep coming at me. The last part of this chapter was rushed, so I apologise for that.

LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS CHAPTER PLEASE!