FRANCESCO'S POV (bio dad) ~_______~_______~

I sat in the waiting room with my family. Most of them left to get some rest but me and my sons stayed here, and Matteo was nowhere to be found.

I was terrified for my daughter. I knew something was wrong with her, she flinched when we came near and often had to stop and take a breather even if she was walking from just the kitchen to dining room. I never said anything, I thought it was 'girl stuff' or some shit, or that she just needed time to get used to us.

But I was so wrong.

Suddenly, the doors slammed open. Me and my sons looked up to see a man, about 45 years old, running in and looking around frantically. Behind him was three other people -around the same age. I knew exactly who they were.

Mikael Volkov, the leader of the Russian mafia. His son, Maxim Volkov, and their 2 best assassins- Alexei and Andrei Ivanov.

"WHERE THE FUCK IS MY DAUGHTER?!" Mikael bellowed, looking around frantically before his eyes set on me.

He came up to me, grabbed me by the collar and yanked me out my seat. I tried my best to stay calm, even if I wanted to beat the living shit out of this fucker who dares to get in my face.

"What the fuck did you do to my daughter, eh?!" He yelled, his Russian accent coming out.

Just then; a nurse came in. "Uhm.. Mr. Moretti? May I have a word with you?"

"I'm coming too." Mikael muttered. He let go of me and I grunted as we walked to the nurse, and went to a more private area since there was several eyes on us.

"Mr. Moretti, and Mr. Uh.."

"Volkov."

"Volkov, right.. well, Verity is in quite the critical condition. She's been like this for quite some time, it seems. How you have not noticed it makes me question how strong this girl truly is to hide it so well, or maybe you two are stupid," she muttered the last part under her breath and I glared daggers at her, daring her to insult me more.

She cleared her throat before continuing. "She has bruising all over her body. There is not one body part where she does not have bruises or scars. A few of her ribs are cracked and broken, and her left lung collapsed- which caused her fainting. She has an open wound on her back, which will need to be treated thoroughly and carefully because it is near infection. She also has bruising along her neck, indicating signs of choking. Along her arms.. scars, that seem self-induced, so self-harm. Some seem very, very old, but others are recent. Like, this week kind of recent. Her right shoulder is fractured and her left was dislocated slightly, but not to worry, we fixed it up best we could. She'll have to stay for a few days here as she heals."

I gaped at the nurse in surprise. What the fuck? So all this time, my daughter has had

- Broken ribs - A collapsed lung - A dislocated shoulder - A fractured shoulder - Bruises ALL over her - Self harm scars...

And I never noticed. What kind of father am I?

I glanced slightly at Mikael, who had pain in his eyes. I could tell he cared for her but she was still my fucking daughter. Not his.

"She is awake right now. You can visit her but she has to decide who can come in, I will notify her who is out here. Only three people may come at once. Names?"

I quickly told her my sons names and Mikael did the same. We went back to the waiting room, glaring daggers at each other.

I told my sons what condition she was in and the Russians listened closely. I so dearly wanted to strangle them on the spot, but I had no idea what connection they had with my daughter. Earlier, Mikael called her his daughter. Was he the one she was on the phone with?

With us being rival mafias, though, it seemed to be an alright and calm environment. As calm as it could get between two groups of people who have hated each other for years and want to kill eachother. My sons were all glaring daggers at Andrei, Alexei , and Maxim. They glared right back. Finally, the nurse came back. We all stood up and waited for her words.

"She stated that she wanted Alexei, Andrei, and Maxim. I'm letting you come along too, Mr. Volkov, as an exception, she wanted to see the four of you at once. She loves you very much, the second I said your names, she didn't listen to anything else, just told me to get the fuck out and come get you guys." The nurse chuckled humorlessly.

I was hurt. My daughter wanted to see them instead of us? She wanted to see the fucking Russians, the family rivals, and not her biological family? My blood boiled as the four of them walked out and into her hospital room.

"This isn't fucking fair. Who even are they to her? Fucking Russians. Why would she want to see them?" Scoffed Lorenzo.

"She probably had a good reason, Zo. She wouldn't just pick them over her own brothers." Valentino muttered, but it sounded like he was telling himself that more than he was telling us.

"What do you think happened to her? It must've happened before she came here, because she's barely been out the house." Enzo asked nobody in particular.

"We'll have to do a background check. Dig deeper in her past. I did not want to when we got here, I wanted to trust her and respect her privacy, but we have no choice. Emilio, get started on it. Find out everything you can. I need one of you to look for Matteo, I do not want him to do something stupid." I put on my business voice, hiding my pain. My sons couldn't see me in pain. I refused to let them see me in a vulnerable spot, I needed to be strong, for them. So that they can be strong.

Emilio nodded and took out his laptop, doing his riff raff hacker thingy whatever.

"Who's going to look for Matteo?" Asked Leonardo. Everybody looked around at each other.

"I'll go." Sighed Enzo. It was for the best, he was the oldest out of his brothers and Matteo would likely listen to him.

We nodded our heads and everybody else sat back down.

There was a million questions running through my mind.

Who did this to her? When did this happen? Why did this happen? Where did this happen? How did this happen? What the fuck even happened?

It my fault. I never was there for her. I left her alone. She got kidnapped, of course, but I was incapable of finding her when she was in plain sight. She was living a life not knowing about us, a life where she went to school and had friends- and yet we never found her.

I never found her.

I'm so sorry, my love. I hope one day she forgives me. I hope one day she will hug me and not be afraid.

I hope one day she sees me as her father. __________________________________ Word count: 1163

OKAYY SO I haven't posted for a while, not cuz the typical author shit like "my house burnt down and I had to get 6 jobs and provide for my family of 18 people." No, im just fucking lazy and have no time to bother doing this.

I actually have a lot of time. I just don't use it wisely.

Anyways I hope you're enjoying the chapters so far. I know this is literally like every single other mafia brother story so far, it's honestly really unoriginal - but I'm trying. I promise you guys that very very soon the chapters will change up. Trust me, there's gonna be a shitttt ton of plot twists.

Stay hydrated lovelies, go to sleep, and make sure to vote or comment !! <3333