Trigger warning: aftermath of SA

THIRD PERSON

When the storm inside her had passed and there were no more tears left to cry, she leaned weakly against Domenico, who tightened his grip to support her. "The camera. He always filmed with it when he—" she paused. "When he did these things. They were only for him, he said. At least as long as I didn't tell anyone about it and didn't cause any problems. That I would regret it if I did, that no one would believe me anyway, and the whole world would see how—" she took a breath. "—how us—how I—"

"You don't have to say it." Vito's voice sounded gentle, in contrast to what he was feeling.

"He hated it when I cried. Because I should have been grateful that they took care of me and took me in. Because he only did what he did out of love." Josephine looked from Domenico's chest into his face while she wiped away the last traces of tears. Nothing in his face suggested what he was thinking. "But—but it wasn't love! It wasn't, was it? It hurt so much; it couldn't have been love!"

Both brothers were silent. There was nothing they could have said that would undo it or take away her pain. No matter how much power and influence they had, it was meaningless. It wouldn't prevent what had already happened.

"And I know it wasn't my fault because I was a child, but there's this voice inside me that keeps telling me it over and over and over again. That I should have fought back more; that I should have protested more about all those dresses he forced me to wear; that maybe I provoked him with all that; that maybe I looked at him wrong. And no matter what I do, this voice just won't go away!" Josephine struggled with whether she should really say more, but it was as if she couldn't stop speaking. As if all these words wanted to come out for fear of never being said otherwise. "Sometimes, in the darkest moments, the voice asks if I'm sure you won't do the same, and I'm so, so sorry; I don't want to think that. I really don't!"

She had pressed her head back into Domenico's chest and couldn't see the stunned looks on their faces. She couldn't see Vito's face harden with deep rage he'd never felt before. She didn't see Domenico clenching his jaw so he wouldn't run off and smash everything in his path until he had that fucker in his hands.

'Someone has to say something!' Vito looked at his brother intently, but Domenico didn't react to his look. He was too focused on calming his breathing and his posture so that the girl in his arms wouldn't get scared. Vito ran his hands over his face, then grabbed Josephine by the shoulder and turned her toward him. When Domenico saw what he was doing, he let go of her and took a step back. "Josephine, look at me." He gently cupped her face with his hands. "There is nothing you should be sorry for. I can't even begin to imagine the terror you faced, but I can tell you that it will not change anything between us. This will be your safe place, and we will be your home as long as you want to call us that. Do you understand me?" She nodded and sheepishly wiped the snot from her face with her sleeve. "Please say it."

"I will be safe here," she murmured quietly. "And I—"

A knock interrupted her sentence, and all three looked at the door. Dr. Bradford came in and looked at the destruction in her room with a neutral expression on his face. He took a long step over the broken pot before picking up the first aid kit that had been carelessly dropped on the floor. Mr. Marini had explained on the phone that she "had gone a bit crazy," but the extent of it still surprised him. What surprised him less, however, was the fact that it had happened. "May I have a word with Josephine?"

The brothers left, albeit reluctantly, after they were sure she no longer needed them. On the way out, Domenico took the camera with him unnoticed by her. Dr. Bradford nodded seriously at them, and as they went through the door, they heard him suggest taking care of her wounds. Then the door closed.

Without a word, they went into their office, where Valentino, Riccardo, and Matteo were already waiting for them. None of them dared to say anything as Vito pulled a bottle of whiskey out of the secret compartment in his desk, and Valentino quickly fetched three glasses. The younger brothers watched in silence as the older ones took the glasses and drank.

"Fuck!" They flinched in shock as Vito threw the glass against the wall, where it shattered into a hundred pieces. "Fuck!" he shouted angrily before turning to Domenico. "I thought J hadn't found anything! We should have known better! I should have known better!"

Domenico paid him little attention because he had already pulled out his cell phone and dialed J's number. His mind was racing, forming plans on how to protect Josephine, how to approach the issue, and what he would do with the priest.

"Yes?"

"The priest. You said he was clean," he began without further ado.

"Yes. Why?"

Domenico took another sip. "Then you did a shitty job! There must be videos somewhere. Find them, destroy them, and make sure there aren't any backups!" He ended the call but continued typing on his cell phone.

Confused, Matteo tried to make sense of the whole thing, but he didn't understand. "But why videos? What kind of videos do you mean?" Three of his brothers looked at him, confused.

Riccardo slowly looked at Vito. "So it's true?" Vito nodded grimly. "Fuck."

"What's true? Can someone enlighten me? What does her foster father have to do with—" Then something clicked inside him, and he understood what they meant. Something tightened inside him, the taste of bile in his mouth doing little to make it better. "That can't be! She said she ran away because of her grief! Why would she—No, that can't be! That was six years ago. That would mean she was nine—No!" With his heart pounding, he looked at each of them in turn, but none of them said the words he wanted to hear.

"Did you really believe that?" asked Riccardo in a defeated tone. 'No, but I hoped,' thought Matteo.

"If I fly in half an hour, I could be back by breakfast tomorrow. Or we can have him brought here; I don't care. The closest of our people are an hour away from him," said Domenico, not paying attention to the conversation. Vito nodded absentmindedly.

"I don't think it will help her to see him. Wouldn't it be better if he were arrested where he is?" Matteo interjected, still completely lost in his thoughts. It was quiet again.

"That's not quite what Domenico has in mind, Matteo," replied Valentino, straightening up. "But he's right. He didn't give her a choice back then, but are you sure Josie doesn't want to see him convicted? Because if you kill him, you'll take away her ability to choose, just like he did."

With that, without knowing it, he hit a nerve with the older brothers. Her words from before were still too well etched in their minds. That she was afraid they would do the same. But this was something completely different. "This is about protecting her," Domenico snapped at him.

Valentino crossed his arms. "Yeah? From what? What happened happened, and we won't be able to make it undone. And can you assure me that you're not looking for your own revenge, even if it's in her name?" He held Domenico's cold gaze. "No? I thought so. I suggest we let her decide what she wants to be done."

"It's a shame that you don't get to decide," Domenico replied irritably.

But Valentino wasn't ready to back down. "Yes, but neither do you," he replied.

"Do you really think—" "That's enough! Both of you. Stop it," Vito interrupted. "Nico, sit down. Now!" Domenico reluctantly sat down on the sofa without taking his eyes off Valentino. His blood was boiling. "Valentino isn't entirely wrong with what he says. We should at least ask her first once she's more stable. Still, it would be good if we put him under observation in case he gets the idea of running away. And tell J to hold back any evidence until we say otherwise."

Domenico looked grimly at Vito. "And if he tries to run away?"

Vito shrugged. "Accidents happen."

Speechless, the youngest brothers tried to process what they had just heard. Surely they couldn't have heard their brothers discussing a kidnapping and murder as if it were the simplest thing in the world. Their brothers! Especially the ones who lead the most boring lives ever!

"You sound like you're some gangsters from a bad movie." Riccardo laughed nervously. Matteo joined in, but when none of the three said anything, they stopped laughing. "Vito? That's nonsense, isn't it?"

Vito took a deep breath. "This is neither the right time nor the right place to discuss this, Riccardo."

"At some point they'll have to find out one way or another, Vito," Domenico intervened, looking at the two of them, who were sitting tensely on the sofa opposite him.

"What do we need to find out?" Matteo looked worriedly from one to the other. The two of them seemed to be talking in silence until Vito let his shoulders fall in defeat.

"There are a few things you should know. First of all: are you sure you want to know everything? It will change a lot." Both nodded. "Very well. First of all, and thats important to me, I would like to say that every decision we made not to tell you was only made so that you, unlike us, had the chance to grow up uninhibited. There was never any question that we would tell you at some point, but we wanted to wait until we were old enough." And so Vito began to tell them about the real reason for their grandparents' escape, about how their grandfather had built everything up here and how their father had expanded it before his stroke. That he had taken over afterwards, together with Domenico, to what extent their activities had changed and why Riccardo and Matteo were still safe. He left out many details or glossed over them a little, but they learned the basics. He was repeatedly interrupted by Riccardo, who sometimes ran around upset, sometimes shouted angrily at someone and sometimes said things in a confused manner that Vito would not have allowed under normal circumstances. Matteo had not reacted at all. He had been sitting on the sofa for over an hour as if frozen, and Vito saw this as confirmation that it had been too early.

"Does that mean you kill people?"

"Only if they pose a danger to our family." Domenico replied. "Riccardo, please don't look at us like we're serial killers. You'd be surprised to know how many things can be done differently without ending a life."

'Well,' both Vito and Valentino thought at the same time, but said nothing. Riccardo, on the other hand, was beside himself. "But it's true: you kill people! Don't you realize how fucked up that all sounds? It can never end well! Do you expect us to do the same?"

Vito blinked in surprise. "What? No. That was the whole point we kept it a secret. Just because your cousins-"

"- So everyone knows about it except us? Great, really well done. We must have been such a joke for you. 'Oh, you know who doesn't know that we conform to every prejudice against Italian families? Those two idiots.' I can imagine how you must have laughed about us!" Riccardo jumped up again, furious, but he didn't know what to do. It was all so - his brothers were so narrow-minded! It didn't suit them at all! And then their arguments! Why did they have to be so well thought out?

"Well, the fact that you're idiots has little to do with it," Domenico muttered and decided to help his brother. "You had the choice and you wanted to know the truth. So either you-"

There was a knock and for the second time that day Dr. Bradford interrupted a conversation. He didn't need a doctorate to feel the tension in the air.