Capo Dei Capi (Secrets of the Famiglia Part 1) novel Chapter 61

My mother was killed years back in a gun down. It was the one time, Guilia ever saw Papa cry.

Some blamed the Irish, others blamed the Russians, and the Germans but no one knew who it was besides my Papa who was set on revenge. With Ren it was a similar death, a gun down. The worst way to die.

After Capo Marcello lost his son, our men were going wild. For the past few months they have hunted down and I am certain, killed many people. But they don’t know who is responsible. I do, as well as Deno, Michel, Mero, Gabriel, begrudgingly Marco and an old friend, Dexter. Michel, Mero and Gabriel wanted revenge, but Deno had a plan and acting out isn't part of it. I was still uncertain which of my friends were behind it. Or if any.

My sister’s butt sticks out as she finally manages to get herself off the bed from wiggling her stomach down the mattress. She looks crazy.

Regardless of how my life has been these past months, I sit on the edge of my bed and I laugh as I smack her butt - hard.

Guilia grabs my small cream throw pillow and hits my head with it. I grab the big continental behind me and fling it on her head. She flops back on the bed laughing.

“Not funny Yana.” Her carefree, untarnished eyes smile at me. It makes me a bit jealous of her. I would never have that.

I never got the chance to be so innocent. Papa made sure his favorite daughter knew no such luxury when he decided to send me into Russo territory and then decided he would teach me a Bratva tradition.

When I was twelve my Papa found one of the men who killed my mother. He kept the guy locked up for weeks.

I was home for winter break, my mind was stuck on the Harry Potter books and the painting I was working on was my vision of Hogwarts.

Papa called for me, he always sent our house ladies. This time he sent a soldier to call me, Quintin. I followed him down to the study unaware of what I was walking into. When I knocked on his door, he told me to come in.

It was the middle of winter and I had this baggy old t-shirt Filippo gave me, with sleeping beauty painted on it in mixed colors.

Papa told me to hurry up, and I knew he was in the secret room behind the bookshelves. The one we were forbidden to go in.

He told me to come, not be scared. I was twelve, he was allowing me into a forbidden room, how could I not be scared. I was clueless as I stepped into the room. I was the same age a male man becomes a Made-Man.

And like a right of passage for our men, in secret with people I can’t remember, in the middle of winter, my Papa gave me mine when he placed a gun in my hand and told me that the man on the chair bleeding in the middle of the room, was the one who killed my mother.

I knew what he expected me to do, I didn’t need to be told and I didn't hesitate as I put those bullets in the man's head. One for every time Guilia had heard my father cry out my mother’s name. One for my sister who will never know the love of her parents and one for my Papa, because unlike me who had never tasted the sweet bliss of my mother’s smile and witnessed her vibrancy he spoke about, he did.

I expected something reverie to happen after I killed him, satisfaction. Something that would tell me this day was something special, even if it was from horror stories whispered to little kids, but I felt nothing. The gun was loud and it hurt my ears, maybe a bit heavy too. The man’s body jerked with every shot and I might have heard a few gasps, but me? I felt nothing. Maybe nothingness is a feeling.

Papa told me to leave after that and I did. I went back upstairs to my room and finished my painting. Since that day I have lived up to my name. I am a killer, and my father’s daughter. I am also the one who knows his secret and it is not Elisa Russo. My father’s secret is much bigger than his infidelity and the punishment for those crimes are death.

"Aliyana, drivers here" Papa screams from the bottom of the staircase.

“Coming old man,” I yell back. Yeah, I am my father’s daughter.

My long hair brushes my back as I jump off the bed. I grab my black converse shoes that lay on opposite ends of my bedroom. They are a bit dirty, but I love them.

Shoving them in my laptop bag, I grab my leather satchel. Turning in time to watch my sister on her phone, in that pink tight dress.

"Guilia?"

"Yeah," She looks up to me, and smiles.

"You always look best in blue." I wink as I open the door and rush down the stairs barefoot.