Contract War

Chapter 16

"What are your relatives like?" I questioned Derek.

"I don't remember,"

I put my hand on his knee in reassurance.

We were on our way to Charles' house for the family dinner and we had bodyguards in one car ahead of us and in another car tailing behind us.

Derek softens his grip on the steering wheel and turns to look at Johnny who's sitting in the back seat silently staring out the window.

"I'm sorry. I last saw them when I was 13, a few months after my mother's funeral...that's when my father decided that we should stay here permanently. We used to visit our relatives all the time...spending the holidays in Italy was always awesome. I wonder how I never noticed our different last names."

He huffed before continuing, "There's Roman. Him and I were like twins, we did everything together...pulled pranks together, snuck out together. There's Geneviève, she was our little sister who covered up for us whenever we messed up -which was basically all the time," Derek smiled, "there's Rowland, but everyone calls him Dante, he's the youngest. Him and Danny are the same age so I won't be surprised if they hit it off without having to remember each other's younger versions.

There's their father who is the Italian mafia's former Don and my fathers twin brother, my uncle Carlos...he's pretty cool but can be a little scary. There's also my dad's twin sister, aunt Sofia, she liked to pinch our cheeks and stuff us with food; never tell her that you're on a diet...she'll simply feed you twice as much food as before."

I snickered.

"Then my grandfather Papa Ricci...we were shit scared of him but I'm sure he's less scary now."

By the time Derek finished talking Charles' mansion was already in our view and we could see Danny's Lamborghini parked in the driveway. After parking the bodyguards opened the car doors for the three of us.

I took Johnny's hand and we made our way to the front doors. Derek and Johnny were both dressed formally in black suits with white button down shirts and I wore a black Chanel dress that ended at my calves and had long sleeves.

As the butler opened the door for us a familiar voice boomed through the foyer.

"Cognata!" It was Roman.

(Sister-in-law!)

When his eyes landed on Derek his gaze visibly softened. They hugged and Roman said, "It's been long, fratello," (brother)

Geneviève appeared, "Hello everyone, please come in. Welcome, Turquoise," she said as she gave me a hug.

"Hello Geneviève," I replied with a smile.

She waved me off, "Please, call me Gen...and this must be my nephew, hello there."

Johnny gave her a shy hello and hid his face behind me, Gen laughed, "He's so adorable."

Geneviève then looked at Derek and said gently, "Hello, Derek,"

Derek looked taken aback, "Gen? Wow you look just like your mother,"

Gen smiled sweetly and Roman announced that we should move to the living room where the others were sitting. Upon entering we saw Daniel sitting with 2 other guys, one of them looked just like Roman and I assumed he was Dante.

"Oh hey guys," said Danny.

"Emilio?" Roman's look-alike stood up and engulfed Derek in a bear hug.

After they had both pulled back from the embrace Derek put a hand on the guy's shoulder and grinned, "Dante, you've grown."

"This is our sister-in-law, Turquoise," Roman introduced me to Dante who looked at me with wide eyes and then looked back at Derek before saying, "Damn...you got yourself a full package here, bro."