Family Comes Last.

Chapter 17: Not a fish market.

"Our Cole has a crush" Aria laughed as she reached forward to pinch Cole's cheeks who slapped her hands away immediately, and Luca laughed at the scene in front of him.

"Awww has little Coley Woley found his princess" Cole groaned when Luca's hands ruffled his hair and Damon smirked at Cole for the same reason, they were sat in their school's huge library because Cole needed to study and the rest were just keeping him company.

"Shhhhh" The Librarian shushed the kids "This a library, not a fish market"

Damon rolled his eyes at the cliché remark before speaking "I mean clearly, there are books instead of fishes"

"Damon" She warned the boy and his lips twitched into his usual arrogant and cocky smirk.

"You really should get your eyes checked, Miss Winston, I'm worried" He stood up and pushed Luca's head to a side before kissing Aria's cheek who made a disgusted face wiping it away with her hand immediately " I've got to go and Cole?"

"What?" Cole looked up to see the amusement on Damon's face as he pinched his nose "Our Cole's growing up, eh?"

"Shut up" He hissed throwing his head back, his cheeks burning red.

"So what does she look like?" Aria asked and Cole pressed his face into the pages of the Russian novel he was reading.

"Come on, Books, tell us" Luca laughed and Aria gave him a look, snatching the book so his head hit the table, making him groan.

"No, athlete, I won't"

"Stop with titling nicknames and just fucking tell me how she looks already, and about her, I need as much as information as I can get"

"Why, bubbly? Jealous?" Cole teased and she glared at her friend.

"Stop with the titling" She instructed them

"Yeah-no, Bossy more like"

"Cole, tell us" She let out an exasperated sigh and her friend sighed looking at them from behind his lashes as he loosened his tie.

"She's got these beautiful green-blue eyes" Cole closed his eyes as he spoke "And Brown hair, and she's got these pink lips, and her cheeks...they're always pink, I mean naturally, and there's this sparkle in her eyes every time she talks about something she genuinely loves" He opened his eyes excitedly, glad he could finally speak his mind out loud to his best friends.

"And she's got these totally innocent angel eyes even if she's anything but that, and I never thought anyone could look so beautiful when they cried, and at the same time it was so heart-breaking, and her hair, they're so fluffy but straight, and she's very pale and sometimes has these little burst outs, and she's very angry but so deep, and like so sweet, and freckles, oh my god, she'd got these faded freckles which you can't really see at all, and not at all when she puts even a bit of my makeup, and she"--

"Is this her?" Aria questioned, eyes alarmed as she turned her phone to him and he smiled at the picture.

"Yeah"

"No Cole, no" Aria shook her head "Xavier was the last boyfriend she had appeared, also found dead, her oldest brother and guardian is being investigated for murder, not to mention she's a real brat"

Cole blinked.

"What the fuck are you on about?"

"She's Serafina Fucking Spalitte, last born from the multi-billionaire parents, youngest to the siblings, spoilt rotten to the core, not your type."

"You don't even know her!"

"Don't I?" She turned her phone so that he could see.

Videos and images, Serafina drunk, partying, flipping people off, partying, smoking, partying, driving, partying.

She still looked so alone to him, but what Aria was saying didn't seem wrong.

He shook her head, he wasn't going to give in, not in front of them at least.

Not now.

"You don't know her" Cole whispered shutting his book loudly with a bang and walked out...stormed out in anger, a rare sight for the quiet mysterious boy hidden behind a book yet somehow one of the heart-throbs, well, to be honest, he was pretty heart-throb like.

He'd ask her what this meant, the real her, which no one seemed to know.

~o~O~o~

Manipulating Tony wasn't that hard. Eve sniffled, fake tears pouring down her eyes, as she dialled Vittorio's number.

This needed to go right, for their plan, for her own side one.

"Vit-Vittror-" She stuttered into the phone.

"Eve?" She heard a surprised voice "What happened?"

"I...I ca-came to th-the ba-ball and I-I'm not al-alright"

"Where are you, Eve?"

"R-Room 204"

"I'll be there, stay on call, okay?"

"Oka-Okay" Vittorio's legs walked faster and faster until he was running and was finally in the room, to which the door was open too and there lay Eve, sobbing.

"Eve?" He asked, cautiously approaching the girl, and rubbed her shoulder, but she shook her head.

"I-It hurts"

"What hurts?"

"Tori...He...Tony..." Eve blubbered and then shook her head "You won't believe me."

"Of course I will" He lied...well semi-lied, he would just check facts after all, what could a teenager do to Eve, a Spalitte.

Even if the teenager were his own godson.

"He t-touched me"

Eve flinched at the look of anger in Vittorio's eyes, was this really how she looked like when she was mad?

This terrifying?

"Where the fuck is h"-

"Tori!" She cried in distress and he let out a sigh, opening his arms, sitting down beside her.

"Come here"

She fit into his arms, for the second time this year, and it felt fucking awesome, she had a little stabbing pain for betrayal but ignored it, this was for the greater good.

After Katherine comes to know the whole truth, she wouldn't hurt Vittorio, and hopefully, they'd be a family again after all united we stand divided we fall right?....right?

Vittorio rubbed the girl's back, one hand sneaking around to his phone and he typed something else and threw it on the bed.

Eve looked up as his hold changed from comforting to confining.

"V-vitttori-vittorio?"

"You were taught to protect yourself, little one" His voice floated around the room "What did he do that got you so helpless.?

"I knew this" She kicked but he tightened his hold further "Of course you'd believe him."

"Eve" The man looked down "Calm down. If he could take you down, he can hurt anyone else, so I need to know what he did"

"I don't know! The bastard must've slipped something into my drink"

"Look at me"

Vittorio looked at her dilated pupils, and his jaw clenched, as he left her.

"I promise you" He kissed her forehead "He'll regret it"

Eve fell onto the bed as she looked at the ceiling, a satisfying look on her face as she took a puff of the pot she had.

God, this really was coming together and going to work.