Thorns & Roses

-three-

AURORA VALENTINA MARINO

For the last two months I had been joining Gio with some of the tasks he had to do in preparation for when Padre steps down at the end of the year.

To say I enjoyed it would've been an understatement. It just felt right, like I was made for this role. Along with that, everyone was happy with how well I was doing. Well, everyone minus Mom. But that's no different. She doesn't have a bone in her body made to be proud of me.

I sighed heavily to myself as I walked into the kitchen to see no one was in there.

"Happy birthday to me I guess." I mumbled to myself as I took some grapes out of the fridge before sitting down on one of the stools at the kitchen counter.

"Hi, Luciano." My face lit up when I saw him.

"Hey, sorella, I need a favour." Ciano said as he walked further into the kitchen. My smile dropped. Not even a happy birthday.

"What?"

"I need help to get rid of a couple of bodies. Padre said he won't get the clean up crew because I've killed too many people this week."

"You want me to dispose of dead bodies? Today of all days?"

"Er... yes. Why not today?" My heart sank. Did he really forget? Did everyone really forget about my 20th? "Anyway, what are you dressed up for?" I had put on a new light blue body con dress that I bought just for today and matched it with some silver earrings. I defined my curls and did a half up half down style, leaving a few curls out at the front to frame my face.

I sighed heavily and shook my head. "It doesn't matter, let's go." I don't even care if I get blood on my outfit anymore, it's not like I'm going anywhere with it now. He motioned me to walk into the main room, which had a huge door, leading to one of the gardens. "Ciano, of all places, why did you kill people in there?"

"They were bothering me. Now come on, we have to get it cleaned up before Padre gets back."

"You need to start controlling yourself. Why didn't you get Gio and Marco to-"

"Surprise!" Everyone yelled as I walked through the door, catching me off guard, making me immediately pull out my gun.

"For fuck's sake." I mumbled to myself, putting my gun away. They all started to sing happy birthday and I felt my eyes tear up. I looked around the room to see my brothers, Padre, Tommy and some of our men. I didn't have friends outside the mafia, I didn't see a reason to have them. Having my family was more than enough for me.

I walked over to Gio, Marco and Padre with Ciano following close behind me.

"Happy birthday, Aurora."

"Happy birthday, Rory." They said at the same time and all of them wrapped their arms around me.

"I thought everyone forgot." I said, wiping away the remaining tears.

"Never." Ciano whispered.

"Give us a second, figli (sons)." They nodded and went off to talk to other people.

"Happy birthday, mia stella. My beautiful, beautiful daughter." Padre said, cupping my cheeks. My eyes began to well with tears again. "Hey, that's enough tears, birthday girl." I let out a laugh, which somehow turned into a sob. "Mia stella, come on, you're going to make me cry too if you carry on like that. I can't have let my men see that." He whispered into my ear as he pulled me towards him in a tight hug.

"Thank you, Padre, so much for everything. I couldn't have asked for a better father. You've given me the best life imaginable and I will forever be thankful for that." Padre pulled away from the hug with a smile, reached over to the table behind us and handed me a box. He opened it and a gasp left my mouth. "Padre..." It was a silver cuff bracelet, lined with diamonds and had 'mia stella' engraved into it.