The Storm Before the Calm

Chapter 1

Aurora Salvatore

I don't believe in God, yet I always catch myself praying to the God I know to not exist. I stopped believing in God long ago, so maybe I was actually praying to the Devil?

Now, she knows how to get shit done and burns bridges and people as needed. So maybe it was her whom I longed to answer my prayers.

I didn't realize I was spacing out until my oldest sister's voice broke me out of my spell.

"Aura!" I turned my head around, seeing my oldest sister, Angelina, step out of the French doors leading from the kitchen, onto the back terrace. I didn't know how long she had been calling my name for, but my family was used to when I zoned out. "Aura! Mama's looking for you inside." She said, her heels clicking along the bricks as she neared me.

It was Friday, which meant our family had their usual family dinner that was more like a feast for a small army that we spent the entire day preparing, and I was outside currently fixing the flower centerpieces I'd picked from my mom's garden, and fixing all the napkins that weren't perfectly creased.

"Oh God, what's wrong now?" I groaned, feeling the soft pink rose petal between my index finger and thumb, as I turned my attention back to the flowers as my sister neared.

Our parents' house was more of a compound than a house, but it was where we grew up, so it felt homey to all of us. But even walking from the back door to the long dining table outside we ate at, took her a full minute.

My siblings and I had grown up in this world, so we were used to the grandiosity by now, but we still recognized how dramatic a lot of our normalcies were. Life of mafia princesses.

"No idea, I just heard the foreign swearing, and told her I'd go find you, and I stuck the kids on her to calm her down."

My nieces and nephews were the loves of my life. Ever since 'the incident' many moons ago, I've become so attached to my nieces and nephews, everyone in the family knew that at any family function, if they needed me, all they had to do was follow the trail of children to find me.

"I'll finish here for you." Angelina added, pushing a piece of my ponytail back behind my shoulder, smiling softly at me. Again, something she'd done since 'the incident' like she was scared not being soft enough around me would send me into a spiral, even though they all knew me better than that by now.

But I knew she acted differently than anyone else in my family because she was my older sister who felt like she failed me as a protector. Which also explains why she's so overly protective of my niece, her daughter, Bianca.

She knew that I needed to perfectly crease each napkin, perfectly align all the silverware on the table, turn the glasses so they all faced the same way, and assemble each floral centerpiece every family dinner, or I'd anxiously only pay attention to each imperfection.

I excused myself, listening to my own heels click against the bricks, making sure each foot went in each large brick as I walked, before I opened the same doors Angelina came out of, and I heard the chaos she was talking about.

I heard the noises of the serving staff getting everything ready for all the food we cooked, I heard half Italian, half English conversations going on all at the same time, and made my way towards the foyer, where I knew I'd find my mother, as she greeted everyone.

"Aurora! Bella, bisognodite." [I need you.] My mother said frantically upon seeing me enter the foyer from the kitchen. I wasn't sure why she was acting so chaotic like she was out of breath looking for me, when she knew where I'd be before the family began arriving. The same place I was every Friday at this time.