Broken Bonds

Chapter 27

Third Person

-4 years later-

"Ari! Hurry up or else we will be late for the ceremony!" Elijah yelled out loud from the living room, where the rest of his brothers were sitting at the table, having their breakfast together. 

"Coming!" Ariana dashed out of her bedroom, with a big black bag resting on her arm, and her long brown hair sticking out in all ways. It was the day when she finally graduates from university after a long 4 years journey. It was also the day which she looked forward to the most, as it was one step closer to becoming a professional perfumer. 

Placing the big black bag on the ground, she took in a deep intake of breath as she took a seat at the table. Sitting at the head of the table, Alexander eyed at the bag and smiled at her, asking,"Have you made sure that you've packed everything you need? The gown, the cap? Everything?" 

Ariana chuckled back at his question,"Yes, yes, brother. I've double checked the bag since last night." Missus Dai, their housekeeper who had been with them for over decades, brought in a plate of breakfast that was meant for Ariana.

Upon seeing the scrumptious plate of food, Ariana grinned widely at Missus Dai and thanked her for the food. 

"It's called a graduation breakfast. Have it and have a smooth graduation." Missus Dai beamed at Ariana and hurried her to dig in as she was going to run late any time soon. 

As she was done with her meal, her brothers had also came down and dressed in their usual black suits. She mentally facepalmed herself the moment she saw her brothers. 

"Are you sure you guys are coming to the ceremony while dressing like this? It almost seemed to me that it's more like a funeral rather than a ceremony." Before anyone of her brothers could reply, the door burst opened, revealing the rest of their family. 

Going from front to back, everyone was dressed in full black except for Aunt Giana, who was wearing a full white off shoulder dress which ended at her mid thighs. Ariana sighed softly in response, while muttering,"Geez, at least one person looks sane."

Aunt Giana heard her words and chuckled as she moved to her side, giving her a tight hug and exclaimed,"Don't worry, I will make sure that they won't go all ballistic while you're on the stage. And congratulations in advance, Ari!" 

The Romano brothers have undergone a full 180 degrees change ever since the death of their sister, Avery Romano. They went back to the same caring and overly protective brothers that they once were, though Ariana was not sure if that could be considered as a good or bad thing. She had always felt guilty whenever she was the one at the receiving end of their caring side, as she thought that Avery should have been the one to experience such happiness too. 

Her concerns were noticed by Mason Romano, who tried various ways to get her think otherwise. That it was not her fault, and neither did she take away Avery's happiness. Thanks to him, she begun to let go of the negative thoughts that had been consuming her mind ever since that day. She was no longer blaming herself, though she still missed her twin a lot. 

The Romano had gotten rid of Felix Parker about 3 years ago, in the most cruel way they know of. But before he died, they made sure to let him know how his despicable ex-wife had fooled him by drugging his ex-best friend and got onto bed with him. In the end, he died as a pitiful man whose body was casually disposed off in the forest. 

The Romano then headed off in two separate cars for the ceremony. With Alexander, Axel, Lorenzo, Lucas, and Gabriel in one car while the rest in the other. 

The ceremony soon went by and ended the day with a family photo taken. 

Ariana Romano

Heaving out a big sigh of relief as I stepped out of the female toilet, I smiled to myself thinking that I was finally done with university. But there was still something that I have to do to call it a day. Returning the graduation gown to the office, I headed straight to the car park and met up with my family. 

It seemed that Gab, Alex, Enzo and Eli had something on so they had left before I came out of the school and Uncle Ezra was gone as well, leaving the rest of us in one car. As Mason drove past a florist, I immediately made him stop the car along the curb. 

"Why? You forgot something?" Aunt Giana asked in concern. I shook my head and replied,"No, I just want to get some flowers." Without further to do, I got off the car and entered the shop to select the flowers.

I ended up choosing some white chrysanthemums for dad and got a mixture of different flowers for Eliz. It was meant to be a graduation bouquet for her, because she would have graduated today as well, if she was still here. I hugged both bouquets to my chest tightly and paid for them before leaving the shop. 

"Mason, can you just drop me off at the cemetery on the way?" He hummed in response, while the rest remained silent. As we arrived at the cemetery, Aunt Giana offered,"Do you need any of us to accompany you?"

I smiled lightly, and shook my head and replied,"It's okay, Aunt Giana. I want to spend some time here, you guys should head back first. I will head back soon." They looked at me in hesitant, then finally agreed and drove off. 

Stepping on the soft and moist grass patch, my heart started pounding harder with each step closer to the graves. It happened every time when I visit them. Was it out of excitement? I was not sure either.

I knelt down onto the grass as I arrived in front of them. The mud from the grass soaked onto my jeans as the grass patch was still wet from the heavy rain in the early morning. I took out a piece of tissue from my pocket and wiped away the water droplets on their tombstones, until no water droplets can be seen. 

Gently placing both bouquets down, I whispered softly,"Hi dad, hi Eliz. You know what? I just graduated from university just an hour ago. And I'm finally one step closer to becoming a professional perfumer. The occupation that I've been harping on ever since I was young, I bet both of you could remember. Everyone came to the ceremony today, and we took a photo after that." I could feel the tears threatening to spill out anytime, so I lifted my head up, as though it was a trick to stop tears from flowing. 

"But it felt wrong,"I continued,"Because none of you were there, to witness it." I choked on the tears which were flowing uncontrollably out of my eyes. I felt tiny raindrops falling onto my skin as I wiped away the tear stains on my face. 

"It's raining again, I've got to go now. Happy graduation, Eliz. And....I missed you guys....so much. I'll visit again, all right? I love you." I glanced at the tombstones for the last time before dusting off the mud stuck onto my jeans. The flowers which I had just placed there were getting drenched slowly as each second passed by. 

As I walked away from the graves, I noticed a faint silhouette coming towards me. It was strange as this land was owned by us, specially for us to visit dad and Eliz whenever we want to. Which means that only family was allowed. Unless.....

As the person got closer, I finally got a clearer view of the person's face under the umbrella. 

"Vincenzo?" I blurted out his name, as he lifted his umbrella more and tilted his head a little to look at me. 

updated! a time skip! something that I've always loved in stories HEHEHHE (not sure if a 4 years time skip was too much but I feel like it was just right HEHH meaning that Avery is now 23 years old WOOHOO, do the math for other characters if you want because I'm too lazy for that)

was thinking to do a new characters list since there is a time skip now but I'm still deciding on that so we shall see. 

and kind of excited to see the available modules which we can choose from tomorrow (unless those modules are still the same which is so UGH boring, but hopefully they change some of them at least, so there will be more varieties to choose from and hopefully this dumb ass here will not choose a class that ends at 6pm anymore)

Happy reading! -26/9/2022