Francesca ✔︎

••033

Five months later

    I feel so numb.

I've been feeling like absolute shit for the past few months. The pain inside of me hurts more than anything.

"Francesca." Helene gives me a warm smile, one that I can't bring myself to reciprocate. Not since Vincenzo's death.

She sets a plate down in front of me filled with all the usual foods that I have been craving lately.

Steak, crispy French fries with ketchup, juicy watermelon chunks and a generous piece of glazed pineapple cake.

"Thank you." I nod; never forgetting my manners.

"Anything else for you, darling? We want those babies to be strong." Helene grins, pushing back the brown hair that had fallen in my eyes.

I went through a whole change after Vincenzo's death. I didn't want to feel pain so I figured why not push everything that reminded me of him away.

I lived on my own for a while in a little apartment. I couldn't bare to see the faces of sympathy and pain.

I dyed my hair a golden brown that surprisingly looked nice, I changed up my whole wardrobe, shopped until my own credit cards were maxed out, yet all this did nothing to push my progress onto a healing mode.

After I found out I was pregnant with fucking twins, I moved back to the Valentino estate without a blink of an eye.

These babies are the heir to the mafia. I know Vincenzo would want his children to carry on his lasting legacy.

He deserves that much.

Now, here I am. Fucking six months pregnant with back pain and a damn broken heart.

I dig into my food like a fat pig without a care in the world. I pretty much retired from the whole "man-eater assassin" thing. I don't want to see anymore spilt blood in my lifetime.

"Oh, Topolina." Lorenzo's sickeningly sweet voice sings. He has been a pain in my ass, but somehow I grow fonder and fonder of his sympathy each day.

He's done a lot to attempt to make a smile appear on my face. He treats me like his own little sister and makes sure to include me in everything that goes on.

Of course, I decline the gritty part of the he offers me to watch. My pregnant ass can barley keep and food down better yet watch a man get his eyes cut out with a dull knife.

I meant it when I said I'm done with violence.

"Look what I found in the attic." Lorenzo hands me a wrinkled black and white paper. "I thought you might enjoy seeing this."

I flip over the small paper and tears immediately spill from my tired eyes.

Cute.

It's a picture with Vincenzo and Lorenzo around the young age of six. They're dressed in matching Christmas pajamas and white socks. Vincenzo smiles at the camera with a baby in his hands.

I assume it's Ria, born a few weeks after this was taken. Next to Vincenzo a beautiful petite woman holds both the boys with a smile on her face.

Aww, this must be his mother.

I clutch the photo to my beating heart and sob into Lorenzo's chest. "Thank you." I whisper, trying my best to handle these stupid emotions.

Lorenzo patiently rubs my back waiting for my tears to come to a stop.

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I lay in bed with a sketch pad and earbuds in. The quiet music has been a tool that I use a lot lately. The relaxation it brings me makes me escape the evils of this world for a few hours.