Thorns & Roses

-twenty four-

AURORA VALENTINA MARINO

"One of the requirements for the marriage was we had to have a minimum of 3 children. So 2 years later we started trying and then came Gio. I made sure during the time Sofia was pregnant with Gio, I was extremely nice to her. I did the same whilst she was pregnant with Ciano and Marco. I wasn't going risk losing another child. I wouldn't be able to cope." Padre sighed once he had finished the story.

I went over to hug him and he squeezed my hand before leaning the side of his head on the side of mine. "I'm so sorry." He nodded slowly, I pulled away and he turned to look at Gio.

"This is why I didn't want you to find this out on your own. Better to hear it from the person who lived through it than off of a piece of paper or a computer screen." Gio nodded and smiled weakly. "Anyway, moving on from that depressing topic, how's everyone been?"

"Padre, you can't just move on from that like it's nothing." Luciano said.

"I can and I just did. All of that doesn't matter now because I have all of you guys and we're all very much alive."

"Yeah, but for how much longer?"

"Gio, come on, I said stop with the doom and gloom." Ciano got up and went to hug Padre.

"I've missed you, old man."

"Ah, my sociopath, this is the welcome I was looking for." He pulled away and ruffled his hair. "I've missed you too."

"How are we going to tell the difference between the Marcos?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Big Marco, Little Marco?" Padre said.

"Which ones which?"

"Big Marco is your zio and Little Marco is your brother, obviously."

"But Little Marco is bigger height wise than Big Marco so how does that work?" Nate asked.

"Just call one Marino instead of Marco." Eli suggested.

"There 6 Marinos here, you could be talking to any of us." I said. "There'd be 7 if Marco stopped being a pussy and proposed to Maria."

"Rory!" He yelled and Maria laughed.

"Well, the number drops down by one because you're a Moore not a Marino." I laughed at him and he questioned what was funny.

"I'm a Marino-Moore so I'm still a Marino."

"Let me be inside you again and you can be less Marino and more Moore." He whispered against my ear.

"Elias." I said, pushing away from me, feeling my cheeks heat up. He has no filter whatsoever, acting like our entire family isn't right in front of us. "Fine, there's 5 Marinos but my point still stands."

"I don't even want to know what freaky shit he's whispering to you for you to change your mind but you're right." Ciano said.

"I'm extremely confused to why you guys are so invested in this, making it way more complicated than it needs to be. Call them both Marco, it doesn't take long to figure out which one people are talking about." Mrs Elena pointed out, stating the obvious.

"Yeah, she's right." Maria laughed.

"Of course I am, now, since all of you ignored my knife rule, everyone get out of my kitchen. I want to clean up."

"I'll help." Zio said, looking intensely at her. She nodded with a smile and we all filed out of the kitchen.

"Your uncle better not make a move on Mama." I laughed, noticing the same thing.