Cold Heart

Chapter 19:The Story of The Massimo's

RAE'S POV

"What did you mean, when you said Ashton was to scared to fall in love?" I ask her

Lucy hesitates, "I'm not sure I'm the one to tell you, it's really private to Ashton" 

"Please, I won't tell him" I beg

She looks at me as if to say no. I'm a bit disappointed. Anything concerning Ashton I feel an urge to know. She can tell by my face.

"Fine. I'll tell you" She says. My face lights up "But it's not a nice story, it's very upsetting and it haunts Ashton and Ron to this day. Actually, I think this made them who they are." 

She takes a deep breath and begins.

"This role of leader passes down from father to son. It has for many generations. The last leader this gang had was Ashton and Ron's Uncle Carlo. He stepped down when Ashton became 18 and he stays in Italy to run some stuff. It was decided that Ron wouldn't have it due to his, well, mental illness. It made him unfit to be a leader. But Ron didn't mind, he didn't want it. Although he's older, well by a couple of minutes I suppose, he sort of follows whatever Ashton does. Really, they both lead together, Ashton is just known as the big boss."

"Anyways, Ashton's father was the leader before that, but he died. He died a horrific death. Ashton and Ron were only young. I think they were about 13."

"Before Ashton and Ron were born, their Dad, Leon, met a beautiful girl in England, when he was visiting his mother. She was called Emily. Long story short, they fell in love and got married. She didn't want to move to Italy and Leon wasn't to keen on moving back so he took his organisation here and left Carlo to run things in Italy. Because of this, England held one of the most dangerous gangs in the world, alongside the Venttos. The Venttos didn't like how they came here. They thought Leon was trying to take their territory. They tried relentlessly to kill Leon and the rest of the gang but with each attempt they failed. At the time, the ruler of the Venttos was Adrian Ventto, Andrei Ventto's father. Andrei wasn't actually supposed to become leader, but his older brother, Alek,  suspiciously died. A lot of people believe Andrei actually killed him so he could become leader" She adds. This wouldn't have surprised me.

"Anyways, you see, we always were here but we were mainly based in Italy so the Russian's were suspicious on why we wanted to suddenly make it bigger here again, they thought we wanted to take over them."

"Leon made the unfortunate mistake on doing the one thing any leader shouldn't do. He revealed his weaknesses. Emily. His wife who he adored and his two little boys and his baby girl. Adrian wanted to come up with a plan to take them so that he could eliminate the whole Massimo clan. He half succeeded, but it took nearly five years."

"One night, Emily was going to see her mother and the rest of her family who lived in London. They knew Leon was rich, they didn't think he was apart of the mafia, she never told them so she could keep them protected. They thought he was just some rich businessman. Anyways, when she went, she walked into a house full of dead bodies. Her mother, her father and her younger sister. All of them. Dead." 

"She was never the same after that, the poor girl. Leon was furious. He wanted to launch a full attack on them. But the thing is, we always make sure we keep our bases hidden, so none of us could ever find each other. He sent one of the members to try and become a rat, and he did. However, he then turned a rat for them and told the Russian's where we lived."

"They came that night" She whispered, "When we were all asleep in our beds. They killed so many of ours. My dad did everything he could to save me. He did, but, in the end, he couldn't save himself." She says, a tear rolling down her cheek. I squeeze her hand for reassurance.

"They took Emily. They even took Ashton and Ron. They didn't take Bella. Leon was besides himself with grief and worry. They then took him and made him a deal. He could either save Emily or his two sons." 

My face grew pale, a tear also trickled down my cheek.

"She screamed, 'SAVE THEM, SAVE THEM, PLEASE, SAVE THEM', "

"They started counting down from ten. When they got to three, Leon finally said to save Ashton and Ron, he knew Emily would never forgive him if he chose to save her, and so with that, they shot Emily in the head in front of them all laughing. But then they were all free to go. You see, they predicted that after that, he would give up being leader in London. Killing him would just create a martyr and the rest of the gang would try and avenge his death, so instead, they broke him completely.  He was never the same after that. A week later, Ashton, Ron and Bella found a suicide note on their beds. Leon had shot himself in the head. They walked in his office and found the body."

Tears were streaming down on both of our faces. 

"We were all so young. And God knows what poor Ashton and Ron saw happen to their mother in that place, I mean, look what they did to you. Imagine your children having to see that happen to you?" She cries.

No. I couldn't. I would have rather died that let my children or anyone I loved see that. 

"I think this is why Ashton wanted to save you. You had a chance, his mother didn't. He actually saved your life from them but he couldn't save his mother" She whispers

"But even after all of these years, it's still scarred on them. I still hear Ashton screaming through the night, he tries to not sleep so he drowns himself with alcohol. This is why Ron is so paranoid, he's petrified of having someone tell the Russian's where we are again, we would have to pick up and move again. This is why they hate Bella for what she's done. How could she go to them after everything they done to her family, marry the son who destroyed their family. This is why they hate the Ventto's and with every opportunity try to bring them down. And this, Rae, is why Ashton is petrified to let himself love you"