Rihai

Sedici

Warning- Mentions of rape.

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The morning glory was nothing but a glum bright light burning everyone's eyes. Aurelio had called everyone to gather around in the living room. Romeo and Adhira arrived early, followed by Armando and Aadya.

Armando had been too cautious after the hospital visit. He rarely left Aadya's sight. And since none of them had to go to war or kill any people who attacked them, Aadya didn't mind. If anything, she liked him close.

Footsteps from the stairs caught their attention. Aadrika walked down alone and made her sisters frown. It was Aadya who broke the silence first. "Are you okay, di?" Aadrika frowned and shrugged. "Yeah."

She walked closer and Adhira's frown deepened. "You're limping-" her mouth fell shut at her sister's glare. All the concern flying out the window. The two girls smiled in amusement and their husbands tried to keep a stoic face. They really did try.

The lock on the basement door clicked and Aurelio looked at his family before pushing it open. He turned to them all, especially his brothers. "When the war started, Armando often questioned what the Americans want from us. It was a game of power. The need to rise above everybody else."

Everyone stared. Not sure what was happening. Aurelio breathed through his nose. It was easier for him to keep the secret in. But if he was leading people to war, the least he could do was let them know the reason.

"Our father wanted truce. He wanted peace among the two families. So after the death of the American Mafia don, his wife came to Italy, to discuss the terms. To manage peace among us all." His brothers remember it. They were young but they remembered the pretty blonde woman who came like the wind and rained havoc down in their lives.

"I have something to show you all." Aurelio led his family down into the basement and to the cell at the end. There she was. She looked extremely old, her hair didn't shine the way it used to. Her skin wasn't as flawless as it was before. The only thing same were her eyes. Though the light in them had dimmed, the malice hadn't. She still smiled at them all. Especially at the man who stared at her with enough hatred to melt her to the ground.

"Hello Romeo." Her voice was little needles pricking into his ears. "Why the fuck is she here?" The mother of the now American don. The woman who had ruined everything for the Italians. Aurelio looked at his brother with sad eyes.

"I couldn't let her go back to her home after she ruined so much. She lit our house on fire. She killed our parents. And then she called me to gloat about it. So the first thing I did after our parents funeral was find her, then shove her in this cell. I've kept her here since. The reason we are at war with Americans is because they want her back."

Aadrika stared at her husband blankly. She knew he wasn't horrible enough to have a sex slave or whatever she had assumed at first and this? It is a valid reason. Debts in Mafia are hard to pay. If she was in his place, she would've tortured and murdered this woman ages ago. But everyone has their own way of revenge.

Romeo seethed in the old woman's direction and turned away when she smiled at him. She killed his parents? He never knew that. He had hated her for all his life for an entirely different reason. Adhira looked at her husband and then back at the woman. There was something she didn't know.

The woman smiled some more. She was surely demented. "You must be Romeo's wife. Aurelio told me you all got married. Isn't he great in bed?" The bars of the cell thudded when Romeo hit them. He was seething so much, smoke would possibly come out of his ears in the next minute.