SINBOUND

II

ALESSANDRO'S POV

I wiped the blood off my cheek, sighing. I tucked my gun into my back pocket as I stared coldly at the lifeless body being dragged out the chamber by my men.

I looked to my eldest son, Armani, who also had put on an emotionless façade. He nodded his head at me slightly as to say, 'let's go.'

We really should go. The chamber smelled horrible. From the man I had just tortured pissing himself  and bleeding out and god knows what else. He was unable to give answers I so desperately needed in order to... hurt my rivals. So I killed him.

Me and Armani walked into my office, our guards trailing after us. I took off my suit jacket, which was slightly stained with blood as I poured two glasses of whiskey for me and Armani. He sat on the chair opposite of my desk, putting his feet up and relaxing back as he took the glass from me.

I looked towards the photo frame on my desk as I sat down. My wife. God, she was so beautiful. The photo was perfect. Her beautiful wavy hair cascaded down to her waist, light brown eyes shining with her pretty smile. Her head was on my shoulder, and I looked happy. Alive. She passed away shortly after giving birth to my youngest sons, the twins.

After she died, I did something stupid. Reckless. I went to a bar. Hooked up with a woman. Came back 3 days later, drunk off my ass. I fixed myself up quickly after a scolding from my elder brother, who told me to get my priorities straight. After that I looked after my children and helped them grieve.

Though many years later, my eldest, Armani, was shot. Not even because of mafia business. Just a simple damn drive-by in which he got caught in the crossfire. The doctors said the bullet was extremely close to his heart and there was a high chance he wouldn't make it.

So I made the same mistake and I called up that woman. I needed distraction. We hooked up again. Again, 3 days later I came back but this time I was sober and ready to help my 5 sons through it. Armani obviously survived but had to stay in the hospital for quite some time.

Since then, years later, I still think about that woman. I didn't even know her name.

How shameful of me.

I still think about my wrongdoings in life. About the mistakes I made. The betrayal to my wife. The betrayal to the mother of my children. To this day, my sons don't know that I betrayed their mother the night she died. They think I just got drunk and high off my ass.

Well, I guess I did that too.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by the ringing of my phone. Amari looked at it suspiciously. My calls were always taken by my secretary unless they were very important, or from one of my idiot sons getting in trouble. I picked up the phone and held it to my ear.

"Hello, is this...Alessandro Lombardi?" Came a man's voice, with a deep Russian accent from the other line. I stiffened, as the Russian Mafia was our top rival right now.

"This is he." I spoke in a gruff voice.

"Hello. I am calling from a police station in Russia. I am sorry to inform you that Lucia Greene took her own life earlier this evening."

"Oh...that's tragic. But what does this have to do with me? I do not know a 'Lucia Greene'."

"It seems you do know her sir. Because you are the father, to both of her children -- Ares and Lilin Greene. They have no other close nor distant relatives that would like to take them in, and they are both still minors in need of a guardian. Seeing as you have their custody currently but are in Italy and off the record in their lives, it is clear you may have...left them. I called to ask if you'd like to keep your custody over Ares and Lilin Greene or if you would like to sign off the custody, which results in them being placed in the system."