Ethereal

Shattered Me

It's officially been over a week since we started staying with the Moretti family. I could lie and say that I didn't enjoy it, that I hated it and wished we could move already; just like how I've been lying to them that buying a house nowadays was difficult and I was focused on other things instead of getting a house for me and my friends. Truly, I just wanted to spend more time around them.

We haven't been able to talk much business. Lately, we've just been trying to figure out the Greek's next move -- but it was eerily quiet from their end. We've just been going about our day-to-day lives because there was nothing else to talk about if we didn't know what was going on or what to plan.

Primo started spending more time around me, despite his mother's wishes. She really doesn't like me around him, but I understand. I wouldn't want my kid around a famous assassin who was used to killing for fun. He started calling me Auntie Diavola, and it was annoying the shit out of the Italians. They told him repeatedly he had an aunt, and I wasn't her. But he said he knew, that he saw me as his aunt just as much as he saw Verity as his aunt.

It melted my heart and crushed it at the same time.

Slowly we've been getting closer to everybody. Even Matteo is comfortable with me now. It feels like I was part of the family...again.

Andrei and Alexei haven't shown up again. Amara talks to me a lot, even though she doesn't like me around Primo -- she likes my company for herself. Celeste, it's taken a bit more time for her to get used to me. With her being pregnant, the Greeks threatening her unborn child, and her husband being the don of the Italian mafia and always busy -- her constant mood of grumpiness was valid. 

Emilio was surprisingly fine with his son always being around me. In fact, when everybody else was busy, he would encourage Primo to stay with me. To go to Auntie Diavola, because she loves him and wants to play with him.

Deep down, I think he knows. He gives me a look that I remember him giving me when I first came here years ago. 

That, too, crushed my heart.

Right now, me, Maya, Derek, Coven, and Blake were sitting in the living room. We've gotten comfortable enough to roam around and occupy rooms that weren't our own. We were watching a movie and Primo was settled on my lap as I played with his blonde curls. He had made us put on the Lego Batman Movie but fell asleep before we even reached half of it.

Even though he was asleep, we didn't change the movie. The boys were beyond interested, faces plastered to the television screen. Me and Maya were talking quietly. 

"I want to remodel your mask," she said.

I lifted my free hand up and touched it. "Oh? Why?"

"You've had it on 24/7 for the past week. It's got to be uncomfortable, and I have a feeling it'll be on a lot more. Maybe a material that's more lightweight, but harder to break -- because you've been going through them like crazy. Or just make one that's good for chilling."

She wasn't wrong. The mask was constantly breaking, revealing a portion of my face every time. Thankfully, nobody paid much mind and the Italians began to be uncomfortable to see my face, so they'd look away. Except for Matteo and Emilio -- Matteo staring, taking in every single inch of whatever is shown, and Emilio who smiles and hides the tears that well up in his eyes.

I wonder if he truly thinks I'm Verity, or just thinks I look a whole hell of a lot like her and that makes him soft.

"It's up to you. I'm fine with this mask, but if you do get bored and remodel some, then hand them over as soon as you can."