Capelli Palace

Prologue

"Behind!" Lorenzo's hurried steps found the quickest way to the employees' exit. Stepping outside the air was poignant, crisp as it filtered his lungs from the smoke. One of the younger, aspiring chefs had burnt the bread in the oven. The scent of burnt bread, familiar yet desperately distant from that reality he sought out in the back of his mind.

"You okay?" He looked up at his savior, his brother in crime, Antonio Capelli. How Italian could it get for the ivory man wielding his smoke? Tony lifted his lighter, turning the tip into a burnt crisp for his lungs to deal with.

"I'm alright." Lorenzo is truthfully alright, his older brother there. The comfort his existence brought him stemmed from their years together as children. Tony knew him more than he knew himself, bread burnt and crisp from the oven lighting a fire in his instincts to run away.

"I knew you would run, I told you to see a therapist." Smacking his rough palms into the curls of his little brother's head. He sneered. This idiot needed to get over his fears before he was gone, his job pulling him away like their mother. Tony knew he wasn't going to be there forever, no matter what God he prayed to.

"I will! I will! Just...give me some time."

"I'll be 100 before you man up, get back inside. Your niece is in there," Tony kicked his brother's butt, rushing him inside after he caught his breath. Silently, Lorenzo thanked him, he could focus on the little bundle of joy.

Wiping his sweaty palms he opened the restaurant's back door, so he wouldn't face the burnt bread in the kitchen, "Jassy!"

Jasmine is only 4, and her mother's darker tone mixes with his brother's ivory in a beautiful almond tone. Her mother hadn't originally assimilated into the group, a civilian in the mayhem of chaos. But, she fought my brother tooth and nail to stand by his side and stop playing hooky. Truly not a woman to be trifled with.

"Uncle Renzo!" Her wide smile is as cute as they come. Lifting her into his arms her wild hair covered the lower half of his face. Her soapy wood-pine scent is reminiscent of the only air freshener Tony would use in his car mixed with the scent of a leave-in conditioner. Hugging her close one more time he placed her miniature boots back on the ground.

"Willow, give me a hug too." He pulled in his sister-in-law, familial love cornering every inch of his being. Mother and daughter identical curls scented protectively by Tony's car, his pride staking a claim on his precious ladies.

"How are you doing?" Willow sifted through his short curls, honestly worried about the man. His eye bags had doubled in size, a 5 o'clock shadow appearing on the face he pridefully kept baby smooth once. He's unkempt and painfully unlike himself lately.

"I'm alright now that my family is here to bother me." He lifted Jasmine again, tickling her sides to maneuver the topic of conversation, "Jasmine how do you like your new school? Y'know me and your papa used to go there." Jasmine didn't hesitate in her response, effectively changing the topic but Willow wasn't going to give up so soon.

"I'll call you soon and I expect you to respond." She pinched his tanned cheek silently thinking of how worried she was about Lorenzo, he was such a sweet kid when she met him. Yet, the years had sunk its teeth into him and shattered his soul. She doesn't know how he's holding on.

——

Sending off his family and the employees, Lorenzo finally found an opportunity to breathe. At this time of night, this shoe in the box of a restaurant appeared abandoned. Yet his mother's only remnants resided here, he'd keep it up and running until he couldn't any longer. Her customers were the same old, reservations only, older, and rich. A place where the rich feigned poor to cure their terminal boredom. A place where she could gossip and exploit her relationship with information brokering. It was all a movie she skillfully played the main character role in, teaching Lorenzo how to make sickly sweet smiles or laugh like he wanted to be there. A sick film that couldn't end when she did, had to keep rolling.