Vengeance

Prologue

13 years ago

"Ava!"
"Avyy!"
"Ava wake up!"
"Wake up, sleepyhead."

Ava DeLuca, the five year old princess, opened her eyes to find her twin brothers, Marco and Matteo, gently shaking her up with huge grins plastered on their faces. Sitting up on her bed, she let out a small yawn. " Si, fratelli", she said sleepily rubbing her eyes with her tiny little fists. ( Yes, Brothers)

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY AVA !!!", screamed multiple voices in the room. Sleep flew out of the window as her eyes met with five smiling faces, other than the twins, standing at the edge of her bed. The morning sun shone through her window brightening her newly decorated, pink and purple colored room which belonged to her mother as her private study and now Ava's bedroom, and revealed the happy faces of her three older brothers and her parents. She smiled at them flashing her tiny milk teeth.

Her parents, Vincent and Rosaline DeLuca, came towards her. "Mia principessa", said Papa kissing her cheeks. Her other three elder brothers, Lorenzo, Dante and Romeo, hopped on her bed and hugged her tightly along with the twins. She giggled.
"Happy birthday, sorellina"
"Thank you so much", replied Ava in her baby voice while hugging back.

Being the youngest and the only daughter of the house, she was loved and spoiled beyond imagination. Her oldest brother Lorenzo was 13, Dante was 11, Romeo was 9 and the twins, Marco and Matteo, were 7. Papa's princess that she was, a single tear was enough to create havoc in the entire mansion. Yes, mansion. Vincent DeLuca was a rich and a very respected man in Italy. Mostly busy, but never denied his princess of his time and attention when she asked for it.

And today was her 5th Birthday. Her parents had arranged a grand celebration for her. The entire mansion was extremely busy with the arrangements. Servants running throughout the place to manage everything on time.

Mrs. Bianchi, their head servant, was a sweet old lady who took care of almost all the household things and helped Rosaline in taking care of the kids. She entered Ava's room as it was time for Ava to get ready for the celebration. Rosaline came in following her with the most beautiful dress anyone could have ever seen for her little daughter. It was a long red frock ending with layers and had black frills on the front and back. Mrs. Bianchi did her hair while her mother dressed up in a matching gown and hairstyle. As they stood in front of the mirror, Ava gasped, "Mama, we look same!!"

"Yes Sweetheart, that's because you are a tiny little me. I love you so much sweetie", Rosaline said, bending down kissing her cheeks.

"Now let's go, your Papa and fratelli are waiting for us", she said, taking Ava's hand and leading them out of her room.

As they climbed down the stairs, Ava felt a mild wave of nervousness hit her guts on watching the whole crowd stop whatever they were doing and turn towards them to stare as they headed down the stairs. Silence had spread all over the place with only the soft music playing in the background. Rosaline led her daughter by her hand with a smug confidence and a smiling face, as she was used to this kind of attention for the past 14 years, perks of being the wife of the richest man in the country. On feeling her daughter's hesitation, she stopped to give Ava an encouraging smile and a gentle squeeze on her hand before they continued heading towards the crowd with regal elegance. Once close enough, Ava's eyes met with some familiar faces. Her Papa looked as if he was in a trance staring at her beautiful Mama. Her brothers looked at her lovingly and that made her relax a bit.

Soon they had cut the cake and the crowd dispersed. Vincent approached his little princess and lowered himself to her height. With a genuine smile on his lips, he politely asked his daughter for a dance. Nodding her head, she lent him her hand and started swirling around with his guidance on the beautiful melody. She giggled to heart's extent. That moment was the happiest moment of her life. But only until he was taken over by her brothers.

They took several family pictures, laughed with pure joy, while the crowd stood watching them, some with admiration and others with jealousy. All of them, unaware of the darkness that was going to consume their lives mere hours later. Oblivious to the truth that those were the last happy moments they had together.

Ava was chasing Matteo as they played around the hall, when she bumped into a waiter holding drinks. He lost his balance and the drinks spilled all over the little girl ruining her pretty red dress. And as any child would react in this situation, getting wet by the drinks welled her big brown eyes with tears and reddened the tip of her tiny nose. The waiter looked like a deer caught in headlights. Rosaline rushed towards her baby and so did the brothers. And the insecure overprotective father that he was, Vincent yelled at the innocent waiter for his carelessness.
All while Rosaline hugged her daughter in an attempt to calm her down and took her upstairs to get cleaned with a change of outfit.

The corridors were quiet with only sounds of Ava's sniffles and the click of her mother's heels as they walked towards her bedroom. The room was at the end of the long corridor, away from the noise of the party downstairs. It had gotten quite dark and silent as all the servants and bodyguards were with the crowd. Once they entered the room, Ava noticed that her bedroom window was open and the white voile curtains were swaying in the rhythm of the cold breeze. The coolness outside was sucked into the room making it chilled unlike its usual cozy warm self. Exactly something Ava didn't like. It made her feel alone at night. Rosaline knew of her daughter's preference towards warmth.
She saw her baby shiver quietly as she stood there in her wet frock and quickly headed towards the bathroom to get her a towel.

Ava heard the door shut slowly and creakily behind her. She quickly turned to look at it. Not a second later, she heard her mother's squeaky voice coming from the bathroom. Worried, she called out to her. But before she could follow Rosaline in there, someone put one hand on her mouth and the other caught both her wrists behind her back. Her heart leapt in her chest and panic shot in. She stared wide eyed at the bathroom door as it opened revealing her mother. Fear struck her when she saw another man in black holding her Mama in the exact same position. As their eyes met, she saw evidence of tears, anger and absolute terror in her mother's eyes. They both struggled against their captors but failed miserably. Their screams were muffled by the palms clutching their mouths tightly.
Her visions started getting blurry with tears and so did Rosaline's as they continued fighting for their release.

A third man came up from behind walking slowly towards Rosaline. He brought the blade of his cold knife towards her chin and whispered in a barely audible voice, "With best regards from Hunt".
Ava saw her Mama's eyes widen as realization struck her when she heard the name. And just like that, the tears that had welled up in Rosaline's eyes which she was refusing to release, flowed down her cheeks as she closed her eyes shut. She sniffled for a second before opening them and looking at the man with pleading eyes before she slowly glanced towards her daughter. Her eyes begged for her daughter's life to be spared if not her. This made the man smile maliciously at her. That evil smile was the conformation. She knew she had lost the fight. Rosaline locked her tearful eyes with her daughter's and muffled her last few words against the hand about how much she loved her. How sorry she was for what Ava had to witness happen. How ashamed she was for failing to protect her.
She gave three men one last look. A look of hatred, blazing anger but also of determination that swore vengeance.
And within a split second the man slit Rosaline's throat with his sharp blade.

The blood splattered onto the little girl's face as she watched it all, helplessly horrified. Rosaline's hand flew to her throat as soon as the man holding her, had released his grip. She fell onto her knees at her daughter's level while she coughed blood. Ava stood traumatized as thick red blood spurted out of her mother's throat, gushing down her neck onto her chest and spilling on the floor. Unable to speak, Rosaline still struggled to crawl up to her daughter but failed. Ava watched the light dim from her eyes, and life left her body as the hands that were struggling to reach her a few seconds ago, fell limp and pale. Soon she fell onto the floor in her own pool of blood.

My Mama. My beautiful Mama.

It hit her like a storm and she started screaming at the top of my lungs, thrashing her body against her captor. But she was just a child. All her screams were suppressed by the hand that covered her mouth. Her head was consumed with confusion and questions.

Who was Hunt? Who were these people? Why did they kill her Mama? Why Her Mama?

She was kicking and screaming and crying as she saw the man who killed her mother turn towards her. He muttered something to the men and then stared at her with a frown. Soon she felt a stinging pain on the side of her neck. Her vision started fading, her scream subdued and everything went black.