In The Shadows ✔

[68] Violet Lion

Scorpia asks: "Have you seen the painting above the door to my office yet?"

Ciro shakes his head and walks into the office with her.

Scorpia greets Manon and Bart and finds Bruno sitting with Bart.
Bruno quickly gets up to hug her. "Sorellina, are you okay?"

"Yes, big brother. I'm fine."

"Even after..." He makes eye contact with Ciro, who smiles proudly at his brother.

Scorpia takes her bracelet off and puts it back in the cupboard. She points at the canvas above the door and sits down at her desk.

The brothers look up and grin at the sight of the painting.

Bruno says: "Ha! This is your view when you're working? Did Lexy have this one made?"

Scorpia laughs and says: "Yes, I've asked Lexy if they could crop the faces of my exes off." She winks at her brothers and Ciro laughs.

"Fuck yes, people could really believe that.

Bruno says: "Wellll..." He suddenly realizes what he's about to say and closes his mouth, fast.

"They know, Bruno. I told them yesterday after you left."

Bruno looks at Ciro and asks: "How did Dino react to that?"

Dino walks in and says: "Dino laughed his head off in the end. And he was glad that he never knew before. What are we looking at?"

He follows their gaze to the canvas above the door and Ciro says: "At Scorpia's current lover and her exes."

Dino chuckles and says: "Good story. Let's go with it."

He turns around to Scorpia and says: "Van is bought and delivered to Thomas, who already spoke to Violetta. The school gets seven new kinds and they start tomorrow."

Scorpia smiles wide and says: "Well done Dino. We arranged that nicely."

Manon gets up and says: "The books will be delivered to the children's home at the end of the afternoon. I made an express order. When I told them it was for a children's home, they promised to add some fun things to the delivery."

"Thank you, Manon! So wonderful when you're working with dependable people."

Bart says: "What did you do with Ciro exactly? Because I'm flooded with messages from people who want to know if I really work for you and if you're looking for more staff."

Ciro says: "She had lunch with Don Flavio."

Dino and Bart's faces turn pale and they look at Scorpia with a shocked expression on their faces.

She nods and says: "The food was pretty good, the company was okay in the end. As soon as the capos left that is. They were disrespectful bastards."

Her phone beeps and she pulls it from her briefcase. She looks at the screen and sees a new message from Violetta.

Dear Scorpia,
Mister Thomas is a really sweet guy.
I still can't believe the kids can go to school.
I've also spoken to your chef and Marisol.
She's very enthusiastic and offered to come over to help.
I wanted to let you know when Leo gets his bottles.
In case you want to feed him some time.
7, 11, 14.30, 18.00, and 22.30.
You're always welcome here.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
XO V.

She reads the message with a smile on her face and only listens to half of the things Ciro says as he's telling everyone how the meeting went.

Dino and Bart stare at Scorpia, who's looking at her phone with a serene expression on her face. She looks up and makes eye contact with Dino.