Marcella Cecily Mariano was sheltered from the world all her life. Protected by her father and older brothers, but what happens when she finds about the family business. Will she survive all life throws at her or will she be taken by the danger she...
Austin POV: It's been almost two months since I was saved. Two months and the nightmares still occur. Ivan's still out there and I'm scared. For my family, for my girl friend and for myself. Every day he's free, I stay awake knowing that he could possibly harm someone I love. The scars are less apparent, but will be on me forever. I've been going to therapy, but it hasn't helped much. I can't bring myself to open up just yet. Autumns doesn't understand why her brothers "sad" all the time, as she says, and I can't tell her what happened.
Today is Autumns eighth birthday. I still can't believe at only eight years old she was brought into this world, and has been threatened repeatedly for her short eight years of living. I was with Cecily, distracting Aut from going downstairs where her party was being set up. Since it was to risky to go out for her birthday my father had the party here.
It would only consist of my father, myself, Cecily and her family, as well as my cousin Aidan. Aidan lives in New York with his father, running another gang, The Vipers. He's barely a year older than me, so we were really good friends growing up. He's like a brother to me, Autumn loves him too, so it's gonna be a big surprise to her when he she comes down stairs.
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^^^Aidan Spade
I got a text from my dad saying everything was prepared. "Hey Aut," I called out, Cecily and her came running to me. "You wanna come with me to get some food downstairs." She nodded and we held hands while walking downstairs.
"SURPRISE!" Everyone yelled. Autumns smile was so big. She immediately ran to the unicorn cake on the table in awe. It felt good to see her smile like that again. It made life feel almost normal again. For the first time in months my first emotion wasn't fear from Ivan or the torture, it was just happiness.
We were sitting down opening Auts presents when we heard "Hey, yo chill!" I quickly put my arm around Autumn protectively, until I saw that it was none other than my cousin Aidan.
"AIDAN!!!!!" Autumn yelled as she ran to him. He set down the present and picked her up and spun her. To be honest Aidan was more of a brother to us than a cousin.
Everyone got up to greet Aidan. "Everyone this is my cousin Aidan, Aidan this is the Mariano's." I introduced. Aidan was nice to everyone but I could definitely see him eyeing Ceci's brothers. The thing about Aidan is he's gay, but not just gay, the gay that falls for anyone and everyone. He will fall for someone who punched him in the face, which is how his last relationship started.
I really need to teach him to find real love.
Everyone said hello and we went on with the party. Soon enough it was dinner time and Aidan and I were in the living room catching up.
Today was a good day. I can just hope we can finally get back to normal.
