"Nobody is allowed between these pretty little thighs but me....and if anyone tries...𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦."
~
They call him The King-a ghost who rules the world's most powerful mafia from the shadows. No face. No mercy. No mistakes.
And beside...
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The triplets sat in Kaia's office at The Black Orchid, their honey-gold eyes rimmed with shadows. This was their first time in New York, their first time stepping foot in the world their sister had bled to build. And now, they were helping everyone inside piece together what came before—what made her.
For the first time, they spoke of their past. Of her.
"Our parents," Elias began, voice clipped, "were never 'Mom' or 'Dad.' Their names were Vera and Hugo Karlsson."
Milo gave a bitter scoff. "They were monsters. Aria was six when we were born, and they dumped us on her like it was her job. Diapers. Bottles. Waking up in the night. All while they got high or disappeared for days."
Felix's hands tightened into fists. "They never even fed us half the time. She did. She found ways. Grandma took over when she found out."
The triplets nodded in unison, the memories too clear to be anything but truth.
"She did everything," Elias said. "Ran the house. Got groceries with scraps from her part-time jobs. Took us to the park just so we wouldn't cry. All of it while going to school. No kid should've had to carry that."
"There was a nice woman a few blocks away," Milo remembered, quieter now. "She couldn't have kids of her own, but she liked having us around. Aria never told her how bad things were. She didn't want pity. She just wanted peace. So that lady helped us until she died."
"When we got older, we went to school," Felix added. "Things were still bad, but it gave her a little space to breathe. Not much, though. The older she got, the more Vera and Hugo leaned on her. Gambling debts, drug deals gone wrong. She had to take on more jobs. She never stopped working."
"She still did well in school," Elias said. "It was the one place she didn't feel like she was suffocating. She was so proud when she got the Columbia scholarship. It was the only time I ever saw her cry and smile at the same time."
Then came the pause. That heavy silence where they all knew what came next.
"And then our grandmother died," Milo said, voice breaking. "The only one who ever really saw her. The court denied her custody of us because of her mob ties, but she left everything to Aria anyway. The money. The legacy. The Scandinavian mob."
"And that's when Vera and Hugo sold her," Elias finished hollowly. "They thought if they erased her, they could take everything."
No one spoke for a long while. Not even Katrina.
The triplets had never had the luxury of knowing Aria as anything but their protector. Their savior. Their stand-in mother. Now, piece by piece, they were unraveling the girl beneath the armor.
