Before I begin, I just want you all to know that this is the first draft of Regnante Legacy and in need of revision. I am very happy that you guys took out the time to give it a read, and I hope you guys won't be shy to leave comments and let me know what you think and add feedback of your own.
Right, now on to the story:

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Tuscany, Florence

“No!” Victoria threw pillows at the red-faced woman in an attempt to prevent her from coming any closer. “No! No! I won’t go! I won’t! No!”

“Signora, please don’t make this any more difficult,” The woman sighed at the foot of the bed, shoulders slumped and clothes ruffled with her hair on edge, and holding Victoria’s dress and shoes in her hands. “Signora,”

“No! Get out of my room! Get out! Get out! Get out!” The ten ground out with tears streaming down her face, blood boiling under her skin as she wanted to scream and throw something, breaking it. “Go! Leave!”

“Leave us,” Salvatore’s voice ordered behind her, the woman tensing and froze in her spot before lowering the clothes on the bench, bowing before making her way out of the room, closing the door behind her.

The Mafia Boss’s stance softened to find his daughter sobbing into her pillow, knowing how much her heart was aching and settled on the edge of the bed. Lying down behind, her he propped his head on his knuckles and softly rubbed the other down her back. Letting out a muffled grunt when she shifted and buried her face in his chest. Salvatore holding her close and pressed kisses to the top of her head.

“I know you don’t like this,” Salvatore spoke into her hair. “I know it’s hard, and I don’t want to force you to go if you don’t want to, but I’m afraid that if you don’t go now, you won’t get the closure you need, baby,”

“It’s not fair!” She bawled into his chest. “It’s not fair,”

“Sweetheart, this is the Mafia,” Her father sighed dejectedly. “This was an expected outcome, I’m just glad that they managed to live this long,”

“Why aren’t you more upset by this?” Victoria gritted out and pushed him away, sitting up and glaring at him with flushed and tear stained cheeks and bloodshot swollen eyes.

“Because I want to be the shoulder you can lean and cry on,” He rubbed his thumb over her jaw. “And I won’t be able to do that if I get upset. It is difficult for me too, and this is probably the last thing I want to do, but I’m still going,”

“It’s an obligation for you,”

“That doesn’t make me hate it any less,”

“I don’t want to go, dad,” Victoria sniffled and wiped her tears. “It makes it all the more real,”

“I know, sweetheart,” Salvatore sighed. “I know. So I won’t force you. If you don’t want to go, alright. But I think it would be good that you come with us, even if it is just to say goodbye. I don’t want you to be alone at such a time,”

Victoria slumped at the words, staring at her gnawed and chipped nails, sniffling to herself.

“We’re going to leave in an hour,” Salvatore placed a kiss on her temple. “If you change your mind, just let us know,”

With that said, her father got up from his place and stepped out of the room. The door closing with a soft click as he sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, making his way down the hall.

Knocking on the door before him, he waited a moment before pushing it open, stepping halfway through the doorway to find his eleven-year-old son standing dazed before the full-length mirror. Dressed in black dress pants, waistcoat, and blazer with a white button-down and a black polka-dotted tie. His hair an unruly mess and his eyes vacantly staring at the reflection in the mirror.

“Hey, buddy,” Salvatore spoke softly, watching Demetrio jump and turn to him with tears trickling down his cheek, eyes rimmed red. “Need anything?” He stepped further into the room and grabbed the brush from the vanity.

Settling on the edge of the ottoman, he pulled his son towards him, cupping his son’s face into his hand and wiped the tears away with his thumb, giving him a soft smile before combing back his hair.

Demetrio sniffled to himself, watching Salvatore take out the black pocket square from his blazer pocket, and tucked it into his son’s pocket, patting it down with a sad smile and ran the back his hand against his cheek. Watching his son let out a shuddering breath and swallow thickly, gaze still vacant before he sniffled to himself and looked up at his father.

“I’m ready,”

“I’ll let you know when we’re going, okay.”

“Okay,” He nodded and sniffled. “Will Victoria come?”

“I don’t know about that, buddy,”

“She should,”

“I told her that, but you know your sister, she’s a little stubborn when it comes to things she doesn’t want to do,”

“True,” Demetrio shrugged and stuffed his hands into his slacks pockets.

“I’m going to check on your mom now, okay? Let me know if you need anything,”

“Only if you’ll do the same,”

“Of course,” Salvatore gave him a weak smile and placed a kiss on his forehead, getting up and made his way out of the room.

Closing the door behind him, he dragged his feet across the hallway and to his bedroom.

“Hey,” Salvatore greeted his wife in the walk-in-closet, Nicole sniffled and wiping away her tears at the entrance. “Victoria might not go, but Demetrio is dressed,”

Swallowing at the words she nodded before turning to her husband. Salvatore straightening to watch her approach and reached out to her when she wrapped her arms around his neck, his arms encircling her waist and held her tight as she let out a stuttered breath and tightened her hold on him.

They stood holding each other for a few moments, Nicole placing a kiss on the side of his neck before pulling away. Giving him a sad smile as she caressed his cheek with the back of her hand.

“I just need twenty minutes,” She informed as he nodded, holding her hands between them. “Could you stay here with me?”

Salvatore blinked at the words before nodding, releasing his hold on her to make his way further into the room, hesitating in front of the bench before resuming to the end of the closet. Pressing his back to the glass doors before sliding down and onto the wooden floor. One leg pulled up with the other stretched out. Leaning his head against the doors behind him.

He watched his wife get ready, going through her skincare routine before she did her hair and makeup, pulling on a pair of black stockings followed by a round neck sleeveless black dress. Zipping up the back before turning to her husband’s seated figure.

Ignoring her shoes, she made her way to him and settled down beside him on the floor, resting her head on his shoulder and tangled their fingers together.

The lump in her throat making it difficult to say anything.

Someone clearing their throat had the couple lookup, finding their daughter fidgeting in the doorway, dressed in a black skater dress with black stockings, fiddling with her fingers and gaze downcast. Tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear, mouth opening and closing soundlessly, gritting her teeth to know that she didn’t have the words needed at the moment.

“Could you get Demetrio?” Salvatore filled the silence, pushing himself off the floor and helped his wife up as well. “We should be leaving now,”

Biting the inside of her cheek, Victoria nodded and disappeared behind the wall.

Salvatore settled on the bench and sighed, sagging forward before pressing his palm to his forehead and grunted softly.

“Could you tell the guards to start the car, please?” He murmured to his wife, who nodded and reached for her phone, delivering the order and watched her husband take a hit from his inhaler.

Sitting beside him, she rubbed his back in circular motions, waiting for him to regain his bearings before pulling on her shoes and grabbed her bag. Bot of their kids appearing in the doorway, none of them saying anything as they followed behind their parents.

Victoria and Demetrio sat in the front pew, their cousins on either side of them as they watched people come to their parents, aunt, and uncles, giving their condolences and hugs, crying about the loss.

The service mostly silent save for the sniffling and soft murmurs.

Neither of the siblings being able to bring themselves to look towards the two caskets not even six feet from them.

Victoria kept her gaze on the ground, not having the stomach to look up and blinked away the tears every time they threatened to spill. Jumping when Demetrio nudged her.

Glowering at her brother, she followed the direction of where his finger was pointing and found Tazio whispering into Salvatore’s ears. Both of them watching his fingers twitch at the words as an almost invisible tilt caused his lips to rise.

Nodding to the words, he tapped his twin sister on her shoulder, whispering something into her ear. Her reaction more obvious as her gaze hardened and she gritted out something through clenched teeth. Arsenio’s eyes had widened while Marco nodded once they both had received the information.

The siblings watching their mother’s expression pale as she intertwined her fingers with her husband's, pulling him towards an archway.

Sharing a glance, Victoria and Demetrio shuffled out of their seats and rushed to where their parents had disappeared. Victoria pulling Demetrio behind the back as she heard them.

“Salvatore, you can’t just go like this,”

“I have to, I might not get this chance again,”

“This is a funeral, for God’s sake,” Nicole hissed. “Your parents’ funeral,”

“And those are the coordinates to the location of their killers. Those brutes shot my parents in their bed when they were defenseless. Their own fucking home, Nicole,”

“Salvatore,” Nicole groaned and took his face into her hands. “You’re hurt and angry, and I understand that but what if this is impairing your judgment and you get killed out there?”

“I’m confident I won’t get killed,”

“Oh, and why is that?” She bit back scathingly.

“Because God doesn’t want me and devil isn’t done with me,” He pulled Nicole’s hands away from his face. “I’m doing this whether you like it or not, and I’m sorry, but that is the fact of the matter,”

Victoria and Demetrio held their breath at the prolonged silence that followed. Sagging to hear their mother sigh after a moment.

“Just…be safe, please,”

“I promise to be back for dinner,”

“You’re giving me your word, Salvatore. You better stick to it,”

“When have I not?” Her husband rubbed his thumb over her knuckles before placing a kiss on the back of her hand. His footfall nearing as both Victoria and Demetrio scurried away from the wall and returned to their seats.

Watching their father stop by the caskets, leaning over them before he made his way out of the church.

“Do you think he’ll do it?” Demetrio found himself muttering his thoughts out loud. “Do you think he’ll find them?”

“Not only will dad find them,” Victoria scoffed, a hard glint in her eyes and teeth bared. “He will make them pay for what they did,”

Later at home, they opted to linger around the ground floor. A part of them afraid of their father being hurt and a part of them anticipating his victorious return. Wondering what he would have done to the murders.

Staring between the clock and the doors before they jumped in their seats when they heard cars approaching. Holding their breath when the heavy metal doors closed and gravel crunched underfoot. Hiding behind the pillar and waiting for the doors to open.

The doors were pulled open to show Salvatore walk in with blood smeared on his cheek, hair winded with chunks of something red in them. Then it took them a moment to realize that their father’s black suit was clinging to him, and it wasn’t due to sweat either. The siblings swallowed when the caught the smell of iron and a strong metallic tang that had their eyes water and watched as their father walked past them, gaze fixated ahead and hands steady as he left a trail of bloody imprints like the red soles of his Louboutin was peeling off on the marble.

“Told you so,” Victoria let out a shaky exhale and clenched her trembling fingers into fists before making her way upstairs and to her room, leaving Demetrio to stand with tears stinging his eyes in the archway of the lounge, gaze fixated on the red shoeprint in front of him.

Dinner was spent hardly eating and with even less chatter, except for the occasional request for a dish to be passed.

They didn’t sit together afterward like they usually did, and instead, head off to their rooms for an early night. The sound of the bedroom doors clicking shut sounding too final for Demetrio’s liking.

He stared at his ceiling and waited for sleep to come, tossing and turning in an effort to get more comfortable but found that he couldn’t bring himself to ignore the lump in his throat. Letting out a strained sob with tears streaming down the side of his face. Demetrio spent some time curled into a ball, sobbing into his pillow before deciding he didn’t want to be alone tonight.

Sniffling, he shuffled out of bed and knocked on Victoria’s door, entering to find her asleep, cocooned in her covers.

Hovering in the doorway, he decided to see if his parents were awake and closed the door behind him.

Walking to their bedroom, he stood outside the door and looked at the crack beneath the door, sighing to realize that the lights weren’t turned off and shuffled in his spot.

Demetrio’s eyes widened and he gasped when the door was pulled up, staggering back and falling on the floor before looking up to find his father’s figure standing with a coat over his trousers and sweatshirt with a pair of shoes in his hands. Eyes on the boy before him.

“Can’t sleep?” Salvatore helped him up once he closed the door behind him. His son dusting himself off before watching his father make his way to the stairs, settling on the top one to pull on his shoes.

“No, actually…” Demetrio shuffled in his place, holding his arm to his chest. “I just got up to get a glass of water. I’m heading back to bed now,”

“Really? You’re going back to sleep?”

“Yeah,”

“Shame, I thought I’d invite you to go on a drive with me,” Salvatore shrugged and stood up, forcing his son to falter on his way to the bedroom and turned to watch his father’s side profile. “Well, then, good night, I guess,”

“Wait a minute!”

“Yeah?”

“Just…out of curiosity…”

“Hmm?”

“Which…which-uh-car are you taking?”

“I don’t know, buddy,” Salvatore shrugged. “I want to go fast, so probably…I’ll take the Lambo. Why?”

Demetrio screwed his eyes shut, hissing under his breath because he had always admired that car from afar, yearning to be seated inside and hear the engine roar to life. His heart thundered at the mere thought of the speed and shivers going down his spine before he turned to face his father, and by the look in his eyes, Salvatore seemed to know exactly what was going through his son’s head.

“You’re right, I can’t sleep,” He nodded gravely, Salvatore doing his best to hide his smile at the words. “So can I come with you?”

“Sure, if you wear shoes and grab your coat,”

Within the next ten minutes, Demetrio felt his heart jump to his throat at least thrice, gripping onto his seatbelt and grinning at the view blurring outside the windshield. Heart thundering in tune with the hum of the car and noticed his father’s smile from the corner of his eye.

“Want me to go faster?” Salvatore smirked, watching Demetrio’s eyes shift to the dash that showed the speed just a little shy of one-thirty kilometer per hour.

“Yes,” His son’s voice came out strained, gasping and laughing breathlessly when Salvatore pressed his foot on the accelerator, the numbers changing to two-twenty kilometers per hour. Demetrio imagining his heart going as fast as the engine, eyes unblinking, afraid to miss any second of this, knowing this wasn’t all this car was capable of. “Faster,”

“You sure?”

“Yes,”

“Hold on, then,” Salvatore warned and pressed the accelerator down. The numbers jumping straight to three hundred and thirty-two.

Laughing to himself when Demetrio let out a joyous scream at the way his head was forced into the back of the seat, his knuckles turning white and face red, teeth bared into a grin and eyes blown. His heart soared and stomach twisted with butterflies as his legs tingled, the sensation of flying washing over him and couldn’t help from laugh at the high sensation buzzing through his mind.

Demetrio finally realized how hard he was breathing when the car slowed and came to a rolling stop at the bottom of a hill. Sweat beading his forehead and soaking the back of his shirt. Fingers stiff and legs spasming. But none of that stopped laughter from escaping past his lips as Salvatore chuckled, stepping out of the car and locking it when Demetrio followed.

“That was awesome!” Demetrio ran after his father, walking backward so Salvatore could see the wide-eyed expression. “I am never driving a slow car in my life. Never!”

“First you must learn how to drive, little one,” Salvatore chuckled and ruffled his hair, his son watching him walk past and to the top of the hill. Demetrio stopping a second to admire the view of the lush fields before joining his father on the bench under the bare-branched tree.

Swinging his legs back and forth with his hands clasped before him and a grin still wide on his lips. Neither of them speaking for a minute with his father’s gaze at the view in front of them.

“You know, the first time I came here was with dad,” Salvatore smiled at the memory, ignorant to the way his son’s grin fell at the mention of his deceased grandfather. “I think I had my first heartbreak and he brought me here for some…reflection, I guess,”

“How old were you when you had your first heartbreak?”

“I think I was a little older than you are now,”

“Wow, mom broke your heart when you were twelve?” Demetrio blinked at his father. “How did she agree to marry you?”

“Your mom and I didn’t meet until I was twenty-eight,” His father chuckled in response. “She wasn’t my first love, but she is my last,”

“Oh,” Demetrio realized and stared at the twinkling skylight, swallowing thickly to know that he had always dreamt of having a moment like this with his dad. Where it was the two of them sitting together and talking about mundane things, but he couldn’t stop his heart from aching to know the circumstances of them being here. And now he was sitting where his dad and grandfather had sat. Their own special place.

“Hey, dad?”

“Hmm?”

“Is it okay for me to be here? With you?”

“Of course it is,” Salvatore turned to him with a raised eyebrow. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Because this was yours and grandpa’s place, right? So is it okay, for me to be…intruding like this?”

“Actually, dad and uncle Onofrio found this place when they were younger and often came here to get away from everything. Then they had us, Dad brought Arsenio, Serafina, Marco, and me here one by one, when he needed to know about this place. I’ve brought your mom and sister here on separate occasions, and I’m sure your uncle and aunts have brought their loved ones as well. Now I’m bringing you,” Salvatore sighed. “I always felt this place had a very serene and healing feel to it, but if you don’t like it-”

“-No, I do like it,” Demetrio interjected. “I’m not sure if I should be here,”

“It’s not private property, anyone can come here any time they want. It’s just that we come here to get some fresh air and think about things-”

“-Like what?”

“Ah, well…love, heartbreak, loss, life, accomplishments, failures…death,” Salvatore turned to face the pale expression of his son at the last word. “This was the first time you lost someone you love, isn’t it?” He murmured softly, already knowing the answer when his son nodded.

“Do you want to know how they died? To help get all the information in order and get some closure?”

Demetrio shook his head, staring at his hands again.

“Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away to the next room. I am I and you are you. Whatever we were to each other. That, we still are. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without effect. Without the trace of a shadow on it,” Salvatore recited, eyes on the scenery with Demetrio trembling beside him. “Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same that it ever was. There is absolute unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you. For an interval. Somewhere. Very near. Just around the corner. All is well.” Salvatore exhaled. “Henry Scott Holland,” He turned to his son who had tears streaming down his cheeks, trembling in his seat and sniffling to himself, trying to wipe away the dampness, but gave up with a broken sob when Salvatore wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him into his side, allowing his son to cry into his chest, knowing he was hurting.

Letting him cry for a while, Salvatore wiped away the tears when Demetrio began hiccupping in his hold, sniffling to himself.

“Dad,” Demetrio hiccupped.

“Hmm?”

“Are you sad?”

“I don’t know, buddy. I just feel numb,” Salvatore revealed. “I’m denser about my feelings since I used to keep them on a tight leash, but I know that there will come a day in the near future when I’ll wake up and my heart will hurt and I would feel like I can’t breathe because it would hit me out of nowhere…that I can’t see my parents smile anymore. I won’t be able to go to their house for mom’s special coffee and dad’s famous lemon tart, and we siblings won’t be coming together to their house, my phone won’t flash with their contact names and…it will hurt me then, and that’s when I’d be sad,”

Demetrio looked at the neutral expression his father’s face had taken on and swallowed before shuffling closer to his side, cuddling into his warmth.

“I know you have mom and she’ll be there for you if you need her at that time, but dad, I’d like you to tell me, too,” His son stared at the fallen leaves at the side of the bench, too embarrassed to meet his father’s eye. “You’re my dad and you’ve always been there for me and I want to be there for you then, if you’d allow me,”

“I don’t look nice when I’m sad, Demetrio,” Salvatore sighed and rubbed his hand over his son’s arm, watching the first cracks of light peek across the horizon.

“People aren’t meant to look beautiful when they fall, we’re not autumn leaves burning with color,”

“Son,”

“Yeah?”

“Stay away from my philosophy books,” Salvatore grinned as Demetrio chuckled, both of them bursting into a fit of giggles as the Mafia Boss held him a little tighter for a little longer.

“I don’t know what I’d do if I ever lost you, dad,” Demetrio admitted when his father placed a kiss on the top of his head, his son burying his face into Salvatore’s chest.

They both watched the sunrise in the silence of the morning before they decided to return home, greeted by Nicole and Victoria at the entrance as they gave them sleepy smiles, deciding to head to bed.

Rubbing his eyes, Demetrio began to head to his bedroom when his father called out to him.

“Hmm?”

“What do you think about sleeping with your old man today?” Salvatore inquired with a shrug, eyes darting away and scratched at his nape, Demetrio smiling at the words.

“I’m warning you, I move a lot in my sleep,”

“I know, you got that from your mom,”

Chuckling to each other, they both got under the covers, too exhausted to have bothered to change and promptly fell asleep. Salvatore in the center of the bed with Demetrio cradled in his arms. Nicole smiling in the doorway before leaving them to sleep when Victoria entered to see what they were doing.

Standing at the foot of the bed for a moment, she swallowed the lump growing in her throat and exhaled. Slipping out of her shoes and cardigan, she came to lay down behind her father, fingers laced over her stomach, and turned to watch him shift, placing an arm beneath her head and pulling her into his side. Victoria sniffling and rested her head on his chest, closing her eyes with a tear streaking down her cheek.