Dante Luigi Di Vittorio

"This place is very intimidating," Martino muttered under his breath. We had left the light hallways decorated prettily and had now headed out to the South Wing where Angelo and his wife's bedrooms were. Apparently, it was also used for work on the first two floors, the third was where their bedrooms were.

The halls now were dark, gold decorations instead of the cream and sage. If I thought the wealth showed off the other side of the house it had nothing on this place.

"Okay so these are where the home offices are, they very rarely deal with work here but it is here just in case. Livy, Vincenzo and dad have their offices here. There is also a conference room and some other rooms which are for other high-ranking people who sometimes stay here. Like Zio Massimo, whom I heard you met earlier."

Right, our uncle Massimo. He looked upset with mom, the two of them had been very good friends as well during their childhood and it was clear he was upset with her actions.

Luciano had let it slip that Angelo had also had a younger sister who passed away about a year before we were taken. She had a daughter that was Livia's age so we would meet her as well as our other cousins some other time.

Luciano stopped in front of a door. 'Don' as the title with 'Angelo Di Vittorio' underneath it. The name had been scribed on a gold plate that had been stuck on the dark wood door. When we passed Livia's office it had the title 'Capa' and on Vincenzo. 'Capo'

"What do the titles, capa and capo mean?" Matteo asked Luciano.

"Boss," Luca answered before knocking.

"Come in."

Luca opened the door. "Here you go. I'll see you guys probably tomorrow. Buonanotte Papa."

"Night Luc. Don't stay up all night playing video games, you have school in the morning."

Luciano scrunched up his nose in distaste but agreed, slipping out of the room. Livia was in the office, leaning against the large wooden desk Angelo was sitting behind. Her focus was on some file she was reading. She had once again changed, this time something less formal but she looked like she was heading out of the house despite it being pretty late on a weekday.

Angelo stood up and rounded his desk, leading us towards the arrangement of couches. Livia snapped out of her focus setting the file on Angelo's desk but looked confused.

"Done?" Angelo asked her.

"Yeah, I'm heading to the Castillo Estate now though, I'll talk to Nonno Tomasso, Zio Dario and Riccardo and see what they know."

She grabbed a set of keys twirling them on her fingers, still deep in thought. "I'll see you guys tomorrow maybe." She bent down to kiss Angleo's cheek from behind and that act made a small smile raise on his face.

It was obvious he adored her. And all I could think of was what my life would have looked like if I grew up here. I wouldn't have had the life I have now that was for sure, I don't think I would be a firefighter, and I doubt I would have had the high school experience I did, had the jobs I did as a teenager.

I don't know if I want this life or if I'm fully content in the life I had been raised in.

It would have been different that was for sure. I would have had anything I wanted and so many more opportunities. I would have had a father who was together with my mother, Mom wouldn't have had to work two jobs to support us four boys and all their needs. I would have had a little sister.

Livia had mentioned words I had already learnt today. Castillo was mom's maiden name and Zio meant uncle. I had also heard the word Nonno before and I knew it meant grandfather so that meant Livia was going to see mom's family.

"Send them my greetings please, also there is a box of things I got for your grandparents if you can take them to them please."

"Sure." She headed out the door. "Good night."

"Why don't we have a chat." Angelo sits down in one of the armchairs.

"Are you going to tell us what's going on?" Romeo asks, curtly. It wasn't that he was being rude but Romeo had never been one to show emotion Angelo didn't seem affected by this anyway.

"Yes, I can tell you all you need to know, and if I can't answer it is because I don't know that answer myself."

"So we can ask you anything and you will answer it?" Romeo asks suspiciously, mom had never told us much even when we asked and now we knew it was because she had a different life than what she had told us about her past. But Angelo nodded. "Okay then what is your job, both Livia and Luciano told us that you were the one that had to tell us."

"Yes, it would be better for me to tell you that. You see, my family line has been in the same business for years. Your mother's family has been in something similar. The Di Vittorio's have always been in charge of running the Italian mafia."

"Mafia-like tv show mafia?" Martino interjects.

"Kind of, but not really. Think of the mafia as a different government. Especially in Europe, we are all pretty civil. Each continent has its hierarchy in place. We aren't the top mafia in Europe nor do we want to be. Our mafia makes jobs for people we consider family. We infiltrate legal businesses but also do money laundering. That type of thing."

"Who is at the top?"

"That would be the British, they hide that fact though, unlike us who if you ask around you can find out who we are and what we do. My younger sister married the Don of the British mafia."

"Luciano mentioned she passed away," I added and a pained look passed Angelo's face.

"Yes, Carla passed away when she was pregnant. The mafia might be pretty safe, especially in this day and age but it isn't fool-proof, especially if you are at the top. Thankfully they managed to save my niece. You should meet her soon."

"So mom left because you were in the mafia."

"As I said, despite being safe it isn't fool-proof, Your mother's family is one of the gangs in the country, gangs on the other hand aren't as safe as the mafia's. Mafia does everything to protect their community of people, but gangs don't have the same loyalty, there are some, like your mother's family which have morals like the mafia's do but your mother had to be a lot more cautious when growing up than I did, she had to learn things a lot earlier than most."

"Mom wanted to keep us safe," I say, realisation coming over me.

"Yes, I don't blame her for it." Angelo shook his head but a sad smile came over his face.

"Do Livia and Luciano know how to shoot and fight?" Romeo asks curiously.

"Yes." Angelo answers. "As I said, it's a requirement. Luc knows how to defend himself in case it comes down to it but Liv knows a lot more than that. She had been training to take over the mafia from me since she was five."

"Would that have been my job, if we grew up here," I ask, I was the oldest.

"If you wanted to, Liv isn't forced and neither are you. But even though you were first in line and you guys after him you can't make any claims on the mafia since you are older than the age of eighteen when most are sworn in. The main training takes place after that and if you refuse or are unable you are completely removed from the line of succession. But if Livia refuses now it would still go to Luciano, even if he's older than eighteen because he wouldn't have abdicated his title. If Luc doesn't want it, it then goes to Vincenzo and then Allegra since I adopted them but they are behind Luc since they aren't blood heirs. After them, it falls to any of my nieces and nephews."

"Even to your sister's daughter."

"Adelina is a different story, she is the heir to the British mafia so she would hold the titles for both until we can find someone else to take over the responsibility."

"What are our roles now?" I ask.

"Whatever you want them to be, you can choose whether or not you would like to participate in the business. You can train to be a part of the mafia or if you have the right degrees you can be a part of the legal side of the business. You would be working under me until Livia takes over then you would work for her. And if you do not want to follow either of those routes we have a trust fund set aside for each of you under the condition you show us a plan, whether that be a business plan and the money goes into starting a business, towards a degree you want to get or buying a house."

"This is a lot to take in," Matteo says softly and Angelo's face softens.

"Why don't we continue this another day? But there is one thing I would like to let you know. You are welcome everywhere on the estate that is not private, you're allowed to go into the grounds and all the living spaces but I would ask that you respect the privacy of the others by not wandering into their wings without permission. Allegra and Luciano shouldn't mind but Livia and Vincenzo hate people in their space. And due to our nature of work sometimes the two of them have some dangerous people over for meetings, it's seldom they do meet here but they do happen." Angelo stresses the importance of this fact. "Also, you are allowed to leave the estate. You are not being held hostage here but if you do leave there will be bodyguards trailing you. They do not alert anybody of your whereabouts but they are there to look after you."

"No." Romeo crossed his arms, like a petulant child. "I don't care about any of this but I don't want people babysitting me. I doubt Livia had guards."

"On the contrary, Livia has the most guards out of everybody in this house. Everybody here is a target. We might not always be in immediate danger but it is always better to be safe than sorry." if Angelo was annoyed at Rome's refusal he didn't show it, just put forward the importance of the decision. "I care about you, all of you. I might not have been there for most of your lives and I respect I don't have any authority over you as a parent but I do only want the best for you. You are my sons at the end of the day and have loved you all your lives."

We left after that, I didn't think mentally we could handle any more of that conversation tonight. We were all exhausted. In silence we walk back to the wing of this ginormous house we are styling in, we hardly acknowledge each other when we split up to go to our own rooms.

We could handle more tomorrow but right now we need some rest.

Since I double updated today I don't know if I will update tomorrow, unless this chapter gets a ton of support then I kind of feel obligated but yeah.

Just another glimpse into the brothers perspectives, not much of Livia still but I'm getting there.

I mentioned Adelina in this chapter and if you haven't read my other book Perilous Intelligence then you will know her, she is my main characters best friend. but she is one of my all time favourite characters and will hopefully have her own book sooner or later but I get scared to write it because she has such an interesting storyline I kind of don't want to fail my own expectations.

but yeah, we are already at almost 1500 reads and it has been 3 days so again thank you all for the support please continue to vote and leave a couple comments, I see them all and they make me so happy.

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Ara <3