Romeo Gianni Di Vittorio

"Up and at it, people."

I never thought I would make it to the day I loathe to hear my sister's voice, but of course, there is a first time for everything. For some reason, the blonde woke us up just as the sun was coming up, not letting us sleep in like we had been doing for the days we had been here.

"This is a disgraceful hour to be awake at," Martino mumbles, the four of us stumbling after her quick pace. How does someone almost a foot shorter than us walk that fast?

"I agree, but unfortunately for you guys, we have a very long week ahead of us." before we ask her what she was talking about she pushes open the doors to the dining room and all of us fall silent, several young adults I have never seen in my life were scattered around the table, all chatting in different languages yet they all understood one another like they didn't even realise they were doing it. "I'd like for you guys to meet a couple of the people I grew up with."

Livia leads us right to the table and motions for us to take a seat. Luciano, Allegra and Vincenzo were all missing. Their places were taken by strangers.

"Well, you guys know Nikolai." She motions to the Russian who even though he had been here a couple of days, I hadn't really interacted with due to the fact that he and Livia never seemed to be around. "These are our cousins from dad's side. This is Camilla. She's Uncle Massimo's oldest daughter, the middle child of three. And this is Adelina. She lives with her dad in England so we don't see her much. Her mother was Aunt Carla, who isn't alive anymore."

None of the girls had the same characteristics, Livia had blonde hair, Adelina had black and Camilla was a brunette, they all had different eye colour shades and even different skin tones, Adelina was the palest of the three, probably because of the climate she lives in, and Camilla had a bronzer skin tone than the others, yet they looked so similar. Their faces just showed they were related, and what struck me the most was I could see resemblances between my brothers and even myself. It was easier to detach myself from this situation when I couldn't tell if I was part of this family, but I could see it now.

Camilla was grinning warmly at us, but Adelina was just studying us. There wasn't much expression on her face. Strangely, I found her face familiar, but I couldn't place it.

"It's nice to meet you guys." Martino grins at the three. Dante echoed similar sentiments, but more reluctantly. Matteo nods his head and I follow suit, mumbling a greeting.

"And then this is Sebastian. He's a friend of mine. He lives in Spain." She nods to a very built man. He had an intimidating air around him but that somehow worked with the very large and confident grin he had on his face. He mock salutes at us in greeting. The last man wasn't as big or tall as the first man or Nikolai, but you could tell by his presence he is not someone you want to mess with. "And this is Zion. He lives in Germany."

"You seriously have friends from all across the world." Martino, ever the talker, comments.

Livia smiles. "Mainly from Europe. Now eat quickly. Dad wants to talk to you before we start."

"Start what exactly?" Dante enquires. "I mean, you woke us up for this."

Livia waves him off, disinterested. "Dad will tell you."

She launches into a conversation with her friends, once again in languages we don't understand, I know they probably weren't talking about us but I didn't like the feeling of being left out, and neither did my brothers judging by their facial expressions. Livia and Nikolai are arguing like normal but even though I couldn't understand them, I could feel more hostility than normal unlike their usual childish banter, I watch as Livia sneers at something Nikolai says, and she gives Nikolai the middle finger, her gold ring glittering as the sunlight hits it, Nikolai scoffs unamused. I decide it's safest for me to stay out of the way of two angry mafia heirs, so instead, we chat between ourselves, mainly Martino, Matteo and me. Dante had been cold with us for a while now, but we all just ignored it. Matteo kept looking back at Adelina with a puzzled look on his face. Like always, I just ignore him until I can't. Matteo lets out a quiet gasp, looking like he had pieced something together.

"You are the princess of England." He points a finger at Adelina. I look at him like he was absurd. Martino's expression mirrors mine. There was no way we were first cousins with royalty, but then again, I never expected to be the child of a mafia leader. I looked around the room, expecting them all to be laughing at Matteo's accusation, but they were all silent. Livia was looking at our brother with a proud smirk on her face.

"I should have known Matteo was going to be the first to figure it out." She comments and I gape at her and look at the cousin in question. All I had known about Adelina was she was the daughter of my dead aunt and the Don of the British mafia, and that she and Livia were pretty close friends, but I hadn't known about this. I had never been much into the life of royals, it had never interested me but everyone knew of King Lennox and Princess Adelina, the two were renowned for their philanthropist acts all over the world, and they had aided some of the biggest campaigns for better lives for people internationally and not just in the country.

Adelina smiles at my brother, pretty proud of him for figuring it out. And for the first time, I properly noticed how she sat, she sat like she was the tallest one in the room even though she wasn't, probably because she was the most important person and she knew it, her head was held high and she ate her breakfast with all the right manners and etiquette, not like the rest of us who were more careless with how we presented ourselves.

"Seriously?" Martino asks in awe. "I thought you were a mafia heir like the rest of them? You are the government and a criminal?"

"The world isn't black and white, darling. It would be great for you all to remember that." Adelina shakes her head, a smile threatening to lift onto her lips. Livia mumbles something, only loud enough for Adelina to hear her, and this time she smiles. "Now, why don't you all go talk to your father while we set up?"

There was something in her tone, in the way she said it, that made us all do what she asks without questioning her, like she had cast a spell on us to follow her orders, landing directly outside our father's office.

"Come in, guys." We file into the office for the second time since we have been here. It was less intimidating this time around. I don't know if it was because we knew who these people were now or if it was because we were here during the day, unlike last time. Now the office had lots of natural light coming in, the morning sun streaming through the room, giving the dark office a golden glow. We sit down on the couches like last time and wait for Angelo to finish the file he was reading through. He finally finishes and comes to sit with us. "Alright, I know Liv woke you up early, but I need you guys to go through some basic training."

"Training?" I asked curiously, "Like fighting and stuff?"

"Yes, I only want it to be self-defence right now. If you wish to continue, we have people to train you in that. You will go through three stages over the next few weeks, the bulk of it will be in the next three days, you will spend the whole day on it, but then it will be an hour or two for the next however long it takes until you complete the course. It's only precautionary, but imperative you all know at least the basics."

We listen to him explain what will happen. First will be fighting hand-on-hand combat, which we will learn from Sebastian and Nikolai, next we'll learn weapons from Zion and Livia and last mind strengthening from Adelina.

"So we'll be learning from Liv and all her friends?" Dante asks with a bit of hostility, he was already feeling upset that Livia was the heir, after what mom told us it was clear that Dante was meant to be the heir and I think he feels a bit robbed at not having the chance to. I personally think his anger is misdirected, he has been acting colder and colder to Angelo and Livia when his anger should be aimed and mom who was the only one to have taken the opportunity away from him, not Angelo who only needed someone to fill his position.

"Only for the next three days. After that, they need to get back to their duties you will have trainers fill in for them."

Angelo keeps explaining a bit more about what we will be doing and I can't help but feel excited. I had a good feeling about this and maybe I won't feel as helpless in the situation I'm in as I have been feeling.

Happy Sunday my loves

So what are we thinking of Romeo and all the others? I have so much planned for this book and I can't believe we're already on chapter 21. I have no idea how many chapters there are going to be but I think it's going to have more chapters than any of my other books.

I hope you are all doing well and have a great week.

Please vote and leave a couple comments and I will see you next chapter.

Happy reading.

Ara <3