“I am not kind hearted, James.” I started to say as a small chuckle slipped out of my mouth, right before I continued. “And you know It. We both know I am nothing close to being kind hearted.”I watched as James breathed out a laugh before staring at me like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing coming out from my mouth. He started to speak about a minute had passed. “Did you say you’re not kind hearted?”He asked and the thin line around my lips got more intense as I turned my head around to watch him once again, hating how I knew that he had a point without even trying to think, deep down in my heart. “I am not.” I said to him and watched as he started to laugh once again before calming down and reaching out to place a hand around my shoulder, a gesture which made me turn my head around him to glare pointedly at him until he pulled his hand away from my shoulder while laughing a little.“But if we’re being honest with yourself, you do know you’re kind hearted compared to a lo
Luca’s POV “That’s crazy, man.” I said to James and watched as he shrugged his shoulders before starting to speak. “You should have been used to all these already, at least that’s what I thought… because it wasn’t like you just became popular overnight, you’ve been popular for a while now, since years ago.” James mused audibly and I lifted my fingers to push my hair out of my face before starting to reply to him.“Believe me, there’s no getting used to this shit, it would all overwhelm you every damn time.” I started to say and leaned forward to place my elbows on my thighs before continuing after a few seconds. “You’re also popular on the internet, how do you handle your whole notifications?” I demanded, because it seemed like he was such a pro when it comes to this whole thing.“Are you fucking kidding me man? Do you know how freaking popular you are?” James breathed out with a light laugh and shook his head before starting to speak once again, before I could even start to
Luca’s POV “Holy shit.” I heard James whisper beside me and I snorted a little, still not allowing my eyes to slide open, even though I heard him curse a little louder after a few more seconds. I felt him nudge my shoulder but hesitated for a few seconds before finally sitting up and blinking my eyes open to stare at him.“What’s up?” I drawled out to him and watched as he turned around to face me, an awed facial expression coloring every corner of his face as a laugh played at the corner of his mouth. He raised my phone up to place more emphasis on what he was about to say before he finally started to speak“What the fuck, man?!” He whispered while still appearing completely blown away and I couldn’t help tne snort that slipped out of my lips as soon as his words, which he had exclaimed, left his lips.“You believe me now?” I demanded with raised eyebrows and narrowed eyes and watched as he shook his head a reached up to drag his palm over his face for a few seconds, his messed
Luca’s POV “How do all these people get your mail?” James started to say after a few minutes and a calm silence had settled over us. I turned my head around a little until I was facing his direction once again before starting to speak. “Oh, that. My email address is always linked to my socials, that’s probably where everyone gets them from.”“How about you don’t take this email off your social media accounts? Y’know you said you were planning to hand this mail address over to your secretaries, and you’d most definitely create another one. Instead of adding and linking it to your socials like you’d have done normally, how about you don’t do it this time? If not, by the looks of things, you’d be forced to abandon this email address as well, after some time.” James paused and dragged his eyes off the phone which he was still currently on to stare into my face before continuing. “And it would also be good if your secretaries handled this mail address, I scrolled some way downwar
Luca’s POV “There are a lot of social media handlers on Instagram, and it would be easy to find one here in Italy. I’d help you to look for one and I’d look into the person and check the person’s whole background to see if the person is safe.” James said and I turned my head around to stare at him before starting to speak. “Thank you so much, man.” I said to him, and I really meant it.He nodded his head at me and was about to say something to me before a quite but firm knock sounded from behind the closed door and we both turned our heads around until we were both staring at the door.“Yeah,” I called out, already having an idea of whom it might be, and my guess turned out to be right when Sarah’s familiar voice echoed out audibly from the other side of the door.“Come on in, “ I said to her and watched as the door got pushed open to reveal Sarah who was standing at the doorway with a tray containing some things in her grip.She made her way past the doorway and started to walk i
Sofia’s POV I buried my face deeper into the pillows and dragged in another deep breath as soon as my mind started to register the fact that I was currently awake and not in a dream like I had thought for the first few seconds after I had woken up. I dragged in another deep breath and puffed it out slowly, feeling it get muffled against the side of my nose, mouth and against the warm surface of the pillow which my head was still buried against. I finally rolled around until I was laying on my back, and I stared up into the roof and bit on my lips as what was going to be happening today registered in my mind.Today was a Monday, the start of a new week and it was officially the day that I was going to be starting painting… or learning how to paint, rather.I raised my hand and pulled them out of the blankets to press it against my mouth to muffle the small sequek that had chosen that moment to slip out of my mouth, but it thankfully got muffled down by my hands. I rolled my head to t
Luca’s POV The whole thing which I had gotten from the mall yesterday was still at a particular spot in the hallways, beside the staircase. The smaller things like brushes and water colors had all been arranged there, while the way bigger things like standing boards, blank posters and the like were all arranged in the dining room. It was supposed to be all sorted out this morning, hopefully – because the only thing which held me from arranged the whole thing was because I still haven’t been given a particular room.But then I had hoped that Luca would return home early yesterday, since it was a Sunday and it had seemed like he wouldn’t be leaving the house throughout the whole day, but I had obviously thought wrong, because as soon as I had returning back from the mall, was at the same time that he had also gone out – and unfortunately didn’t end up returning until after I had ended up falling asleep.I moved around in the bathroom and picked up the shampoos in order to wash my ha
Sofia’s POV I made my way out of the walk-in closet as soon as I was done with dressing up and running my comb through my hair. I had paired my feet with a pair of black sandals with thin straps, that was what I was going to be wearing in the house, through the whole of today. I pulled the door close behind me and made my way into the bedroom once again, walking around the huge bed in the room and making my way towards the other side of the bed, towards the bedside table where my phone was located.I picked up my phone and turned around on my heels as I started to make my way out of the room, before slowly pausing in my track and turning around on my heels before making my way towards the bed. I dropped my phone on the tip of the bed and started to make my way towards the walk-in closet, in order to find something which I could use in holding my hair together.It had suddenly occurred to me as I was about to make my way out of the bedroom, that I’d be doing a lot of things today,
Sofia’s pov The kids had been bursting with excitement, which only meant one thing. It meant more headaches for Luca and I.“Baby, we talked about this, didn’t we? You can’t check the presents until it’s Christmas.” I murmured to Aria while holding her against my chest. She was clearly unhappy about this tiny rule because her frown deepened at once.“But it’s so far awayyyyy! No one is gonna know if I take a peek.”I chuckled as I let her slid down. “Daddy is gonna know.” I reminded her and that seemed to make her have a change of heart.“Oh.” She hesitated a little. “I guess I can wait a bit more.”“More like one more day, honey cause it’s tomorrow!” I gushed out and a grin split out on her face.“Really?!” She demanded and after getting another confirmation, she went off to find her brother, leaving me to myself. I sighed as I watched her leave with a fond smile on my face while massaging my forehead. I called out to her to be careful before I got back to what I was doing before.
FOUR YEARS LATER Sofia’s pov “Be careful, honey!” I called out at once, but I doubt she heard me as she hurriedly raced forward till she was standing before James, a glass of milk carefully clutched in her hand.“Here it is, Uncle James!” She called out enthusiastically and a familiar feeling of fondness swelled in my heart as I watched as an exaggerated look of awe got plastered on James’ face as he accepted the glass of milk.“Thank you, Aria! You’re so hardworking.” He complimented as he took a few gulps of the milk because a tiny sip wasn’t gonna be accepted by Aria who’s clearly still waiting for more compliments.“It tastes so nice and fresh, wow.” James gushed and I listened as Aria’s pleased giggles filled up the room. She began to bounce on her toes when she began to speak. “If you noticed, uncle James, the glass wasn’t totally filled up this time because mommy said that’s how it’s supposed to be to avoid it spilling from the top, and I listened to mommy because she’s alwa
Luca’s POV The bouquet of flowers I had gotten on the way home was a mixture of lilies and tulips, and I paired it with a bunch of balloons and a wrapped gift on the side. It’s a little past six and I couldn’t wait to be home already. I couldn’t wait to get home to my wife and our babies.Work has been quite stressful for the past month, the mafia aspect, to be specific. After news of my wife giving birth circulated around, I already knew that the amount of enemies I have was automatically gonna triple, and in order to keep my family safe, I was gonna have to be more at alert. The mafia clan had thrown a party in celebration after the birth of our babies, and I had purposely attended it alone, keeping my wife and kids far away from a gathering like that because it was filled with dangerous people from top to bottom.“Your enemies are gonna start attacking you even more now that you have a successor. People who have hoped to replace you if you ended up dying without an h
Sofia’s pov TWO YEARS LATER “I look ugly and bloated.” I blurted out while eying my reflection in the floor length mirror in the walk-in closet. Luca, who had been running a comb through his hair, paused for a moment before throwing me a glance, and then a smile bloomed on his face.“Of course you don’t! How can you even think that when you look like a goddess right now.” He murmured, discarding his comb and heading in my direction. I pouted at my reflection, not at all impressed by what I was looking at.“Now you’re just lying cause I’m sure goddesses don’t look this bad. My face is swollen and I literally feel like I’m gonna die.” Luca who had now eased up behind me let out a chuckle into my hair as his hand slid around my waist to carefully cradle my large stomach from the sides.“You still look very gorgeous to me. I don’t think your face is ugly, neither do I think you’re no longer sexy, because you still are. Did last night not explain that enough?” He chuckled at the end of
Luca’s pov It was clear as day that this particular topic has been troubling Sofia for a while now. I could tell from how she was wringing her fingers. I lifted her fingers and brushed my lips across it, and then I let out a long sigh.“If I’m gonna be honest, I haven’t actually thought about it. I just assumed you don’t want them and I was cool with that.” Her eyes widened comically as she whispered. “But… I want children.”I hummed. “I see that now.” “You don’t want children?” Sofia asked after a few moments and I slowly shook my head.“I don’t think I do, cause I don’t actually like the thought of bringing a child into a lifestyle as dangerous as my current one, and leaving the mafia is completely out of the question cause the past would end up catching up with me no matter what.”“Oh.” She whispered while chewing at the inside of her mouth.“Yes, love. But, that aside, I love babies. They’re always so cute and clueless of all the evils in the world.” Sofia laughed at th
Sofia’s pov TWO YEARS LATER*** The sounds of soft laughter filtered through the screen of the television I was currently staring at and a small smile tugged at the side of my lips as I averted my gaze and took a glance at the wall clock situated at the top of the wall here in the room. It was past eight in the evening, which indicated that Luca was almost home, and an excited feeling coursed down my spine. It doesn’t matter that Luca has almost returned home to me every damn day, that giddy feeling still engulfs me every day.Which is the best thing ever, said my therapist when we stumbled on that topic. It’s been over two years and till date, I’m still yet to stop seeing my therapist. She, a Middle aged woman, has made me feel so much love and comfort than my mother has done for me throughout the past two decades that I’ve been alive. The sounds of cute giggles emitting from the television screen grabbed my attention and once again, I focused on it. This time, my bre
Sofia’s pov The weeks flew by faster than i could keep up with.Healing was slower than I anticipated, and I hated almost every second of it, if I was being honest, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t willingly take another bullet for Luca if I could, because I will. Luca had gotten extremely displeased when I offhandedly said those same words to him, and he made me promise to never, ever do that again.I stayed in the hospital for months, because Luca wanted me to be completely healed before getting discharged. The flowers that got sent to me by every well wishers had gotten thrown out more than three times because at a point, they all began to rot.A little gathering was thrown in celebration of my release from the hospital. Everybody was there waiting in the house as entered the house, from Kayla and her husband, Travis, to Armani and his girlfriend, Nala, to James and his fiancée, Blair, to Angelo. It was relieving to finally be home and be surrounded by so much love right now ma
Sofia’s pov ‘Was this how it feels to float?’I asked myself over and over again, the more time I spent in that same unending loophole. It felt like I was stuck in a fluffy space, but instead of sinking, I remained afloat.Muffled voice could be heard coming from multiple sides at once but I couldn’t make any word out, neither could I tell each voice apart from the other.I limbs literally felt nonexistent because I couldn’t wait use of them no matter how much I tried. It’s almost weird how it’s pitch dark in this fluffy space, preventing me from making anything out.Or perhaps, I was the one who had my eyes closed throughout, I realized when I discovered that I could feel my eyelids twitch a little. I tried to get my eyes open after that, but ended up giving up after trying over and over again to no avail. I drifted straight into an unconscious state after that.When I came to once again, I felt warm fingers around mine. The fingers felt familiar in a way, and with everyth
Sofia’s pov The scream that left my mouth this time was completely silent as I watched as the kneeling man who was apparently working with Ryan, fell to the ground face first after being shot by Ryan. That sent a more terrified feeling down my spine, because not only was Ryan crazy, he was clearly also heartless as hell. Seeing how he could effortless kill off his own partner made it more obvious that it wouldn’t be hard for him to kill me if he wants to, and that he wasn’t just bluffing by threatening to shoot me.“Fuck, man, you really are a freak. Your own partner?” Angelo mused with an unimpressed look on his face. Luca snorted and leveled Ryan with a look. “That’s not something a Ricci would do, you know?”“Well it’s a good thing I’m not a fucking one, okay? And now that I’ve killed my partner myself, you clearly don’t have anything to threaten me with, I have nothing to lose in this situation unlike the rest of you.” Ryan responded haughtily, sneering as he tugged on my hair.