Luca’s POV It almost felt like a dream that was about to slip through my fingers, it almost felt unreal, like it was way too good to be true in that moment, like I was going to slide my eyes close and open and he wasn’t going to be there anymore. I stood still, in the same spot as soon as I had set my eyes on me, and after a few more moments, I watched as James who was still hugging him slowly pulled out of the embrace to turn around and stare in my direction, probably because he had felt Armani stiffen in his arms. I was super grateful that the particular room was currently, because I could feel my eyes start to sting a little at that very moment.I watched as Armani’s mouth fell slightly open after a few more seconds, and I couldn’t help but notice that he was now a grown up man. He wasn’t the kid I still usually see in my dream, he wasn’t the kid that always looked so small beside me, it seemed like we were almost the same height at the moment, and his shoulders were now a li
Luca’s POV “Aish, I’m not a kid anymore.” He literally whined out, and I found myself grinning a little at him. James only rolled his eyes before going to stand before Armani, and I noticed that they were almost the same height, although James was still a little bit taller. James reached up and to my disbelief, started to ruffle Armani’s curls the way I remember doing to him a whole lot when he was little, and then James started to speak. “You might be as big as this, as you are right now, but you’re still a kid.” James continued to sowie as he kept on ruffling Armani’s a lot more before finally pulling his fungus away. I watched as Armani scrunched his face in the next moment as he reached up and started to try to restore some type or balance to his currently disheveled hair.“I’m not.” Armani finally responded and James only chuckled a little before rolling his eyes.“If you’re not, then I’m guessing you’d be ready to wrestle with me tomorrow morning? Winner ends up being rig
Luca’s POV “Where’s Armani?” I asked a frozen James who slowly pulled away from the entrance of the car which he had been about to get into, a few seconds ago. I got down from the car as well, feeling my stomach start to feel really nauseous at that moment. It felt like I was suddenly feeling sick and dizzy, it didn’t help that I had felt like this some time ago before Armani had arrived, when I had been thinking something had happened to the place he boarded. I turned around to face James, and as soon as I saw the panicked look on his face, I felt everything inside of me drop into my stomach at that very moment.“Where is he?” I asked James really slowly after a few moments, walking really slowly until I was standing before him. James didn’t know what to say to that and so I turned around and started to scan my eyes around the whole opening in the next moment.“Where last did you see him?” James asked me as soon as he came to place his hand firmly on my shoulder. I wanted to sh
Luca’s POV Now that both my hands were empty at that moment, I lifted both hands and placed them against my face, and then I screamed into it a little, feeling like I needed a little outlet or all the I was starting to feel stabbing into my chest. I couldn’t let loose like I actually wanted to because I was currently in public for one, and also couldn’t afford to have a breakdown at a time like this, when I was supposed to be very strong and emotionless now that I was searching for my baby brother. He doesn’t know how to defend himself, doesn’t know how to do a fucking thing that involves violence, how was he going to be able to cope with being kidnapped? What if it was someone that had been wanting to do this for a long time, the stupid person might decide to torture him at these just for the fun of it, and the funniest unfunny thing about all these was the fact that Armani was never involved in any of this, and I had a feeling that it was one of my dad’s stupid enemies that m
Luca’s POV I blinked once, and pushed through the bodies of the men who were standing before me, rushing forward to the person who was calling my name, which i had thought I had imagined at first, and as soon as I got to where he was standing in, beside three other people– I shoved the man closer to him to the side and pulled him into my arms, feeling the whole war that had been going on inside of my head start to ease off in that same moment, as I pulled him against me even more.I pulled out of the hug after a moment and held his shoulders, shaking him a little right before I started to speak. “Where the fuck have you been, Armani?” I asked after shaking him for a few moments, staring into his eyes and taking my gaze over every part of his face to ensure that there wasn’t any kind of scratch on his face, and then I started to look him up and down, patting his arm down.“Luca…?” I raised my head up after a few moments and pulled him into my arms, ignoring the man eco we’re still s
Luca’s POV James: Why did you ignore what I was trying to say to you?I typed in a response and sent it after a few moments.Luca: Maybe because I don’t understand eyes language? I didn’t even know you were trying to tell me something.He started to send in a response almost immediately, and a rest came in after a few seconds.James: Well, I was.I scoffed a little and was tempted to ignore him and just drop my phone into somewhere, but ignored that thought and continued to type in a response.Luca: Well, what did you want to tell me? You still are not saying a thing James: RelaxJames: What I was trying to say to you was that, did you see your brother beside you?I glanced beside my almost immediately, checking to see if there was something unusual, but finding nothing – because everything about him still feels unusual to me in a way, starting from how grown up he looks.Luca: Yeah, I see him. What’s up with him?James: You need to speak to him.I blinked a little as I ghosted my g
Luca’s POV “Whoa, whoa… slow down.” I said as soon as I pushed myself into a more straight sitting position, as soon as all what he was saying started to sink into my head. I stared at him pointedly, and our eyes only remained locked for a few more seconds before he was averting his gaze. The inside of the car wasn’t all that bright because the sky was already really dark at this very moment, but a little bit of light had managed to bleed through the windows from lit up companies and passing cars rear end lights. I puffed out a deep breath after a few moments before starting to speak.“Armani…” I started to say but he cut into what I was trying to say without me getting more than a word past my lips.“We both know it’s the truth, don’t try to…” He started to speak but I shushed him after a few seconds, making him trail off on a small sigh.“Relax, Armani. You’re so worked up at the moment, can you try to take in some deep breaths?” I said after a few moments, and although he didn’t a
Luca’s POV “Ohhh… I never thought of it that way.” He ended up admitting after some time and I gave a small nod of my head at him, because I kind of already figured that out. After some time had passed, I decided to continue to speak.“I don’t want you to still hold any guilt from back then, ok? It’s of no use. You were gaslighted a whole lot by father and I want you to let go of everywhere, ok?”I reached out and took his hand in mine, feeling his warm palm fit into mine– although it didn’t fit like the way it usually fit when we were both younger, but my hand was still able to envelop his hand and I closed my fingers around his and stared into his eyes before continuing.“And I know I’ve never told you this before, but I’m proud of you.”I watched as he averted his gaze at first and when he lifted his face back up, his eyes were somehow a little shade of red.“Stop, don’t say that…”“What shouldn’t I say? That I’m proud of you? I’m actually proud of you, like really proud of yo
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.