15

Charlie's POV

"On any given day, I'd listen to you mom, really I would, but today I need to know the truth, we need to know the truth." He looked back at his siblings, then back at me.

"We were attacked in our family home, dad got shot, you fainted, and Eawa was a mess. Grandpa kept saying it was a bad idea to have given his blessings for y'all to be wedded, and the house is a mess." He continued.

When I looked at his siblings, they were all nodding their heads. "Don't you think we are entitled to know something, I mean anything?" He smiled sadly.

Montero stood up and went to Charlie and patted his back.

"Y'all deserve to know everything son. It's about time you learned something real about your father anyways." Looking at him, slowly rubbing his back.

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Kalani's POV.

Montero has gained some confidence to talk to and to listen to the kids. And it was really beautiful. But enough about that. Back to the real situation that we were facing.

"So Charlie is correct about a lot of things," He smiled nodding, looking at his siblings with the 'I told you so' look. Eawa looked like she was hit by a train.

She slightly stumbled back, covering her mouth, and Placido caught her before she could trip.

But Montero continued.

"But not all of them." He looked at him, nodding.

"Ok, where was I wrong?" He asked, excitement lingering in his voice.

"The part where I was second in command." He corrected him.

"Oh, what ranking were you, third in command?" His voice was kinda disappointed when he suggested that.

Oh, you in for a treat boy.

"No, I was the Don." He slowly replied, looking at each of them to see their expressions.

"What?!" Eawa and Placido both grasped.

"Woah!" Charlie exclaimed. His voice was now filled with excitement.

Enzo just stood there, but the shock was written all over his face. He just kept blinking, as if trying to process what was being said.

"That is so cool." Charlie chimed, his smile widening.

"What's a Don?" Rumi asked.

"It's a boss." Charlie quickly replied to her, then turned back to Montero. "So, you telling us that you were the boss of the mafia?"

"That is exactly what I'm telling y'all." He wasn't so confident now. I think he was trying his best to break this down as smoothly as possible.

Because this was the only smooth way. The other way would be, "Oh you know, I killed, sold drugs and guns for a living." I'm pretty sure they would have a fit if he said that.

"And who was your second in command?" Charlie asked, coming closer to Montero smiling. If you asked me, Charlie was enjoying this conversation way too much for my own liking.

"Johnathan." He replied, sitting on the bed.

"What?!" More grasps in the room.

"You mean as in our godfather, uncle Johnathan?" Enzo finally uttered words out. His voice was so soft, I almost didn't hear him.

"Yes." It was me who answered this time.

"And I assume aunty Eva knew all of this right?" He nodded to himself as if trying to have his own processing session while hearing all of this.

"Yes," I repeated, looking away.

"And let me guess, this conversation was never going to arise if we didn't get attacked." Somehow it was like he knew what I was going to say.

"It wouldn't be necessary." I defended us, knowing full well it was a lie.

"You just defending a lost cause mamma and you know that." He scoffed.

Enzo only called me mamma in Italian when he was either angry at me, or flat out disappointed. And I knew that at this 'mamma', he was both.

"What if someone came after us, attacked us, or better yet, kidnapped us?" He asked.

"We took necessary precautions," I explained.

"We had guys everywhere. An attack on y'all was highly unlikely." I shook my head. An attack on my kids was something I feared the most.

That's why I agreed when Montero suggested that they should be trained to be able to defend themselves.

We even recruited some mafia agents to act as high school kids. Others were teachers, and some securities, so I would be at peace, knowing that my kids were safe.

"Highly unlikely, Huh." He put his hands in his pockets and continued. "And you so sure of these 'so-called guys'," He quoted, "That you assigned to us huh? I mean how close were they? What if the mafia attacked and we were alone? Ever thought of that, huh mamma?" His voice started to rise.

"What was your training for?" Montero interrupted him, standing up, his voice holding a hint of annoyance at Enzo's tone towards me.

But I knew that Enzo's reaction was acceptable. I'd probably have the same reaction, if not worse.

"Training? right..." He nodded his head. "So that is what it was all about." He bit his lower lip, trying to calm down.

"So we could be ready at any given moment, right?" He looked away, then back at us. Enzo was angry. That much I could tell. His ears were now red, and his lower lip was trembling.

"Well, I wasn't ready for that!" He suddenly yelled, making all of us jump, except, of course, Montero.

"I wasn't ready to kill an actual human, nor was I ready to see you get shot," He pointed at Montero, "Nor was I ready to see you hyperventilating mamma." He continued with his yelling tone.

"Son I need you to understand-" Montero tried explaining.

"There is nothing I have to understand! Y'all shouldn't have done that. We were there, freaked out, thinking y'all were gonna die." His eyes started filling up with tears and his voice cracked.

"Enzo we-," I whispered.

"That was wrong mamma." He looked at me.

"We are family, yet y'all decided to leave us in the dark to our own devices. That is not following code." His voice held a certain level of sarcasm and at the same time, there was a hint of disappointment and anger to it.

"Y'all broke the code mamma. Y'all broke our family code." He spoke in a softer tone, tears falling. My own eyes started welling up.

"We're sorry," I whispered and it was all I could find to say. I looked down, as my tears started falling.

He turned away from us and started walking.

"Stop!" Montero spoke up. His voice was authoritative and stern, it made everyone jump a bit.

"I need to process, padre." He emphasized the dad part as if mocking Montero.

"Let him be. I'd probably react like him." I honestly replied.

"Please tell me this is all a lie," Eawa whispered. I looked at Montero, who also looked at me. Eawa looked at us as if there was still hope, that all of this was somehow not happening, and that all that we have said was nothing but a lie.

How I wish that was true.

Montero looked at her and shook his head.

"Oh gosh." Her voice cracked, and she covered her mouth running out the room.

"Eawa!" We called out, but she was gone. I covered my eyes with the palm of my hands and I just breathed out.

What have we done?

"I'll get her back." Placido offered in his disappointed voice, leaving.

"Wait though," Charlie started, a smile still plastered on his face. "If you were in the mafia," he pointed at Montero, "And mom's dad was a cop, how in the world did y'all hook up, let alone get married?" My jaw dropped.

Did he hear a thing we were talking about?

"Oh, I'm gonna need a chair for this one." He pulled a chair that Eva was sitting on, and he sat down, at looked at us in anticipation.

"Wait," His face lit up like a Christmas tree. "That's what nonno meant when he said he wished he didn't give y'all his blessings because he knew that padre was in the mafia." It seemed at this point that he was talking to himself.

Dakota and Rumi were so clueless that they stopped asking what was what, and who was who. They just came into our bed, and they just sat there quietly.

"So," He tapped his fingers on the arms of the chair. "How exactly did yall guys meet?"

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